From Consciousness To Inspiration

“Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working.”
Pablo Picasso

Remember earlier when we talked about whatever we focus our attention on grows? If we focus our attention on discovering our true self, then we will become increasingly aware of our true self. Yes, we need to learn how to be defenseless in order to achieve, and so it becomes a continuous battle. However, each time we do so, we learn how fulfilling and tangible the experience is.

As in life, if you thrust the logic in front of you as you head out the door, hurtling experience ahead to pave the walk, then you invariably lose the revelation that informs that day. When we plan, organize and manage our day we predetermine what will come and limit the outcome. Instead, if we allow ‘flow’ we receive everything from inspiration to serendipity.

“You cannot solve a problem at the level it is created.”
Albert Einstein

Most people spend inordinate time and effort dwelling on the things we like, the things we wish for, or the things someone else has. However, this mind set manifests that same scarcity right back to us. Instead, we need to relearn ‘as you give, so shall you receive.’ Source delivers us our own, the things we’ve created by our own thoughts and deeds.

Ask yourself: Do I choose to remain hostage to my everyday thinking based on the illusion of weakness and limitations? Or, to my true self, and the miraculous creative abilities within?

Growth follows knowledge, action follows inspiration, opportunity follows perception. However, always preceding is awareness. It is the awareness of consciousness (not Ego-driven but I am aware that I am aware) and source. To keep the door of consciousness open is the secret of power. That power is within. We can’t know it except through stillness. And we can’t receive this power unless we give it. Outflow determines inflow.

Meditation Exercise: Visualization. Visualize a flower sprouting, growing and blooming. Pick your favorite, and bring it from the unseen to the seen. Plant a tiny seed. Water it. Care for it. See the seed burst; it is now a living thing. It now has spirit and is beginning to search for the means of subsistence. See the roots penetrating mother earth, shooting out in all directions. Watch the stem shoot upward, bursting through the surface to the sunlight, watch it divide, see how perfectly each branch is formed. Watch the buds begin to form, then unfold. Now, become conscious of the fragrance of the flower as the breeze lightly bends the creation which you have visualized. You now can take this same exercise and make a blueprint for whatever goal or activity or enterprise you wish, as long as it is in alignment or harmony with source.

Here And Now Is What Is

Letting go is the key step. In this way we become a magnet for everyone and everything we need: intuition replaces thought, knowing replaces questioning, serendipity replaces effort and peace replaces stress. As Lao Tzu advises, “Tao abides in non-action. Yet nothing is left undone. If kings and lords observed this, the ten thousand things would develop naturally.”

However, letting go is perhaps the most difficult step. Not only have we programmed ourselves that if we work hard, study hard, strive continuously for what we want, we have a chance of attaining success, monetary reward and a comfortable retirement, but we have also consigned ourselves to face some painful truths. When we are stuck in the heat of an argument, or when we are feeling overwhelming emotion or stress, or when we have some physical impairment it is difficult to simply let go and experience it as it is.

“Whatever we resist persists.”
Carl Jung

Overcoming our innate resistence to letting go is a matter of coming to grips with both the intellectual and emotional aspects of this act. Intellectually, we need to understand that there is already within us the perfect ‘answer’ to every question, every situation, every need. It must be so, since the source is boundless. Emotionally, we need to understand the fear of facing life head on with surrender, or defencelessness. By learning from each negative feeling or event, by being in the now and accepting what is as what is, we receive the gift of understanding (true enlightenment) allowing us to move on wiser, richer and untroubled from that point onward.

“Happy people plan actions, they don’t plan results.”
Dennis Wholey

The doing itself, not the outcome, is the essence of life. The sorcerer plans ahead of where he is going. As outlined in Book 1, his intentions become orchestrated space time events of what he intended. He reverses the ego’s process (When I get this > I will do this > I will think this > I will be like this) to one of actualization (I will be this > I will spontaneously fulfill my desires > I will do the things that are necessary > I will receive everything I want).

Knowing that what he gives, he receives, the sorcerer’s Being is in harmony with this essence of life. The road to this state is in simply relaxing into Being: when we allow ourselves to taste this for the first time we discover the experience is far more tangible and satisfying than anything we previously experienced in the physical world. Repeating this often reinforces this benefit, and so begins to replace whatever illusory benefits we took as our lot in life before. Because our attention begins to focus on this, those moments of enjoying our true self come to the forefront.

