P.S. Please share this article if you enjoyed it. If you’d like to view my latest book (This Taste of Flesh and Bones), press here. My YouTube videos can be found at Think2wice@I-Am-Aware. May the content of either or both help you along your spiritual journey. “Thank You” & “Note to Publishers” 🙏🏻🧡
I first heard of the following account this morning, through Source. I have no way of verifying if it’s true. I’ll leave that up to you to decide:
***
Once upon a time, there was a quaint little village named Eedon; which was named after A. & E. Eedon, who were the first couple to settle there in 1802. Nestled in a picturesque valley, the village consisted of seven-hundred kind souls. There was peace in the valley because everyone showed compassion to their neighbours and were generous of spirit. No one knew anything about bragging, boasting, and pride; in fact, they’d never heard of such behaviour. When a family was experiencing a challenging time, all of the neighbours got together and humbly pitched in to offer help. They built homes and barns together; helped educate one another’s children; tilled the soil and harvested crops together. All of the residents knew that they could count on one another. Until…
One day, at a town hall meeting, the Mayor, Mr. I-Come-Up-With-Bad-Ideas, suggested that they should hold a celebration in the center of town. They would have a feast. Everyone would contribute an ingredient from his or her pantry.
“What will we have for the meal?” asked Gwendolyn, one of the oldest residents in town. “Pork? Ribs? Potato salad?
Another man, Jed (who incidentally, barely kept his family fed) said, “No, let’s have fish. We have plenty of fish in the Eedone River, especially at this time of year.”
The polite discussion continued until the mayor proposed that they should have a special dish: Ego-Bean Salad. “Why, everyone’s got some degree of ego,” he said. “That way everyone can contribute to the meal. We’ll set up the cauldron in the town square, people will throw in their stash of ego-beans, give the mix a stir, and then step aside and make way for the next person. After the salad marinates for several hours, we’ll dine like royalty.
Although a few of the seniors doubted the wisdom of the planned menu, the mayor’s proposal was seconded by the deputy mayor, and the vote carried. A date was set.
On the day of the celebration all went well initially. People brought their families and musical instruments, and there was great merriment. The menu went over gangbusters, too. Bowl after bowl of Ego-Bean Salad was consumed. “More, please, more,” was the common remark as people lined up for seconds, even thirds. It’s rumoured that Jed consumed eight servings.
As dusk fell, a man known as Sparky casually sauntered into town. He almost always had a half-finished cigarette dangling from his lips. As he approached the town center, a flash explosion was suddenly set off. From miles away, people assumed it was a dazzling display of the northern lights. The first explosion was followed by several others and aftershocks that shattered windows in neighbouring towns. The cauldron still hasn’t been found.
***
And the moral of this tale? Why, this is just a little story about the hazards related to eating too much salad, right? It has nothing to do with letting our ego be in charge of our life. (If you’re earnestly eager to recognize your true Self, my YouTube video entitled “I Am: The Infinite” will be helpful.)
P.S. Please share this article if you enjoyed it. If you’d like to view my latest book (This Taste of Flesh and Bones), press here. My YouTube videos can be found at Think2wice@I-Am-Aware. May the content of either or both help you along your spiritual journey. “Thank You” & “Note to Publishers” 🙏🏻🧡
I’m sure that most readers are probably familiar with the expression “down the rabbit hole,” which suggests “following a path of curiosity or investigation that becomes increasingly deep and complex.” When I was a teenager, I unwittingly fell into a metaphysical rabbit hole by following my instincts to read books about the law of attraction and our spiritual nature. I had no idea where my strong interest would lead.
Since 2017, following an experience that’s commonly referred to as enlightenment (meaning: to awaken from the dream of personhood), that rabbit hole has dramatically deepened. Habitual patterns and conditioned ways of interpreting experience and the “world” occasionally still pull my perspective back into Maya (Sanskrit: “illusion“); but such occurs much less frequently now. I know my true Self is Consciousness. In part, I am helped by many priceless quotes that I’ve collected during years of study. Some of the most potent are taped to the inside of my kitchen cupboards, to serve as reminders of the deeper level of “reality” whenever I view them. It’s my hope that the following quotes will help to elevate your understanding and be valuable pointers to your essential nature:
“Mind is the creator of everything.”
