Tag Archives: Ontology

The Body And Mind As A Continuing Process

In my blogs, I want my readers to look at body and mind in a different fashion.

Do not think of the mind as a purely mental entity, and of the body as purely physical one. Instead, think of both mind and body as continuing, interweaving processes that are mental and physical at once. Our thoughts actually are quite as physical as our body is, and our body is quite as nonphysical as it seems to us our thoughts are. We are actually a vital force, existing as a part of our environment, and yet apart from our environment at the same time.

It is obvious that we impress a room with our characteristics as we furnish it, but we also mark what seems to be empty space in the same fashion — that is, we turn empty space into the living matter of our body without ever realizing that we do so. Our health and the daily weather interact with each other. This happens on a personal and mass basis. I admit that some of this material quite contradicts our usual ideas, but the health of our body is intimately related not only to the state of world health, but to the physical climate as well.

We do not “catch” a drought. We do not catch a cold, either. In a fashion a drought is partially caused by the emotional states of the people who experience it — yet a drought is not a disease. It is part of a process. It is a necessary portion of the larger process of the world’s physical stability. As unfortunate as a drought might seem, it is in its way responsible for the balanced proportion of moisture of the entire planet’s surface. In the same way diseases in their fashion are also often parts of larger processes whose greater purpose is the body’s overall balance and strength.

My thoughts go buzzing

through time’s corridors,

winging their way

 through the sunny hours,

dipping into shaded corners,

sipping sweet honeycombs

of desire, slipping through

golden keyholes

and flying free past

the meadows of eternity.

I bid them a safe journey

as they travel ahead

of me, for one day I will

surely follow.

In any case, magic is everywhere in the operation of our body, and in the operation of the world.

My definition of magic is this: Magic is nature unimpeded, or magic is life unimpeded. It is true that our thoughts and emotions and beliefs form the reality that we experience — but it is also true that this creative construction is, in a manner of speaking, magically formed. That is, the construction of our body and the construction of a world are produced with the greatest combination of order and spontaneity — an order and spontaneity that seems hidden rather than apparent.

We think, for example, without consciously knowing how we do so, and we speak long sentences without consciously being aware at the beginning of the sentence what the conclusion will be.

This does not mean that we must forever remain in ignorance, but it does mean that there are different kinds of knowledge, and that all of our information does not come by reasoning alone. We grew from a fetus into an adult, for instance, so obviously some part of us does know how to perform such an amazing activity as the growth and care of the physical body. The reasoning mind alone, however, cannot by itself grow even the smallest cell, or activate the life of even one molecule, yet the growth and maintenance of the body is constant.

The same hidden ability that promotes our body’s health and vitality also fulfills and preserves the world in general. All of this is done playfully, and yet emerges with the greatest display of order and design.

When we become too serious we overwork our intellect and tire our body, for then it seems that our entire life depends upon the reasoning of our intellect alone. Instead, of course, our intellectual abilities are supported and promoted by the inner mixture of spontaneity and order that so magically combine to form both our reality and the reality of the world.

The Nail Consciousness On The Window Sill

All creatures are born with a keen sense of self-approval.

 

Each creature is born proud of itself, and loving itself. That same self-approval is also experienced in varying ways not only by creatures as we think of them, but also by atoms and molecules, and by all orders of matter.

 

Imagine a nail on a window sill endowed with consciousness and self-awareness. Now every nail is indeed in its own way responsive to stimuli. It acts and reacts. A nail may not choose to jump down from a window sill and dance about the room, but a nail is indeed aware of the room, of the window sill, and aware of the temperature on both sides of the window. The atoms and molecules that compose the nail possess their own lively consciousnesses. Their motion is directed by electrons, so that within itself the nail actually experiences constant motion. Indeed, a dance is executed of great symmetry and rhythm. The nail, then is, indeed filled with its own sense of self-approval.

I am mentioning this only to stress the fact that self-delight and self-approval are natural characteristics — characteristics that actually make our entire physical world, and world of experience, possible.

It is very unfortunate, therefore, when adults inadvertently undermine a child’s sense of self-approval. A small boy or girl might be caught in a lie, for example, and therefore labeled by an adult in the angriest of terms as a liar. Instead, a distinction should be made: the child made an error — he lied — but he himself or herself is not the error or the lie. He or she can then determine to change his or her behavior while still saving his or her self-respect.

