The ecology of the moment (2)

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

3:15 a.m. Setting switches, ready for action. Focus, receptivity, clarity, presence. Yesterday you asked me to dredge for a symbol and later, at noon, meeting with Jane Coleman and Jane Peranteau for our weekly Zoom meeting, I did get a symbol, which seems to have expanded in meaning as I think about it: Saguaro cactus. (And, courtesy of the internet, I learned that it is pronounced with an elided “g”, like agua. It’s a Spanish word; I should have known that. But I had never heard it pronounced.) So – did I get what you wanted?

Not exactly, though it is a good and useful symbol of your lives in 3D, well worth expanding upon. But we are looking for a symbol of living in the moment with all the forces impinging upon you, not quite the same thing.

Yes. I should have re-read yesterday’s session before dredging. So now what?

Now – as always – proceed from where we are. Where else can anyone ever start from? Even if you think, “I’ll start from over there, rather than here,” you still have to get from “here” to “there,” so your journey still begins, as it must always, Here, Now.

And Here, Now, always partakes of the unique qualities of the present moment.

There is no other way possible. Your attention may be anywhere, but your presence must always be Here, Now, in the ever-changing present moment.

God bless Ram Dass.

And Eckhardt Tolle and many, many others, many of whom were not understood. Indeed, many who advocate living in the moment are thinking of it as combating robotic trance, and don’t realize the deeper issues involved. But good directions are good directions even if they proceed from inadequate understandings.

Now, the qualities of the moment. The image we are seeking is one that will show you in 3D, yes, but its central importance will be to symbolize the complicated mixture of influences on you at every changing moment of the eternal present tense. We phrase it this way to remind you of the two faces of time – time as sequence, and time as eternal presence.

You began by listing thought, emotion, and sensation.

Bear in mind, this ties in your individual lives with time and timing. Every moment has its unique qualities. It ties them in with the shared subjectivity, because what is available from the larger reservoir of the world’s unfinished business varies according to time, and this larger reservoir is all you have. There is no “you” separate from all-that-is. For practical purposes, it seems you are separated, but in actual fact, that would be impossible. (Could there be an all-that-is on the one hand, and then you on the other hand? Reality is like the one-armed economist Harry Truman said he wanted, so that the economist could not say “on the other hand.” There is only everything, all one thing, all mind-stuff. Infinitely complex, infinitely complicated and subdivided, but all one thing. Period. You may function autonomously (at least, in your own perception), but you could never be independent. And even the extent of your autonomy is easily exaggerated.

You will remember, we said you are not primarily rational beings. That doesn’t mean you are crazy, nor necessarily over-emotional. But it does mean that rationality is the tip of the human pyramid – the latest addition – not the first or even the second in importance or in order of arrival.

First comes sensation. First in order of arrival, first in sheer volume (to the degree that abstractions may be considered to have volume), first in importance in maintaining the human body-mind mechanism as a functioning unit.

Next comes emotion, that is, feeling. Not meaning feeling in the sense of tactile sensation, of course. This is the continued adjustment in your mind between the world you know and the world you don’t. A better way to say that – but, nonetheless, a restatement, not a difference – is the continual ratio of personal subjectivity (local mind, one might say) and shared subjectivity (group mind; all-that-is; the racial unconscious).

Only atop these comes all the mental activity that usually passes for your mental life: thoughts, memories, associations, plans, fantasies, constructions, etc.., etc. This is the most evident part of your psychic life, but, as we say, it is the tip of the pyramid, latest and least in volume, in continuity, and in connection.

Thus the first, sensation, may be said to be shared with all creatures regarded as animate. The second, emotion, may be seen as being shared with all animals. The third is common only to self-reflective creatures – humans, cetaceans, certain other species to various degrees, and – usually forgotten in this context – energetic beings not necessarily possessed of a body but intrinsically interacting with 3D.

Spirits.

Yes, but non-3D doesn’t mean only spirits. There are energy-beings tied to the 3D (energy is the same thing as matter, remember: it’s all mind-stuff) whose role is here, now, or here-over-time, or now-without-here. We’ll go into this another time. We merely mark the place here.

I look forward to the discussion.

Meanwhile, let’s finish this phase. Your “soup” is thus many kinds of input. Since the volume would overwhelm your RAM, the brain filters out almost all sensory input; it treats emotional input mostly as invisible unnoticed mood-music; and it processes thought, memory, fantasy, association etc. mostly on back-burners, only on the front burner to a very limited extent.

And your repeated admonitions to us that we clear our RAM as much as possible is to leave us more RAM with which to experience the world.

That you may begin to have life more abundantly, yes. But the operative suggestion here is this: Now that you know that most of what affects you is below the level of your consciousness, use your attention to become more aware of it. The more conscious attention you put on your life, the clearer you will see, the greater you will connect, the more effectively you will act, and the better you will choose.

That’s promising a lot.

Not more than we can deliver, though. Or rather, not more than you can provide for yourselves.

And how do we increase our awareness? Intent, certainly, but – something more?

Sustained intent will lead you to anything you need. And, as in anything else in life, assistance is always at hand. It is a matter of your knowing what you want, and wanting it undividedly. (That is, unconsciously as well as consciously.)

That last seems to invite further comment.

Nothing you don’t already know. “Unconsciously as well as consciously” is the same as saying, “with all your component strands in agreement.” The better you forge unity of will out of diversity of elements, the greater your power to choose effectively.

Now, that’s an hour, and a good place to pause, and it is “(2).”

So next time we begin, where?

Perhaps we can discuss energy beings.

Our thanks, as always.