Tag Archives: Power of Now

The Field of NOW

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forest-of-bliss

PRESENT MOMENT REMINDER 12/28/2013

“All negativity is caused by an accumulation of psychological time and denial of the present. Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry – all forms of fear – are caused by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of non-forgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence.”

Eckhart Tolle

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Little, Quiet Things

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quiet things 1

“To be aware of little, quiet things, you need to be quiet inside.  A high degree of alertness is required.  Be still.  Look.  Listen.  Be present.”

Eckhart Tolle

quiet things 2

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Calm

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Calm

When I am calm I am understanding. When I am calm I am patient. When I am calm I am compassionate. When I am calm I am forgiving. When I am calm I am peaceful. When I am calm I am fulfilled. Most problems are solved more easily when I am calm. Be calm.

We’re Limiting Ourselves through Expectation

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Link to ORIGINAL ARTICLE IN COLLECTIVE EVOLUTION BY MATTHEW CHRISTODOULOU

“Expectations or a preconceived idea of how we view the future whether it is moments from right now or years from now are always based on personal beliefs that we feel will provide us with a sense of power, control and wholeness within ourselves and the world. It can be expectations within a personal relationship or it can be with how things are unfolding across the planet, it’s relevant to any experience. Let’s take a look at how these beliefs are affecting us. What would happen if we were to let them go?
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The Heart of Awareness – The Ashtavakra Geeta

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Dear Friends,

I bring to you today chapter one (of twenty chapters) of a classic enlightenment text: The Heart of Awareness – in Sanskrit the Ashtavakra Geeta.

This text was recommended to me by Eckhart Tolle, the author of The Power of Now and The New Earth.
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DECEMBER 21, 2012: End of the World/End of Time/Ascension?

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Dear Friends,

So much information has been forthcoming about this special date in human history. Ancient wisdom texts tell us that where we put our attention is what will show up in our lives. They also say that what we put the intensity of our yearning on will become the object of our worship. Now here, the term “worship” is not to be understood in a strictly religious way – it is that we make anything “special” for us when we focus on it with the intensity of yearning. The intensity with which Humanity has focused on this DATE has made it very, very special. Many have projected their particular yearnings onto this DATE – and so it means something different for each of us.

I feel myself changing in my sensitivities and inner perceptions day by day and sometimes hour by hour presently, and this gives me the sense that the Galactic Alignment occurring now, which the astronomers tell me about, may well be having its effect on me.

My process has been one of realizing that my deepest yearning is to deepen my experience from moment to moment of what I (and many others) call the NOW. This space of the NOW, for me, has the meaning of entering each new moment in this mysterious life with an untouched direct perception, not tinged by past experiences, be they pleasant or painful. It also means to not waver from this immersion in this NOW and entertain mental images about what we call the “future”.

My short-list for Santa could be: Dear Santa, please bring me a new brain that is unscarred and tender like that of a newborn babe.

Light Baby (source unknown)

Light Baby (source unknown)

It follows from this that my focus on this DATE includes the yearning to be free of material needs that necessitate a degree of anxiousness about the material security of “tomorrow”. This inner frequency of being anxious about material security (however I define it at the moment) is felt by me as a disturbance of my inner peace, like a subtle itch or a small thorn in my shoe.

Below is an excerpt from a message I received yesterday from Suzanne Lie’s blog, where she publishes telepathic messages from the Arcturians. In this excerpt, the date of 12-12-12 is used as an example for what we are experiencing now in respect to the DATE, and the focus of this DATE being the DATE of Ascension:

“As an example, we will focus on a united perception from the 3D perspective and move up the consciousness scale of perception. Let us use the day of 12-12-12 as an example, as it meant very different things to different people. Many were completely unaware of the importance of this date, whereas others had great expectations.

