Tag: reality

the ocean

jandvig3 Comments

I was graced with the gift of travel to sunny Florida. I flourished in the JOY of Being in its glorious sunlight and even its warm rains.  During my morning walks along the beach , I had the grace of leisure to sit and just look … and wonder …  and listen … and talk to the ocean.

I’d ask her,

WHAT are YOU, really?

Does anyone actually know WHAT this mirage of water below blue sky IS?

Why can I stare at you for long minutes and completely forget time exists?

How is it that you are able to pull me in and spit me out?

What is the magical recipe of your salty sting?

Does your sound come from inside or outside?

Who first discovered you, swam in you, drowned in you?

And I’d wonder …

Why did humans stop contemplating the nature of this Reality?

Perhaps we forgot how to ponder, ruminate, imagine?

Someone taught us that you’re an “ocean” and we accepted that we know what you are.

And we stopped really seeing you.

Maybe that’s why we’re in the mess we’re in … here on this body we call earth.

Our modern Indoctrination and religion of “science” has been our demise.

We’ve forgotten we’re all little children – because we placed our faith in intellectual adulthood …

And we lost the Keys to the Kingdom of God.

I pray I will never pretend to know what an ocean really IS.

***

A favorite song from childhood memory … Mom’s transistor radio serenaded me each morning while getting ready for school … a time when joy and innocence and mystery was still ALIVE ….. hope you take a moment to enjoy:

the unseen

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Ultimately, we all share the same fear … THE FEAR OF DEATH.

Why?

Because it is unknown .

Because it is unseen.

Because we will no longer exist.

What if fear is NOT true?

What if we really don’t exist as truth in this form, but instead we are like dreamers in a dream?

If we believe in the dream, we take on the role of a player in the dream.

We are afraid of losing all of the dream-like experiences we call reality.

But if we acknowledge that we are the dreamers of the dream, we know we can only really Exist in the Creator of the dream.

When we establish an inner foundation – an inner stability – a trust that is always in the background of our knowing, we have access to an available well of certainty to remind us that the suffering of the world exists only in the egoic mind (the player in the dream), which finds itself separate from God (the Creator of the dream).

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Therefore, we do not give up, but even if the man we are outside is wasting away, certainly the man we are inside is being renewed from day to day. For though the tribulation (trial) is momentary and light, it works out for us a glory that is of more and more surpassing greatness and is everlasting, while we keep our eyes, not on the things seen , but on the things unseen. For the things seen are temporary, but the things unseen are everlasting.

the word

jandvig2 Comments

The issue of freedom is very important so we can embrace the right or lose it. Where the mind is concerned, I opted many years ago to drop out of the mainstream world and later to get rid of my TV. I only listen to the classical radio station which is now commercial-free in my area and I don’t subscribe to any newspapers or magazines. Still, how can I know when my mind is perceiving, when it is thinking, and when it is merely regurgitating? For instance, if I tell you the world is round, I have no personal skills that qualify me to such an opinion. I am therefore merely reflecting what is accepted as truth in today’s world but this same mind might have subscribed to the flat earth theory hundreds of years ago. For instance, I can see an image of the Earth from a satellite or look at an antique map. Depending on the images shown to my mind and the text accompanying the images, I form my understanding, but the fact is still that without any personal experience, I can only reflect what my mind has memorized. Exactly how a mind retains knowledge is unimportant in this context. The knowledge itself is simply not original and can only be authenticated by reference to consensus.

Ingrid Naiman

I recognized a long time ago, that nothing we actually say is true.

The “word” is a representation, a copy, a symbol, of Sound, Vibration, Frequency.

This recognition has often left me

disappointed … confused … appalled … disgusted … frustrated

and sometimes this recognition has evoked

liberation … joy … enlightenment … inspiration

As I write this, the light has appeared, it is no longer nighttime (I’ve been up since 4 AM). Something woke me, and said:

Janet, you know the Truth. Yes, there appears to be evil (dark) and good (light) and yin (cool) and yang (hot) and everything in between.

And still, I AM is the only Reality – infinitely – no beginning, no end.

Every time you forget this, STOP, BE STILL, FEEL your breath, inhale all the suffering, pain, ignorance, evil and then exhale FORGIVENESS, LOVE, COMPASSION for all humanity.

And another day begins …..

Alone I know nothing

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Yes, I admit, I know absolutely nothing when it comes to the Truth of this Reality.

I have to recognize that each time I forget.

Otherwise, I am just deluded.

The persona, Janet, which I embody, seems to be a mind/body/spirit complex Being who believes she is separate from What Always Is.

But she’s Not separate in Actuality.

And that’s where the Knowing comes in. And this is how Knowing showed up for me:

In February 2019 after my breast reconstruction surgery (post 2 years of “successful” breast cancer treatment), I began to have signals – feelings, big surges of desire for change, deep disappointment with my current state of affairs in every aspect.