Meditation Exercise: This time we are going to meditate on something. It could be a picture, an object, anything. Concentrate all of your attention on it for ten minutes. You’ll find your mind wandering, and you will have to bring your mind back again and again to the original purpose. However, it is critical to learn how to focus your attention to overcome any obstacles that appear in your path. Now, bring a picture with you and focus on it for ten minutes. Note every detail. Then, cover your eyes and try to picture every detail. When you are able to do so, you will be ready for the next meditation.

The White Space Between Thoughts

Creativity is both elemental to being human and to the universe as a whole. From the big bang onward, creation defines. Geneticist Theodore Dobzhansky puts it this way: “The creativity of the evolutionary process follows the general pattern of all creativity. The emergent process is neither random nor determined but creative. Just as in the human order, creativity is neither a rational deductive process nor the irrational wandering of the undisciplined mind but the emergence of beauty as mysterious as the blossoming of a field of daisies out of the dark Earth.”

If Dobzhansky is right, it begs a question. If creativity is so central to everything, why is it so difficult to let our creative brilliance shine? The answer lies in our attempts to try, do or attain a state of creative ‘spark.’ Simply put, in the doing, we’ve moved away from being.

We are already unlimited, boundless creativity. If instead of doing we just relax, ‘aha’ comes into being because its already there. In the same vein, being in the ‘flow’ is always when we’re not thinking, but feeling. Thus, the trick isn’t to seek it, but simply to relax and let ourselves become aware. Seeking is our ego demanding attention, for it takes effort and will to make something, doesn’t it? Yet, in the seeking, so too is the loss of recognition of our true self. Our Presence is innately wise, and can be known by feelings of joy and love, not in thoughts and searching.

Instead of letting your ego determine what you focus your attention on, the sorcerer simply focuses his attention on what his intentions are. The principle is: whatever you focus your attention on expands in your life to the exclusion of other things. Instead of focusing all his attention on getting into the flow or getting out of this trap or that bad habit, the sorcerer simply focuses on getting better acquainted with his true self. With his intention focused on becoming more aware of his true self, his true self becomes better known. In that simple step comes Presence.

This takes a bit of trust, in the beginning. Is isn’t easy to disregard a lifetime of worry and a whole laundry list of looming responsibilities in the faith that the answers are already known to your true self. Most people concentrate on things they want, not on who they are. Yet there is nothing the true self cannot do; it isn’t constrained by time or space, economic or social laws. It is boundless, it is energy, it is part and parcel of the cosmic whole. Our true self can’t see any limitations, because those very limitations don’t exist in its realm. It is only our ego that sees limits, because our ego is so limited. Our true self can only see potential, and the avenues available to manifest that which is intended.

Ask yourself: Would you rather trust that very same ego that’s gotten you into this mess in the first place, or in your innately wise true self that knows no bounds?

Meditation Exercise: Relaxation. In this meditation, it is important to learn how to completely relax. First, empty your mind and get control of your thoughts. Focus on relaxing your muscles. Start at your toes. Tense, then relax them. Once you’ve learned how to relax the toes, move up to your calves, then thighs and so on all the way up to the face. Once you’ve mastered completely relaxing your self, note how completely at peace you are. Now, it is time to work on letting go of all negative thoughts. Visualize them disappearing, like a leaf on water flowing downstream, or sand escaping from top to bottom of an hour glass. All fear, doubt, worry thoughts are no longer the kind of thinking you will allow. Your intent is now to replace each negative thought with a positive one. Note how easy and reaffirming positive thoughts are to those negative ones that once occupied much too much of your time.

Creative Intelligence is the essence of Being.

The reason to become the sorcerer that’s already within you is simply to be who you already are. If you don’t, if you can’t, if you won’t expand beyond the ego-driven dysfunction, you’ll die with the dance still in you.

The sorcerer understands our all too human ego; in that wisdom, and in tandem with creativity, a balance between head and heart, yin and yang, earth and sky, masculine and feminine, cosmos and psyche creates a whole being. (Cosmos, from the ancient Creek word kosmos, “whole.”)

