Consciousness

Lakshmi

/ Iam Saums / 2 Comments

“Wake from reality. Wake from your dream.

Wake from the fear, that is tearing at the seams of the world.”

 – (From the song, “Wake.”)

http://www.iamsmusic.com/

The Essence of Lakshmi:

On Friday, November 11th, 2016, I will be releasing my most recent album entitled, “Lakshmi.”  It is twelve original musical pieces I composed and arranged.  The album features fifteen different genres including Funk, Latin, Ragtime, Country Swing, Reggae, Progressive Jazz, Classical Tone Poem, Jazz Instrumental, Native American Folk Anthem, Spiritual Mantra, Motown Soul, Traditional Bluegrass and Folk Ballad.  There are seventeen different instruments, fifteen of which I performed for this recording including Acoustic Guitar, Acoustic Bass, Grand Piano, Drum Kit, Congas, Bongos, Shakers, Cajon (box drum), Lakota Drum, Timbale, Clave, Maracas, Washboard, Hand Jive, Vibra-Slap and Whistle.  The Saxophone was performed by Michael Teager.  The Pedal Steel Guitar was performed by David Feeny.

Music in 444 Hertz:     

The “Lakshmi” album was recorded in 444-hertz frequency.  The tuning for most contemporary music is 440-hertz.  In the 20th century, the standard tuning was altered from 432 to 440-hertz during the World War Era.  This alteration manipulated the sound quality to a frequency that incites chaos, dis-ease, fear and mania.  444-hertz is less than a half-a-step sharper than 440-hertz in tonality.  It has a naturally bright, etheric, multi-tonal, organic and resonant sound quality.  In my experience, there are more under and overtones of the existing notes present using the 444-hertz tuning.  It is a frequency that is very easy to listen to and inspires creativity, empowerment and imagination.

Source:

All the songs on the “Lakshmi” album where inspired by and created through the practice of Mantra Meditation.  Mantra is a style of meditation in the Jain tradition using an ancient word or words that are associated with one of the seven chakras.  This practice allowed me to be present to the infinite possibilities of creativity during the composition, development, arrangement, performance, recording and production of the “Lakshmi” album.  In some of my experiences during meditation I intuitively heard parts and/or all the songs and their unique arrangements like I was listening to an internal radio.  Meditation also helped me to hear the many diverse instruments, their melodies and harmonies and how they were meant to be recorded and mixed. Meditation helped me learn to play most of the instruments in a matter of weeks!

Dedication:

During the renaissance era, it was customary for composers to be funded by nobility and royalty for the sustenance of their creative expression.  Many composers dedicated their pieces to those who sponsored their creative endeavors.  The “Lakshmi” album was funded by my wife Laura and I.  In honor of Laura’s commitment, support and the fact that she was the inspiration for many of the songs, the album is named “Lakshmi.” “Lakshmi” is the Spiritual Name given to her by Gurudev Shree Chitrubanuji.  “Lakshmi” is the Hindu Goddess of wealth, love, fortune, prosperity (both material and spiritual) and the embodiment of beauty.

The Music:

Wake:

“Wake” is a progressive Funk Latin piece.  It’s lyrical subject matter is about awakening to what is going on in our world.  It is about seeing it for what it is and not for how we would like it to be.  “Wake” is about claiming our personal power and making a difference.  It is the realization that we are the creators of our reality.  We are all divine.

Break the Spell:    

“Break the Spell” is a Ragtime Delta Stomp.  It is about freeing ourselves from the spell of reality that we have been conditioned to accept.  “Break the Spell” poses important questions as to where we are and where we are going.  The heart of its message is releasing all that we have grown accustomed to in our life and embracing all that truly empowers and inspires us.

The Heart of Town:

“The Heart of Town” is a Country Swing Memorial.  It was inspired by and written in honor of my Grandfather, Howard Saums.  The lyrics of the piece were taken from an interview he did with our family prior to his passing.  It is a family snapshot that immortalizes his life in one of his favorite musical genres.  “The Heart of Town” is a grandson’s testimony of his grandfather’s authenticity, charity, integrity and love.

Truth:

“Truth” is a Reggae song with Urban undertones.  “Truth” powerfully expresses an acknowledgement of the inequalities and injustices in the world.  It shines the spotlight on those who would choose to commit them as a warning that the “Truth” will find them in their time.  The chorus pleads for our trust in “Truth” and each other.

Lakshmi Part I: The Rhythm of Light:

“Lakshmi Part I: The Rhythm of Light” is a Progressive Vocal Jazz piece.  It is very eclectic in nature with contrary melodies and rhythms and tribal percussion.  It is the opening movement of the “Lakshmi Suite.”  The lyrical story line is the first encounter between the man and the woman.  It is the man’s courtship of his soul mate through his creative expression.

Lakshmi Part II: The Breath of Life:

“Lakshmi Part II: The Breath of Life” is a Classical Vocal arrangement.  The lone percussion is the unified heartbeat of the man and the woman and its melodies and harmonies swell as the ebb and flow of a tide.  It is the second movement of the “Lakshmi Suite.”  The lyrical story line is their intimate stroll in the moonlight and their declaration of love for each other.

Lakshmi Part III: Mandala:

“Lakshmi Part III: Mandala” is a Progressive Jazz Instrumental.  It begins soft and subtle on the heels of the preceding movement, “The Breath of Life,” and gradually develops into an upbeat and exuberant dance of union between the man and woman.  It is the final movement of the “Lakshmi Suite” and it symbolizes their shared journey through life experience.

Medicine Wheel:              

“Medicine Wheel” is a Native American inspired Folk Anthem.  The drums and rattles signify the heartbeat of Mother Earth.  The lyrical subject matter is honoring and respecting the Earth which provides all of what we as human beings need to thrive.  It is a call to action that inspires us to stand together to preserve and protect the planet we all call home.

All That I Am:

“All That I Am” is a Spiritual Vocal Mantra.  The smooth vocal arrangement and complimentary percussion gives it an authentic and endearing quality.  It is an autobiographical account of the strengths and weaknesses each one of us express in our lives.  The progressive vocal weaves a delicate tapestry of harmony that builds until the final voice captures the importance of the present moment.

