Posts Tagged ‘Universal Awareness’
Our Mentality is Our Reality:
~ Quotations and Reflections
“Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else.”
~ George Orwell, 1984
“Perception is a mirror, not a fact.
And what I look on is my state of mind, reflected outward.”
~ A Course In Miracles
“We do not see things as they are;
we see things as we are.”
~ Talmud
“Our mentality is our reality.
Our “reality” is what we think it to be.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“All appearances are verily one’s own concepts, self-conceived in the mind, like reflections seen in a mirror. To know whether this be so or not, look within thine own mind.”
~ Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche)
“Objective reality does not exist” ….
“the universe is fundamentally a gigantic … hologram”
~ David Bohm
“Reality” isn’t REAL!
“Reality” is an holographic theater of the mind.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“As you grow up, you form a mental image of who you are,
based on your personal and cultural conditioning. We may call this phantom self the ego.
It consists of mind activity and can only be kept going through constant thinking. The term ego means different things to different people, but when I use it … it means a false self, created by unconscious identification with the mind. …..As long as you are identified with your mind, the ego runs your life.”
~ Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now
“If the doors of perception were cleansed
everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.”
~ William Blake
“If you could get rid of yourself just once,
the secret of secrets would open to you.
The face of the unknown, hidden beyond the universe
would appear on the mirror of your perception.”
~ Rumi
“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.
What is essential is invisible to the eye.”
~ Antoine de Saint Exupery
“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart.
Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.”
~ Carl Jung
“For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror;
then we shall see face to face.
Now I know in part;
then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
~ 1 Corinthians 13:12
“True vision is insight, not eyesight.
‘[N]ow we see through a glass darkly’,
but with ever expanding human consciousness and ever deepening insight,
we can and shall ‘see’ more and more –
we can and shall see what we couldn’t see before.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“When your sense of self is no longer tied to thought, is no longer conceptual, there is a depth of feeling, of sensing, of compassion, of loving, that was not there when you were trapped in mental concepts. You are that depth.”
~ Eckhart Tolle
“There are two ways of spreading light –
to be the candle, or the mirror that reflects it.”
~ Edith Wharton
“And we, with our unveiled faces reflecting like mirrors the glory of the Lord, all grow brighter and brighter as we are turned into the image that we reflect.”
~ 2 Corinthians 3:18
“Reality’s essence is Divine luminescence.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
Introduction to “Our Mentality is Our Reality”.
This poetic essay describes and explains persistent egoic thought processes by which Humankind mentally conceive, label and self-identify themselves as supposedly separate mortal entities in a misperceived space/time “reality”.
It is shared with the aspiration of helping us recognize and reverse these constant ego/mind processes, which inevitably subject us to karmic-causal sufferings and limitations of our inconceivably infinite potentialities. [See e.g. The Way In, Is The Way Out ]
Our Mentality is Our Reality
Through the ‘mirror of the mind’
we think we see space/time “reality” –
as multiplicity of seemingly separate
beings, objects, forms and phenomena.
But our perceptions and self-identifications
as separate mortal entities is a mere mirage;
“an optical illusion of consciousness” .
What we think see is merely our state of mind
reflected and projected outward.
Such illusory vision is invariably obscured and distorted;
it arises from our personal and cultural mental conditioning – our ego/minds.
Ego/minds distortedly refract, reflect and project
onto the ‘reflective’ screen of human consciousness
the unseen light of Eternal Awareness – our true Self.
As Eternal Awareness, what we really see
are ego-minds’ ever conditioned
misperceptions, reflections, and projections.
As a mirror’s reflection depends not only on its optical transparency and precision , but also on the angle from which it is viewed,
our perception and response to the space/time world,
depends not only on our state of mind,
but on our unique point of view – each from a different place in time and space.
As still, clear water best reflects light –
while permitting perception of its depths,
a still, clear mind best reflects and reveals
the invisible Light of Self-awareness.
The fewer our thoughts,
the clearer and calmer our mind,
and the deeper and more transparent our awareness.
The more we think,
the more conditioned, disturbed and perturbed is the mind,
and the more it refracts, distorts and dims the eternal light of pure Awareness.
The clearer and calmer our mind,
the more skillfully we experience
ever changing quantum energies,
without attachment or reflexively reacting to them.
With meditation and other attentive mind-stilling modes,
we can clear and enlighten our mind –
From opacity to translucency to transparency –
from mental mirror to window of the soul.
Thereby, with ever expanding awareness
and ever deepening insight,
We can and shall ‘see’ and be,
more and more –
what we couldn’t see or be
before.
We can and shall see and BE:
Wholeness, Holiness, SELF –
Infinite Potentiality, Awareness, Bliss;
Eternal Peace, Life, Light – LOVE!
And so it shall be!
Ron Rattner
Ron’s Commentary on Our Mentality as Our Reality.
Dear Friends,
Have you ever wondered why the world seems so crazy? Why so many people worldwide unnecessarily suffer from wars, poverty, illness, lack of basic life-sustaining necessities? Why even in the richest nation on Earth, suffering is ubiquitous? Why even materially super-rich people often become depressed, addicted or mentally disturbed?
