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In the twilight before the dawn of civilization, the connection
between humanity and Nature was still strong. Hunter-gatherers
seeking food and self protection in the wilds, lived the wisdom of
Nature because they never left its influence. Mind and body were
coordinated in concert as a matter of alert, focused attention.
The mental and physical realms knew no divisions or distinctions,
nor could any be afforded. Without inner coordination a lack of
personal unity meant certain death, which is a condition of the
efficiency everywhere in Nature. Life to our ancient ancestors
depended on the personal power to survive, as a mind/body strength
that left no room for waste or unnatural focus. Also without
division was the self and the environment, and these two worked in
close cooperation. Feeling and Awareness were then the primary
guides to right action as a lifestyle, one which proved to be
extremely effective. Feeling/Awareness indicated the Intentions of
others, the presence of prey, the threat of enemy tribes, the
right timing for the hunt, for clan activities, and the routines
of each season. Awareness kept keen by moment to moment alertness,
revealed how to interpret subtle feelings as to where food might
be found the next day, when storms would arrive, and how to make
use of plants and animals. Nature provided every need so long as
humanity remained at one with its cycles, purpose and rhythm.
The power and potentials of the human mind have continued to
develop since primordial times, according to the Intent of the
Earthmind. Human horizons are ever expanding because it is an
aspect of nature to grow beyond its current limits. The forward
push of evolution is relentless, and so too has the inner
development of the human being since before the advent of
agriculture. As ancient hunters found the means to refine the
physical tools that aided survival, they also began to refine the
inner tools that aided understanding itself. Thinking about
existence, about themselves and life, gave rise to increasing
inner sophistication. This in turn demonstrated itself in the
outer world. At first, human thoughts like the beginning of life
were simple, concerning themselves with only the most basic
concepts. As time passed thought became more complex, and when
this occurred an increasing desire to communicate these thoughts
arose. Simple sounds indicating basic emotions and Intentions were
replaced by series upon series of individual syllables, that in
conjunction served to convey the increasing complexity of the
inner human life. In this way words came about that were mutually
agreed upon to represent specific objects, animals and plants in
the physical world, as well as thoughts, emotions and Intentions
in the mind.
The increased capacity to communicate very specific ideas was of
great advantage to our species in all parts of the world. The
knowledge of previous generations could now be preserved through
the medium of sound, memorized through the retelling. Syllables
became words, words created sentences, and sentences of
representative images became the backbone of language.
Language it was realized is among the greatest of tools. It
organizes thought into orderly patterns, rendering the mind more
capable of sophisticated and symbolic understanding. Through
symbols, (which is what syllables and words are) the mind
crystallizes at will the representations of an unlimited number of
things. A synthesis of diverse symbols enhances inspiring art and
innovative technology, and the creativity to generate new, more
useful ideas. On the personal level language and its symbolic
representations can enrich the inner realm, representing ideas
through which life and self can be reviewed, refined and
transformed. Wisdom, intelligence and self review can through such
symbolism be increased at will. All of the aspects of existence
can then in the mind be manipulated and synthesized, in any
combination or degree.
The truly flexible tool that is language is one that today can
address every aspect of life. Humanity has labeled an incredibly
large portion of existence. There are names given to a universe of
things and combinations there of. So inclusive is language that it
has become a focal point for the study of culture, history and the
psychology of any given mind.
As with any tool of great merit, any technology of broad
application, the potential that exists for the misuse of language
is equally great. The key that is language, which can symbolically
and creatively unlock much of the mystery of existence, itself
becomes a trap. Our ancestors learned to employ language to
advantage, yet were largely unaware of the potential hazards of
its increasing use in daily living. With the advent of early
agriculture the amount of available free Energy for living became
greater. Greater Energy meant more leisure time for organized
groups and extended families. Understanding of the inner world
through self contemplation grew, yet so too did an artificial
synthesis of natural concepts. This compounded the artificiality
of human thought over and over again, until words themselves no
longer held literal meaning. Human-created thought then began to
replace natural understanding as the primary mode of the mind. In
other words, our own ideas replaced the practical knowledge of
Nature and right living.
Through the greater Energy made available by a knowledge of plant
and animal cultivation, the use of tools and self-made places to
live, humanity was freed from a dependence on Nature, or so it
seemed. Images, concepts and Gods were given form through the
mind, many of which began to glorify only the human process and
not the design of Nature. Generation upon generation passed which
built upon these earliest of thoughts, that are today the root of
civilization. Many thousands of years gave rise to the further
synthesis of social ideas and assumptions regarding the nature of
life. These increased the use of technology, but also decreased
our conscious connection with Nature. Gradually this connection
became a distant memory for most of our kind. When the connection
with Nature is lost, so too is the natural knowledge of plants,
animals, our own bodies and right living in general.
