If the world we see in our head is not the real world but an image of the world formed – and most probably deformed – by our brain; and if those images are our ‘maps’ of reality, then it may be a good idea to conduct some basic reality checks about those maps.

The first one is asking ourselves whether we do not miss out on vital parts of reality and checking if what we include in our field of awareness really covers everything there is to see.

Let’s do that right now.

Sit back and look around you. Do it. Do it and tell me something about what you see.

Depending on where you are standing right now, you are now becoming aware of the room you are sitting in, the walls, the windows, the furniture’s or the street or the view in front of you if you are outside or whatever are circumstances that surround you in at that very moment. Good. Everything normal so far.

But hold on a moment. Look more carefully – isn’t something missing to your description of this present moment reality? Something really important? Could it be that you are leaving something really crucial out of the map of reality that you are drawing in your mind?

Yes, there is – and that vital element is YOU!

Look again at the picture you are seeing in your mind’s eye and realize that, apart from your hands, feet or the tip of your nose, the thing that is not included in your image of reality – for the simple reason that your eyes do not ‘see’ it – is yourself!

You are aware of all the ‘things’ that are to be seen but unaware of the one who sees them: the observer; your own self.

If this statement does not shock you, you have not understood what it says – read again.

As long as you look with your eyes, you are aware of everything around you, close or distant, but you are not aware of yourself. Why is this and why is it a serious problem?

The worldview that your brain in painting for you from the data forwarded by your eyes starts at the surface of your eyes, in exactly the same way as a picture shot by a camera shows you everything that stands in front of the lens but not much of the photographer himself – apart from the style of the picture of course.

This is how a camera works; this is how the mechanism of physical perception works.

The big problem is that if you are using maps of reality that do not include yourself; if you, the living being that is at the origin of your choices, decisions and actions are not visible in the field of your consciousness at the time when you are making choices, decisions and initiating action, you are living with a huge and potentially very dangerous dead angle.

If it is the case, then whenever you need to find a cause or a solution to your problems, where do you look? Probably everywhere, except in yourself. You see what everyone else is doing but are blind to what you, yourself, are doing.

This is how we end up chronically complaining about things, blaming others or being obsessed with fixing circumstances, changing people and fighting external enemies – because we fail to recognise our own input into the problems that plague our life.

Now, let it be clear that you have no chance of making the right decisions if the maps that inform you are flawed to the extent they miss the most vital part of the territory they are meant to describe – your own inner world and the dimensions of beliefs, attitude, motives, habits, perceptual bias, etc.

And again, this is not that we are ill intentioned or dishonest by nature – it is only an issue of vision, a problem of perception.

But this apparent manufacturing defect affecting the way we perceive things is not inherent to our consciousness – it is a result of the way we misuse it.

Most of us have been taught that it is our eyes that see but this is not true. They are only cameras recording whatever is presented to them and sending it to the brain. They do not ‘see’ as such.

It is the inner eye of attention that sees.

Unlike the physical eyes, the inner eye of awareness does not record anything but it is very acutely aware of everything that goes on within the space of consciousness.

It sees the things and events of the world projected on the screen of consciousness* for what they are – subjective representations of reality that do not only informs you of what is happening on the ‘outside’ but also allow you to read and assess what is taking place on the inside – the way in which you react to it.

You now have a much more objective and ‘real’ representation of reality that provides you with reliable information about three things: the external terrain, your own thoughts, attitudes and motives, and the relationship between yourself and the world around you.

* To be more precise, we should say, “It sees the events of the world projected as holograms in the field of consciousness”

If the world that we experience is primarily an image in our mind, then the most direct and obvious consequence is that it is not in what happens to us that problems and their solutions lie: it is what we ‘do’, in our own mind, with what happens to us.

Are all of us really like divine artists crafting stories in the theaters of our consciousness and enjoying or suffering their dramas? Are we truly birthing our own realities in the cradle of our mind? Do we really have the power to make ourselves happy or miserable?

The answer seems to be a definite ‘yes’.
If we look at ourselves with sincerity, we cannot fail to realize that most of the sorrows or pains we experience are generated by mental images that we treat as if they were real things although they are made of the stuff of dreams.

Pain, either physical or triggered by loss or conflict, is real but suffering is not. Suffering is the way we react to pain – what we ‘do’ with it.

Pain, just like pleasure, is most often short-lived, but suffering lingers, sometimes for life. It is about grief, guilt, regret, resentment or insecurity, negative imagination and worries.

Pleasure and pain are of the now. Excitement and suffering are about the way we project what is happening in the now on the past or the future. ‘Why?’ ‘Why me?’ ‘What is going to happen now?’ They relate to past events that we replay in our own consciousness or to hypothetical futures that we rehearse and experience in anticipation.

