Archive for December, 2005

2005 into 2006

Published by Jonathan 2 years, 6 months ago in General. 6 Comments

We are on the brink of sliding into 2006.
I note that many choose to do this in a state of drunkenness.
For myself, I prefer to be out in nature with few if any people around… in a state of clarity and feeling the Earth.
The whole notion of years is, of course, just another part of the collective illusion. It does, however, serve a purpose… rather a useful one.

I know that for many 2005 has been a year of much shifting and changing of focus and energy.
For myself it was a time of establishing a different level of relationship to my purpose/function here in this world.
2005 resonated with the frequency of 7.
2006 shall resonate with the frequency of 8.

I give thanks for the immense support I have experienced in so many ways and at all times.
Not once have I gone without fresh, delicious, organically grown food.
Not once have I had to quench my thirst with chlorinated tap water.
The money I have required from moment to moment has always been on hand.
I have lived in beautiful homes this year. I give thanks for the one I am in now.
I give thanks that each week I somehow always pay the rest… plus phone bills, Internet bills, car expenses, electricity bills, petrol, clothing, and everything else I have required.
I give thanks for the many truly beautiful people I have been blessed to share time and energy with in these past 364 days.
I give thanks for the incredible woman and being Yolande, who I share so much with as we dance through Conscious Relationship.
I give thanks for the support I have received from Diana in the USA with editing and encouraging my writing. Oh what a blessing that is.
I give thanks for the amazing experiences I have had in nature… in the bush, on the beaches, and sitting out on my back deck listening to the Tui sing their vast array of tunes.
I give thanks for the blessings brought into my world by the spirit of Salvia. White sage for cleansing… Diviner’s sage for exploring.
I give thanks for all the love I have felt and experienced this year. Oh such a blessing that has been and is. If everything else were to have never occurred, this one ongoing state of joy and bliss would be an ample gift to have received.
I give thanks for my car running so well. I give thanks for the new windscreen… for the renewed sense of vision and clarity as I look out into the apparent future out in front of me. How nice to no longer have that crack and all those stone chip marks in my vision.
I give thanks for the supply of really really delicious pure water. Oh how nice to quench this body’s thirst.
I give thanks for all the inspiration I have experienced these past 12 months.
I give thanks.

Money makes the world go round…

Published by Jonathan 2 years, 6 months ago in Perspectives on the Collective Dream - The World and Various Inspirations, Realisations and Explorations. 1 Comment

Let us explore the nature of money.
Oh yes, this stuff of stuff,
That some say “makes the world go round”.
For many it’s as delicious as honey,
Whilst others hold perceptions,
I can only describe as funny.
How to you feel about this stuff
That we collectively perceive as “money”?

Money, money makes the world go round…

Money is an extremely important topic for any person wishing to even remotely get along in this world. Money impacts on most of us in one way or another. Yet it is perhaps one of the most misunderstood “things” in this world. Money, sex, love, and power… are perhaps all as misunderstood as each other. Oddly enough, all of these things are intricately connected within the human story.

In this article we will first briefly explore the nature of money, and then move on to healthy and unhealthy relationship to money. Let’s start with the most obvious question…

What is money?

We live in a world that uses a manifest thought-form/concept called “money” as a tangible metaphor for life-force, energy, value, and worth. Money is actually just a concept that is used as a form of external exchange. What is actually being exchanged?

Value. Perceived value.
More exactly, is is the perceived value that a collective of people place on particular configurations of energy or “Life-force”.

Energy in the form of a 1/2 kilogram of bacon might have $100 of perceived value in my society.
Energy in the form of a 1987 Mazda 626 might have a perceived value of $2000 in my society.

What form does this “value” take at the most basic level? Or put another way, how do people determine the “value” they perceive in a particular thing they are willing (or not willing) to exchange money for?

It all boils down to an e-motional experience.

Let us say you like the way you feel when I give you a massage, and you are happy to pay me $80 for that massage.
If the guy down the road, however, gives you an even greater emotional experience than I do then you will be willing to pay him more money than you pay me. Perhaps he always puts a nice bunch of flowers in his massage room and you happen to really enjoy flowers. He might also use nice rose essential oil in his massage oil, and you just love rose oil., pays you compliments on how great you look, gives you purified water to drink as opposed to my tap water, etc. If you value these things and derive greater emotional satisfaction from them, then you will be happy to part with more money in exchange for this experience.

