The Scenic Route To A Long Life (Infographic)

Infographic courtesy dailyinfographic.com via Truththeory.com

Credit: Dailyinfographic.com

Why You’re Not A Genius, But Should (And Could) Be

Image taken from http://thedeenashow.tumblr.com/

Geniuses are always admired by people because it seems as though they have some innate mandate from the cosmos to manifest mental brilliance and display it to the world. The most commonly known individual is of course Albert Einstein, as well as Steven Hawking; artist, Picasso; writers like Dickens and Hemingway; inventors such as Thomas Edison, and other lesser known “mental artists” like Jacque Fresco (check out The Venus Project to learn about him and his work). As brilliant as these individuals are and were, what is unknown by most people is that their abilities are not something that is outside the reach of the average person, because these individuals are (and were) people, just like you and me. So what is the difference? The difference is that they lived by their imaginations, and nurtured them and exercised them. They are in tune with what is referred to as the super-consciousness, or higher consciousness–the aspect of our being that is everywhere and in everything, and which governs our conscious and subconscious operation. The average person, when they are young is consistently discouraged from using their imagination to view the world as they ascend in age. What is not known is that imagination is not just something that is used to pass the time when one is young and then should be forgotten once one has reached a certain age. It is the aspect of oneself rooted in the frequency of existence that is trying to get one’s conscious self to create something in this reality. If it goes ignored, or worse, is actively quelled, then according the workings of the subconscious mind, over time one will learn not to listen to their intuition, and it will diminish (though not totally disappear). Let us examine why.

The conscious mind can be described as the “monkey mind,” a description very prevalent in Chinese thought where it is known as Xin (pronounced “hsin”) or emotional mind. The monkey mind jumps around like a little monkey (hence the name), rarely if ever being fully present in the current moment. This erratic mind just so happens to make up only 5 to 10 percent of the overall consciousness spectrum in which we operate. Despite this, it seems to occupy the entirety of our everyday experience, twenty-four hours a day. With such a troublesome little guy hopping around in there, it may come as no surprise that it gets in the way the majority of the time, preventing the subconscious mind from fully coming to the forefront, and unleash its total potential.

The subconscious mind, or the yi (the wisdom mind), is the part of consciousness spectrum that stores information and acts as the foundation that brings things to the surface, so to speak. Most functions of the human body are carried out subconsciously, and some can be both conscious and subconscious, like breathing for example. The subconscious mind has a big job, regulating things that the conscious aspect is too busy jumping around to handle, and it does more than command the involuntary mechanisms in the body. Deep-seeded thoughts and modes of behavior are the domain of the subconscious. I’ve found one way to describe how the subconscious mind functions using the movie Click, starring Adam Sandler. In the movie, Sandler’s character receives a remote control that allows him to operate his life as if it were a DVD player–pausing, playing, fast forwarding and reversing his reality. Eventually, he ends up fast forwarding so much, that the remote, having learned his behavior, automatically fast forwards through the same scenarios again and again, leaving Sandler’s character an old man, who missed out on his entire life. This is essentially how the subconscious mind works. It stores behaviors then recalls them at opportune moments, like an auto-pilot function. Now, this subconscious mind that is running the show below the surface makes up roughly from 90 to 95 percent of the consciousness complex. But here is the key: the subconscious mind is the direct link to the superconscious mind, which is connected to the ways of all of existence, and is precisely why, for instance, it is possible for people to know what is happening with others even when they are hundreds of miles away. Ideas that seem to come straight out of the blue, and intuition have their origins in the superconscious mind.