Fly On Me:

“Fly On Me” is a Motown Soul song.  It is the tender plea of a man attempting to encourage a woman to stay.  The music expresses his emotional desire and clarifies the dynamics of his love for her.  The Saxophone is the embodiment of the possibility of his loneliness without her.  Yet, the lyrics symbolize a desperate confidence she will stay.

Nature’s Way:

“Nature’s Way” is a Traditional Bluegrass song fresh from the Appalachian Mountains and the green hills of Ireland.  With a driving, acoustic guitar rhythm and acoustic bass paired with foot stomp, hand jive and washboard, it is one person’s journey to the mountaintop of their spiritual experience.  It is an important and stirring lyrical expose on the state of our society.

Afterglow:

“Afterglow” is a Folk Groove Ballad about the completion of relationships.  It’s signature drum beat and pendulum style guitar and piano symbolizes the ebbs and flows of our life experiences.  The song is a moving and revealing testimony of heartbreak and possibility in the wake of separation.  It calls for us to prove the love we are to each other.

http://www.iamsmusic.com/

Cult of Spirituality

/ Iam Saums / 20 Comments

“Spirituality is an expression of our ego.”

To Wake…Per Chance to Awaken:

Humanity may be “awake,” but has it awakened?  And to what?  Spirituality is the new religion. Its enchantment places the power of enlightenment in the hands of gurus, shamans and teachers.  Droves of willing initiates emerge from the shadows of contemporary knowledge, perception, reality and understanding to enroll in classes, healings, lectures, readings and weekend workshops.  Most of us seek destiny, meaning, power and vision.  Yet, deep down we are terrified to accept and apply these qualities to our daily lives.  It is an idealistic dance with elusive partners at the cost of our ambition, awareness, energy, intention and well-being.

Soul Distinction:

Since the dawn of the human race, authentic faith has been, is and will always be a solitary engagement.  No other person(s) could or should direct, guide, influence or mediate another’s spiritual experience.  Doing so would be the antithesis of personal illumination for all parties.  Vital elements of one’s evolution are found in the creation, discovery, distinction, expression and purpose of one’s chosen path.  There is no greater empowerment or inspiration one may have then choosing, claiming and walking their destiny.  However challenging, impossible or intimidating this may seem, it is the only true way to fulfillment.

The Divided Self:

The most powerful force in our contemporary society is the ego.  The more we believe we have control of our ego, the more dominion it has over us.  We do not express the essential awareness, commitment, focus and intention to successfully manage its incessantly diabolical tendencies.  As our “spirituality” grows, so does our ego.  Left to its own covert devices, our “divided self” coils around our virtues like a weed to a flower.  It feeds upon the energy of our discoveries, insights, opportunities, possibilities and transformation.  Our divided self is as a neglected child.  It craves our attention, control, importance and power.

Kingdom Come:

Contemporary spirituality has become a mutation of human invention.  The fusion of religion with spirituality has produced a myriad of dogmas, practices and wisdoms all promising the keys to illumination, yet never delivering.  Thousands of articles, books, lectures, online events and workshops seek to entice the masses toward commercialized enlightenment.  Those of us who have not established a relationship with our soul eagerly dive headfirst into the sea of manufactured mystery.  We rarely see how truly shallow it can be.  The human race has been deceived into searching without for what can only be found within.

A Pocketful of Gurus:

Spirituality is rife with gurus.  Most adopt the title with very little commitment, understanding and even less experience.  When we are empowered, excited and inspired by new insights, opportunities and possibilities, our initial response is to share our vision.  Yet, this is not the best way to nurture the manifestation of our true expression.  Our sub-conscious reaction is to pride ourselves with our innovative epiphanies by proselytizing our personal wisdom.  We allow our ego to suppress our spirit.  This diminishes the experiences of others.  We overlook the essential truth that our insights are meant for us alone and have little or no value to others.

“Superiority walks hand-in-hand with Spirituality.”

Hierarchy of the Soul:

Society is built upon a foundation of pyramid schemes.  Whether commercial, educational, financial, political, religious or scientific, there are far fewer people at the top than there are at the bottom.  In the modern age of spirituality, it is no different.  Regardless of the modality one may practice, there is always one or a small group of people that hold dominion over the many.  We enable patterns of sanctimonious conviction with the attention and energy we sacrifice to find our soul in a forest of human perception.  We willingly give away our own personal power to avoid the fear of claiming it for ourselves.

The Mind’s Eye:

Our interpretation of spirituality has a tendency to compromise our authenticity, empathy and integrity.  Our possibility for transformation vanishes in an attempt to funnel a multi-dimensional experience into a two-dimensional perception.  Words are the language of the ego.  When we attempt to communicate what we encounter as an expression of being, we instantly sever the relationship we have with our soul.  We abolish our personal power when we endorse our own authority and significance.  Once we break our connection with eternity, we inevitably diminish our empathy, intuition, perspective and vision.

Spiritual High:

Our multi-dimensional experiences produce a remarkable rush of energy that flows through every element of our being.  In these moments we are present to and related with all.  Our soul craves these experiences.  It is the electromagnetic synthesis between our body, mind, heart and spirit.  We become the embodiment of life.  Our ego hacks this beautiful tapestry of being and manipulates it into an illusion of grandeur.  It siphons it through a filter of instinct and intellect for the purposes of vanity and supremacy.  As human beings, we become addicted to this mystical buzz in a doomed quest to satisfy our soul with the language of our ego.

Custom Consciousness:

The only true power we have is our consciousness.  This extraordinary expression of our being transcends the ego.  Where our ego attempts to prove itself and impose its influence, our spirit emanates consciousness to transform our experience.  When the lines between truth and reality are blurred, our deficient awareness falls prey to the violent desire and desperation of our ego.  Many of us wear a mask to conceal our inadequacies, insecurities and vulnerabilities.  Yet, it is our self-delusion of these apparent weaknesses that hinders our ability to observe them as our greatest strengths.  Only in our consciousness will we experience our truth.