All creatures are basically of good intent; even when they commit the most dubious of acts, these are usually caused by a misdirected good intent. Actually, many criminals are motivated by distorted versions of righteousness. We will have more to say about this in later blogs, but for now I want to stress the importance of self-approval in connection with exuberance, health, and well-being.

Trust in the body automatically quickens all healing processes. You only have to take my words to heart.

Once again, it is perfectly natural for each cell in the body, for each organ and each portion of the body to heal itself, and in the same terms it is really “unnatural” not to trust the body, rather than looking at it with suspicion.

In any case, trust alone relaxes all other parts of the body, and lets the healing processes operate more easily and efficiently.

It is indeed unfortunate that those beliefs that show themselves so simply and effectively in nature seem so mysterious to the usual line of official consciousness.

The official line does have its role, of course — but by itself it must remain isolated from deep, creative, healing functions of body consciousness. The official line of consciousness is really the “worrier,” because it recognizes that it can only go so far, and usually it is not educated enough to realize it is itself sustained and supported.

There are styles of thinking, just as there are various styles of dress.

The official line of consciousness is a certain mental stance, a kind of convention. When we were children we thought in a freer fashion, but little by little we were educated to use words in a certain way. We discovered that our needs were met more quickly, and we received approval more often, when we thought and spoke in that particular manner. Finally it seems to be the only natural mode of operation. Our entire civilization is built around that kind of inner framework. The way of thinking becomes so automatic as to be mentally invisible. With creative people, however, there are always intrusions, hints or clues from ways of thinking that certainly appear foreign, and creative people use those hints and clues to construct an art, a musical composition or whatever. They sense a surge of power beneath.

What we are trying to do is change over completely from one mode of operation to another, and to construct say, new inner blocks of meaning that will give rise to the next era.

What we are involved in then is really. of course, a completely new educational procedure, so that we are at least able to distinguish one style of thought from another, and therefore be freer to make choices.

When an idea for a blog comes to me, I “tune into it” immediately. It never occurs to me to wonder how many vowels or syllables, words and sentences or paragraphs night be involved. I take it for granted that my intent will be executed.

That is the natural, creative way to function, and it has provided me with many excellent blogs and poetry. When I am writing I do not think in terms of impediments. What impediments there may be, I brush aside.

Now our health can be handled in the same fashion, without wondering how many nerves or muscles or stages must be activated, without worrying about how much time will be involved. In a fashion the body is a living blog, being produced in every moment.

Again, it may seem too simple — but by applying the same methods to the body, the body’s health will be written with health and vitality, using blood and corpuscles, joints and ligaments and so forth instead of syllables, consonants, words and sentences.

Specifically, I wanted to make the point that the body’s actions are unfortunately often misread and misunderstood. The body often clears out, or tries out, its own processes — perhaps by being feverish for several days, and then by lowering the temperature once unwanted materials are burned out, so to speak.

It may store urine to retain minerals at one time, and urinate seemingly to excess in another. When the body is basically held in distrust, however, all such behavior is considered dangerous and suspect.

The New Way

Taken together our ideas themselves are quite ancient, of course. They are expressed by many cultures and religions, esoteric groups and cults from the past, and continuing into present. Their strength, vitality, and worth has been greatly undermined, however, by distortions, negative ideas, and some sheer nonsense.

In other words, these concepts, so natural to all of creation, have not been practiced by humanity in anything like their pure form. To that extent they do indeed represent a new way. They run counter to much of our official knowledge and contemporary thought as far as the mainstream of world culture is concerned. Where such ideas are practiced, they are frequently contaminated by fanaticism, superstition, and expediency.

The main point I want to make is that this “new way” is the ideal and easiest complement to nature’s own innate integrity.

 

 

 

 

Natural Mental Behavior

The way toward health is simplicity itself.

It is the natural, easiest watson’s emotions to seek the answers to a healthier mind. But actually, the answer is so simple. Live simply.

Since the intellect is apt to enjoy playing with complications and solving problems, therefore, to the intellect it often seems ludicrous to imagine that the answer to a question lies within the question itself.

