Every step on the inner path, however seemingly small, Ann K Gryczan Have you ever thought about what kind of glasses you wear? They frame the world and make “reality” seem real. Person A gets on a bus and passes by person B, who is on the bus already, looking out the window, sitting beside an empty seat. Why did person A not take the seat beside person B? That is a question only the ego would ask; Self knows there is no answer. But the ego always has to explain everything because life as it truly is – infinite, flowing wholeness unfolding within an infinite context – is way too scary. So we ask these ego questions all the time – and answer them too. And, depending on our glasses, we get all kinds of answers:
Isms “Isms” – like sex, race and brown shoes-ism – are very popular and they all have a common thread. In all isms the ego is positioning itself somewhere in the vast infinity of life. Otherwise, it would merge with All That Is and that would be the end of it. We are not the ego, but we forget ourselves and think we are. So it always helps us remember when we stand back a little and see what the ego is up to. So the ego, from this position of being some “where” in everything-ness, perceives life as pieces separate from each other, just as it is separate. And it perceives that all the pieces “out there” are acting on each other like bumper cars. With that perspective, things are good or bad, someone wins, someone loses, someone is harmed and someone is doing the harming. We could call these victim/perpetrator glasses, and all isms carry this theme too. Besides explaining the world and why everything is happening, the ego loves victim/perpetrator because it is always right, there is always someone to blame and someone to fight. Plus, it makes the ego the good guy – naming the evil and saving the day. Brown Shoes Reality Reality wars happen when one faction – the brown shoes people, let’s say – insist their reality is the real one and everyone else needs to fall in line and own up to their inner brown shoes-ism. The brown shoes people – or any ism people – are fierce and can sweep the world up into a big wave and now this is everyone’s reality; everyone is a victim or a perpetrator. The wave keeps building and building, it takes on a life of its own. There are never enough wrongs and never enough blame. Everyone scrambles for a position, and the ego’s favorite position is savior – the one who names and vanquishes the perpetrator. When the world has coalesced into one of these giant waves, it is very compelling and seems hard to avoid its pull. Therefore, it is helpful to keep some general guidelines in mind:
So, what to do? If you strive to be good and true and the prevailing “reality” seems real, what can you do to find out for sure?
Accept the Gift The world is a great gift from the universe. It is always giving us clues about who we are and what we’re doing here in the great puzzle of infinity. The clues are everywhere – they are in everything we see, hear and experience – and anything that is not love, is the ego. So if we see we are doing, thinking or feeling something that is not love, we can step back and observe our perception. We will always find a corresponding piece within ourselves. Bringing awareness to this helps us go beyond it. Then, we see the exact same thing “out there” but in a larger context – and we have more truth in our perception. Stepping back and observing our perception makes the next question obvious: What is observing? We are – and every time we step back from being the ego, caught up in its realities we have taken a step out of illusion. Which is so joyful and enlightening! And it leads to the next question: If this isn’t reality, what is? And here we are, because that question is a doorway to capital “R” Reality and the true Self. Taking the path that leads beyond this door makes the whole world better because now we are contributing to life instead of its destruction, we are bringing peace instead of fighting for our version of reality.
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We may at first have thought consciousness was in the mind, or even thought it was the mind itself. That it was somehow part of our domain; our personal interface with life or our go-to source of thinking and reason.
Exploring the mind however, we discover it is not consciousness that is personal, but the mind. We discover the mind is limited and finite and that we can go beyond it — to consciousness itself. Even as a new explorer, we are aware of something here vast and whole, an infinite peace, potent and complete. And we know — as if remembering — that this is also the intrinsic, intimate truth of ourselves.
Welcome!
This is a blog for those who travel an inner path, seeking truth, beauty and the source of being.
Here are ideas and practices to help and encourage the traveler, and to address the obstacles that we, as students of consciousness, inevitably encounter. Everything you find here you can do at anytime and take as far as you want.
This is a blog for those who travel an inner path, seeking truth, beauty and the source of being.
Here are ideas and practices to help and encourage the traveler, and to address the obstacles that we, as students of consciousness, inevitably encounter. Everything you find here you can do at anytime and take as far as you want.
I invite you to use Paradigm Practice as a foundation for your practice, which you may find here, free and available for your use. Paradigm Practice is a powerful guide for bridging the gap between limitation and new awareness. Awakening into the happiness and peace of your true nature benefits all the world. May you be blessed on your journey!
Ann |
Consciousness is the ultimate teacher: it is always showing us what we are.
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