Alone Together:

Each one of us has our own crucial and unique purpose to fulfill.  We must walk this path alone.  We cannot realize our calling when we are focused on the experiences of others.  This is simply a clever way for us to avoid being authentically present to and interactive with our own in a vain pursuit to present ourselves as important and superior.  Instead of assuming the role of a guru, shaman or teacher, we can support each other in the manifestation of our purpose.  It is possible for us to be true to our own experience as a community without sacrificing our own destiny.  When we all live the lives we were destined, we become this together.

“Spirituality is an illusion of being.”

The Art of Being:

Spirituality has mystified us into a matrix of history, knowledge, narcissism, ritual and tradition.  It is a cult to which we subscribe due to our lack of faith in ourselves.  Our freedom is found in our commitment to be and how we personify it in our daily lives.  Spirituality is a compass of how we choose to live our lives.  Yet, it is simply a stepping stone on the path toward fulfillment.  When we become present to our ego’s agenda and its manipulation of what enlightenment may be, we transform our experience from one of emulation to one of being.  Our destiny is defined only by our courage, passion and willingness to become all our soul can imagine.

A True Life

/ Iam Saums / 7 Comments

“Life is a lie in a society of illusion.”

Superficial Sentience:

We live a false life.  Whether or not we choose to acknowledge or implement this unique insight, it is inherently the truth.  Not because we ourselves are fundamentally superficial, though we undoubtedly are.  It is that we inhabit a holographic, three-dimensional paradigm of existence.  Since we do, we cannot be true, neither can we be real.  This is an unimaginable reality to accept.  One of which the greater resistance we present, the more difficult the ability to break free from its all-encompassing captivity.  We are not true beings simply because we cannot comprehend what truth is living an existence of multi-faceted illusion.

Soul Sacrifice:

Every breath of everyday we dig our personal roots deeper into the soil of a fabricated society.  Most of us cannot see this, nor can we believe it.  Yet in our silent moments, we feel it as clearly as any of our senses could ever envision.  We live in a culture that has demonized the expressions of the heart and the transcendence of the soul.  Society operates primarily on the insatiable appetites of our desires and the manipulation of our intellect.  This common lifestyle has sequestered us into a two-dimensional experience, leaving us oblivious to our multiplicity.  We commit the greatest crime against ourselves when we sacrifice our soul for the lie of life.

Intelligence is Ignorance:

All of us have been and are being institutionally programmed in one way or another.  Whether it is educational, mass media, political, religious or even spiritual in nature, we have all committed ourselves to one or many forms of conditioning.  Our awareness is measured by facts and figures that tether us into the technical slavery of our left brain.  In a society that is cruel, destructive, ominous and perilous, we engage only in what we believe is best for our own personal survival.  We modify our vision in a desperate attempt to safeguard ourselves from everything and everyone we perceive as a threat.  We never realize the greatest threat is ourselves.

The Game:

Our lives are designed for amusement, competition, diversion, escape and survival.  Whether by authoritarian stratagem or our own agenda, reality is engineered to keep us alienated from ourselves and living against each other.  We are mystified by our desperate flights of fantasy.  We grow accustomed to an insensitive lifestyle of abuse, acquisition and the suspicion of everyone and everything we encounter.  When there are no more opponents to confront on the battlefield of illusion, we invent new ones to supplement our false contentment and conquests.  Our ravenous aggression drives us deeper into the hungry, yawning chasm of our own decline.

Vicious Cycle:

We are helplessly and hopelessly ensnared in a global spider web of deception, delusion, duality, fear and manipulation.  Each one of us enables this insidious network of control, power, status and wealth with our participation.  The more we are willing to sacrifice our accountability, integrity and sensibility, the more we capitulate and empower this grand paradigm of illusion.  Our obsession for significance becomes our most common and obstructive human addiction.  In spite of the money, power and possessions we achieve in a vain attempt to hide our inadequacies and insecurities, we are still a puppet upon an imaginary stage living a simulated life.

“The only truth about the truth is that there is no truth.”

Axiom of Assimilation:

All we think, know, sense and feel is built upon a foundation of illusion.  We ourselves are a reflection of social invention.  Our human nature and the reality in which we exist is a galactic projection from an unknown origin in the universe.  This compromises our soul’s relatedness with terrestrial existence.  The multi-dimensional dynamic of our spirit cannot thrive within the restricted parameters of three-dimensional reality.  Our physical and mental features instinctively dominate the multiplicity of our being.  The society in which we live imposes this indoctrination with constant conditioning and stimuli to diminish, distort and destroy our truest expression.

Against the Current:

Society is a surging springtime river swollen with arrogance, deception, entitlement, fear and ruin.  Its watermark has exceeded the breadth of its measure.  Most who are empowered and inspired enough to rise and stand against it are eventually swallowed by its sheer, omnipresent force and inexorable undercurrent.  All of us have had our dance with youthful rebellion, intellectual and intuitive discovery and the desire to make a difference.  Yet, the further we walk down the path of our creative, insightful and radical mutiny against society, the more we witness how lonely the revolution can be.  Reality is the silent and lethal assassin of all possibility.

Paradise Lost:

Sometime in our early to mid-twenties, a human tragedy occurs to us all.  With a totalitarian tip-toe efficiency and precision, the deceptive dynamics of reality and society seize our authenticity, creativity, imagination, inspiration, integrity, passion, possibility and purpose.  We sacrifice our unique individuality and originality in a vain quest to maintain a false sense of belonging, status and worth in society.  We join the ranks of millions of self-subscribed victims of unconscious circumstance to perform a collective role of emulation and obedience.  All that once empowered us with the energy of life is replaced with all that gradually takes it away.

The Politics of Consciousness:

The consciousness movement is bursting at the seams of contemporary society.  Religion is segueing into spirituality, which has progressed into consciousness and is now identified as an expression of one’s truth.  Yet, with most things in reality, even truth is inevitably susceptible to distortion and exploitation under the agendas of advantage, fame, power and profit.  In this world, truth is not “truth.”  It is a fabrication of something that best serves a few at the deception and manipulation of the many.  Those who exude or profess consciousness, insight or wisdom are usually the ones altering the perception and understanding of the public for their own gain.