The potential advantages of the tool that is language, has become
a paradigm based on human creations alone. It has become the
modern crutch. The wrong use of language is the ultimate addiction
because it is the one fundamental dependency we have, with which
every aspect of living is intimately related. At no time does the
unnatural representation of life in the form of words leave the
modern psychology for more than a few seconds. The constant stream
of mental dialogs, sales slogans, and half remembered songs are as
the howling winds of storms which never cease in our inner
landscape. Plagued are we by these symbols of our own creation,
for they occupy like an invading army, both the inner and outer
worlds. Never are we consciously without the compulsion to chatter
on inwardly. It is almost as rare to find a moment in the modern
outer world that is without an equal bombardment of the mind, with
one symbol after the next. The auditory and visual landscape we
experience with radio, television, advertisement and the workplace
all revolve around the axis of artificial likenesses, and so does
what we create within that context. The world marketplace is
occupied not so much by actual products as it is the icons of
social status. We no longer purchase products, we purchase the
images that will be seen and approved of by others. Even self
image or mind itself we are expected to believe, is based on words
and images, and that only through words and images can we effect
personal change. This assumption implies that we have indeed
strayed far from the Truth of Natural Law, and the wisdom of
natural living.
When language first came about it represented very concrete,
practical aspects of moment to moment living. It was then for the
tribe or clan yet another tool for action, just as any implement
carried in the hand. The direct parallel of word and form was
implicitly obvious, and thus language remained only a tool and not
the center of inner and outer focus. The incautious use of
language began to synthesize the correlation between word and form
to such a point, that they no longer had any obvious connection
with one another. It was then that ideas arose which had
absolutely no bearing upon the reality of existence. In modern
society the gulf between name and actual form has become immense.
So too is the distance between the unnatural mind and Natural Law.
The tool of language, originally used for greater success in
Nature, has become instead a mindset which attempts to justify its
own existence at the cost of Nature. A tool is only something used
to facilitate a given purpose. When it becomes a purpose in and of
itself it loses effectiveness. Words and the social ideas they
represent have become an addiction, because they now exist solely
for the purpose of distracting the artificial mind, (ego) from its
own felt imbalances. In this way thought itself has lost the
practical meanings it was originally intended to convey. It has
been forgotten that words and the mental processes which are
composed by them, are only representations of things, not the
things themselves. The implicit assumption in modern society is
that the representation of life is an effective replacement for
life itself. To say "good living" in the right, socially
acceptable context, is (supposedly) to give it reality, and in
association with any product or device imaginable. To speak of
happiness, family, morals, love or God, is to assume that not only
does the listener know what is being said, but that to merely
express the words themselves is a sufficient conveyance of their
experiential meaning.
Words however, are not by any means the things they supposedly
represent. They are but the shadows of things made of imagination
and consensual agreement only, having no more meaning than exactly
what they are given. To forget this is to fall prey to ones own
creations. Words tend to be by nature, unnatural representations.
When used without care, they create a conceptual gulf between the
self and the actual, experiential value of any given thing. We
have in essence been consumed by the thoughts and images of our
own making, and with the mind replaced the entire world and
everything in it. What now remains are facades of reality.
Existence for us has taken on the superficiality of name devoid of
its true form. We have forgotten that form or reality itself is
more important by far than any label imposed on it. By the same
token, it has been forgotten that right action is more important
than any theoretical evaluation in words.
Traditional psychology has presented the conclusion that the mind
is composed of thought as a natural state of living. It further
concludes that the only means of self change we have available to
us is through the medium of thought, of words and artificial
images that supposedly represent who we are. The point missed by
this view is that we are not born with words or language; these
are a learned behavior based on human creations. The true identity
of the self is not based on thought or memories of past
experiences at all, but Consciousness itself. Thoughts, words,
language and all their products are instead, the creation of
Consciousness.
Consciousness is the very essence of existence with which we were
born, which never leaves us during life, and which we return to
upon physical death, as souls. It must always be remembered that
thought is a tool only, that words are only representations of
things and not the things themselves. For this reason thought, or
more specifically our own thoughts, can no more accurately
represent our true identity than they can the universe at large.
