Open-Secrets

Author: John

  • Lighting Up the Now

    If we experience ourselves in our true self-existing condition, we will see that what we actually are is a being of light.

    LightSo says A.H. Almaas in his new book – The Unfolding Now. Chapter 13 of the new book is titled – Lighting Up the Now – and is available as a free download here.

    We are beings of light in the fluid state—completely frictionless, completely luminous, totally radiant and free. Now, everybody knows that because light has no mass and no weight, gravity does not affect it. So, in our True Nature, we have no heaviness, no thickness, no weight. We are substantial only in the sense that fluid light has a fullness, a bodyness to it. But that fullness, that substantiality, is completely light and smooth. That is the nature of awareness. And because it is light, it doesn’t help us see—it is what sees, it is what perceives. Thus light, awareness, consciousness, perception, sensitivity are all the same thing.

    In this chapter, Almaas asks the reader not to believe, but to imagine – open the mind to the implications of our true nature being light.

    What are the implications of this for understanding what it means to be ourselves? If we apply it to our internal life, we can see that the more we are present and the more fully we are experiencing and being our essential presence, the more we will experience things slowing down. This seems to be a law of time—not that linear time is being altered, but more time becomes experientially “available” to us. Thus, the slowing down of our experience of time will place us more and more in the present. The more we are the presence, the more we are in the present. So, the slowness of time has a lot to do with being in the present.

  • Spiritual Light

    Spiritual-lightSpiritual Light, the Light of God, Universal Light – on the spiritual path, search or journey, we hear many things about spiritual light.

    It seems that light is part of the fundamental nature of the manifested. Some paths say sound (OM). You could argue both in the form of vibration arise simultaneously as the first arising out of the Absolute or Non-Being.

    In his new book – The Unfolding Now, A.H. Almaas has a chapter titled – Lighting Up the Now (free download). This chapter explores some of the ramifications of light as our basic nature.

    From the Big Bang to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, Almaas asks us to consider the implications of being a Being of Light. What does that mean in terms of time? What about the body?

    Spiritual light isn’t something we go from here to there to find. Spiritual light is what is actually here appearing to our senses as material form.

    Jill Bolte Taylor discovered this when she had her stroke.

  • Universal Mind – Mind for Everyone

    Universal-mindI wrote about universal consciousness a while back and that got me thinking about universal mind. What’s the difference between universal mind and universal consciousness?

    Universal mind is sometimes referred to as God’s mind or the mind of God.

    Consciousness is not necessarily self-reflective though it contains the potential self-knowing.

    The url UniversalMind links to a web application site. I find this hilarious! Is the Internet moving toward being the universal mind?

    Perhaps this quote from A.H. Almaas puts it in perspcetive:

    We call it the Universal Mind because when we go beyond it, we see it as mind. But it is not mind as created by me personally. It’s the mind that actually exists as the totality of the Universe. Some people call it God’s mind. So from the level of the nonconceptual, the physical universe and Essence and all that exists are mind. They are concepts, like ideas or forms that are filled out with something. What they are filled out by is the nonconceptual, the original consciousness.

    And here is what Ralph Waldo Emerson says:

    Who shall define to me an Individual? I behold with awe & delight many illustrations of the One Universal Mind. I see my being embedded in it.

    Quoting Mark Epstein:

    What does universal mind mean? The problem with the concept of a transcendental reality is that it sets up a duality in which we are always other. This leads to a feeling of inferiority and a tendency to disparage one aspect or another of our experience. Buddhists prefer the idea of “no mind” to that of a universal one.

    When you contemplate universal mind – what/who is contemplating?

  • Conceptualizing the Non-Conceptual

    Think about it – conceptualizing the non-conceptual. Not only is that wild, but also mysterious and incredibly fantastical!

    If all of reality is based on space, nothingness, emptiness, or the void – it seems unfathomable to be able to wrap the mind around the reality of the material world. And yet, we constantly hear this assertion – being and non-being co-emergent.

    Conceptualizing is nothing but putting a boundary around part of reality and imagining that boundary actually creates something. – A.H. Almaas

    ConceptualizingThe mind loves concepts. Mind feels secure in the world of concepts – conceptualizing makes us feel like we know. Conceptualizing (mental constructs) supports our tenuous grip on feeling secure and in control. Or looking at it from the other side of the coin conceptualizing helps to repress the ego’s underlying anxiety, fear and terror.

    Our normal sense of self that develops is built on concepts and conceptualizing that begin as representations or object images in the mind.

    Take a walk on the wild side – no thought, no thinker. Non-Conceptual perception – the end of conceptualizing, the mind at rest.

  • Universal Consciousness

    ConsciousnesRumors and reports from the front lines abound around universal consciousness. And yet, a quick glance into the daily world, the newspaper, the blogosphere or a few minutes on Bill O’Reilly or the Huffington Post reveals universal unconscious still reigns supreme in the hearts and minds of the masses.

    Most people think they are conscious. Even if you define being conscious as being awake or merely aware, most mystics would still proclaim that the conscious masses are still, unfortunately, unconscious.

    I was in Barnes & Noble the other day and saw Jill Bolte-Taylor’s book – My Stroke of Insight. I ordered it today from Amazon. Ms. Bolte-Taylor probably has a few things to say on the subject of consciousness that might interest me.

    It’s been a long while since I read anything by J Krishnamurti, but I still hold his inquiry into violence close to my heart:

    When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.

    When it comes to exploring consciousness and universal consciousness, the same open and open-ended inquiry needs to be engaged. It’s a bit more challenging though than lettin go of your country or religion or any particualr piece of identity because when it comes to the exploration of consciousness the whole enchilada will be challenged at levels we hold near and dear.

    Can a catchy t-shirt help raise consciousness or universal conscioiusness? What say you?

  • Holding Environment

    Holding-environmentHow much holding do you need in your environment?

    Winnicott wrote a great deal about the importance of the holding environment for psychological development. When doing individual or group work with a therapist or spiritual teacher, the holding environment is a major concern.

    Issues of basic trust are a concern for individuals involved in deep psychological or spiritual work. The holding environment needs to be safe enough to venture out, but risky enough to push our developmental envelope or edge. If there is no risk, is there ever expansion or going beyond the familiar and known?

    At first, one needs more trust in the other (teacher, therapist). As personal work deepens, trust in the process or one’s self becomes more foreground than trust in the other.

    In the 40 years I’ve been on the journey, I’ve seen holding environments that ranged from the self-serving, to the sublime, to the truly inspiring.

Open-Secrets