Those who were unaware saw 12-12-12 as a normal day filled with obligations specific to that day. Those that expected to be disappointed were, indeed, disappointed for their lower state of consciousness could only perceive the static realm of the third dimension. Those who expected to leave the planet, because they wanted “out of here now” are still here. Wanting out is a concept that lowers your consciousness, and lowering your consciousness dis-allows you to perceive your higher frequency experiences.

There were also those who held no expectations and surrendered to the moment. Since they surrendered to the unknown, they expanded their consciousness and could perceive/FEEL how their energy field expanded its energy field. Some could perceive this shift and became disappointed because it was not enough, which lowered their consciousness into lack and disappointment.

On the other hand, some surrendered to the unknown with NO expectation. They surrender in service to Gaia and to ALL Her inhabitants. Because they had no selfish expectation their consciousness expanded, as did their perceptions. However, this expansion of perceptions was quite overwhelming for many, and made them feel tired, disoriented or even strangely calm and detached.

We say to all of you that there is NO right or wrong response. This is your Ascension, and YOU are choosing the Trail that is leading you to your higher expressions. Some of you will be instrumental in creating New Earth, and others will move into higher expressions of their SELF. Some will bi-locate and live both options. Others may even choose to stay in their Earth vessel as long as possible so that they can assist Gaia and Her inhabitants.

ALL of you are following your own inner guidance. ALL of you are beautiful Lights of Unconditional Love that blaze into higher worlds that are higher than you can imagine. We, your Galactic Family, see your great Light and are honored to be your Family. Enjoy your Ascension. You have worked and waited for this experience for countless incarnations.

Remember that YOU are a great pioneer forging the Trail Home.

We love and support you unconditionally.

The Arcturians”

Link to complete message

On this background I can confide in you that I see the following passage reflecting my present state:

“There were also those who held no expectations and surrendered to the moment. Since they surrendered to the unknown, they expanded their consciousness and could perceive/FEEL how their energy field expanded its energy field.”

What that expanded energy field then perceives and how its owner behaves will be a surprise. (I love surprises!)

From Eckhart Tolle: “Give up defining yourself – to yourself or to others. You won’t die. You will come to life.” (Oneness With All Life)

On this note, I leave each of you, my dear Friends in the Noosphere, to put you attention on your own inner process and that we may all support the birthing of a new era for humanity – IT IS TIME!

With Much Joy, Peace, Prosperity and Love,

Tomas

What is Awakening? Part I

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Asking the question: “What is Awakening?” leads us to a further inquiry: “Am I asleep?”

How can you know if you are asleep?

Join me in this inquiry into our inner space.

One way of looking at Awakening is:

The term “Awakening” points to a state of consciousness that is awake to itself as consciousness.

When you ask about awakening, your consciousness is looking at itself and wanting to know itself as awakening. This means that you are not asleep anymore. So if you are reading this article, you are in the process of awakening.

At the outset let it be stated that awakening deepens continually and that no one has (yet) reported having come to the bottom of it. In that sense, the term “Awakening” says that you are no longer in that indolent, complacent, numbed-out, apathetic sleeper state that is one type of the trance state. At the other end of this spectrum the highly active, driven ambitious state is just as well a variation of the trance state, until consciousness awakens to itself. This applies, of course, to all possible states in-between these two extremes of the spectrum.

The question is: how limited is my inner image of who or what I am? This defines your state of awakening.

Your behavior can give you clues as to the degree of awakening from the trance that you exhibit at this moment.

Listen to these questions:

Do you find yourself always looking forward to the next attractive event in your life?

Do you look with dread at the next “chore” in your life or challenging situation?

Do you continually find a “hair in the soup” of any situation you are in?

Do you often look for something that will “entertain” you?

Do you find it uncomfortable to be alone with yourself?

None of these are “bad” in any way, but they do point to a certain inner attitude towards what life presents to you. I will come back to this.

When awakening begins, it shows up in different ways for each individual. Over the years, starting when I was 18 years old, there have been, and continue to be, many awakening episodes in my life – each unveiling a new aspect of my Self to me.