– Parmamahansa Yogananda, The Law of Success
***
“What you are seeing and hearing right now is nothing but a dream. You are dreaming right now in this moment. You are dreaming with the brain awake.“
– Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements
***
“However much you seem to be living in a material world, you are actually living in a world of imagination.“
-Neville Goddard, The Power of Awareness
***
“Everyone is sleeping. When you see other, when you see otherness, when you see duality, it is called dreaming. Only in the dream do you see objects.“
– Papaji, Wake Up And Roar, Satsang With Papaji, by Eli Jaxon-Bear
***
“Our entire experience arises in awareness. Is that clear to you?“
– Rupert Spira (noted author and teacher of non duality), Youtube
***
“Remember that your perception of the world is a reflection of your state of consciousness. You are not separate from it, and there is no objective world out there.“
– Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now
***
“Nothing comes from without; all things come from within–from the subconscious. It is impossible for you to see other than the contents of your consciousness.“
– Neville Goddard, Feeling Is The Secret
***
Note: (If you earnestly desire to investigate your essential nature, which is Consciousness, my YouTube video entitled On The Count of Three–Wake Up will be helpful.
P.S. Please share this article if you enjoyed it. If you’d like to view my latest book (This Taste of Flesh and Bones), press here. My YouTube videos can be found at Think2wice@I-Am-Aware. May the content of either or both help you along your spiritual journey. “Thank You” & “Note to Publishers” 🙏🏻🧡
In this article, I offer several quotes from various authors and deep thinkers that point to a very different way of interpreting reality; especially when compared to that which the majority have been conditioned to assume is true. It’s my hope that the quotes will resonate with you and inspire you to investigate your true Self and the nature of our apparent “world.”
“The world as seen only exists in the mind of the observer. It has no independent existence.”
– David R. Hawkins.
“This world, with all its animate beings and inanimate objects, is nothing but the creation of the mind. When the activities of the mind cease, there is no world, no duality. There is only God.”
– Gaudapada
“Every phenomenon that exists is a creation of thought.”
– Huang Po
“The truth is that God is the mind and life of the individual. God is the only I.”
– Joel Goldsmith
“Your Self without ‘you’ is the one you seek.”
– Mooji
“God is man’s consciousness, his awareness, his I Amness. The drama of life is a psychological one in which we bring circumstances to pass by our attitudes rather than by our acts.”
– Neville Goddard
“What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.”
– Plutarch
“The universe is a mere appearance and the ego-sense is a mere concept.”
– Ramesh S. Balsekar
“There is no difference in our actual experience between the substance of the apple that appears in memory and the substance of the apple that appears in ‘real time.’ Our only knowledge of both is made out of mind–out of seeing, touching, smelling, and tasting, and the substance of mind is only Awareness.“
– Rupert Spira
“Everything is in consciousness, nothing else.“
– Shri Ranjit Majarah
“Thought creates the world. Thoughts bring things into existence.”
– Sri Swami Sivananda
“Phenomena only ‘exist’ in the mind that perceives them.”
– Tibetan Book of The Dead
“No thought of form can be impressed upon original substance without causing the creation of that form. A human being is a thinking center and can originate thought.”
– Wallace D. Wattles
Note: For readers who are eager to learn more about their true Self and the nature of our apparent world, I offer my Youtube video entitled Offering Dots: (You Decide If They Connect).
P.S. Please share this article if you enjoyed it. If you’d like to view my latest book (This Taste of Flesh and Bones), press here. My YouTube videos can be found at Think2wice@I-Am-Aware. May the content of either or both help you along your spiritual journey. “Thank You” & “Note to Publishers” 🙏🏻🧡
Times change; they surely do. In fact, change is paradoxically one of the constants in this changeful realm called “Earth.” On a daily basis, perpetual change is witnessed–minute to hour; morning to evening, and year to yesteryear. We know with absolute certainty that what’s popular and apparent today–in science, medicine, politics, and culture–will surely change. It’s just the way of expression here.
As a teenager, I once wrote a poem about the nature of time. Curious then, as I still am, I wrote that I didn’t want to know what made the clock tick–I wanted to know what made the tick tick. From my unaware perspective, I suppose I was searching for meaning in this mysterious clockwork mechanism in which we’re apparently enmeshed.
Initially, we may be somewhat unaware of the flow of time; for we, who are seemingly being swept along in it, barely notice its movement. From the perspective of the “person,” our attention is almost always focused on objects of fancy, or those which we wish to avoid. One year, such may be a goal to achieve business success; the next year, a romantic relationship; and the following year, plans to travel the world. Change, change, change–all of which we’re accustomed to labelling favourable or unfavourable.