All of nature demonstrates this almost miraculous seeming simplicity. Plants and animals and all of life’s aspects take it quite for granted that the sun will shine and the rains will fall in the way best conducive to all creatures. Animals certainly do not worry about tomorrow’s weather conditions. It may be true that animals do not need to know tomorrow’s weather, since they do not plant seeds or collect the harvest. It is perfectly fine to make plans for the future, yet each individual should live day by day, without worrying about the outcome of those plans.

The physical body can only react in the present moment. Worrying about future events, or dwelling upon past unfavorable situations, only confuses the body’s mechanisms, and undermines their precise activity in the present moment.

I am not saying that anyone should pretend that unfavorable circumstances do not sometimes exist, or that they may not be encountered in the past, present, or future. It is also true, however, that advantageous events occur with a far greater frequency than do negative ones — otherwise the world that we know simply would not exist. It would have disappeared in the throes of destruction or calamity.

In a basic way, it is against nature’s purposes to contemplate a dire future, for all of nature operates on the premise that the future is assured. Nature is everywhere filled with promise — not only the promise of mere survival, but the promise of beauty and fulfillment Once again, that keen sense of promise is innate within each portion of the body. It triggers the genes and chromosomes into their proper activity, and it promotes feelings of optimism, exuberance, and strength.

Again, sometime in later blogs we will discuss those conditions that can undermine such fine creativity. In the meantime, however, live each day as fully and joyfully as possible. imagine the best possible results of any plans or projects. Above all, do not concentrate upon past unfavorable events, or imagined future ones.

Now: If we examine our feelings about parenthood in general, we will see that they bear an astonishing similarity to our feelings about our work. Only the focus is different. We are indeed parents of our work we do, and the psychic parents of innumerable people of all ages. We have have set aside, however, the conventional idea of a family, as symbolized by our dreams. We are actually exchanging one kind of a family for another, vaster concept, that also involves parenthood, however — but a psychic rather than a physical parenthood.

Optimistic Elements Of Life

All elements of life are optimistic.

 

The fetus, for example, is remarkably optimistic, carrying within itself the miniature pattern for an entire human adult, taking it for granted that conditions will be favorable enough so that the entire pattern of normal life will be fulfilled despite any impediments or adverse conditions .

This expectation to grow and flourish is addressed within each atom, cell, and organ, and all of life’s parts contain this optimistic expectation and are blessed with the promise that their abilities will grow to maturity.

Children spontaneously take it for granted that their acts will result in the most favorable circumstances, and that any given situation will have a favorable end result. These attitudes pervade on the animal kingdom also. They are embedded in the life of insects, and in fish and fowl. They are the directions that provide life with purpose, direction, and impetus. No organism automatically expects to find starvation or disappointment or detrimental conditions — yet even when such circumstances are encountered, they in no way affect the magnificent optimism that is at the heart of life.

Even when biological “failures” develop, as with stillborn infants, or malformed ones, the inner consciousness involved does not give up, and even though death results, the consciousness tries again under different conditions. In such cases death is not experienced by the organism as a failure, or as a biological mistake. It is simply felt to be an experience, a discovery, that went so far and no further — but the events in no way impede the vitality and strength of the inner consciousness so involved.

This optimism is reflected in many other areas of life also.

Many birds in their fantastic migrations demonstrate an amazing optimism, traveling thousands of miles to distant shores, almost literally flying by faith, as it were, ignoring all dangers, unbeseiged by doubts. There is no hesitancy, but the sure flight. Birds do not question whether or not the weather will be favorable, the winds fair or foul. They simply fly toward their destination. Even if some birds do fall or die, this in no way impedes or undermines the faith of the others.

Monarch butterflies, in their remarkable migrations, often fly toward land that they have never seen themselves — and yet they reach their destination.

In all such cases there is an inbred biological faith, that courage and vitality, that biological optimism. It acts that same in people, triggering the necessary bodily responses. Only when that optimism is severely tampered with do the physical mechanisms falter. Even then, however, all creatures are sustained by that innate gift, that inner sense of security that not only propels creatures toward life, but safely conducts them past physical life and past death’s doorway.

 

The Inborn Leanings and Attitudes

These inborn leanings or attitudes can roughly be translated as follows.

  1. I am an excellent creature, a valuable part of the universe in which I exist.
  2.  My existence enriches all other portions of life, even as my own being is enhanced by the rest of creation.
  3. It is good, natural, and safe for me to grow and develop and use my abilities, and by so doing I also enrich all other portions of life.