Most of what we believe is done ‘to’ us is, most of the time, nothing other than what we make, in our own mind, of what happens around us: what people say, do or what circumstances appear to be.

It is not what is happening in our life that elates or hurts us, but it is what those events mean to us. The meaning we assign to them is relative. It can change.

Now, let’s learn a new skill – a great skill.

On the basis of what we have just described in relation to consciousness and how we primarily create and experience life in our own mind, pause for a moment, relax, open your mind and consider this:

In relationship to people, you do not have a problem with a particular individual but you have a problem with the image of that person you have formed within your own mind.

This image expresses nothing more than the way you interpret their behaviour based on the programs recorded in your brain. It only tells you what you believe about them. The ‘reality’ of that person as well as their real intentions may be quite different from what you actually think it is.

If this is true, then it implies that it is before all in your own mind that you need to make that relationship move in the right direction, and this means starting by questioning the assumptions, definitions and judgments you hold about them.

If you can change this relationship within your own mind, you are well positioned to solve it in the ‘real’ world.

On the positive side of the coin, you are not in love with any particular individual but what you are in love with is the image of them that you have passionately carved in your consciousness.

You probably idealize or ‘upgrade’ this image to meet your needs for affection, romance, security or meaning; it can be distorted by your own fears, worries and lack of self-confidence – in any case, you are probably upset when it doesn’t match the actual behaviour of that individual.

Here again, it is in your own consciousness that you can objectify the way you see the other person so that, whilst still sharing love and affection, you do not deceived or hurt yourself.

We cannot really understand another person as they are. The only thing we can know with a reasonable degree of certainty is what we think about them.

Yet, people exist. They have a reality independent of our perception and it is in our interest to at least attempt to perceive it. There is great beauty and potential there. Most of all, there is reality and seeing reality is always empowering because reality is powerful whilst what is unreal doesn’t exist.

Everyone is ultimately a mystery and the only person we can realistically hope to know is our own self.</p>

Your effectiveness, the degree of happiness you experience and the amount of control you have over your life relies on seven principles.

We have called them mind shifts because they are shifts of perception – changes of mind. Have you ever changed your mind? I assume you have. And what happened when you did? You brought change.

Here is a good opportunity to do it again – for good.

Mind Shift 1 – The reality that we ‘see’ is not real: it is an image created by the brain that fills the field of our consciousness and that we usually confuse for reality.

We all fall in the trap of believing that the way we see ourselves and the world around us is what the world and ourselves are. But this is an illusion. Like all illusions, it may frighten us or make us wonder but ultimately, it is deceptive.

The mechanism of perception going on 24/7 in our consciousness informs and underlies our opinions, judgments, emotions and choices. If we are serious about taking our life into our own hands or simply wanting to be happy, we need to recognize it for what it is.

Here is how it works: external data about the real world ‘out there’ is received by the senses and transmitted to the brain where it is processed and projected as an holographic image of reality that fills the field of our consciousness or mind.

When we see a tree in front of us, what we actually see is not the tree itself but a 3D image of the tree unfolding in the field of our mind and perceived by the inner eye of awareness.

Although it appears to be rock solid and we seldom question its validity, this image is not ‘reality’. It is an entirely subjective representation of our own making, a personal interpretation of real life events that we most often mistake for the events themselves.

We all know, for example, how our own moods and states of mind can influence the way we judge people and experience situations. A good mood makes the world appear beautiful; a bad mood transforms it into a place of desolation and despair. It is the same world – only our perception has changed. But this change of perception has far reaching consequences on what we make of our life.

The moment-to-moment representations of reality created by our brain are the maps we use to find our way through life. Unless they are accurate and updated, we will not reach the destination we are thriving for.

Those maps are a product of our beliefs: the programs encoded in our brain that represent the sum of all we have heard, learned, felt, experienced, understood and been told or taught. To objectify and update our maps simply means to check our beliefs.

Each one of us lives in a world of our own making. Unless we have trained our mind to be still or have achieved a certain degree of control over our own thoughts; unless we know how to observe and seek objectivity in all things, the meaning we assign to things and the resulting emotions and choices that result from that do not tell much about those ‘things’ in themselves but they says a lot about ourselves and the beliefs or emotions we harbor in our consciousness.

It follows that:

1. In order to be at peace, fulfilled and happy in our life, we primarily need to focus our attention to our inner world and bring there the improvements we seek for our life.

2. In order to do this, we need to train ourselves to see the content of our own consciousness as a mirror of the kind of reality we are creating for ourselves rather than a set of rigid opinions, judgments and certainties about ‘the way things are’.

3. We cannot really understand what is happening in our life, in the world or in another person unless we understand our own selves because ultimately, in our inner world, we are the ones who create our life, the world and others.