Creative Vitology:

All we are is energy.  However existential or unbelievable this concept may be.  Without energy, we would cease to exist.  Each one of us is comprised of distinct waveform patterns that are expressions of our intuition, feelings and thoughts.  The nature and quality of our energy is defined by how we choose to interpret and interact with our environment.  These essentials ultimately inspire our actions.  Who we choose to be in our daily life attracts into it all which we intend.  Our intention is the focus that creates the vision of how our experience transpires.  Our creativity is the essential energy to manifest our destiny.

“We are not a creation.  We are the creators of a creation.”

A New Vision:

We are nothing we are programmed to believe.  We are not our body, mind, heart or soul.  These are simply facets of our being that our energy inhabits and utilizes for the sake of our human life.  We are not our senses, history, experiences or even our truth.  We are an embodiment of energy that emanates the possibility of consciousness.  Whether or not we become conscious depends upon how our energy is realized in our life.  We live in a reality of perpetual illusion.  We need to continually transform how we exist in reality to personify our conscious energy.  When we do, we ultimately transform the nature of our reality and become the expression of our truth.

Now and Zen: To Whom It May Concern

/ Iam Saums / Leave a comment

A Dime a Dozen:

I find it fascinating how people instinctually respond to events that don’t even happen to them.  We as human beings have a tendency to overreact to the choices, actions and lifestyles of others, while we underreact to those of our own.  We do so because of our lack of communication, experience and understanding about the circumstances of others.  Our interpretations are based upon inaccurate and incomplete perceptions.  We are quicker to criticize, judge, shame and dispose of people in our lives than we are to make a difference.  Some do this to take opportunity from the downfall and disgraces of others, while most subscribe to this sociopathic behavior to conceal their dependency, disappointment, embarrassment, hurt and pain.

Spiritual Elitism:

Yes, we all have it.  Get over it.  My friend Elva just recently wrote an article entitled, “The Writing on the Wall,” in which she acknowledges the awakening of the human race, then poses the question “what are we awakening to?”  This is a much greater concept to ponder in light of the accelerated era of decline in which we currently find ourselves.  We who have committed and practice a path of spirituality may not understand that with the expansion of our consciousness, so does our ego grow in equal or greater measure.  When we chase after the light we are not present to the darkness we overlook in ourselves.  Spirituality has become the new religion.  As a culture we fail to observe the pompous influence of our judgement and self-righteousness.

Experience teacheth Wisdom?

Each of us have our own experiences.  Though, we are more often preoccupied with those of others than our own.  We are swift to pounce upon the downfallen in society to bolster our own image and status in the world.  We manufacture false power through the negativity of demeaning, demonizing and disgracing others.  We present ourselves as aggressive, arrogant, cynical, disempowering and sanctimonious much to our oblivion even when we express ourselves with the greatest of intentions.  Our experiences teach us ways to break the patterns of society’s conditioning that ultimately transmutes humanity into a monstrosity.  We sacrifice the wisdom we may kindle in life to achieve, acquire, compete, dominate and exceed.

Where is the Love?

We all embody ourselves as being civilized, creative, educated, intelligent, kind, spiritual and transcendent.  Yet, when we find ourselves in challenging and overwhelming circumstances, we turn on ourselves and each other as fast as the speed of light.  Our greatest friends become our bitterest enemies.  What we believed, felt and thought yesterday is quickly discarded when we are confronted with conflicting beliefs or opinions distinct from our own.  We not only disagree, we respond with outright anger, disdain, frustration and vitriol.  Gradually we degrade and destroy all which we do not or are not willing to accept, consider or understand.  The love we once had for everyone evaporates.  Even our love for ourselves.

Idyllic Life:

None of us, no matter how clever, creative, smart or spiritual we believe we are, are the ideal human being.  Each of us has downfalls, flaws, negativity and weaknesses.  This is the nature of humanity.  It isn’t the people that present themselves with authenticity and integrity with who we have to be critical and suspicious.  It is all who chose to present themselves as the ideal expression of existence we should be wary.  These are the people who are manipulating reality to gain advantage, advancement, position and the conversion of the world to their own image, lifestyle and vision.  The more we fashion ourselves in the shadow of others, the more personal power we sacrifice upon the altar of self-importance.

Mirror Image:

Everyone and everything in our lives serves as an all-encompassing mirror.  How we respond to these elements of our experience determines how we think, feel, act and are.  The attention and energy we give them ultimately produces the events that will occur to us in our present and future.  How and who we choose to be in our everyday life defines who we become and who and what we attract into it.  We do not get how powerful we are as human beings.  If we did, we most certainly would not be jumping on the comment sections of website articles to take out our angst, drama, failures, fears, insecurities and disappointments about how our lives turned out due to our own lack of investment, involvement and fulfillment.

Ready, Aim…Fire!

Our proverbial guns are locked and loaded for bear in any circumstance we may find ourselves.  We are tinderboxes bouncing off of each other, who at any moment can spark, ignite and explode.  More often than not we do so with the gravest of consequences.  When our environment, experience and perception is challenged and/or compromised, we instantaneously react with a fervor that even shocks and terrifies us.  By the time we are present to the impacts of our thoughts, words and actions, the damage has already been done.  The scariest revelation is that we are not even conscious of the harm we willingly inflict upon others, when we believe we have been betrayed, deceived, manipulated and lead astray.

Keyboard Assassins:

It is so easy, too easy, to sit down in front of a computer and open fire on what we perceive to be attacks upon our intelligence, faith, lifestyle, morals and well-being.  The inadequacies and insecurities of our lives are on full display when we feverishly tap out our anger, disappointment, frustration and upset on our keyboards with a passion that is evidently lacking in our lives.  No matter how much we engage in virtual confrontations upon the comment streams of someone else’s article will never change what is happening around us.  We can only transform that which is occurring within us depending upon how we respond.  The difference we make in our lives and the lives of others begins with our ability to accept all for who they are and who they are not.