What if, however, our habitual understanding of our “self” and time is all backward? What if we’re not the “person” within time in a great big world, but actually the true Self in which the apparent “person,” time, and the world appear? This shift makes a tremendous difference in how we process experiences and interactions with “others.” From my understanding, there’s only one thing (not a thing) that holds eternal value. The knowing of it, at least to me, is what makes the tick tick. Through all of the changing times and seasons, I believe the only tick that gives REAL MEANING to our lives is this: to express, and exemplify, the quality of our true Self, which is LOVE.
Note: (If you’re eager to investigate the deeper dimension of true Self, you may find my YouTube video entitled “Children of The Light” helpful.)
P.S. Please share this article if you enjoyed it. If you’d like to view my latest book (This Taste of Flesh and Bones), press here. My YouTube videos can be found at Think2wice@I-Am-Aware. May the content of either or both help you along your spiritual journey. “Thank You” & “Note to Publishers” 🙏🏻🧡
As we delve into the nature of our true Self, please imagine, if you will, what it’s like for a newborn baby to look upon the “world.” Everything would literally seem new, fresh, and alive. Without the function of higher mental faculties, the baby would be incapable of discerning the difference between its arm, foot, or hand and the sides of its crib. The baby would be innocent; it would not have learned that it was a “baby” and that it was different from “other” babies. It, would, thus interpret everything through it unique focal point of I Am.” True to its essential nature, the baby would naturally be Love, Being Love.
So, the point, Mr. Russell? My point is that our mask, or avatar of name and form, is a learned perspective. It’s an apparently physical-psychological costume comprised of name, gender, race, nationality and other downloaded bits of data related to an Earthly “i”-dentity. It’s not the foundation of our essential nature. Before I ever knew that my full name was Ronald Arthur Russell, “I” was and still “Am.” My true Self is that irreducible essential nature that’s impossible to remove. In spite of all the triumphs and tribulations that Mr. Russell may have taken so seriously, I remain “I Am.” Such also applies to the real “YOU.”
While its understandable that we must don a costume in order to assume our role in this Earthly play, it becomes problematic when all that we know of ourselves is the costume. It leads us into temptation to use “others’ for our own benefit and is the cause of great suffering within Consciousness. Depending on the environment into which we are born, we learn all or some of the following:
I’m different from “others.”
I’m more special than you or, sadly, believe to be not as good.
“They” aren’t our kind of people.
I must compete, and win, to have value.
I can only love people of my same colour, race, nationality, and creed.
I will take from “you,” so that I (the “person“) can thrive.
Due to our identification with a purely conceptual “i”-dentity, actions are performed against “one another” that Love would never knowingly do. Most “humans” don’t realize that when we harm another, we literally harm ourselves. Why? Because…
LOVE recognizes that we are all One.
***
Every Being that dares to dive deep into Self inquiry and knowingly recognize his/her essential nature elevates the expression of God on Earth; and where there’s more God Awareness…
P.S. Please share this article if you enjoyed it. If you’d like to view my latest book (This Taste of Flesh and Bones), press here. My YouTube videos can be found at Think2wice@I-Am-Aware. May the content of either or both help you along your spiritual journey. “Thank You” & “Note to Publishers” 🙏🏻🧡
P.S. Please share this article if you enjoyed it. If you’d like to view my latest book (This Taste of Flesh and Bones), press here. My YouTube videos can be found at Think2wice@I-Am-Aware. May the content of either or both help you along your spiritual journey. “Thank You” & “Note to Publishers” 🙏🏻🧡
Many, if not most, of us are familiar with the children’s rhyme: “I’m the king of the castle, and you’re the dirty rascal!” It relates to a children’s game in which boys and girls race to the top of a hill and defend their right to proclaim that they’re the king or queen of the castle. The origin of the game seems unclear; but by some accounts, it was played in 16th-century France and 17th-century Scotland and, perhaps, earlier.
Let’s investigate the rhyme and discover if it could possibly refer to an underlying spiritual meaning related to our essential nature. In support of this, I offer the following verse found in John 8:58:
“Jesus said to them, Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I Am.”
