Perceptual Shift

What would you make of yourself if you found a technique wherby you could connect with and download perceptual abilities from your multiple higher developed selves existent in the oneness of all?

The idea is out that each person and each situation exists in almost infinite variety in the infinite oneness of all.  That you exist in a multitude of multidimensional realities with a multitude of experiences and developmental levels.

Seizing on this idea one can contemplate or meditate upon connecting to a self that has reached a higher level of development with the intent of learning from your higher developed self.  The intent is to shortcut the learning process and directly transfer perceptual awareness from your higher developed self version.

This sounds a very off the wall concept, yet it has some support from physics and from research some others are doing.  I believe a book by a chiropractor called stepping into the Matrix goes somewhat in this direction.

Following on recent posts on relaxation, Contentment is a perceptual art that requires cultivation.

As you contemplate contentment you realize that to be otherwise is refusing reality and refusing creation. Contentedly accept each moment/situation for what it has to offer and give.  In acceptance and contentment you allow life to evolve in the manner it has for you.  You are not trying to force your life to follow a path other than that evolving for you.  You are not trying to tell creation and life what is best.  You are congruent with the forces of creation and nature.

In contentment accept Now.  In contentment accept current reality.  In contentment accept whatever situation you find yourself in.  Relax into life and flow with it.

The ability to remain relaxed in all situations is integral to cultivating higher perceptual awareness.

Balance and harmony and relaxed alertness are cultivated in various marital arts, meditative, and yogic practices.  Tai Chi Shigong (link on the right side of blog) is a good place to start building balance/harmony and relaxation.

It is very easy to get so lost in the search for the perfect practices that one looses track of the original intention to develop balance – relaxation – and harmony.

It is important to hold firmly onto the original intent to remain balanced, relaxed and harmonious as you search for and cultivate various  disciplines.  Don’t give up the harmony, balance and relaxation that is naturally inside of you in pursuit of phantoms that are really desires.

Cultivate balance and harmony.

Cultivation is a concept for approaching the Dao.  Cultivation is repeatedly mentioned in the Tao Te Ching and the Hua Hu Ching texts attributed to Lao Tzu approximately 2500 years ago.

Cultivating balance and harmony moves one into a state where you become aware of the Oneness reflected as the Tao.

Our perception is to cultivate the same balance and harmony at all times.  Maintain balance and harmony as you interact with others. Cultivate holding the same balance and harmony within yourself as you interact with family, friends, strangers, bosses, commanders, employees, crowds, children, antagonists, mentally ill, disillusioned, beautiful, unattractive, happy, sad, and ecstatic.  Remember you are one with all.  None is greater than the other, no matter the illusion of perception.

• Everything comes out of oneness. 
• Everything returns to oneness.
• One perception is that everything outside of oneness is illusion.

The destination is to reunite consciously with oneness as a living being, to merge consciousness and oneness.

The path is discipline, determination, surrender, acceptance, humility and grace.

or… Simply embrace oneness.

Shift your perception to the point where the disagreeable person is seen as  a blessing and the the beautiful and joyful are seen as blessings as well.

This is the path of acceptance.

Falling off the wagon is a euphemism for a reformed alcoholic that starts drinking again.  It is a useful parody of what happens when one falls back under the influence of the ego’s wants desires, and judgements.

You wake up the next day and go oh my god.  Not again! 

Well brush yourself off and give yourself renewed determination to control your perceptual focus and not to give up self control to the ego, aka the perceptual booze, again.  ommmmmm

Hold your perceiving focus at your heart and get it out of your head.

Virtue is a perceptual shift that is either chosen or rejected.

The non virtuous are easily manipulated and controlled.  That is why society promotes the rejection of virtue.  Just watch one commercial on TV and make your judgement.  More so than anytime in history we are bombarded with temptation.  Buy this, buy that, do this do that.  Pursue this pursue that.

Those who reject virtue easily fall into the temptation to fulfill transitional wants and desires.  Those who fall deepest into temptation become the dregs of society.

Those who embrace virtue retain the energy and balance necessary to be conciously aware. 