Next: I am eternally couched and supported by the universe of which I am a part, and I exist whether or not that existence is physically expressed.

Next: By nature I am a good deserving creature, and all of life’s elements and parts are also of good intent.

And next: All of my imperfections, and all of the imperfections of other creatures, are redeemed in the greater scheme of the universe in which I have my being.

Those attitudes are inbred in the smallest microscopic portions of the body — a part of each atom and cell and organ, and they serve to trigger all of the body’s responses that promote growth and fulfillment. Infants are not born with an inbred fear of their environment, or of the other creatures. They are instead immersed in feelings of well-being, vitality, and exuberance. They take it for granted that their needs will be met, and that the universe is well-disposed toward them. They feel a part of their environment.

They do not come into life with feelings of rage, or anger, and basically they do not experience doubts or fears. Birth is experienced in terms of self-discovery, and includes the sensation of selfhood gently rising and unfolding from the secret heart of the universe.

Many people believe that birth, to the contrary, is a time of trauma, or even of rage, as the infant leaves its mother’s womb. Birth is life’s most precious natural process. Even in births that are thought of as not “normal,” there is on the infant’s part a sense of discovery and joy.

We will have more to say about the process of birth in later blogs. For now, I simply want to make the point that in the most basic of terms the human birth is as orderly and spontaneous as the birth of any of nature’s creatures — and a child opens its selfhood even as a flower opens its petals.

The inborn leanings and attitudes that we have been discussing should ideally remain with us for the rest of our lives, leading us to express our abilities, and finding fulfillment as our knowledge expands through experience. The same feelings and beliefs should also ideally help us die with a sense of safety, support and assurance. While these inbred psychological supports never leave us entirely, they are often diminished by beliefs encountered later in life, that serve to undermine the individual’s sense of safety and well-being.

All of this talk about exuberance, health and vitality may seem quite beside the point to many. It may seem instead that the world is filled with unhappiness and disease.

 

I admit that this certainly seems to be the case. It may also strike you, my blog readers, as quite shocking when I tell you that there is no such thing, basically, as disease. There are instead only processes. What we think of as disease is instead the result of an exaggeration or overextension of perfectly normal body processes. We are not attacked by viruses, for instance, for all kinds of viruses exist normally in the body. There are no killer viruses, then, but viruses that go beyond their usual bounds. We will have more to say about such issues in later blogs — for I hope to show how certain feelings and beliefs do indeed promote health, while others promote an unfortunate extension or exaggeration of perfectly normal bodily processes, or viral activity.

This means, of course, that we do not fall victim to a disease, or catch a virus, but that for one reason or another our own feelings, thoughts, and beliefs lead us to seek bouts of illness.

Certainly, such ideas will sound like medical heresy to many of my blog readers, but the sooner we begin to look at health and “disease” in these new terms, the healthier and happier we will become. We are not one thing and illness another, for our thoughts and emotions are the triggers that lead to bouts of poor health. Once we know this, we can begin to take steps that will serve to promote exuberance and vitality instead of fear, doubts, and “disease.”

We will discover that so-called diseases perform certain services. They fulfill purposes for us that we may believe we can achieve in  no other way. The reasons for such illnesses are not deeply buried in the subconscious, as we may think. They are much closer to the conscious mind, and usually consist of a series of seemingly innocuous decisions that we have made through the years. Other illnesses, of course, may be caused by sudden decisions that are a  response to a particular event in our life.

People have been taught that their bodies are a kind of battleground, and that they must be in a constant state of readiness lest they be attacked or invaded by alien germs or viruses or diseases that can strike without warning.

Soon, in future blogs, we will begin to discuss other negative beliefs that cause poor health. For now, however, we will concentrate upon those inbred, positive attitudes, feelings, and beliefs that constantly improve our sense of well-being, strength, and fulfillment.

 

 

 

Biologically Valid Thoughts, Attitudes, and Beliefs

When we are born we possess a group of attitudes toward oneself and toward life. These allow us to grow with the greatest possible impetus into childhood. They are also important in every period of our life. We can see the results in life all about us, though in animals or plants these are experienced as a matter of feelings rather than, say, as thoughts or attitudes.