To be clear, the verse doesn’t state that Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I, ‘Jesus,’ was”–it states “I Am.” I offer that Jesus was conveying that “I Am” (Consciousness) is prior to physical form (as illustrated by mentioning Abraham). Consciousness is the very foundation of our Being. Objects, both physical and mental, appear in Consciousness and are known by Consciousness. Research into the field of consciousness adds weight to this assertion; for try as they might, scientists have been unable to determine how physical processes give rise to consciousness. Ancient teachings assert that the body-mind arises in Consciousness; not the other way around, as materialists assume. In other words: “I Am” (Spirit, Consciousness) is the Reality (Castle) of each apparent King or Queen. A similar message is stated in 1 Corinthians 6:19:
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.”
My dirty rascal, “Art,” had it backwards for apparent years. “He” fooled everyone, including “himself.” Due to ignorance, ego “me” declared that he was the king of Being. Such seemed to occur only because the Real King–“I AM“–hadn’t, as yet, been recognized. Because of the veil of amnesia, which is an inherent mechanism of our apparently human journey, we must set out on a spiritual journey to knowingly rediscover our True Self. When we do, we knowingly assume our rightful “place” as Universal Consciousness, which is our eternal nature.
To realize the Ruler of the castle we must be It. When such occurs, it is not a pretense made by the mind; it is a “remembering” or re-cognition of that which is our true Self. The realization can be facilitated through meditation. Psalm 46:10 directs us clearly to the method: “Be still and know that I am God.” In John 14:6, the following is stated: Jesus saith unto him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Can you see the parallel message contained in the nursery rhyme (“I Amthe King of the Castle“) and the Biblical verses mentioned?
What can we do with this recognition? Live by it, as it. By being That, the quality of life will improve dramatically. Old energies related to the perspective of the false self will fall away as we remain as “I Am” Awareness. And when “I Am” notices thought patterns related to fear and competitiveness, we can turn away and deliberately focus on our positive visions. “I Am” is intended to be the ruler of our kingdom. As Spirit, our essential nature is beyond name and form. (For those who would like to delve deeper into this subject, I offer my YouTube video entitled “Children of The Light.“)
P.S. Please share this article if you enjoyed it. If you’d like to view my latest book (This Taste of Flesh and Bones), press here. My YouTube videos can be found at Think2wice@I-Am-Aware. May the content of either or both help you along your spiritual journey. “Thank You” & “Note to Publishers” 🙏🏻🧡
At the tender age of nine, Little Johnny Acres witnessed the death of his father. Family, friends, and neighbours labelled what occurred as “passingover” or “going to a greater reward;” but Johnny knew the facts. He had witnessed his father clutch his chest, take his last breath, and die. The father that he loved so dearly was dead and gone. Afterward, Johnny pretended (as he assumed the rest of his family was pretending) that his father was in a wonderful place called Heaven. But deep in his heart, Johnny doubted that such could be true.
In the coming years, Johnny’s interpretation of his father’s death coloured his attitude about many of his experiences. He chose to live now, for tomorrow you may die. He believed, as the majority of persons still do, that you only live once, so make the best of it! Time seemed like an enemy that could strike anyone down without warning. An adult now, he preferred to be called John; but he still clutched the childhood wound like a prized possession that somehow kept his father close. If he let it go, it would seem like giving up on his father; and he wasn’t about to do that. Until…
Years later, John discovered an esoteric book entitled The Master Key System, by Charles F. Haanel. He read it several times; gleaning what knowledge he could from its content. Upon one such reading, the following leapt out at him:
“The spirit of a thing is that thing; it is necessarily fixed, changeless and eternal.
The spirit of you is — you; without the spirit you would be nothing.
It becomes active through your recognition of it and its possibilities.”
Over the coming months, John’s understanding grew by leaps and bounds as he re-read The Master Key System. The tumblers of his locked view of a “material world” were clicking open. Haanel’s message was that we are spiritual beings, here and now. Through daily meditation, he realized that his experience on Earth was occurring within the waking-state dream. With this knowledge, he was finally able to peacefully set the memory of his father to rest. He also knew the meaning of Acts 17:28:
“For in Him we live and move and have our being.”
***
Dear Readers: I know that many of you may have experienced the death of a loved family member or friend. If it feels right to do so, please contemplate the words that helped to free Little Johnny Acres from his emotional suffering: “The spirit of a thing is that thing.” Appearances are, indeed, deceiving. We aren’t who we appear to be. We are Spirit. “In Him [Consciousness] we live and move and have our being.” The description of our essential nature is related in the following quote from the Bhagavad Gita, one of the Hindu holy books:
“Weapons cannot cut It, nor can fire burn It; water cannot wet It, nor can wind dry It.”