Through meditation the Truth of this is clearly revealed,
demonstrating the self to be the soul that is beyond the need of
thought and words to possess identity.
Self image or ego is a representation composed of thought. It is a
symbol that is presented to the world which is not the true self.
Personality cannot be fundamentally modified through psychological
manipulation, and yet the major institutions of social reform
still claim that it can. The ego, which is completely artificial,
is sustained by the continuous repetition of certain thoughts
about the self moment to moment. Without this continual
reinforcement it begins to fall apart, a process which evokes the
phrase, "I don't know who I am right now". The question in Truth
is not "who" we are, but in fact what we are. The question of
"who" is only in relation to others in society, and its artificial
concepts of life. The question of what we are on the other hand is
extremely relevant to all places and times, for the answer to this
is everlasting Consciousness. Ego is always fundamentally changing
depending upon what kind of thoughts support it. It may be defined
in association with ones occupation, family, philosophy,
religion, past memories, social position, or sheer imagination.
Ego is entirely arbitrary in essence, for it is a creation of the
mind, maintained at the cost of great personal Energy and
intelligence. It becomes for these reasons only an imagined
territory to defend. The consciousness which composes the true
self on the other hand is of timeless, universal essence. It is
not dependent upon the view of any one culture, memory, family or
social position.
Ego originally arises in us, in modern society, primarily as a
result of fear. In reality it is only a protective shield of
thought, created and reinforced by the mind in an attempt at self
protection. When deep fear first arises in the young child, their
natural openness and high vibration makes them exceptionally
vulnerable to hostile environmental influences. These may be in
the form of competitive peers, abusive parents, poor living
conditions or stressful circumstances of any kind. The child often
feels in these conditions a deep hollowness or despair, for as a
soul they have not forgotten the real nature of existence, which
is love and intelligent design. They intuit or directly perceive
the lack of love and intelligence in their environment. Finding no
support in this inner knowledge, they begin to doubt their own
validity of perception and self worth. Furthermore, the sensitive
child is mistakenly taught by adults that the whole reason for
living is to fulfill the ideas of society. They are taught to
value ruthless competition and materialism as the definition of
so-called "success". Sensitivity in such a world is not valued,
nor is true intelligence. Both of these naturally challenge the
falsehoods of such a status-quo as ours.
Finding no support in what they naturally intuit to be true, and
simply feeling the "wrongness" of the adult world, the naturally
sensitive and intelligent child learns fear. This is the first
major initiation of our kind, into a society which is itself
literally brimming over with fear and hostile, unnatural
conditions. To cope with this fear, the child then learns to mimic
the behavior of adults as they are pressured to do, just to
survive. This behavior has become the standard template for the
behavior of the young. It is primarily artificial and egoistic,
with all the posturing, manipulation and psychic discord that this
implies. At its root, the fear we first feel as children begins
well before we learn language. It begins before we are even born,
in the form of psychic influences rendered by a world that is out
of control, and out of touch with its essence. We have as a
species learned to ignore the nearly constant feelings of pain and
fear, as the warning signals of wrong Intent that they are.
Nature neither knows nor needs ego to function, and neither do we.
It arises and is maintained by only three factors, and when these
do not exist, ego automatically drops away. One factor is fear,
which is the primary cause for its continuation. Another is a
concern for the opinions of others, in this current world paradigm
of hollow imagery. This concern is the result of the supposed need
to "fit in" with the attitudes of others, to be accepted as one
with the crowd, regardless of what that crowd values or does. The
third sustaining element of ego is thought. All three of these
contributing factors can be brought under personal mastery, in
order to disband the ego and no longer suffer its disadvantages.
In practicing body-wide Awareness of Awareness, the meditator has
the opportunity to seek out fear wherever it resides in the self.
When noticed, the fear that is lodged in various locations in the
body can then be dissolved. Without the experience of fear there
is no felt need of self protection, thus when fear drops, ego is
also disabled. As for living for the sake of the opinions of
others, this too can be dissolved by valuing Truth as the highest
priority of living. There is no real advantage in living ones
life in accord with a society that has forgotten its own roots.
Truth sustains life through factual benefit, whereas social
opinion arbitrarily destroys and corrupts. To live according to
the public view is to sacrifice what is truly of value to the
soul. To be politically correct is to eventually erode
personal welfare and happiness, which are themselves essentially
absent in the modern world. In the case of eliminating thought as
the focus of self identity, the repeated entry into Awareness of
Awareness will eventually convince the practitioner beyond any
doubt whatsoever, that the true self is nothing other than
consciousness. |