It may sound very simplistic to tell one that we must have sunny thoughts as well as rays of the physical sun in order to be healthy — but sunny thoughts are as biologically necessary to our well-being as are the rays of sun that shines in the sky. Even as infants, then, we are predisposed naturally toward certain feelings, thoughts and attitudes that are meant to insure our healthy survival and emergence into adulthood. These are actually composed of inbred psychological information as necessary and vital to our life as the data transmitted by our genes and chromosomes. Indeed, these inbred, inner psychological predispositions are all-important if the information carried by our genes and chromosomes is to be faithfully followed.

It is difficult to translate such biological and psychological material into the words of any language, even though these inbred psychological prerequisites form a kind of language of their own. It is a language that promotes growth, exuberance and fulfillment, and stimulates the entire organism of the body –signaling the proper responses that are required for health and growth.

In later blogs we will discuss contrary feelings, thoughts, and emotions. I want to substitute beliefs for emotions that greatly curtail the natural progression of health and vitality. Here, however, we will deal primarily with those inner predispositions that encourage life and vitality.

I look in a puddle

and what should I see

but the stars in

the heavens looking back at me….

Inborn Cooperation

The picture of man, woman, animals, and nature depicted in movies, is the only possible portrayal of reality that could be logically shown, considering the beliefs upon which the premise rests.

The environment, man, woman and the animals are all characterized as ferocious, hostile to each other, each one determined to attain survival at the expense of the other. Man and woman could not have existed under the conditions fostered in most movies — nor for that matter could any of the animals. Despite any other theories to the contrary, the world, all of its physical aspects, and all of its creatures depends upon an inborn cooperation. The species do not compete with each other over a given territory, no matter how frequently that appears to be the case.

Science has promoted the idea that hostility is a constant attribute of nature and all of its parts, while it sees the cooperating characteristics of nature as rather infrequent or extraordinary — but certainly outside of the norm.

Even biologically on the most microscopic of levels, there is a vast inbred network of cooperating activity, and these unite the animals and mineral kingdoms with all the other aspects of earthly existence. Each organism has a purpose, and it is to fulfill its own capabilities in such a way that it benefits all other organisms.

Each organism is therefore helped in its development by each and every other organism, and the smooth operation of one contributes to the integrity of all. Men and women did not begin hunting animals until certain groups of animals needed a way to control their own population. As I have said before in previous blogs, men, women and animals learned from each other. They were immediate allies, not enemies.

Men and women also domesticated animals almost from the very first, so that men, women and animals both did each other a service — they worked together. The stability of planetary life depended above all upon this basic cooperation, in which all species pooled together.

Man’s and woman’s brain was always the size that it is now, and the animals existed in the forms by which we know them today. No animal — or virus — is truly extinct. All exist in an inner web-work, and are held in the memory of an overall earthly knowledge — one that is biological, so that each smallest microbe has within it the imprinted biological messages that form each and every other microbe. The existence of one presupposes that existence of all, and the existence of all is inherent in the existence of one.

In those early days men and women did live to ages that would amaze today — many living to be several hundred years old. This was indeed due to the fact that their knowledge was desperately needed, and their experience. They were held in veneration, and they cast their knowledge into songs and stories that were memorized throughout the years.

Beside this, however, their energy was utilized in a different fashion than ours is. They alternated between the waking and dream states, and while asleep they did not age as quickly. Their bodily processes slowed. Although this was true, their dreaming mental processes did not slow down. There was a much greater communication in the dream state, so that some lessons were taught during dreams, while others were taught in the waking condition.

There was a greater and greater body of knowledge to be transmitted as physical existence continued, for they did not transmit private knowledge only, but the entire body of knowledge that belonged to the group or tribe as a whole.

Now: our dreams represent the larger rooms of beliefs into which we are emerging. The many people, and connecting rooms, represent the new structure of vaster beliefs that are all interconnected while we are still, however, concentrating upon the private creative self, and from that viewpoint viewing the world — hence our private corner in which we paint, as from that corner of private creativity we view the large interacting structure of new beliefs.

The Bible is a conglomeration of parables and stories, intermixed with some unclear memories of much earlier times .The bible that we recognize — or that is recognized — in not the first however, but was compiled from several earlier ones as man and woman tried to look back, so to speak, and recount his and her past and predict his and her future.