For millennia mystic teachers and spiritual scriptures have consistently identified ego/mind as the ‘biggest enemy of humans’. So understanding and eliminating ego has always been of supreme spiritual importance.
But in the current “new normal” coronavirus era of unprecedented worldwide human suffering and turmoil, it is crucial that a “critical mass” of Humankind very soon realize at long last how we are ignorantly and unsustainably creating enormous problems by habitually identifying ourselves with our thoughts.
After my mid-life change of life, I began deeply reflecting on root causes of our pervasive pathologies, individually and societally. In the above essay/poem and quotes, I’ve shared my perspectives about how and why illusionary human perceptions and thoughts are causing extremely psychopathic behaviors which threaten life on earth as we have known it.
If you agree, please consider and share them, to help heal the world.
Conclusion.
In the Bible (1 Corinthians 13:11-12), St. Paul observes that “now we see through a glass darkly”,
but that some day we shall fully know, as we are fully Known now by the Divine. Now, we view our “reality” through the ‘mirror of the mind’, which imperfectly refracts and reflects the unseen light of Eternal Awareness onto the screen of our human consciousness.
But, with meditation and other mind-stilling methods, we can and shall evolve and transform our mind mirror, from opacity to translucency to transparency (as ‘window of the soul’). And thereby, with ever expanding human consciousness and ever deepening insight, we can and shall ‘see’ more and more – what we couldn’t see before.
Invocation.
As ever more we inwardly SEE
May we ever more inwardly BE:
Wholeness, Holiness, SELF –
Infinite Potentiality, Awareness, Bliss;
Eternal Peace, Life, Light – LOVE!
And so shall it be!
Ron Rattner
The Eyes Have It – It’s In Every One of Us
The eyes are the windows of the soul.
~ Traditional Proverb
“The windows of my soul I throw
Wide open to the sun.”
~ John Greenleaf Whittier, My Psalm
“Open thine eyes — bright windows to the soul”
~ William Hetherington
“It is the soul itself which sees and hears,
and not those parts which are, as it were,
but windows to the soul…”
~ Marcus Tullius Cicero
“There is a light that shines beyond all things on Earth, …
beyond the highest, the very highest heavens.
This is the light that shines in your Heart.”
~ Chandogya Upanishad 3.13.7
“Let my soul smile through my heart
and my heart smile through my eyes,
that I may scatter rich smiles in sad hearts.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda
Ven. Kalu Rinpoche (1905 – May 10, 1989)
The Eyes Have It – It’s In Every One of Us
The eyes are the world’s windows to the soul;
and the soul’s windows to the world.
The eyes gleam with Eternal Light –
of Infinite Awareness –
our Common “I”ness.
The Eyes Have It.
So, let us open our hearts to the Infinite,
through gleaming eyes of others.
Ever remembering that –
“It’s In Every One of Us”.
“It’s In Every One of Us” – David Pomeranz
Photos & Video by Wernher Krutein.
Lyrics Refrain: “It’s In Every One of Us”
It’s in every one of us to be wise
Find your heart
And open up both your eyes
We can all know every thing
Without ever knowing why
It’s in every one of us by and by
Synchronicity Story: Apples and The Road Not Taken
“I am open to the guidance of synchronicity,
and do not let expectations hinder my path.”
~ Dalai Lama
“Synchronicity is choreographed by a great, pervasive intelligence that lies at the heart of nature, and is manifest in each of us through what we call the soul.”
~ Deepak Chopra, Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire
Apples and The Road Not Taken
On a Monday, I purchased two bags of Granny Smith apples at the Rainbow Grocery. I had then been accustomed to eating just half an apple daily. But the apples were a bit small and especially delicious. So instead of eating just half an apple (as I’d been doing) I started eating a whole apple daily. On Friday I realized that I wouldn’t have enough apples to last until my next planned trip to Rainbow, and thought that I’d need four more apples before then.
Later, on taking my usual walk through Fort Mason to the beach at Aquatic Park, I was walking up the steep bayside paved road for pedestrians and bicycles, when as I came to the summit my path crossed synchronistically with that of my friend Carol Schuldt (the legendary then 76 year old swimmer/surfer/cyclist). Like a mountain goat she emerged from walking on the natural steep bayside cliff below the road, and she climbed up onto the paved path where I was walking.
I asked in astonishment, “Carol what were you doing walking down there?” She replied that she didn’t like to walk in crowded places where others walk, but was glad to see me because she had brought me something in her backpack.
Thereupon, I told Carol she reminded me of a famous poem called “The Road Not Taken”. But momentarily I forgot the poet author’s name. Whereupon, Carol (who is not well read in literature and poetry) promptly reminded me that it was Robert Frost. I asked, “Carol, how did you know that?” In reply she told me that three days ago someone left a book of Frost’s poetry in front of her house. She picked it up and randomly opened it to a page where that poem appeared. Here it is:
The Road Not Taken
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Carol and I then walked together to the beach, where she removed her backpack, and gave me four fresh apples which she’d brought for me.
Carol Schuldt and Ron Rattner at Aquatic Beach