The path is plain and simple.  Choose to be virtuous.  Be impeccable in word, thought and deed.  Remain unconditional in your appreciation of others. Remain unswayed by transitory desires.  Then you retain the focus, the discipline and the energy to perceive the Tao, to perceive awareness, to grow your life.

Practice kindness and selflessness.

What You Do is What You Are is a very deep and profound statement from stanza 40 “Hua Hu Ching” the Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu, translated by Brian Walker.

At first glance this seems like a trivial statement, yet when you contemplate further you realize that how you do life, no matter what your position, determines what you are developmentally.

It is part of cosmic law that what you say and do determines what happens in your life……  He cultivates himself to accord (with this law) bringing moderation to his actions and clarity to his mind….. His days are spent drinking in serenity and breathing out contentment.

Discipline is a lost art that is seldom understood these days.  Letting go of discipline you will repeatedly be slipping off the path back into everyday unconscious life.  It is so easy to get caught up in reactionary life without the practice discipline.

The Toltec path of discipline outlined before is to remain impeccable in word, thought and deed.

The way of Tao describes a similar path as the practice of undiscriminating virtue.  Practicing kindness and selflessness you naturally align your life with the Integral Way.

Remember:  It is not that those who cultivate wholeness and virtue … do not encounter difficulties in life, It is that they understand that difficulties are the very road to immortality.  By meeting them calmly and openly however they unfold and joyfully developing themselves in response to them, they become as natural, as complete, and as eternal as the Tao itself.  “Hua Hu Ching” the Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu, translated by Brian Walker.

When you give love, kindness and openness you will feel your heart open.  The healing force from the universe will pour down on you and out to the people you wish to help simultaneously.

Practice the microcosmic orbit circulation.  Concentrate on the point opposite the heart and feel it connect to the heart  center in the front.  This will help open the heart.  Feel the back and front connected like a funnel.  Once the heart is open it will be very easy to receive energy from the universe.

Opening the Microcosmic Orbit is very important, since this will allow the energy to circulate, balance, recycle and transform.  “Mantac Chai, pg 80 Chi Nei Tsang.”

pg 54 With the practice of collecting and circulation of cosmic particle chi and tree energy you can quicken the process of energy absorption and transformation without overheating your system or creating a problem of energy indigestion.  The energy is immediately useful. First open the energy channels within yourself.

Every day life confronts us with decisions.  Some decisions turn out to be life shifting and affect the rest of our lives.

Often we are confronted with a decision that is like a fork in the road.  Turn one way on the road leads to the path called “Thank You”.  The other road leads down a path called “I Want”.

Source or God or Tao or Great Spirit what ever you want to call the creative power seems to provide an endless supply of either of these things as we go down the path of life. 

You can follow the path of I want, and find that your wants will become endless.  Alternately you can follow the path of Thank you and endlessly be supplied with the opportunity to be grateful.

At first glance most will take the path of I Want as that seems to be the source of fulfillment of all of desires.

Often the paths cross throughout our lives and from one path you can see individuals on the other path. The path of I wanters seem driven to get more and more to go faster and faster, yet they do not look happy.

Conversely on the other path when the I Wanters look over they see people maybe poore in materila things yet enjoying themselves, not in a urgent rush to get to the next task, the next I want.  Indeed they are seen expressing their joy for seemingly trivial things.

Observing from outside both paths, one is busily pursuing gratitude.  The other is busily pursing their desires their I wants.

Which is the better path?     

• One path is capitalistic and leads to urgency, accumulation, and the development of an endless never satisfied desire for more and more.
• The other path is spiritualistic and leads to the development of a thankful, grateful, harmonious, joyful, satisfied existence.

Note that you can hold any position in society and travel down one or the other roads.  You do not need to be an ascetic monk to be living a grateful life.  As you go through your day observe which road you see your companions, family and others walking.  Observe how you feel they are perceiving life.  Consider how a decision on which road to walk has shifted their perception. 

Consider how this can be objectively demonstrate to others the options they have as to which road to take.

This story too is for my girls.  Please take the road of continuous gratitude for all creation. This is the road of happiness.