Emotion is literally an internal experience of energy-in-motion (e-motion).
The exchange of money between two people is the external experience of energy-in-motion.
Therefore we have a very close link between money and emotion.

Is money “good” or “bad”?

There are religions—and followers of such religions—that state “money is the root of all evil”. It is odd, I think, that these religious organizations have amassed trillions of dollars of wealth over their many years here on Earth. What do you think about that contradiction?
Most would call it hypocrisy.
One religious organization in particular is considered to be the largest holder of real estate in the world. Interesting that. Using their own logic of what money is, the various Orthodox Christian religions have amassed “the root of all evil” in vast quantities.

Actually, money is a completely neutral thing. Just as water is neutral. Yet water has the capacity to keep my body alive by my drinking it when thirsty, and it also has the capacity to kill my body if I get over my head in water and don’t know how to swim. Is water evil because of that? Is it “good” because it happens to help my body live when consumed?

So why does this world have such an odd relationship to money? Why is the distribution of money on this planet so imbalanced? Like the fact that the richest 257 people have more money than 3 billion (257 compared to 3,000,000,000) of the poorest people.
Money and sex must be two of the things that the people in my society have greatest amount of major issues and struggles with. The sex issue is a topic for another article, so for now we’ll stick with money.

Power and Money

The reason money has such a central place in the world of human affairs is that it is directly linked with external power… with power as perceived and (mis)understood by the ego-mind. The ego sees power as the ability to control people and things in the external world. By external I am referring to the world “out there” as opposed to your inner world… the one in felt through your heart and constructed within your Mind (greater non-ego Mind). The best way to control people is to have control over their emotional experience. Actually it is perhaps the only way to control people. For this reason a great deal of research and development goes into ways to control peoples emotional experience. That’s the foundation of advertising and a consuming society. “Eating our brand of potato chips/crisps is going to make you feel better than eating that other brand. Our brand has less fat… which means you stay skinnier… which means you will feel better about yourself in a society that has mind washed you into thinking that anorexia is somehow healthy and normal.”

So what have we got here?
1. External/worldly power is basically relative to ones capacity to affect/control other people emotionally.
2. Money is the external form of exchanging of emotional energy or “perceived value”. E-motional = energy-in-motion = life-in-motion.

Power and Money, therefore, go hand-in-hand within the human world as it presently stands.
The ego, in its belief that “I am separate from God, from all other people, and from all things” exists in a place/state where it is separated from the one and only source of True or Authentic Power. The result is that the ego is constantly trying to derive emotional experience (or emotional satisfaction) from the outside world. Therefore, one way or another, the ego is infatuated with external power, because it is this power that determines its capacity to get the emotional experience it wants. Money and power go hand-in-hand, remember, so the ego is also infatuated with money.

That doesn’t mean that everyone is infatuated with power and money in an obvious way and overtly seeking it. Some people have an ego that undermines them in such a way that they fear power (and therefore money). Actually it is more likely that such a person fears the responsibility that power affords them. This person doubts her capacity to remain in a place of integrity when more than a certain amount of power/money is in their hands and use. At the apparent level such a person will quite likely shy away from power and also away from money. The truth is that underneath that story they (their ego) is as hungry for money and power as any other ego in this world. Such a person will generally experience a level on conflict internally as a result of this—unless they genuinely transcend their ego-mind.

Dysfunctional relationships to money

I know and have met a lot of people that are actively pursuing their spiritual development. I know and have met quite a few people that are working in the field of healing in some way. As far as I can tell there is an archetypal pattern related to poverty that within the human collective mind has been attached to the archetypes of “healer”, “spiritual teacher”, and many other roles in the world that are to do with service to the greater good of humanity. I have found it’s more common to meet people in a service type role who believe it’s not “right” for them to receive much in the way of payment (monetary remuneration) for their work than it is to find people in these roles that are happy to be fairly paid for their work.

Why is that?