Here is how it showed up for me in one instance: I was on vacation in 1977 on a small island off the coast of (at that time) Yugoslavia in the Adriatic Sea. I had been spending my days doing yoga, meditating, reading Ramana and Krishnamurti, swimming and enjoying the wonderful food and wine.

One late morning I was under some pine trees just above the beach in a yoga posture. In this posture I was sitting on my heels with my arms clasped behind me, facing the beach with the forest behind me. I suddenly noticed something unusual. I say “suddenly” because the noticing was all of the sudden, but the change was a very, very gradual, subtle and gentle one:  I had the sensation of floating; everything around me appeared as if under water, although clearly still the same space of air surrounded me. All colors and textures had a depth that was luscious and living.

This was accompanied by what I can only call “a deep silence” – although I still heard all noises and sounds: locusts singing, children on the beach below, wind through the pines. I experienced this silence as a substance and I knew at that moment, that every object (every form in the world) is actually made of this substance. All things are contours of this silence. I was in a state of deep peace and I felt the active benevolence of the Silence as the carrier of Existence. I felt myself as Its child, and indeed, that It is my ultimate Truth of who and what I am. I realized years later that this is the state that is called the NOW.

This was a timeless state, a deep state, an eternal state. The paradox is that after some time I “woke up” out of this awakened state and found myself gradually slipping back into the trance state, with the Awakening a memory. With one difference: I now knew that there is another, awakened state, and the pull to “find my way back” was awakened.

Now let’s examine one of the above questions and look at what it can reveal about this process:

Do you find yourself always looking forward to the next attractive event in your life?

This is saying that the “event” you are in at present is judged by your system to be not as attractive as some other event out of your past experience. The key word here is “judge”. You can only judge something in comparison to something else. This comparison is based on an impression in your memory of some other event in your past. “I ate at that restaurant and their fried chicken was much better!” “That person smiled at me more often than this one does.” And so on.

This judging behavior draws your attention away from what is in this moment and places it on a memory, a thought, a judgment. These are phenomena of the mental realm and they are brittle – almost one-dimensional – compared to the depth that is revealed in the NOW moment. Even our language tells us where our attention is: we are “looking forward” to some other moment that is not here now. Also, the “next attractive event” says that in this trance state the force of attraction is not felt for what is HERE and NOW, (which is all there really is) but rather for a thought about something that is not HERE. So actually we are in a state of being attracted to, and putting our attention on something that has no real existence – it just is “not” – period. That is why this state is known as a trance state; we are hypnotized by the power of these highly seductive thoughts: we are under their power.

In this way I began to see that the pull to “find my way back” to the Awakening experience was leading me more and more to understand how my awareness, my conscious attention, was caught up in this “past memory / projection forward into the future” dynamic of my mind. In this, Jiddu Krishnamurti was the one whose investigations proved most fruitful for me.

Another modern sage who reveals much understanding about the process of the “search for awakening” for me is Nisargadatta Maharaj. The following statements are his:

“The true knowledge can only come when all possible concepts have been given up, and can only come from within.

Just as you woke up in the morning and came to know that you are, similarly this has happened. Because I am, I woke up, if I was not, how could I have woken up?

Parabrahman (the Supreme, the Absolute) comes to know that It is, the consciousness is how Parabrahman knows that It is. Parabrahman is your eternal state; you cannot remember it because you have not forgotten it. It is your daily experience, you know it. There is consciousness, there is no question of “I”; It is.

Understand that life force and do not condition it to any form. This beingness is not something which you can capture a handful of, it is manifest – like space, it is all over, it is everywhere.”

(Nisargadatta, Prior to Consciousness p. 68)

In closing this Part I of “What is Awakening?” here is a short audio clip of present day spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle on “Renouncing the Psychological Need for What Comes Next”

audio clip one and a half minutes

To Be Continued

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