The Heart of it All

“We are nothing we think we are.”

The Mind Field:

Our reality is an extension of our thoughts.  Our society is an invention of the mind.  We live within a matrix of mentality that is equivalent to the neural pathways in our brain.  Millions of neurons connecting and firing cause the fundamental functions of our intelligence and the rudimentary dynamics of our awareness.  Though we may believe we interact with and consciously command this network of existence, to it we are inherently enslaved.  Our captivity is defined by the energy we sacrifice upon the altar of our ego’s insatiable appetites, selfish gratification and vain quests for artificial fulfillment.

Inheritance of Thought:

Before we are born, our mind is in a subconscious state of development.  In utero, we are intimately partial to the impressions and influences that our mothers experience during pregnancy.  We breathe their air, eat their food, drink their fluids, think their thoughts, feel their feelings and even dream their dreams.  Our symbiosis is not only in the semblance of our ability, behavior, emotionality, genetics, perception and temperament.  It is also prevalent in the neural activity and tendency of our thought.  We are frequently oblivious to the experience of our emotions and even less aware of the persuasive mechanics of our mind.

Illusion Investment:

Our senses are the avenues of our mental enslavement.  All we see, hear, smell, taste and feel is gradually distorted by the mass manipulation we enable with our engagement.  The influence of our subliminal thought patterns cons us into a relentless web of ego, desire, want, worry and fear.  When we succumb to these stimuli, we invest in the illusion of reality and exchange our creativity, freedom, spirituality, truth and vision with our confusion, drama, dysfunction, fantasy and politics.  Our truth becomes a lie and a lie becomes our truth.  It is this self-deception that costs us our life.

Intelligence Dependence:

At some point in our maturation, our intellect becomes the measure of our worth.  We are processed though institutional conditioning to gain acceptance and qualification for positions of merit in the grand racket of the professional marketplace.  Once indoctrinated and initiated into its diabolical mainframe, we willingly acquiesce our health, heart and soul to the omnipresent, intelligence-driven program of advancement and survival.  It is our understanding and utilization of the system in which we exist that determines the watermark of our success.  Where the ultimate conquests come not from great achievements, yet by mastery through manipulation.

“Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our mind.”

-Bob Marley

Mass Collusion:

We are under a global spell of social hypnosis.  This paradigm hinders our ability to truly see ourselves and the world.  It is a dream from which most of us never awaken.  A widespread epidemic of cooperative confusion and distortion we enable with our apathy, denial, drama, self-righteousness and fear.  No matter how much we attempt to influence the people, circumstances, perceptions and outcomes in our lives, we rarely escape the revelation of our self-imposed fate.  It will always be the illusions of our mind that seek to complicate, discredit, falsify and usurp the eternal expressions of our heart.

Distortion by Design:

The heart has no place in the mental matrix.  Within it, emotions are a foreign language.  Empathy and kindness have become criminal and our compass of conscience and insight has been surrendered to the ruthless nuances of our ego’s adversarial influence.  Intellectuality has become the mandatory currency of reality; without which we cannot function or survive.  The frequency of our heart center is disrupted and distorted by the neural labyrinth of material life.  Our multi-dimensionality is compromised and our focus, purpose and vision is distorted beyond our pre-programmed abilities.

In Shadow:

We have all been asleep.  We are lulled into an instinctual slumber with the gravity of reality, the artificial burden of society, the vortex of consumption, the captivity of our perception and the severity of our fear.  We have been wined and dined into a dreaming death by society’s many attachments, impressions, influences, opinions and vices.  The human race has been and is on virtual life support.  Its collective pulse dives dangerously below the measure of its lifeline.  We exist within the twilight of life as wayward spectators watching from the grandstands and rarely daring to take the field.  Yet, now more than ever, only the field remains.

“The journey from the head to the heart is much longer than from the heart to the head.”

Transcen-dance:

There are random occasions in our lives when we are blessed with an epiphany of truth, purpose and understanding.  More frequently than we may choose to acknowledge, we are stirred from our walking slumber and become present to something distinct from the ordinary.  We tend to deny and discard these experiences of opportunity as fleeting flights of fancy and roll over in our adopted reality.  Yet, these are the keys to freeing ourselves from our mortal captivity.  These are the events in our lives that further entrench us into the neural matrix of intellectuality or offer us a powerful choice to transform our experience.

