Slice of Life

In a recent FB post, I pointed to the existence of innate wisdom in us all and, when we are in a relaxed frame of mind, its emergence as a shift in consciousness. Wisdom can unfold at any time, regardless of whether we are in the presence of an experienced practitioner or not.

Today, however, I’d like to highlight the value of hanging out with experienced practitioners, whether one on one, in groups or via books, podcasts or blog posts. Each person (practising in this field or not) who has had a deep insight into the principles behind our experience of life has had a momentary, intimate experience with/exposure to a small slice of a much bigger phenomenon. We are like the blind men bumping up against an elephant, describing what they claim to be the entire beast and not realising that the entirety of the best cannot be fully grasped in one small handspan. Yes, what they encountered was the beast, they got a glimmer of it but not its entirety. As have people who have had a deep insight into a sliver of the principles by which we create our experience of Life. At that moment, they brushed up against the nature of the principles but not their entirety. And nor do we need to. Syd Banks always said ‘explore the nature of Mind, or the nature of Consciousness, or the Nature of Thought, and you will find your way, because they are all the same.’

IMG_0686Some time ago, in a mentoring session with a client, the client broke down at the thought of a family member’s unthinking remark. What I initially brought to that moment was what I have seen about the innate existence of wisdom in us all and how it played out in that scenario. The activity of innate wisdom is my slice I have seen deeply. Other West Australian practitioners most probably would have responded differently based on their own deep insights. John Wood may initially have responded with an exploration into whether the thinking in that moment arose out of the realm of Possibility, or whether it was habitual, conditioned thinking from Impossibility. Terrie Sanders may have initially gently guided my client back into a good feeling because she has experienced deeply the power of that good feeling to change. Whilst Rolf Clausnitzer, being firmly grounded in the simplicity of the Three Principle understanding of the inside out nature of our experience, may have drawn attention to the fact that my client’s feelings were created from their thinking and not to take it seriously.

Initially, at least, each of us may have brought the slice of what we have seen deeply about the principles by which human beings create their experience of life to that moment in this mentoring session. And none of us would have been wrong. Where the session would have gone from there I don’t know. All of us know the infinite potential that every human mind can access. I do know however we would all have listened deeply.

So hang out with others, read books, listen to podcasts, and write. I’m not sure any human being can fully grasp the expansiveness and infinite nature of the principles behind Life but if we stay open and listen deeply, then wisdom within will respond and reveal a sliver that expands our slice of understanding. Our consciousness shifts from within and every time it does, we become more fully alive.

Deeper Wisdom …

I usually refer to that active knowing within as wisdom. But in a conversation with a colleague the other day she spontaneously referred to it as a person’s God given intelligence. As those words left her lips both of us felt their impact and realised the depth of what she had just uttered.

God given …. not some isolated faculty, one that is divinely gifted. We are not isolated, we are connected via a power greater than our physical beings and we remain connected throughout our lives. This realisation led to a bigger discussion about love, about a power bursting with so much love that it could not contain the impulse to  share it. Wisdom … God given intelligence … Love.

In the Three Principles material, wisdom is also referred to as common sense. In general, the senses are usually referred to as our way of perceiving and navigating the physical world. But common sense is something different. It is a sense we have in common, it is a sense that enables us to perceive the oneness that flows through all of us, it is the sense that enables us to perceive wisdom … the intelligence that a greater power streams through all of us.

longbeach-4Listen to that intelligence and you jump the boundaries of time. Listen to that intelligence and you don’t have to wait for hindsight to gain wisdom. Listen to that intelligence and you gain wisdom immediately. I once knew a man who had a friendship that did not serve him well. The friend undermined this man’s family life and his words contributed to the dissolution of this man’s marriage. A decade of experience with this friend later, the man could see what he had ignored a decade earlier and ended the friendship. The sad part is that wisdom was knocking on his thinking all those years ago but he ignored it. He ignored it and then needed a decade more of chaos before he accepted wisdom’s words. Because wisdom (the formless) is always coming up against our formed thinking – an operating system devoid of acknowledgement of gifted Divine intelligence. It is the repository of original sin – an absence of awareness. But once we wake up to the very real presence of wisdom streaming through us everything changes. As we listen to it we no longer need so much painful experience in order to learn, we jump the boundaries of time.

In listening for wisdom, in listening to wisdom and acting upon it, (a) we loosen up the formed thinking by which we have lived, we change our level of consciousness, and (b) we are no longer bound to live our formed thinking out so that we may change. Wisdom can be gained through physical world experience, or it can be gained through listening to the divinely gifted intelligence that runs through us all.  All we have to do is wake up to Wisdom’s presence and the journey within begins.