Zen and Bear It:

I have known Zen Gardner for a few years.  We email back and forth occasionally, share articles on www.zengardner.com and have similar interests.  Most of us on the site do, contributors and readers alike.  I read his article, “The Missing Years,” and was surprised at the vitriolic response it received.  As I was reading, I became present to a part of his life that was both difficult and revelationary, written with sincere authenticity.  We never know what we are into completely until we see “The Writing on the Wall.”  Zen made a choice to make a difference and attempt to transform injustices he became aware of about something in which he once believed.  When he realized he could not, he left it and moved on with his life.  The question we all must ask ourselves every day is, “do we choose to make an opinion or a difference?”

http://www.zengardner.com/now-zen-may-concern/

Transformation

/ Iam Saums / 2 Comments

“The greatest challenge in life isn’t that we survive, it is our choice to thrive.”

Who We Are:
We are eternal beings existing in infinite experiences beyond the perception of our imagination.  Our body, mind and heart are connected to our spirit and the universe through the multi-dimensional conduit of our intuition.  We are related with all possibility all the time with everyone and everything that was, is and will ever be.  We are an expansive illustration of all creation.  Our potential and resiliency is emulated and sustained by the nature that embodies us.  The power of our consciousness, inspiration, listening and presence is our common birthright.  Our personal transformation is the essential expression of our creativity.

Where We Are:
Reality and our experience of it is a three-dimensional construct devised and maintained to amuse, distract and detain us into the parameters of duality.  Society is a vortex that insatiably devours our creativity, consciousness, energy, intention and possibility.  In our daily encounters we are given two options; yes or no, left or right, up or down, liberal or conservative, good or evil, etc.  We accept and apply this communal understanding because we do not identify and explore existential diversity.  We turn our backs on our own experiences, insights, lifestyles, perceptions and thoughts for a superficial sense of belonging, purpose and worth.

Selective Reality:
We have a natural desire to sense only what we want.  Our experience is primarily dependent upon our advantage, comfort, convenience, interest and willingness.  We often shy away or even criticize and discredit all that is distinct from our unique lifestyle, perception and understanding.  Our reality is fashioned not by our choice, but the frequent avoidance of our choice.  Our life becomes a decision of what we don’t want instead of what we truly need.  We have enabled reality with our mere existence.  Our attention and engagement sustains our attachment to and dependence on a subservient human survival.

“It is not our reality that is the most powerful influence of our life.  It is our oblivion.”

Buying in to Oblivion:
Human beings have an innate tendency to be enchanted by the artificial mysticism of obscurity.  It is an enigma of reality that consumes our attention, awareness, intention and enlightenment.  When our consciousness has been compromised by this insensible dimension of perception, our experience of life is severely diminished and inevitably manipulated.  Creativity, destiny, purpose and the possibility for transformation all cease to exist.  The investment of our energy, focus and involvement with the comfortable and common diversion of human oblivion concedes our aim, passion and will to thrive.  We become a shadow of all we were destined to be.

The Power We Yield:
We are an extraordinary and enormous expression of energy.  Yet, most of our potential is never acknowledged, embraced or fulfilled.  Simply being with our own empowerment terrifies us, let alone expressing or living it.  We convince ourselves that it is much easier to acquiesce our personal power instead of claiming its ownership.  We pass our personal empowerment onto authority figures and elected officials with an expectation they will achieve our desired outcome.  When they inevitably don’t, we demonize them as failures without realizing the absence of our own initiative and participation.

The Greatest Con on Earth:
We are too clever for our own good.  Every day we invent strategies to conceal and defend our agendas, deficiencies, downfalls, fears and insecurities.  Eventually these ploys become our rackets which enable our unhealthy lifestyles thus suspending us in our self-induced confusion.  Once we have been successfully captivated by our own artificial authority, we begin to impose our rackets upon others.  We deceive, distort and fabricate to proliferate our selfish desires and false power.  For us to break our patterns of manipulation, we must transcend our illusions and become present to who we truly are.

“Our salvation comes not from what we do, think or say.  It is in who we are being.”

An Act of Being:
Ontology is not a practice that is appreciated, emphasized, encouraged or required in our society.  It has been forgotten under the heaping pile of metaphysics somewhere between meditation and ritual.  Yet, it is one of the only practices that can empower and transform our life and the world.  For most of us to be present to our way of being, we must discover, experience and commit our lives to it every day.  Our oblivion to being as a culture inhibits our capacity to become the fulfillment of our possibility.  The history we carry into our present most certainly ensures the repetitive outcome of our future.  We allow our past to dictate our present.

An Epiphany of View:
For us to see what is unknown about ourselves and our lives, we must first distinguish our perspective from who we believe ourselves to be.  This takes a great deal of authenticity, dedication, honesty and integrity.  Yet before any of these qualities are exercised, we need to experience insights to define our greatest potential.  The intention of our vision and mission in life ultimately creates our purpose and destiny.  When we release everything we “think” we know about ourselves and create space for possibility, all we could only imagine becomes our experience.  Our way of being is the soul of our life’s expression.

The Dawn of Possibility:
Before we can manifest anything new in our lives, it requires us to become present to something we have yet to experience.  Within the three-dimensional structure of our everyday routine, our perception is conditioned to observe only what is relative.  There is a vast, unknown universe of ourselves to discover.  The expanse of our exploration is defined by our willingness to release the known and intentionally embrace the mystery.  We are born to be creators of our experience.  The expression of our creativity and intention originates from the possibility we choose to apply.  Our possibility is the spark that ignites the manifestation of our destiny.

“Enlightenment is possible in the experience of our transformation.”

Being Real:
We all have a wardrobe filled with personality guises we don to achieve, evade and survive.  Eventually we become so accustomed to the appearances we present we lose ourselves in the presence of our own collusion.  We perceive authenticity, objectivity and sincerity as being needless social expressions of charity and weakness.  Yet, these are the essential qualities of our being.  Authenticity allows us to become present to and relate with others in profound and powerful ways.  It empowers and inspires us to transcend the ordinary reality of doing and become an extraordinary expression of being.

All That We Are:
We don’t know who we are.  We live our lives stumbling through our experiences with an aimless wanderlust for consciousness, love, purpose and truth.  Yet, when it comes to extending the effort and energy to express and manifest a life that inspires us, we allow ourselves to become distracted, disengaged and disinterested.  Our lives will not be fulfilled until we reclaim the power we have long ago yielded to social authority.  Until we are real with ourselves and others, our destiny will continue to be a comfortable daydream.  When we are present to the truth of our lives, we become the source of our transformation.