Let not your heart be troubled. (If you’re curious, I offer more information in my YouTube video entitled “The Incarnate I Am.”)
P.S. Please share this article if you enjoyed it. If you’d like to view my latest book (This Taste of Flesh and Bones), press here. My YouTube videos can be found at Think2wice@I-Am-Aware. May the content of either or both help you along your spiritual journey. “Thank You” & “Note to Publishers” 🙏🏻🧡
At precisely 7:00 a.m., Bob Brightman heard the sound of the alarm on his bedside table and slowly wakened from his slumber. He shut off the alarm, stretched his arms wide, and ambled to the washroom. A few minutes later, he groggily joined his wife, Helen, in their rustic kitchen. The room was aglow with the warm sunlight that was shining through their kitchen’s eastward-facing window.
“Coffee?” Helen asked, as he approached her and kissed her softly on the cheek.
“You know it,” said Bob, with a grin. He added milk to the coffee and assumed his favourite position in the glider chair next to the window. The first few sips of his coffee tasted like morning nectar.
Holding her own cup of coffee, Helen moved into a chair directly across from her dream guy.
“You know,” began Bob, “last night I dreamed that I was drinking coffee that tasted every bit as real as this.”
“Tell me more,” said Helen.
“Well, I was holding my favourite mug, the one you and boys got me for my birthday. I could feel its weight, the heat of the coffee, and even smell the aroma of the freshly-ground coffee beans. Strangely enough, just like I’m doing now.”
Helen took a few sips of her coffee and looked around their kitchen. “It’s incredible, isn’t it,” she said, “how the mind can replicate reality in our dreams.”
“It definitely is,” said Bob, “even to the point of fabricating skyscrapers, mountains, and people.”
“Truly amazing,” said Helen.
Lost in thought, Bob seemed to freeze momentarily. “You know,” he said, with a puzzled expression, “it almost makes you wonder if the mind could be rendering this, right here and now.”
“What do you mean?” asked Helen.
“You know, dreaming us, drinking coffee in our kitchen.”
“Well, that’s preposterous,” said Helen.
“Is it?” said Bob.
Helen smiled and softly pinched her cheek. “I feel pretty real to me,” she said.
“But we feel real in our nighttime dreams, too,” said Bob. “When we dream that we’re skiing, driving a car, or eating a meal, it all seems very real.”
“Oh, you–you crazy Mr. Brightman!” exclaimed Helen.”Don’t be so silly. Enjoy your coffee and then get your butt into the shower. “Our backyard lawn really needs to be cut today.”
Bob smiled and slowly sipped the remains of his coffee; but as he showered and, later, cut the grass, the question about the nature of reality kept begging to be answered. As Helen washed the breakfast dishes, she also found herself pondering the following question: “How would we know if our lives were a dream?”
That afternoon, Bob was rummaging through his collection of books about spirituality when he came across the following quotes. Given what Helen and he had talked about earlier that day, it gave him pause to contemplate the issue very deeply:
“All men dream, but not equally.Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their mind,wake in the day to find that it was vanity;but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they act on their dreams with open eyes,to make them possible.”
– T. E. Lawrence
***
“Live in the consciousness of Spirit, in that oneness with God wherein you know that life is a dream.”
– Man’s Eternal Quest, by Paramahansa Yogananda
***
“Everyone is sleeping. When you see other, when you see otherness, when you see duality, it is called dreaming. Only in the dream do you see objects. When there is other, it is a dream, and prior to this dream, you must be sleeping. Sleeping is ignorance. When you wake up from this state, you wake up to awareness.”
– Wake Up And Roar, Satsang With Papaji,” by Eli Jaxon-Bear
***
Dear Readers: We can awaken, now. When you realize this, a world full of new and exciting possibilities opens up before you. We’re informed of this in Matthew 6:33: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” You are Spirit eternal. (If you’re curious about learning more, you might find my YouTube video entitled “Living The Dream” and my blog article entitled “Notes From Beyond” helpful.)
P.S. Please share this article if you enjoyed it. If you’d like to view my latest book (This Taste of Flesh and Bones), press here. My YouTube videos can be found at Think2wice@I-Am-Aware. May the content of either or both help you along your spiritual journey. “Thank You” & “Note to Publishers” 🙏🏻🧡
Think2wice 