The Force Awakens:

A critical mass of awareness has grown over the past few decades.  It is not a new force of sentience.  It has always existed well before the dawning of humanity.  Yet the primary distinction in our contemporary age is our realization of and synergy with the eternal essence of consciousness and the fulfillment it inspires.  Our relatedness with this experience has been defined by our commitment and willingness to become its universal expression.  It simply requires us to transcend all that inhibits the natural expansion and presence of our soul in life.  This is our true human destiny.

The Center of Being:

Our heart center is the most powerful expression of our being.  It sources and radiates an electromagnetic force so powerful, even the most authoritative protocols of intellectual reality cannot alter or extinguish its emanation.  It is the gateway to our intuition, the medium of our creativity and the seat of our soul.  Our heart center is the nexus of our being that connects our body and mind with our spirit and the universe.  This vital multi-dimensional alchemy allows us to become our greatest potential.  Our enlightenment is made manifest when our heart center resonates with our soul.

Heart Star:

Our heart is our greatest expression of vision, truth and possibility.  It guides us through our challenges, conveys our experiences, composes our creativity and unites us all.  Its presence expands and transcends beyond the measure our mind can only fathom with our imagination.  We are not intended to acquire this energy solely for our personal benefit.  We are destined to receive this energy for the sake of sharing its infinite abundance with all.  It is our soul purpose to empower, inspire and sustain each other. This is the universal tapestry of being we express and experience as love.

“All that we give is all that we live.  All that we love is all that we are.”

Soul Purpose:

Being conscious in an oblivious society is no longer sufficient to transform the world.  Conversations and actions are mere stepping stones in becoming and being all that we envision.  Not just as human beings having a spiritual experience or spiritual beings having a human experience, but as energetic beings conveying the extraordinary expressions of our creativity.  The resonance of our enlightened being and its unique signature is essential in transforming three dimensional reality into four dimensional consciousness.  Imagine our experience of life if all humanity chose to be an emanation of their soul…

http://www.zengardner.com/the-heart-of-it-all/

Intuition

It is easy to believe in the things that we see.  We live in a visual reality.

It isn’t that our eyes “can” deceive us.  It is that they “do.”  Perhaps more accurately put, we allow our eyes to mislead us by where we cast them and with what we occupy them.

Our eyes are simply windows that not only focus our gaze, yet also our awareness.

It is easier to believe in the things we think.  We are unconscious of most of the thoughts we possess.  We have allowed and enabled our thoughts to become so influential in our lives, we can almost see them.  Our thoughts conduct and control us more often than we may choose to imagine.

It is difficult to believe in the things that we feel.  Our society is not designed to support emotionality as a viable expression of living.  The most powerful and enduring experiences in our lives are those we feel.  It could even be said that “feeling” our way through life may actually be closer to truly living and being.

It is most difficult to believe in the things we do not see, especially if we cannot understand or relate to them.  Since the time we are very young, we are conditioned to believe in only what we see or hear within a narrow perception of reality.  All outside of this fine line of life is where the extraordinary thrives.

In a society of distraction, instant gratification, busy-ness, expectation and entitlement, how could we ever assume we are experiencing the fullest of our lives or the world?  Have we ever?

Every day, there is a remarkable measure of life we do not experience.  It is astounding when we realize how rarely we use our hearts and our souls in relation to our minds and our bodies.   We live in a society structured around the needs, wants, pleasures and pains of the body and mind.  Our emotions and intuition are often pushed to the back burner of our being, without us even knowing.

Our experience of life isn’t merely what we can see, hear, smell, taste or touch.  It is all of these sensory encounters and more.  It isn’t only in the actions we take, the words we speak, the emotions we feel, or the random spiritual experiences we may encounter.  It is when we engender a present-ness to and being-ness in our lives that allows us to connect and relate with something/someone much greater than the “I” (identity) we perceive ourselves to be.  It is even beyond who we envision and dream ourselves to be.