“Transformation is becoming conscious to the creativity of human being.”

http://www.zengardner.com/transformation-2/

Our Choice

/ Iam Saums / 3 Comments

What we perceive as fear, is not “fear.”

It is simply a natural, raw energy we encounter.

When we transmute this energy into love before we begin to interpret and embrace it as fear, we will transform ourselves and our lives.

This is how powerful we are as human beings.

When we personify our fear, we are being lazy with our consciousness and potential.

When we express our love, we are “being” our consciousness and potential.

This Just In!

/ Iam Saums / 2 Comments

“A wise person makes their own decision.  An ignorant person follows public opinion.”

– Chinese Proverb

Extra Extra…

It’s a free-for-all!  And we do enjoy the ride.  We are helplessly and hopelessly addicted to, dependent on and enslaved by all forms of media.  Be it news broadcasts, the sports industry, all things entertainment and last but not least politics (which has become the most atrocious form of amusement.)  Yet the style of media that seems to “trump” it all is the one to which we all subscribe every day of our lives.  It is the worst expression of our nature as human beings.  Gossip is the greatest destroyer of experiences, opportunities, people and possibilities.  We are the echo of a society built on arrogance, entitlement, envy, judgement and self-righteousness.

…Read All About It!

We haunt our computers in a quest to find the meaning, purpose and truth of life.  We pour over articles, interviews, social media, videos and website links to fill in the missing pieces we ourselves have vacated in our pursuit to gratify our egos instead of expressing our souls.  Countless individuals with audacity, ingenuity and vanity rush to their cameras, devices, keyboards and personal media outlets to offer their radical commentary on hot topics that are as contrived as the reality in which we are imprisoned.  We all have an obscene tendency to offer the craftiest of our intelligence to compensate for the absence of our wisdom.

Hot Off the Presses:

The line of demarcation between truth and fiction in the media has long been blurred beyond recognition.  Reality has become a lie and a lie has become our reality.  The mass manipulation of our global culture has polluted the roots of our understanding by the very information we are conditioned to believe is real.  Reality is as subjective as perception.  The nature of which has been infinitely distorted with the stratagems of advantage, control and distraction.  It is not those who govern the air, food or water supplies who rule the world.  It is those proficient in manipulating reality and our perception of it who hold absolute dominion.

If It Bleeds, It Leads:

Believe it or not, we are the primary administrators and enablers of this diabolical system of information and perception manipulation with our obsessive attention, energy and reactivity.  Our focus is forever upon the drama, trauma and tragedy of others to forget about our own downfalls, failures and tribulations.  We populate our consciousness, listening and vision with a barrage of artificial stimuli in a wanderlust of broken destinies, dreams, lives, loves, people and promises.  In the face of adversity, diversity and possibility we chase after celebrity, controversy and rumor.  We exchange our need for purpose, truth and worth with our want for self-indulgence.

Know Your Sources:

A handful of corporations own most if not all of the existing media outlets in the world.  Everyone has an angle and those with the most to lose will do anything to proliferate and protect their investment to the greatest degree.  Every major corporation devotes a phenomenal sum toward the advancement, expansion and fulfillment of its agenda. This is the foundation upon which fortunes are made and lost.  The only way to always win a game is to rig it so the other players believe they are going to win up to the moment they lose.  This is the fundamental nature of society’s information and perception manipulation.

“What we don’t know we don’t know about the media is that it is invented.”

Get a Quote:

The evolution of the quote has surpassed the origin and significance of the story.  The attention span of the human race has accelerated at an alarming rate, desensitizing us to the gravest and most scandalous of editions.  Quotes once stood as beacons of clarity, hope, inspiration, promise and truth.  Now their ambiguous diversion and political correctness has left their audiences rummaging around in the intellectual shadows for reason, sense and understanding.  All who are granted the authority and prestige to provide a quote usually do so with the intention of saying nothing while seemingly saying everything.

Cover Story:

Mainstream news broadcasts and reports are altered and/or invented to captivate our attention, fear, reaction and upset.  Media networks use chaotic and distorted electromagnetic bandwidth frequencies to distract, hypnotize and “program” their audiences.  This ensures that the information they are disseminating is transmitted and received to its optimal impact and potency.  Conventional networks will often air biased and simulated reports and feature hostile debates to divert the focus of their audiences away from the truth of every day inequalities and injustices.  We pull the wool over our own eyes when we fail to exercise our personal discernment.

Headlines and Deadlines:

The contemporary consciousness of the human race is such that it doesn’t take much to attract, captivate, maintain and stimulate its attention.  Headlines are designed to assault us from the page or computer screen by drawing upon the greatest false power ever devised.  The sharing of information in our mainstream society has gradually declined from one of genuine awareness to blatant, outright fear.  Once our interest, intelligence and possibility was sourced by a common purpose.  Now it is restricted and replaced with incorporated propaganda pushing anxiety, “dis”-ease, opposition and “terror.”  Headlines have become deadlines.

Scrolling for Ratings:

Since the invention of the running scroll on computers, devices and television screens, the attention spans and listening of audiences have been gradually altered, disrupted and distorted.  The stimulated sense of emergency and urgency subliminally traumatizes its viewers with an experience of apprehension, bewilderment, hypnosis, hysteria and vigilance.  The visual content, energetic frequency and regularity of the transmissions render the spectator’s comprehension, listening and perception vulnerable to assimilation, conditioning, influence and intimidation.  Viewership becomes a vicious cycle of existential, perceptual and social enslavement.

The Spin Factor:

Contemporary reports about events that occur around the world are profoundly adulterated, editorialized and fabricated to promote the illusion of freedom, justice, opportunity and unity.  Yet, all that is truly conveyed is its extreme antithesis.  Media outlets provide only the tip of the iceberg of available information.  What is broadcast is a corporately-crafted, agenda-driven viewpoint to program its audience into a two-dimensional experience of right and wrong, love and fear, left and right and dark and light.  Every facet of the mainstream media spins its news updates in their own interpretation to control, manipulate and modify the nature of reality.