It felt like an alien took over my body/mind complex and was informing me to make major life changes. At times, I felt like I was having an emotional breakdown.

It really did feel alien, because I’m typically very tolerant, an empathetic sort who deals with anger/judgmental emotions in a way that sets the feelings aside through deep contemplation of how to engage forgiveness and acceptance.

But this “alien” showed up and said in my head’s voice, “Fuck this. I’m done. I can’t live like this anymore.”

I felt possessed. I couldn’t stop the feelings, and the voice in my head was insistent.

This alien visitor (coincidentally?) appeared exactly at the time I began experiencing pain in the breast reconstruction area…..

This pain presented as sharp, burning, electric jolts of pain. This was in March directly after the February 25 surgery.

The alien informed me, “Get out of this marriage relationship and run far away, free yourself from the family drama and incessant codependent relationships you are witnessing.  Leave it all behind.  Get a van, live in it, and travel across county. Find out who you are.”

The alien voice further insisted, “It’s time to quit all these yoga jobs. You’re running around like a chicken without a head, wasting gas and time for piddling compensation, not to mention you’re exhausted. You no longer feel inspired to teach yoga, but required. And that’s not how you used to feel.”

I listened.

In April, the most grueling words I’ve ever felt forced to voice somehow came out of my mouth, and I informed my husband of 30 years, “I think we should separate from each other.”

Next, I gave my notice to 3 out 4 of my yoga employers. I would be taking a long term sabbatical from teaching yoga for personal/health reasons.

It was now May, and my pain turned into a visible rash on the skin of my right breast. The doctors guessed, Shingles?

In June my radiation Oncologist saw my growing, worsening rash, looked at me with a face of horror, and said, “I don’t think this is shingles. You need a biopsy.”

During all of this, my husband and I talked, yelled, cried, shared, but ultimately came to agreement that our relationship was worth working at….. together.. .We agreed to hold on to the foundation of love beneath all the dysfunctional and difficult stuff that has arisen.

Still experiencing burning pain, I couldn’t even keep the one yoga job I had held onto, and I asked for time off due to the painful rash. 

On June 18, my husband’s birthday, I had a skin biopsy. The result: Recurrent breast cancer in the skin.

In July, my PET scan result was: Inflammatory breast cancer metastasized to skin.

In August, it was confirmed that my disease is stage 4, incurable, and chemotherapy along with any eligibility for trials would be my best option and hope for remission.

And so I contemplate ……..

  • Did the “Alien” KNOW I had cancer before I did?
  • Did the “Alien” inform my actions based on the KNOWLEDGE that I needed healing through self love?
  • Did the “Alien” show up as actual cancer cells to bring me to my knees in surrender so that I could focus first on service to self, which automatically will then develop into service to others?

I feel inclined to believe that this thing I refer to as the Alien is Life Itself (God).

Does that mean God is the cancer too? I think so.

And although in this realm we perceive what happens as good or bad, this Alien Voice, Life Itself, God is NEUTRAL, but in Unseen Reality the inevitable result is always for the highest good…… something we cannot perceive or know.

And although Janet Alone cannot KNOW the highest good, when Connected to Source she can allow what Life Itself intends to live through her.

 Today’s prayer:

 Allow me to fulfill my purpose, whatever that may be.

Plasma

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“Fixed constructs keep us from experiencing the fluidity of reality which contains the abundance and connections that we long for on this journey.  You must ask yourselves in each moment, What am I programming?” Jenny Schiltz
 
My contemplation in the garden was insightful today.

I felt the plasma-like substance that Jenny Schiltz talks about in her recent blog post.  Yes, indeed. I do agree, this plasma is programmable.

But this is what I saw today:

This plasma is YOU and ME.  (you can substitute the word God for plasma if you prefer)

It is the very fascia of our being and all of what we perceive as planet Earth.

Who programs this plasma? YOU and ME.

Our thoughts program the plasma.

Think of a fractal. The way it is infinitely the same above and below, a spiraling infinity of as above so below, but there’s really no separation of above and below. We just can’t see above and below.

We only see the level of our own conscious awareness in each moment – which is reflected into the plasma that we perceive as outside of us.

But this plasma is already programmed for eons to hide the reality of this fluid movement of energy so that we are unaware, unconscious, and disbelieving of its power within each of us.

Can we un-program our plasma, or re-program it?

The infinite layers of stuck and programmed ideas, beliefs, and indoctrinated behaviors is the plasma that’s playing the current movie feature called Life on Earth.

YOU and I create this.

How did I envision this today?

I witnessed the natural behaviors of the living things;

Kale grown from tiny seedlings
Ants creating pathways through the dirt
Deep-rooted grass weeds, so hard to pull
Soft clover yielding easily to my touch.

IT knows. Life showed me. IT pointed directly to the nature of reality that I AM, and I listened.

Simultaneously, I felt the burning pain in my right breast from the Shingles virus, a condition I’ve manifested over the past several months. 