Before the sorcerer delves into the realm of manifesting magic, of manifesting his intentions, he first must come to understand what and who he is. Which begs the age-old question, “What is the true nature of being human?” Is it to be consumers? (For 98.8% of our existence, it was hunter-gatherer.) Is it to be addicts? (Addiction comes from our relinquishing power over to our ego’s greed for ever more short-term fixes instead of the much more satisfying joy of creativity.) Is it to be bored, boring, lazy? (People who are creating things, alive and interacting with their world, are not bored, boring or lazy.)

When are we happiest? For me, it’s when I am in the moment. When I suspend judgement and predisposition and simply enjoy. It is when I am truly creative, in the ‘flow’, and intuitively know precisely what’s needed next. These are transcendental experiences, but all too infrequent.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, in his 1990 breakthrough book ‘Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience,’ detailed the psychology behind living through opportunity, circumstance and purpose. That is to say, he outlined the conditions in which ‘flow’ occurred. However, it is here that this primer digresses, for it isn’t a matter of technique nor condition but rather simply Being (that is, ‘flow’ is our natural state). The question, then, is how to bring more ‘flow’ into our lives.

“The only really valuable thing is intuition.”
Albert Einstein

Archaeologists have traced the origins of Homo sapiens back to Africa at least one hundred thirty thousand years ago. However, archaeologists don’t really start humanity until about seventy-seven thousand years ago, when in caves high above the Indian Ocean man first began making artifacts. It is our very nature to create, to make artifacts.

“If you let hydrogen gas alone for 13 billion years it will become giraffes, rose bushes and humans.”

Brian Swimme (Physicist)

‘Who am I’ can’t be answered by thoughts, by the ego. Who I am is much more than the material world. There’s a whole other part of who we are. That part can only be known through direct experience. It isn’t thinking, it’s awareness. It is to be found when you are aware that you are aware. Its essence, our essence, is when we are experiencing ‘flow.’ Its when we are in harmony with Intent. Its when we let our intuition lead that we can be one with the moment, and thus one with ourselves.

“You don’t need a weatherman to tell you which way the wind is blowing.”
Bob Dylan

What would happen if we lost our attachment to who we think we are, and what we think? Wouldn’t we ‘see’ who we really are? Not only that what we previously thought was transient, ever-changing, but that our true essence which is doing the observing is both unchanging and pure intelligence. Who we are, in other words, is creative intelligence. It isn’t constrained by any self-concept. It doesn’t need to struggle to achieve anything at all. It is pure energy, as is everything else.

Meditation Exercise: Breathing. Find a quiet spot, one which you can return to day in and day out. You could sit in a chair, lie on the floor, wherever it is that for 15 uninterrupted minutes you can focus your mind. For the first week, simply practice being quiet. Try to empty your mind. Instead of listening to your inner voice, listen to your breathing. Feel your chest expand when you inhale. Hold it for a moment, then release it slowly. Repeat. Don’t get discouraged if thoughts keep entering. Just as the thought that this thought just occurred, as well. Simply, become aware that thoughts come and go, and that you can be aware of thoughts coming and going. Note ‘who’ is aware; that’s Presence. Who you really are is the one observing the thoughts, not the thoughts themselves. Who you really are is the awareness, and thus you can never know who you really are through your thoughts because that isn’t who you are. (If you’d like a little reading on how to meditate, here’s an ad free suggestion on a technique called Hamsa.)

Remember this classic gem from David Niven?

“Tonight I feel like Zsa Zsa Gabor’s fifth husband. I know what to do but how do I make it interesting?”

What’s your script for today?

“This is like making love to Joan Collins. You know it’s been done before many, many times. And much, much better.”

What hook will you use to start it off?

“I feel like the young Arab sheik who inherited his father’s harem. I know what to do but where the hell do I begin?”

Will you expound on your theme from yesterday?

“As Henry VIII said to each of his wives in turn, I shall not keep you long.”

Whatever your script is today, it certainly must express the essence of what you know and feel and trust is right.

The first step is always in the seeking of the answer to “Who Am I?” In so doing comes the dawning of a heightened consciousness.

Is there a paradox at the center of this?

Getting to this juncture has been part-and-parcel a process of self-examination. Just as, self-examination is, by its very nature, self-paralysis.

And what I’m about doing, now and in the future, is quite the opposite.

Don’t think about breathing. Just breathe. Don’t think about who do I want to be, just be.

It’s a Tao thing.