The Source of All Sources:

In a society besieged with drama, distraction, dysfunction and division, there is only one true source that is diverse from the cacophony of human reality.  It is the eternal spring of consciousness experienced only through the transcendental nature of our intuition.  It is all possibility of everything that was, is and ever will be.  It is the multi-dimensional expression of the universe that resonates with every element of our being.  When we envision and experience what is beyond the information and perception manipulation, we become the manifestation of the source.  The truth exists in reality when we choose to personify it.

This Just In!

We will never receive authentic, balanced, comprehensive and empowering information from the current network of news sources in the world.  There is too much at stake for the few to endorse and publicize the truth to the many.  All we can do as reluctant subscribers of contemporary media is to exercise our own choices, distinctions, epiphanies and insights.  The more we inspire our own experience, vision and wisdom, the more we will be able to distinguish ourselves from societal fear, prejudice, propaganda and vanity.  The present and future of our lives has, is and will always be in our power.  Yet, it is only attained if it is willingly claimed.

“There is nothing more destructive than an illusion believed to be true.”

http://www.zengardner.com/this-just-in/

Being Our Experience

/ Iam Saums / Leave a comment

“Until we choose our own experience of life, we will never truly live.”

Common Thread:

There are over six billion unique interpretations of life in the three-dimensional construct we experience as reality.  Although human beings have the popular inclination to gravitate toward a common one to which we are bound, our true vision and nature is remarkably multiplicit.  We inevitably subject ourselves to inner and peripheral conditioning to toe the line of reality.  We become social echoes for an engineered existence that is distorted, elusive, obscure and unconscious.  Our desire for social amusement, comfort, identity, purpose and security significantly outweighs our quest to fulfill our being, creativity, destiny, love and truth.

Foundation of Illusion:

We are programmed to believe that our intelligence is the sole benefactor of our survival.  Our insatiable fascination with ourselves and our place in the world distracts us from all that is sacred.  Eventually, we exchange our passion to live with an addiction to buy.  Our genuine experiences that empower and enrich us are superseded by virtual events recorded on a sales receipt.  The measure of our fulfillment is in the quantity of our entertainment instead of the quality of our experience.  Society turns on a worthless dime, promising a wealth of abundance, happiness and meaning, though rarely ever delivers.

Wired for Reason:

We are multi-dimensional beings with eternal possibilities and infinite potential.  Our indoctrination into the complex principles and structures of the standard reality conditions, hypnotizes and manipulates us into the human imprisonment of instinct, reaction and survival.  We are akin to a clipper ship with unfastened sails, bouncing upon the social seas of happenstance.  Our body and brain is our hardware and our software is a two-dimensional program of instinct and intellect.  We are dependent upon and obliviously tethered to knowledge and logic, conditioned to be simulations in a paradigm of thought, threat and fear.

Playing the Angles:

All of us are brainwashed and spellbound by the multi-faceted filters of our own perceptions.  We are frequently presented with opportunities to choose how we behold our experience of life.  Most of us view the world through an elaborate tapestry of our analysis, fears, judgements, and wants.  Rarely do we observe the world as it truly is.  We see it the way we would like it to be.  We live from these personal fantasies and push the agendas of our positions in the pursuit of making the common reality ever more comfortable, compliant or convenient to our own desires.  We engage with an illusion of what is instead of its authenticity.

The World We Enable:

Our personal power is in our creativity, compassion, consciousness, love and transformation.  Yet, we express it most often with our drama, judgement, opinion and outrage.  It isn’t that we are purely oblivious to our truth and purpose.  We are products of the societal ethics to which we eagerly acquiesce.  It seems easier to abandon our own unique experience, existence and perception as an inauthentic and noble sacrifice instead of claiming and living the life only we were meant.  We are so powerful as human beings.  Yet, we commit to killing our lives everyday with our denial, disinterest, doubt and obedience to the enslavement of reality.

“Lay down your right.  Lay down your wrong.  Lay down the lie.  To which you belong.”

The Human God:

The human invention of God we accept and are expected to believe is primarily one of judgement, vengeance and wrath.  It is the fear beyond the myth that captivates our allegiance.  The intoxication of this false power seduces us into emulation and imitation.  Though we often fail to see the most glaring truth of this “divine” influence.  The raw power of our unattended ego imposes an experience and perception of cynicism, resignation and ridicule for anything that is not of our own clever design.  We adopt a defense of disapproval, drama, opinion and rumor rather than be present to the possibilities of acceptance, compassion and understanding.

Vital Signs:

The medical field identifies the vitality of our existence by taking our pulse, analyzing our response to stimuli, observing our breath in different areas of our body and listening to our heart.  When we meet these basic criteria, we are given a label of heath and an acknowledgment of life.  Yet, the true measurement of living is found in our potential, expression and willingness to make a difference.  The true meaning of life is to serve others as much or more than ourselves for the sake of service.  When we choose to exercise this opportunity, we instantly transform our experience into one of community, purpose and possibility.

In Purpose:

Most of us live our lives in the absence of purpose.  We have a tendency to throw havoc to the wind and see what returns to us.  More often than not very little does, at least to our desire.  Unfortunately, purpose isn’t primarily exercised let alone existent in our society.  The very nature of reality does not support or sustain the extraordinary.  Our personal focus depends solely upon the what, how and why of our experience.  These are the crucial elements of our potential to empower our lives.  When we bring purpose to every facet of our experience, we express creativity, consciousness, enlightenment and transformation.

The Truth of False Power:

Each one of us has our own unique experience of life defined by our choices, the focus of our energy, the perception(s) we embrace and the destiny we fulfill.  There is no one else in this world that could or should degrade, discredit, judge or question the authenticity, intent, meaning, and worth of our experiences.  All who do simply endeavor to conceal or protect their own fears, inadequacies, insecurities and weaknesses.  We have been raised in a social environment of defense that is of great peril to the coincidental targets of our expression.  The force of the false power we project upon others ultimately diminishes the truth of our own.