“I’M A LITTLE PENCIL IN THE HANDS OF GOD WHO IS SCRIPTING HIS LOVE LETTER TO THE WORLD.”

Mother Theresa

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HERE IS A HEART & SOUL WARMING STORY to shine a warm and bright sunshine on the ween end and the life to come. Enjoy it.  Like often on Nipun Metha’s site, it really brings a smile of contentment.

Here it is, fresh from Daily Good:  The World Needs More Love Letters

21-12 came and nothing happened. We woke up on the 22^nd and the world was still there, unchanged. The furry of information, conflict and greed was still going on; the misery and slavery and depravation of human dignity was still shaming us; the movement toward authentic solutions and the rebirth of true civilization was still alive.

And we breathed.

As we breathed, we allowed our consciousness to relax and open. As our consciousness relaxed and opened, we thought; and as we thought, we saw.

Despite the apparent failure of the prophecies, something of extraordinary importance took place during the night of 21-12.

The world to which we woke up on the morning of 22 December was a new world, one liberated from the fear of an end.

During that night, at the turning of the ages, we actually entered into a new era of human consciousness, one in which the fear of death and end is replaced by a clearer and more objective definition of the process we are currently undergoing: a transformation toward something radically new, something that is not a ‘better’ yesterday nor a more effective way to manage the old but a radical movement toward newness born of pure creativity originating in the heart of our conscience – individual and collective.

The world didn’t end and will most probably not end for some time but yes, ‘a’ world is clearly ending – the dying paradigm of competition, greed, isolation, scarcity and ego based living.

Everywhere we look, we see it failing to deliver on its promises because it is representing a paradigm born of misperception and misperception cannot endure truth.

The world didn’t end as some were expecting it would but yes, our global society is very obviously going through a deep process of total transformation, something very similar to birthing.

Everywhere we look, we see an extraordinary aspiration for a new way of living.

Everywhere we look, we see people doing extraordinary things – ordinary or extraordinary acts of kindness, of generosity, of courage that are shaking the status quo of fear and narrow self-interest.

The media do not report on those daily million acts of kindness because they are not designed for that. They are selling disasters, scandals and distraction. They are the purveyors of fear.

But look around you and you see: there is so much good is happening all over!

Now, when you understand that what is taking place in your mind is the primary force with which you design your reality and therefore co-create the collective reality, you understand that a mind filled with images of mindless distractions, violence and disasters can only create a reality of superficiality, self concern, mistrust, fear and isolation.

What became very apparent on the morning of 22-12 was that we have passed a threshold. We have entered into the new era. The shift has happened. It is done. It is now up to us, individually, to realize it.

What it implies is of far-reaching consequence: something we knew but maybe didn’t dare to do: that it is no time anymore to try to repair or save the world: it is time to literally re-create it.

Who wants to maintain such a world? No. It is now time to let it go and engage our attention and energy entirely into the emergence of the new paradigm that is being born.

Self-acceptance and confidence and responsibility; clarity of perception; heart based relationships, trust and creativity; sharing; self-discipline and the spirit of service and generosity.

If our consciousness is the primary force with which we build our life and construct worlds, it is time to use it to manifest what works rather than getting lost into useless complications or trying to change what doesn’t work; it is time to manifest positive solutions and stop compromising on half measures; to declare what we want instead of criticizing what we do not want; to assert the vision and attitudes and behaviours of the life we truly aspire to and, doing so, make our vision, our words, our actions, the new law.

The chaos we see in the world all around us is not the sign of an end: it is the sign of a birth. Birthing is intense, it is messy and it takes place when it has become obvious to the fetus that maintaining the state of comfort it enjoyed so far would signify death.

It takes courage to be born and it seems we are reaching both the externally critical conditions as well as the internal, vital, intensity of aspiration that make the moment of our individual and collective re-birth not only possible but imminent.

There will be challenges but we will cross the invisible barrier of our own fears and conditionings and reach out to the ‘other side’ where, at last, we will meet ourselves, meet each others and meet the world – a world liberated from the shackles of our own limited projections; an extraordinary beautiful and perfect world; our home.

        –Dee Hock, Founder & CEO–Visa

The 20th century as a whole has been a period of extraordinary changes, a short period in our collective history described as a ‘CONFLUENCE’ – a meeting of two ages, a time of transformation and renewal, a portal into new dimensions of consciousness and living – a time for definite changes.

Prophecies all converge to describe a mixture of disasters and promises: on one side, the insanity of today’s world; on the other, the emergence of possibilities like never before had we been gifted with – the birth of an age of sanity, a return of common sense, a re-awakening of the flame of spiritual love and power, a renaissance of the awareness of our own mastery and of the power of individual creativity and therefore, the return of a world of peace, togetherness, sharing and therefore abundance and joy.