This stinging pain said to me,
You are transforming, Janet. You are always becoming and always being. Forever connected to truth, even when you don’t see it clearly. This body will only show you what your mind thinks. Good or bad.  It will always mirror your thoughts.

I AM plasma.

Peace

jandvig1 Comment

The only moments that I feel truly at ease, peaceful, maybe even blissful (Ananda) is when I remember (re-know) the Truth (Sat) about the illusive quality of perception in the “world”.

What you believe, so shall you perceive. That’s about as close as one can get to a spiritual truth.

All the anxiety, indecision, depression, angst, fear …. yes, it’s real because I can FEEL it.

But when I crack open my knowing heart, and remember the Truth of I AM, or GOD IS, or disbelieve the separation (duality), a soft wave of peacefulness returns to the center of the chest.

“When a teacher of God first learns that he or she is the dreamer of the dream they are still attached to the dream and are tempted to use their growing awareness of Reality to change the dream to suit their individual dream figure desires instead of to awaken. This is an attempt at a compromise where the dreamer tries to have the power of the dreamer while still being a figure in the dream, but in the end this will fail because a dream is not real; it will always leave the dreamer feeling empty, and seeking for wholeness. Only awakening from the dream will make the dreamer feel whole again. Through awakening the dreamer’s experience of the dream does improve, but only because the dreamer realizes that it is a dream.

The Holy Instant, in Which the teacher of God steps out of time for a moment to be with God, is the greatest tool that he or she has to undo the dream of time. In that Instant time is over; there is no dream. The more a teacher of God practices the Holy Instant, and lives in the present with the Presence of the Holy Spirit, the less time means to him or her. The dream recedes in value and importance, and the experience of the Holy Instant becomes more compelling to the teacher of God than anything in time.

In essence, time is the dreamer living the one instant of not-God/undoing not-God over and over again, but in the midst of time this takes so many forms it is almost impossible to see. The teacher of God, however, begins to see it the more he or she experiences the Holy Instant. They begin to see the nothingness of the dream, and how silly it is to give it weight and to take it seriously. All that has happened is a thought that can never be reality. There is really nothing to forgive because nothing real has happened. God is.” A Course in Miracles

oh my sacred dream time

jandvig

“Enlightenment is not seeing everything through the distortion called egoic state of consciousness. That’s why it’s called natural state;  It’s perception without a lens. Ultimately that’s what enlightenment is: Perception without distortion.” Adyashanti

The dream state is a lustrous gem

here’s where all of the distortions are revealed

In perfect living color, form and sound

Because in TIME

I only see through the lens of my perceptions (distortions)

But when sleep time comes, the TIME perceptions dissolve

Now I can see through it all

My dreams show me what I know in a way I can’t really comprehend
It would be too jarring for my indoctrinated left-sided brain
So my dream time gives me truths incognito

I am learning to unlock the symbolic coding

and it’s beginning to shine crystal clear

OH MY SACRED DREAM TIME

 

 

 

Compassion for our humanity

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watching documentary on Steven Spielberg, and re-experiencing the emotions evoked from the movie Schindler’s List.

each time I re-witness scenes of the Holocaust, or read a book describing events of that time in history, I find myself in an emotional state of extreme sorrow where the tears are overflowing, and the tears are so necessary, as if to release all of the (remembered?) horror.

did I live through this?

is that possible?

did we all live through this?

did we all create that experience?

An interesting analogy by Alan Watts about the past:

He likens it to a boat on a lake (The Present) and the wake behind the boat (The Past). The moving water behind the boat does NOT create the boat. It’s just the opposite. The boat (the Present) creates the wake (the Past)

The Present creates the Past

So the past only can exist in the present. Our memories of the Past occur only in the present, and that is what informs our present (and future).

That’s where this innate human quality of compassion comes in. A feeling that is Real and Exists in the Present. And is imperative for the truth of Love to exist in the present moment.

My teacher, Adyashanti, expresses it so exquisitely:

“On a human level, it’s really useful — not just to know, but to feel — that that part of your being that is unconditioned has no problem with your humanity. It’s really important for the humanity to feel that, because that’s what it’s looking for — something in the universe that’s not judging it, condemning it, or even praising it.”

“Dualistic consciousness is also a manifestation of the ultimate ground. There’s no part of us that’s apart or other — even though there are different qualities and different experiences — there is no apartness. It’s so important to let yourself experience that. Because to receive that in the human heart feels like love.”

“Compassion is selfless love. It is what gives all of our other impulses balance. It is why, from the level of consciousness, we can be self-interested and rightly so — and simultaneously — have these very selfless impulses. This is all part of our nature.”

“Compassion literally comes from the ultimate ground because compassion is that feeling that: I will do something for someone even if it is not in my self-interest.”

“Compassion is actually quite a common occurrence in human beings. You don’t have to look very far for it — that feeling that you love something or someone in such a way that your sense of your own well-being is transcended.”