Being Our Experience:

There is nothing more significant in our life than who we are being.  In a reality where being-ness has been swept under the proverbial rug of contemporary society, it is truly the only saving grace for the present and future of all.  Who we are being creates, expresses and sustains the quality of our commitment.  Our vision, empowerment, purpose and stand inspires how we truly live our lives.  Of us it requires our creativity, confidence, courage and trust to manifest our greatest experience.  Only through us will the power of our experience transcend the boundaries of reality and society and transform the world.

“The greatest experiences we will ever have are the ones we choose to create.”

http://www.zengardner.com/being-experience/

Present in the Present

/ Iam Saums / Leave a comment

During the Holidays, I made an intention of practicing “being present” as much as I could.

My definition of “being present” is an awareness of our breath, our thoughts, our emotional moods(s), our bodies, our consciousness of our environment, the expressions of our intution and creativity and how we influence and impact the people in our lives. As I was working with this idea, I began to wonder, “how much of our lives do we fully or near-fully experience?”

We all have a good understanding that there is a “maze of distractions” in our every day lives that compromises our focus, our personal intentions, our goals and our dreams.  A house of mirrors that operates as a mechanistic vacuum.  If left un-managed, this distraction machine claims our time, our efforts, our energy, our relations with others, our inspiration, our empowerment, our sense of adventure, our destiny and even our life force.

I could probably relay a great deal of complex and intricate information about the multi-tiered social distraction infrastructures currently in place to keep us all preoccupied from the important things in life and what’s really going on in the world, yet that would possibly lose most whom would choose to read this.

One thing that has occurred to me, during my several years of researching, investigating, reading and discussing with friends about what has and is going on in our global society, not accurately or appropriately broadcast by our esteemed mainstream media, is the current ratio between the attention the issues, problems, dilemmas and dramas receive in relation to the coverage of the solutions, resolutions, revelations, achievements, progresses and all the extraordinary things that happen around the world every day.

I get it, it’s the ratings.  On average, people would rather tune into the negatively-charged articles than positively-infused stories.  It is what it is.  It is where our society is at in its social evolution.  This is also a reflection of us personally and the status of how much of our lives we do experience.

You have to admit it is interesting that even the “alternative media sources” tend to focus more on the problems than on their solutions.  If we are encountering a barrage of distractions in our daily lives, in our thoughts, in our emotions, issues with our bodies and challenges in our relations with others and with ourselves, how much of our lives do we truly experience?  Have we ever fully experienced our lives?  If we have, how long did it that experience last?  How can we experience our lives more fully.

The only answer I can offer is found in the first paragraph of this note, “being present.”  For me, being present isn’t just about showing up, paying attention, staying focused, interacting with others, going about our busy days, monitoring our thoughts, our words, our feelings or our reactivity to events and occurrences in our lives.

Being present is about disengaging from the things, people, thoughts, feelings, reactions, dramas and stimuli in our lives that do not bring us happiness, fulfillment, joy, health, peace, inspiration and love.

Being present is acknowledging that we all have a choice to engage in only what inspires, empowers, sustains, enlivens and unites us. Imagine that our lives are a blackboard littered with scribbles, marks, shapes, lines, words and symbols in chalk.

Being present is the ability for us to choose to pick up the eraser and clear the board of the things in our lives that no longer serve us.

When we choose to do this, we are able to make space for us to create new inspirations. And when these new inspirations are no longer working for us, we can choose to clear them and create even newer ones that will.

The past does not serve us, it enslaves us.

The future is only beneficial to us when it has become our present. The present is all there is. Being present allows us to experience the most of our lives.

When is the best time to be present?

Now.

http://www.zengardner.com/experience-life/

The Cosmic Resonance of Music

/ Iam Saums / 2 Comments

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine introduced me, through conversations and articles, to diverse frequencies of tuning in music other than the standard 440 hz frequency.  At the time, she brought up that it was a glaring difference when it came to hearing it and experiencing it on an energetic level, as well as the natural healing and conscious-raising properties of the sound and music itself.

Having sent me a few articles about it, I had read that at some point between the first World War and second World War, there were a lot of military marches that were being written to set the tenor of the times. It was during this time that the standard tuning of instruments was decreased to 440 hz. Having read a bit about this transposition of frequency, it inspired me to go out and purchase a chromatic tuner that I could tune to different hz frequencies.

The one recommended the most, for the range that I write, sing and play instruments in was 444 hz. For those adept to pitch modulation, it is less than a half a step sharper than 440 hz, or 15 sens in technical terms. It didn’t take me long to adjust to the frequency alteration, as most people that play music can naturally transpose their voice and instrumentation almost instantaneously.

Though it may not seem much of a difference in frequency modulation to inspire me to write a note about it, it is! When they altered the standard tuning to 440 hz, it “deadened” the sound to give it a more “earnest” “urgency” and almost “dire” and “anxious” tonality.  In other words, the frequency of 440 hz is kind of an “edge of your seat” provoking, stimuli-laden, expression of discomfort and unease, i.e. the sound of wartime.

Of course, most people who listen to music may never experience or be conscious of the effects that the frequency to which the music is adjusted may have upon them, as perhaps most musicians or artists may not as well.  Yet, having written, arranged, recorded and performed music in this frequency for a few years, I can attest to the fact that it does indeed make a massive difference in its energetic expression. 444 hz is a very organic, alive, bright, brilliant, or sharper (literally) sound that provides a natural energy and frequency of life, growth, progression, consciousness, awareness and my personal favorite, truth.

Perhaps 444 hz may not just be recognized as the “frequency of love,” as categorized by “forward-being” artists, musicians and sound technicians.  Perhaps it is also a frequency that grants direct access to our natural abilities and tendencies toward our consciousness, awareness, relativity, connectedness, intuition, insight, communication, evolution, and transcendence, which ultimately may be the best word to describe the difference between 440 hz and 444 hz.  Incidentally, I was inspired by this friend to write, arrange and record my new, soon to be released CD “Lakshmi” in 444 hz frequency, and most certainly, when listening and “feeling” the playbacks in and outside of the studio, there is no doubt that the sound expression is powerful, transcendent and conscious provoking.

http://www.zengardner.com/musical-tuning-and-cosmic-resonance/