Such bibles existed, not written down but carried orally, as mentioned some time ago, by the Speakers. It was only much later that this information was written down, and by then, of course, much had been forgotten. This is apart from the fact of tampering, or downright misinformation as various factions used the material for their own ends.

The paternal feelings of our dreams, allow us to expand our experience while in the dream state. This also presents us with an example of the ways in which early man and woman expanded his and her own knowledge and experience in the dream state. In the same way, as mentioned in a previous blog, man and woman also had dream images of actual geographical locations to which he or she had not physically traveled.

Misdirected Good Intent

If any of my blog readers, are in poor health, or generally unhappy, no one is asking you to pretend that those conditions do not exist. I hope to show you that even those unfortunate situations were created out of a misdirected good intent. In these blogs we will keep reminding you, however, that exuberance and high spirits are a natural part of our heritage.

We also hope to allow you to recapture those feelings, if you have lost them, and to give other ways of keeping those emotions fresh and intact. Blog readers will benefit in various fashions, according to their own conditions and intents, but every blog reader will benefit to some degree or another — and each blog reader will become reacquainted with those inner springs of vitality and wellbeing that are so important in human experience.

Concentrate upon the joys that you possess, keep your goals in mind, and trust the infinite intelligence within you to bring about the desired results. This frees your mind and allows improvements to continue without interruptions.

It’s our version of worrying that desired effects may not be brought into the present — that is, will not come into your close vision. When you feel that way, close your eyes, of only for a moment, reassure yourself that you can trust your vision — mental and physical — and that indeed your goals will be brought into clear focus.

Playing Consciousness At different Speeds

The analogy of the many speeds of consciousness actually fits in well with the actual neurological sequences upon which consciousness plays. As we know, everything alive is conscious — and even so-called dead matter possesses  its own variety of self-awareness.

In our terms, the rhythm of some kind of consciousness would seem exceedingly slow, so that a century might pass between one perception and the next. Other variations might seem amazingly quick — the perceptions following each other so swiftly that they would indeed escape our perception entirely; yet in the wondrous marvels of inner nature, all of these rhythms are connected one to the others, and in a matter of speaking — excuse the pun — they each balance each other.

It is not so much the actual rhythms that are manifested that make the difference in perception, but the absence of certain other rhythms, upon which perception ride.

The Present Becomes the Past

Apropos of our discussion concerning time.

The nature of universal creativity is so remarkable that it’s true reaches are literally beyond most understanding. The implications are staggering — so that the affair is almost impossible to explain.

The past, and every moment of the past, are being constantly changed from the operation point of the present. In our terms, the present becomes the past, which is again at every considerable point from the latest-present. Yet through all of this immense, continuous creation, there is always a personal sense of continuity: We never really lose our way in the distance between one moment and the next.

In somewhat of the same fashion the objects about us are constantly in motion, as we know. The atoms and molecules are forever moving, and in a way the electrons are the directors of that motion.

Our own focus is so precisely and finely tuned that despite all of that activity, objects appear solid. Now objects are also events, and perhaps that is the easiest way to understand them. They are highly dependent upon our own subjective focus. Let that focus falter for a briefest amount of time, and the whole house of cards would come tumbling down, so to speak.

Remember that we are also objects, and also events, and as physical bodies our organs are also composed of atoms and molecules whose motion, again, is directed by the electrons.

The electrons themselves have their own subjective lives. They are subjective events, therefore, so there is always a correlation between those electrons in our bodies and those in the objects we see about us. Nevertheless again, subjective continuity itself never falters, in that it is always a part of the world that it perceives, so that us and the world create each other, in these terms.

When we change the past from each point of the latest-present, we are also changing events at the most microscopic levels. Our intent has also an electronic reality, therefore. It is almost as if our thoughts punched the keys of some massive computer, for our thoughts do indeed have a force. Even as sentences are composed of words, there is no end to the number of sentences that can be spoken — so “time” is composed of an endless variety of electronic languages that can “speak” a million worlds instead of words.

 

Dates are but designations applied to the days.

Mankind and womankind lived without such designations for a much longer period than he or she have used them. Animals, without such designations, still know their position on the planet itself, and they are aware of tides and the movement of the earth and planets.