What happens when we experience the world directly, without the conceptual overlay of thoughts, names, interpretations, explanations, intentions, beliefs, values, clocks, purposes and goals - yours and others? What happens when there is no map, no place to go, no one to be, and nothing to fix or accomplish? What happens when things are perceived exactly the way they are without any imposed meanings? In other words, what do we experience when the mind is completely silent and still. William Blake answered thus, “If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite." What does that mean? Here are some observations from a consciousness free of thought…
• Every "thing" witnessed becomes fascinating just as it is and we realize how thoroughly perception had been highjacked by thought. The world becomes a magical, incredibly beautiful, sacred and shining fairly land once again. We return to the mystical consciousness of early childhood yet aware of what has changed. We become awakened beings in a conscious world.
• Yet there is no one to be, for the "I" thought is simply one more mental fiction. So are "you." Perceptions of others continue but there is no backstory, no fixed identities ascribed to the beautiful beings filling the world.
• Feelings of love, joy, freedom and wonder arise as the essential nature of our being and our existence. There is no more guilt, shame, depression, ugliness, failure, conflict, or war.
• A conscious, intelligent, tender and infinitely loving "Presence" envelops and pervades all Being. In time we learn that the world is its Being, including us.
• As a result, we live and work in the creative "zone" of pure being, where doing flows naturally from being. As Jesus said, "I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit."
• In this progressive experience, we become Divine Humans in a Divine World.
We are born into the mystical consciousness of the right cerebral hemisphere in both our individual and collective evolution - pure awareness and subjectivity. When the brain's left hemisphere kicks in, we learn to reduce the world to concepts, for thought and language give humans enormous advantages over other creatures and the natural world. In this process, however, we lose the divine world and our place in the family of creatures. In the next phase of our evolution, however, we will learn to balance right and left, sacred and profane, consciousness and conceptualization. As we discover who and where we really are, everything will change.
• Every "thing" witnessed becomes fascinating just as it is and we realize how thoroughly perception had been highjacked by thought. The world becomes a magical, incredibly beautiful, sacred and shining fairly land once again. We return to the mystical consciousness of early childhood yet aware of what has changed. We become awakened beings in a conscious world.
• Yet there is no one to be, for the "I" thought is simply one more mental fiction. So are "you." Perceptions of others continue but there is no backstory, no fixed identities ascribed to the beautiful beings filling the world.
• Feelings of love, joy, freedom and wonder arise as the essential nature of our being and our existence. There is no more guilt, shame, depression, ugliness, failure, conflict, or war.
• A conscious, intelligent, tender and infinitely loving "Presence" envelops and pervades all Being. In time we learn that the world is its Being, including us.
• As a result, we live and work in the creative "zone" of pure being, where doing flows naturally from being. As Jesus said, "I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit."
• In this progressive experience, we become Divine Humans in a Divine World.
We are born into the mystical consciousness of the right cerebral hemisphere in both our individual and collective evolution - pure awareness and subjectivity. When the brain's left hemisphere kicks in, we learn to reduce the world to concepts, for thought and language give humans enormous advantages over other creatures and the natural world. In this process, however, we lose the divine world and our place in the family of creatures. In the next phase of our evolution, however, we will learn to balance right and left, sacred and profane, consciousness and conceptualization. As we discover who and where we really are, everything will change.