Before answering this, I will also point out that I’ve met a lot of people on the receiving end of such services who also believe that they should not have to part with much in the way of money for these things. There are many people that will feel better about paying their car mechanic than they feel about paying a healer, naturopath, or spiritual teacher. It’s fine, they say, for the mechanic to charge $60 an hour… but not a healer.” There is often some sort of implication that “a healer shouldn’t be charging for their work”, or at least not charging much more than they need for basic survival.

Why is this?

My sense is that one of the issues playing out here is that the healer or spiritual teacher (etc.) is bringing something forth into this world from beyond the material plane of reality. Money is an tool created from and used by the 2nd chakra of humanity. It is on this level (and perhaps the 1st and 3rd also) that money is empowered and valued. People are happy to pay money for something tangible like food, car repairs, shoes, a haircut, etc. because these things also all exist primarily in the realm of the lower three chakras or energy centres. External power—which as we have explored is closely related to money—is also something that exists ONLY on the world plane of the lower three chakras. You see, everything above the third chakra has little to do with the physical world. Think of 3D (3rd Dimension) as being the realm of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd chakras. As people evolve into living with an active heart chakra (the 4th chakra) they start to enter the 4th Dimension of reality. Here the tangible sense of time most people disappears. A person’s normal sense of space and form will also change.

Healing, spiritual guidance, and anything “spiritual” in nature is something that plays out through the 4th chakra and above. Money does not exist at this level of reality. The impact of this is that people still living primarily below the waste (1st-3rd chakras) actually are not wired up to “feel” the value of these services. They might intellectually understand that “this healing is helping me”, but it is much harder for them to feel it in the way they might feel the benefit of buying a new plasma TV or a nice new car.

The other side of the coin is that people who are most likely to be wired up in such a way that affords the ability to heal, to teach, and to serve humanity, etc., will tend to be more strongly developed above the waste than they are below the waste. Quite often they are actually carrying deep wounds (or wounded, dysfunctional perceptions) in one or more of their lower three chakras. The effect of this is that they have tended to float up above the waste energetically when relating to life. This has enabled them to avoid the pain and hardship they feel when approaching life below the waste. It also means that they become more highly developed above the waste because that is where they spend most of their time.

When people in this sort of situation start to recognize the value in their skill as a healer, or teacher, or whatever, they have in fact started to literally connect the dots—setting up a connection between the lower chakras and the upper chakras where their gifts reside. It is at this point that they will start to feel moved to bring these gifts out into the open (into the external world) even if only shyly. They are literally bringing these “heavenly” gifts down to the level at which their tribe and relations operate at. Yet what happens is that initially they are still affected by not being fully present, balanced, and healthy in their lower three chakras (they may have spent most of their life so far staying as far away from these chakras as they can). This in turn makes it very difficult (seemingly impossible) for them to put a realistic price tag on their services. It simply won’t “feel right” to charge for what they do. It’s not uncommon for a person in this situation to get very squirmish a realistic price for their services is suggested to them. Often these people will perform these services very cheaply or even freely, and then struggle to do other worldly work for their source of income.

Can you see that what we have here is a split or gap between the lower energy centres and the upper ones, that ultimately has to be bridged?

A healthy relationship to money

For those of us with vocations that are an expression of activity from above the solar plexus—vocations that are motivate more by a wish to serve the whole rather than focused solely on personal gain—it is important we do what is necessary to create health in our lower energy centres. I won’t go into what this means nor what it looks like because that is a vast topic I don’t wish to cover here.

If there is dysfunction (a lack of integration) within the lower chakras then a spiritual healer or teacher is likely to either fail to charge an appropriate amount for their work, and/or they might go the other direction and make unreasonable monetary and possibly sexual demands in exchange for their work. Either way, there is an imbalance that is calling out for Love and correction. What can also create distortion is when a person has perceptions within the upper chakras (such as thought-forms within the 6th chakra or Third Eye) that are out of touch with reality—the pragmatic reality of the lower three chakras. For instance, I know of a spiritual teacher who has numerous grandiose perceptions that she is spiritually superior to just about any other being on this planet, and that even to be her friend, or to be shouted at by her, to spend time with her, or talked to by her, etc. is somehow a blessing and a service to the recipient. If she should so decide at the time then such a “service” is repayable in a sum of money. Her behaviour has displayed to me that she feels she can ask for (and even take) what she wants in return. In my experience, because most people wouldn’t go along with simply paying her as demand, she often resorts to manipulating the recipient into given her what she wants—which the recipient generally feels really uneasy about. Here we have a situation where her highly developed upper chakras contain distortions that get rather messy when they hit the lower chakras.