Those individuals who have allowed themselves to develop a firm relationship with this aspect of their being, have extreme insight and thus develop ways of doing things that the average person deems to be impossible. Why? Because the average person’s subconscious programming is such that they believe that they are separate from everything else, and that they can’t be creators or geniuses. For if you have been told throughout your life that the world is the way that others say it is, and each time that imagination (the superconscious mind) has attempted to manifest something, it was immediately quelled, one’s subconscious programming thus learns that this being that they are cannot do anything unless it is derived via pre-approved behavior and methods; the momentary flashes of inspiration and quirkiness are dismissed as mere childish fantasies. As a result, they don’t get nurtured, and thus fail to become anything other than silly daydreams. And what those who know not how to think outside the indoctrinated programming attempt to do, is make others think the way that they do. Unbeknownst to them, essentially what they are doing is inhibiting the progression of the human race one person at a time, by attempting to eradicate extraneous and “divergent” modes of thinking. This is all too common with parents and their kids, where the child is discouraged from living in “fantasies.” Parents usually have the best intentions in mind when it comes to their kids, so it is understandable that they would want them to be able to fit in and succeed in society. However, what they usually fail to realize is that the very thing that they are trying so desperately to stop their child from engaging in is precisely the thing that could serve to make their child succeed in a whole new way. Conversely, one whose mental faculties have been nurtured and humored on a consistent basis, tend to become unbounded in their abilities, and have the infrastructure in place to create things which other’s say are impossible.

 

How To Access The Super-Consciousness

Everyone’s brain can be limitless, it just depends on whether you allow it to be or not. The best way to start to explore this side of yourself is through meditation. It’s true that there is always a steady, cliché drum beat all over of “meditate meditate meditate,” but that is for a reason. Meditation will quiet the monkey mind, giving one the ability to access the part of their consciousness that can only be fully realized when it is nurtured and given room to grow. Since this is not a post on meditation, I will not delve into any details of its practice. If there are questions as to how to do meditation, there is an abundant resource on the web, or you can also contact me directly. I will be happy to answer any questions concerning meditation and some of its subtleties. My contact information can be found on the “Contact” page of this blog, or you can just leave a comment below. 

This is The Point, Right Now!

(Chapter from a work in progress)

Everything that happens in its own respective moment is the point of one’s life in that moment, because that is all there is. No gaining, no seeking or longing. No past, no future, only now. Once you see this then everything will become clear. You will live in accordance with the way of existence. As I discussed before, the problem arises when we think that there is a knower, and a “me” or “I” that can posses and own anything or any experience. Possessing is the drug that we become addicted to. If it is not yours then we must go make it yours. When it finally becomes “yours,” then you will worry from day ‘till night about how to take care of it and keep it, for fear of losing it. We live for what could be, or what should be. But living in this way we miss the point. We do everything with a goal in mind. We try to eat healthy, because it’s good for something. Some sit in meditation because it’s “good for them.” But what is “good” or “bad”? They are only words. The point of eating is just to eat. The point of sitting in meditation is just to sit in meditation. The point of learning a language is just to learn a language. Attaching to the benefits or acquisition of any type of fortune derived from doing anything will create suffering. Even if you derive benefits from it, you will suffer, for once the high subsides, you will be right back in the doldrums, desperate for more happiness. The suffering comes from longing and clinging. It comes from the running around attempting to create a world constituted of the materialization of one’s own thoughts caused by longing and clinging. Who is it that attaches to anything?

Why do you try so hard to fulfill the endless stream of random and fleeting thoughts? When one comes, we follow it. It goes away, and is replaced by another. We then follow it. Put them down. Put down attachment. Put down like, dislike, good, bad. Something “good” makes you happy, but something “bad” makes you sad or angry. Your own mind makes you happy, sad, or angry. When you can put down illusions, you will come to the realization that what is happening right now, presently in your life, is the only thing that matters, because indeed it is all there actually is.

Life is hard because we make it hard for ourselves. A whole race of beings knowing not how to live in the current moment. Every last one, wishing and fighting for “good” things to happen to “me.” Put it down.

When we look at the light from a star, or even our star, the sun, I’m sure by now we all know that the light takes some time get to us here on Earth (approximately 8.3 minutes). The light and waves we receive from the sun are always eight minutes old. We never see the sun as it is right now. Even the light that we use to see a friends face comes to us from the past — a relatively finite length of time in the past, but the past nonetheless. Our “self” is also from the past, and in anticipation of the future. Our entire world is made up of things that are never quite what they seem to be. Things that never can be grabbed or contained or possessed indefinitely. Everything is never in the place that we think it is. All is in a constant, ceaseless motion. You are never the same person as you were an instant ago, because every atom, every molecule, every cell is never for an instant the same as it was prior, or will be later. There is nothing that is permanent, so why seek to hold on to things that can not be held on to? You will make yourself suffer indefinitely. No exceptions. The only exception would be if you were to let everything go. In this instant, this would be your enlightenment.