[7luminaries]

Originally Posted by Starman
We are always dealing with our own consciousness, even if we think we are dealing with someone else and what they have said or done. We are always dealing with our own conscience and what we have put in our own consciousness; our conscience is as a gateway to our own consciousness, and some things which we have put in our consciousness we have nurtured more than others. We have a passion for some things more than others and then there are those things which were thrust upon us over the course of our human life. These things are floating around in our consciousness as well. Things from our childhood, etc.

Hey there Starman, agreed. And very nicely said.
I just want to throw out a few thoughts on this nicely stated bit of reflection.

True clarity is when we have cleared our consciousness, and that clearing process goes deep within our own sub-conscious nature to things which we may have long buried there. We care for our physical body on a daily basis but most people do not take care of their own mind until something goes screwy and then they will take some medication or see a therapist, etc. I am having a wonderful time communing and interacting with my own consciousness, and grateful for the awareness to recognize what I have put in my consciousness, some of those things going back decades.

There is a clearing, there is a discovery, there is an integration and a deepening, there is a metamorphosis of total transformation and renewal...cycling around and back again. That is what I have realised. There is always more. When we are at peace and centred, the now-centred, peaceful, balanced flame of desire for Source will always lead us to the next step, the next place on our path. But, at the closing of any one cycle, it may seem to us that a rest and a consolidation is at hand or is well-deserved

Mental states are physical states as what we dwell upon in our mind will find its way into our cellular physical structure. We all have our cross to bear, physical, mental, or emotional limitations which challenge us. No one, no doctor or health practitioner, can know us the way that we know ourselves. I feel challenged just dealing with my seventy-year-old physical body. I have found that most spiritual seekers came out of very traumatic backgrounds or have some potentially debilitating condition which requires constant maintenance. Often it is their perceived limitations that spur them to seek after a greater truth.

I think my own experienced and iniquities, my personal challenges and shortcomings, have always encouraged me to delve very deeply into the heart and mind. But you're so right...too often it's only when you're completely shattered and spent do you undergo the most profound metamorphoses, often through sheer necessity. That applies to me as well. I think grace and faith in what is produce an adaptability that allows for profound transformation and growth, and those things too are often greatly strengthened in trying times.

I do love the silence that I experience when I quiet my mind and I have come to realize that the closer I get to the source of any experience the stronger that experience becomes. Silence has a source which we humans may refer to as a “void.” People often associate the word “silence” with the word “peace. “ Well, when we quiet our mind there is a “peace which surpasses understanding.”

That void sometimes enters my consciousness and it often startles me because it comes on suddenly, a very deep and pervasive empty expansive whose peripheral is experienced as silence, when delved into deeper presents a very thick and unfathomably quiet void; although it is not a “void” at all. Which to my inquisitive mind has an ominous presence. I have often wondered how cognitive dissidence, or what we humans’ generally may call “mental disorders,” are related to spiritual matters. What we humans experience as “silence” is but a faint emanation coming from an expansive depth of incredible stillness and overwhelming quiet. A depth which is in the here and now and we experience its emanations as silence just as we experience the emanations from the sun as sunlight.

Yes, I feel all is ultimately of and emanated from Source, so I do think there is a huge and largely unknown and misunderstood spiritual aspect to many mental illnesses, including the holistic impact of health and well-being, as well as deprivation, neglect, abuse, and other harms to the body, which can perpetrate or worsen mental illness.

We humans are conditioned in a three-dimensional environment transitioning into an environment that may be beyond three dimensions. Its’ strange because I know I live and have my being in the midst of that “void” every moment of my existence, while I sit here and talk about it like it is something which is over there removed from my immediate presence. We sit in the midst of infinity while we contemplate how to access infinity. Funny, how the mind wants to know what the heart already understands. We are born with everything we need to make a smooth transition when we withdraw from our physical existence.

Hahaha Truly, perhaps it's not so funny at all really. We are intended to struggle, to awaken the heart and the intellect, and to consciously take difficult choices to lead from the heart and to submit awakened intellect (mind) in service to heart.

With that metamorphosis, which as noted is quite profound, there is no conflict and no choice to be made. We align and integrate our being at centre and all aspects of our being are of value. For many, this means honouring the body, which was historically maligned as banal and in a modern twist on the whole "the body is banal" philosophy, it is exploited and pimped out mercilessly in the modern era. For others, this could mean understanding the value of intellect and reason in support of strengthening foundational equanimity, one of the two key pillars of authentic love (the other being lovingkindness, of course).

I do think that it's ok to seek to become conscious of, to surface consciously, some of our deepest experiences and impressions. So long as we are ok in accepting that there is much to the mystery that remains out of our view or awareness. In fact, I think the art of surfacing is a critical aspect of taking full ownership for the crafting of the eternal soul or consciousness that we are. Slowly. One moment and one choice (of intent, thought, word, or deed) at a time From eternity to eternity, and beyond.

Peace & blessings
7L