So what does a healthy relationship to money look like?

Essentially money, as mentioned, is simply a symbol for energy or life-force. This life force was originally “extracted” from the Earth (the “Earth” as a Conscious Being, as opposed to a mere lump of rock floating around the sun). We continue to extract this energy from the Earth in the form of oil, gold, metals, timber, fish, and many other so-called “resources”.

Money is neutral.
Having heaps of it is fine. It’s all relative.
Having little or none of it is also fine. It’s all relative. Having no money can, however, make life more difficult in a commercially orientated human world.

Charging money in exchange for services rendered is perfectly normal and acceptable. This also applies to so-called “spiritual services”. Of course a fair and reasonable price should be agreed upon by the “seller” and “buyer”. The nature of ones services should not be used to manipulate or coerce a person into paying an unreasonable amount of money. For instance, deceiving people into thinking that your spiritual service is necessary for their liberation from suffering is life-taking. To then turn around and charge the now convinced/deceived “customer” a ridiculous amount of money for these services is even more life-taking. There are many instances of this in the world. It is not wrong. It is simply life-taking and is a call for love by all concerned—the person selling the service and the person getting ripped off by buying the service.

One secret to experiencing abundance is to always give more “value” than you ask for in return. This engages the Law of Increasing Value into your life and experience. Ponder this for a moment if it doesn’t make sense. There are many other ways to silently increase the flow of abundance in your life—we might look at this in another article.

It is not healthy to be attached to money.
It is not healthy to use money as an indicator of how “spiritual” you are, how “good life is right now”, nor how connected with God you think you are right now. You happiness should not depend on how much money or material possessions you have. That is not to say that you shouldn’t obtain money and material possessions and then enjoy them and feel happy to have them. Rather it simply means that if they all vanished you would continue to be just as happy.

I feel to end this article here. If you have questions then please feel free to post them as a comment below.

With love and blessing’s,

Jonathan Evatt

Right relationship with Spiritual Teachers, Gurus, Masters and Healers

Published by Jonathan 2 years, 7 months ago in Perspectives on the Collective Dream - The World and Various Inspirations, Realisations and Explorations. 2 Comments

I have noticed what I consider to be a significant amount of confusion within many people who are actively exploring their “spiritual path”, and what it means to be “Enlightened”, Liberated, or spiritually whole and empowered. It is to this confusion that I feel moved to speak in this moment. I also wish to speak to the Divinity within people currently facing this form of confusion. My intention is to bring some clarity to this important matter.

There are many so-called spiritual paths in this world. Within the human scheme of things there are many different perspectives on the nature of life, God, ordinary reality, non-ordinary reality, altered states of consciousness, the mind, what it means to be human, what it means to be “spiritual”, what it means to be enlightened, and how that so-called enlightenment can be attained. There are also a range of perspectives that I see in people with regards to the Teacher/Guru/Master/Healer and student relationship. (N.B. For simplicity I may just use one or two of those labels when in fact I am referring to all four).

The two primary perspectives I meet in people can be summarised as follows:
1) Teacher-student relationships are unnecessary, potentially dangerous, and should be avoided at all costs. There might be the inherent belief that there is something negative about this sort of relationship. That it is always about control and subjugation. People with this sort of perspective might also say that “everything/everyone in life is my teacher, so why would I need a specific person to fill that roll?”

2) The Teacher-student relationship is absolutely and fundamentally vital to the students liberation. There are many so-called “enlightened masters” who state that there is no way a person can set themselves free without surrendering to a “qualified teacher” who has already gone all the way to attaining enlightenment. For some there is even the belief that “without this special relationship with a Realised Being there is no way I will make it to my Enlightenment.”

I’ve described these two categories quite loosely. The exact perspectives a person under either category holds might vary, but I think you can get the gist of what I am referring to here. One is for and one is against—for any number of reasons.