In this age, it becomes increasingly obvious that the point of focus, the place where the change is truly taking place is human consciousness – our consciousness and what is taking place within our minds and hearts.

During times of change, when the old turns into chaos and degenerescence and when the NEW emerges with the full force of its youthful vitality, consciousness plays a determining role in determining the future conditions – it always does but in circumstance like those in which we are today where everything that was holding life together seems to fall apart, this is happening with an even greater strength.

What is taking place in our mind and hearts will determine what will take place in our lives and in the world.

What some prophecies say also is that, within this century of confluence, a tipping point occurs on 21-12.2012 – a confluence of the confluence if you like. On this day and in the period surrounding it, higher energies are pouring on our Earth and there is a unique chance to raise our awareness into dimensions where we have always wanted to be – states of being characterised by love, inner power, joy.

This time is now.

Focus the mind and inner vision on the NEW that is in the process of being born. It is still small although more and more visible yet, it is not fragile but carries the Power of a Greater Intelligence and Compassion and it is establishing itself in more and more homes of consciousness, more and more minds, more and more heart – as surely as the extraordinary exuberance of spring follows the biting bareness of the winter.

It is now time to elevate our thoughts and imagination into the realm of all possibilities and visualise and affirm and dream the life of dignity, peace, togetherness and abundance we have always invoked.

The time for crystallizing those states of consciousness and anchor higher energies; the time for the new creation is now and, at a personal level, it is done with te power of consciousness – the quality of our thoughts and feelings and imaginations will determine the quality of our future.

I do not know whether this is true or not but it is a definite possibility and, in all cases, it is really inspiring and very beautiful!

With love.

Related articles

• Are We About to Experience a Shift in Collective Consciousness? / 3 min video (talesfromthelou.wordpress.com)
• Galactic Alignment 2012? (talesfromthelou.wordpress.com)

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An old post reposted on our new website.

Read again ? ->

THICH NHAT HANH

WHY ARE WE SOMETIMES so reluctant to look at ourselves? Is it because we think we do not have the time? Or that opening ourselves to our own inner world in such a merciless world may make us unnecessarily sensitive, weak even? Or is it that we are not too sure of what we can find inside the Pandora box of our mysterious ‘self’? We have been told so many things …

Read more –>

Read more –>

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This world is a dream. Cross it as a master.

UNKNOWN

WE SEEK PEACE, freedom, love, happiness and power because we are, in essence, peaceful, free, loving, happy and powerful beings.

When we look at our life honestly, we cannot miss the fact that however much we believe we have been influenced, betrayed, cheated or compelled, very few decisions have actually been made without our consent. Someone tempted, convinced, threatened or ‘bought’ us in some way and we said, ‘yes’.

Both history and our own personal experience tell us that no one has enough power to make us do anything unless we accept it; unless we decide to want it.

This is a bitter medicine to swallow for most people as we have grown accustomed to believe that others or external circumstances are responsible for our own failures and pains – and we blame them.

But the simple truth is that we rule our personal world. We may be a weak, ignorant or incompetent ruler, but we do rule.

Why have we forgotten then? Lack of education. Wrong priorities. Laziness maybe. How many of us were told there is an ‘inner’ dimension to life, let alone being encouraged or educated to care about it?

Out of ignorance and carelessness, we have ignored this inner kingdom. We have mismanaged our personal resource and allowed what was meant to be a garden of joy and beauty to grow into a jungle, wild, confused and worrisome.

The self-king is there, but he is surrounded by unwise, uncaring and often self-serving, cunning advisors; he is bound by disempowering beliefs, life-crippling habits and ambiguous agreements.

The kingdom that was entrusted to his stewardship has been lost to foreign influences, invaded by unchecked ambitions and beliefs, colonised by values, life styles and aspirations that are not really his.

He has lost none of his aspirations for a life of meaning, love and freedom but what he has lost is the confidence that he can do it because he doesn’t know or, more precisely, he doesn’t remember who he is – a king.

The sole purpose of SEEDS for Change is to support your Self-king in his task of reasserting his power and come back to the position of authority and self-determination that are his – your – birthright.

To do that, the he will need to be acknowledged for who he is; to be inspired and empowered to truly want his freedom. He will need to cultivate courage, persistence and determination.

He will need, before all, to acquire a broader, clearer, understanding of himself, of his kingdom and of the forces at play – those, external to him, that tie him in bondage; those, external still, but on which he can rely and take support from; and those, inside his soul, that are his true powers.

A note on gender: Finding a pronoun referring to the self is not simple. To stay in line with common tradition, I am using ’he’ as we speak of ‘man’ to refer to mankind. I could have used a ‘he-she-it’ but that would not have gotten any closer to the truth, and would have made reading heavy.