There is a side issue that comes up within both of these perspectives. This is the question of whether or not a spiritual teacher should ask for and receive money for their services. There are many students that feel that there is no way money and spirituality can be put together. There are also many teachers / healers that feel this way too. In my experience, the general consensus here appears to be that there is something inherently wrong with paying / receiving money for spiritual guidance or support. Money is often perceived to be some kind of necessary evil in the world that must not with something as “holy” and “pure” as spiritual council, assistance, and potential Liberation. We will explore this in more detail shortly.

So, which of these two categories most closely represents your view on this matter? Are you for or against?
Perhaps you have an entirely different view, in which case I invite you to post your comments at the end of this article.

Here is what I feel to be true in regards to this matter.

1. As a Divine Being (which you are) you have only one need—namely the need for a “mirror”.
That “mirror” can come in many forms. It can take many faces. It will play out most intensely through your relationship with other people in this world.
As far as relationships go, this mirroring is likely to play out most intensely through a relationship with a Spiritual Teacher / Master / Guru (a being that is genuinely Liberated from the human condition and has realised the true nature of mind and reality).

2. The idea that there is no way you can reach God-consciousness without surrendering yourself to one particular Guru, Master or Teacher is a spiritual control trip or simply a serious misconception. Having a close and authentic relationship with a teacher is likely to be of great assistance to any sincere aspirant at certain stages along their path, yet I do not for one moment believe that God / Infinity depends on that (this Guru, or you) in order to get you to live the life you were created to live, nor to experience the states of consciousness you are destined to experience, nor to commune with the Divine.

3. It is a natural phenomena within creation for intelligence to be imparted from one “thing” to another. Everywhere I look I see intelligent communication taking place between the many apparent “parts” in creation and in this world. A bee telling the rest of the hive where to get the best nectar. Cells in my body telling other cells how to be healthy and in a place of integrity with the rest of my body. Parents raising children. Animals raising their young. A herb (like Milk Thistle) assisting a failing liver to come back into a state of health. Intuitive knowing informing a person of Truth in a situation, things to say, what to do each day, etc.
Intelligent communication/co-operation between the many apparent parts within duality is the very glue that holds this universe together. It is the expression and expansion of that force we call Love.

4. You and I are the totality. There is only ONE. Yet we have the capacity to dream up an apparent reality that experientially differs from that Truth. It is perfectly viable and healthy that another aspect of the totality (another person) might co-operate with me in my desire to awaken to Truth (to Oneness) by imparting the intelligence necessary to make that happen. This other person may have the recognised roll of Guru or Teacher in the human scheme of things. Also, they might not. It really doesn’t matter—the key is the quality of the relationship. The quality of the relationship will be determined by the intention of the Teacher and of the student. The more pure (the more aligned with Truth) the intention the higher the quality of the relationship.

5. Orthodox Christians have completely missed the point when they believe that “only by believing in Jesus as my saviour will I reach heaven”. This is grave misconception that the Churches and priests perpetuate due to their own ignorance and/or their conscious/unconscious desire to remain in a place of power in this world—to be a spiritual authority in the lives of their followers. The historical figure we call Jesus was not showing people how to be devout and pious Christians. Rather he was showing us what it means to be a Christ in this world. He was not a “Christian”.

6. Many Buddhist followers/practitioners have also missed the point when they believe that “my only way to attain Buddhahood” is via some particular Lama, a particular “spiritual practice”, or being part of a particular Buddhist sect, etc. Being a devout Buddhist follower/practioner is very different from being a Buddha. Gautama Siddhartha was showing us how to be the later, not the former. He was not a “Buddhist”.

7. There is nothing inherently “wrong” about a teacher / guru / healer asking for money in exchange for their services. Money is simply a man-made representation of energy, life-force, or value. It is a form of energy the human collective has agreed to use as a means of exchanging value in this world. You value my work and pay me some money. I value eating food and hand my money on to a restaurant or food merchant. Having a healthy and life-giving relationship to this energetic metaphor or symbol called “money” is of great importance to any being wishing to master what it means to live in this world and what it means to transcend an ego-based relationship to life.

8. Money should not, however, be used by a teacher a means of manipulating a student or taking advantage of a student. There should be clear and mutual agreement on how much money is to be exchanged and what it is in exchange for. Your relationship with a truly realised Master or Spiritual Teacher should not depend on the exchange of money. Money should not be the pivotal point in the relationship nor the only thing that makes the relationship possible. I recommend being very mindful of exactly how a so-called Spiritual Teacher or Guru negotiates their relationship with you in regards to money (also in regards to your time and energy on other levels).

In my experience as a Teacher I simply can not avoid sharing what I know with people. The Love and the Truth that I experience simply pours through me and out of me into my world. There is nothing I can do about it. “My cup runneth over” so to speak. If you happen to be in some form of relationship to that Cup and you are thirsty then there is really nothing I can do to stop you from quenching your thirst. Yet, I am also here in the Dream via a physical body, and energy in one form or another is required to keep that body alive at a level you can perceive and be in a human relationship with. This physical body requires food, water, and supportive living conditions. Clothing is nice as it keep my body warm and helps me to fit into my society, and can also be used as a form of creative expression. A car is also useful as it enables me to move this body relatively long distances, which is pretty handy because it would be a long walk otherwise. Air flight tickets might also be useful as it enables me to take this physical body to be in places a long distance from where I am now. I can then share what I share with people in those regions also. I also enjoy having fun with my friends and relations. All of these things require energy for me to aquire them, and the most basic unit of energy we have in the human world at this time is “money”. Therefore it is absolutely appropriate for me to ask for an appropriate exchange of money for my services.

Of course, I might feel moved by spirit to live the life of a monk. In that case it is likely that all my basic physical requirements will be taken care of, and it is likely I will not have an appropriate reason to ask you for money—well, not for much anyway. It all depends on the situation at hand.

The key point here is that it will be a hindrance to hang onto the perception that any so-called Spiritual Teacher or Healer asking for money is not to be trusted. Personally, I am more likely to be weary of the Healers that don’t ask for money or at least some form of exchange. An exchange is going to take place at some level no matter what. I’d rather it was a clear open exchange. If it is not taking place in a clean clear way at a physical level then where is it taking place? It is important to be really clear on this point. Over the years I’ve met a number pretty highly realised beings in this world that have a completely disastrous relationship to money and energy exchange. It causes them constant problems and causes their so-called (and invariably short-lived) students a great deal of hurt and disillusionment. The teachers end up sucking people dry on some level, and/or ripping them off. It simply ain’t a nice way to go about things.

9. Be aware that everything in the world of form—including physical form and more subtle form—is the product of a thought-form or a certain perceptual framework. Whether we are talking about the form of a human society (with all its various beliefs and perceptions and world-views) or the form of the many spiritual practices, levels, and Buddha realmes, etc., talked about in a Buddhist spiritual tradition. Both are form and both represent (or are the product of) a particular thought-form or perspective. On the spiritual path we ultimately have to step beyond our attachment and identification with all worldly forms. We also have to go beyond attachment and identification with the our human mind and emotions. What I am suggesting is that at some stage it is also necessary to go beyond the far more subtle elements of any particular spiritual tradition or teaching. This takes tremendous courage.

In conclusion I will say the following:
- If you tend to get into co-dependant relationships then heal this before entering too seriously into a relationship with any so-called Guru or Teacher.

- Once free of co-dependency, be open to having a relationship with a one or more Spiritual Teachers. Under the correct circumstances it is not something to be affraid of—although your ego might fear such a relationship rather strongly.

- Remember, your relationship with a Spiritual Teacher (or with any teacher) must NOT depend on what you exchange with them. Nor should your “enlightenment” or Liberation depend on them. Some Teachers I see in the world try to put across the idea that only through them can a spiritual aspirant get the “right teaching” and get exactly what they need in order to be free. Let’s be real clear that this is nothing more than their ego trying to establish a spiritual monopoly (in just the way that most organised religions try to).

-If your Spiritual Teacher puts forward (opennly or through intimation) that only by paying them X amount of money can they assist you or can you attain enlightenment then be-aware. If they try to manipulate you into feeling you have to have a sexual relationship with them in order to access your Divinity then again be-aware. If you are being manipulated by a Teacher, and if they are any good at it (which the quite likely are), then you are unlikely to recognise that this is what is taking place. So the key is to really take to heart that this Spiritual Teacher or Master should require nothing from you in order to assist you on your path. The request or implication of sexual favours, unreasonable sums of money, or giving of time and money you have not agreed to give them, etc., should all be seen as RED FLAGS that something is not as it appears to be. More than likely the only real teaching they are presenting you with is how NOT to give your power away to a spiritual authority external to your own Divine Presence. Learn the lesson and get out of there !! :-) Know and trust that there are plenty of conscious and spiritually awake people in this world that will happily assist you along your path without manipulating you for their own gain and benefit.

That is all for now. If you have any questions then as always simply ask.

With love and blessings,

Jonathan Evatt

Living the Mystery

Published by Jonathan 2 years, 7 months ago in Various Inspirations, Realisations and Explorations. 0 Comments

Every moment is filled with mystery,
Here and Now no-thing is known,
No-thing is understood,
It simply is as it is,
Experienced,
Timelessly,
Now.

To be present and aware to this moment is to be present to the mystery of life.
What is this mysteryI am referring to?

The mind—specifically the ego-mind—will always strive toward the known. It will always hold onto the known… or at least that which it believes is known. The ego-mind always turns away from the unknown and particularly the unknowable. The true nature of who and what I Am is always unknowable, in that it is something that I can only Be in the moment. Whilst Being That there is no way to know that.

The other day a friend asked me if I considered myself to be enlightened. The only honest answer I could find is that in my experience there is no way to know that. I also realised in that moment that many of the self-proclaimed enlightened people I see on posters here and there have some how missed the point entirely. In my experience the more I dissolve into the true nature of Self and reality the less there is any worldly “I” there to even consider whether “Jonathan is enlightened” or not. The more “I” dissolve into my own non-existence the less attachment to (and infatuation with) “being enlightened” I experience. My point here is this: Be wary of any person that claims to be a “self-realised enlightened master/being” etc. The very nature of True Mind does not afford he who is awake to such nature the capacity to say whether he is Arthur or Martha. A person awake to the true nature of Self simply is. Anything else is just an ego-trip (or should I say “ego-trap”?).

So… the mystery.
There is profound mystery in all things.
There is profound mystery in every moment… in the Now.
The trick is not to try and solve That mystery, but rather to rediscover how to live within the tension of such mystery.
It is in that tension that one moves into a place of in-tension / in-tention. Here each moment is filled with intent… the Will of God, so to speak.
To solve the mystery is to again diverge into the ramblings of the ego-mind and to therefore miss reality entirely.

Breath is a key to living the mystery. To remain aware of breathing in each moment is a great way to stay present with Now. I feel blessed that an injury to my chest when I was a teenager has resulted in my having to remain constantly aware of my breathing. If I don’t then discomfort builds up in the chest (it was impacted inward) and it is only clear and precise breathing following a correct pattern than will keep things moving along. My experience of this is that remaining aware of the flow of breath is a powerful way to stay present with Now.

It is the nature of the Masculine to try and define the unknown. This is the act of creation. Delving into the unknown and defining what is there—thus making it known. Yet the unknown is a very feminine place, so Man (the embodiment of Masculinity) must embrace his femininity (and the women in his life) in order to fulfil this function. He must also be mindful not to fixate his attention on anything in particular that he has drawn forth from the unknown. To get attached to the known is to again fall asleep and disengage from the mystery.

To live the mystery means to live from a place that is non-attached. The ego is most attached to “what I think I know”. Yet there is little or no power in the known. All power resides in the unknown, in the formless essence of what is. The known is not now. It is old and its power has been expended in the process of drawing it forth from the unknown.

The known always feels very comfortable. Well, the ego makes it seem that way—when in fact we all endlessly suffer as a result of trying to unnaturally and habitually fixate our attention on the known. The ego has a incredible way of convincing us that the known is comfortable when in fact the opposite is true. There is no peace in the known. Peace is a quality of the unknown. To be in human embodiment whilst remaining present to the mystery—to the unknown—can be incredibly intense, and the ego will say that this intensity is uncomfortable. Actually this intensity is the experience of Life and being truly Alive. Again… to be in this tension (the dynamic forces of relationship that arise within the Dream of life) is to be in-tention.

Living the mystery is about embracing the unknown. It is about constantly releasing attachment to fixed ideas, fixed perceptions, fixed behaviour patterns, in order to make room from the mystery to unfold in your life and world. Only then is it possible to be truly alive, awake, and aware.

With love and blessings to you in this moment…

Jonathan