It is reasonable to consider that if we are attempting to perceive our infinite nature with our finite senses, we will never be able to behold everything that we are, let alone reach our full potential or our soul’s fulfillment.  Our sensory expressions are all useful aspects of how we choose to understand and live our lives.  Yet, this is merely a fraction of our potential as human beings, and our senses will only reveal a fraction of all that is out there to discover and experience.

As it has been said, humankind will search the heavens and the earth for what has always been inside of us.  Since the beginning of humanity, only a fraction of the population during any given time period, has ventured to intimate and ally with what is beyond the seen, heard and known.  Only a few have chosen to go beyond simply knowing themselves and their position in the world.  Few have been able to give up everything they believe they are to become everything they were created to be.

If our heart is the gateway to our soul, our intuition is the pathway to universal consciousness.  There is a basic alchemy that human beings inherently possess.  It is a four dimensional dynamic that consists of our bodies, our minds, our hearts and our souls.  We live in a civilization that isolates us from our hearts and our souls, imposing upon us a two dimensional reality.  It takes a great deal of effort and energy to go against the mainstream of human “doing” and “thinking” to connect to, relate with and express from our hearts and our souls as human “beings.”

We are all born with the ability to transcend our human nature.  When we choose to temper our physical desires, calm our persistent thoughts and detach from our unhealthy feelings, we create an alchemical balance within.  We free ourselves to experience, connect with and relate to our soul using our dormant sense, our intuition.

Within all of us resides a pineal gland.  What is essential about the pineal is that it can operate with the Chakras and the Kundalini.  When these systems are performing in unison, a pathway to higher dimensions of being is opened.  This pathway is our intuition.  It is the medium through which we access our vision, creativity, truth, life force, spirituality and love. Our intuition connects to and relates with universal consciousness.   It is the “high”-way to who we truly are, beyond our bodies, minds and hearts, even our beliefs.

There are many ways to connect with our intuition.  I imagine that it is different for everyone, perhaps as diverse as any human being’s uniqueness, perception or reality.  Silence is the most important practice in synchronizing with our intuition.  Not just a space devoid of sound.  Yet, silence from our thoughts, emotions, instincts, perspective, agenda, drama and attachments.  Silence is the key that opens the door to our intuition.

A common and effective way to connect with our intuition is meditation.  When we meditate, there is an exchange of energy and consciousness that calms, balances and revitalizes us.  This experience brings us into a present-ness of being, utilizing our intuition to connect our heart with our soul.  The practice of meditation sustains us in our ability to balance our body, our mind, our heart and our soul.  When we establish and maintain this equilibrium, we are able to convey consciousness into reality, transforming ourselves and our environment.

Intuition is the universal instrument through which we as human beings may “art”-iculate creation, consciousness and infinite possibility.  Imagine if we were living our awareness to its fullest manifestation.  Our intuition unites us with our soul and the universe and relates us with each other.  It frees us from the illusion of separation and restores us to our true expression of life.  It is who we are as a universal being, pure consciousness energy.  Our intuition returns us to our true connection with the source, our love.

http://www.zengardner.com/intuition/

Yin Yang

“Most will take and few will give.  Most die daily while few truly live.”

 A Shadow of Power

Society is rife with human beings whom are raised, conditioned and educated into selfishness.  It is a game in which there is always one winner and the rest are losers.  Yet, there are no winners in this game.  There is only envy, division, competition, greed and unfulfilled desire.  This is and has been the design of social existence since before there was human awareness enough to identify and quantify it.  Where once we stepped up to help another in need or extend our listening beyond base necessity, now we find it challenging just to show up for our own life.  Apathy, denial and cynicism have distorted the heart of human nature.

The dynamic of society is built upon the standards, wants, perceptions and strategies of the few at the cost of the many.  This insidious model stands as a monument to our daily enslavement.  It is a system that not only seizes our time and the best experiences of our youth and middle age; it claims our creative expression and life force.  The agendas of the few are most often relative to the sociopathic lunacy endemic in business, politics, finance and entertainment.  These are the societal domains that have become ordinary distractions promoting opposition, greed and artificial fulfillment.

There is one thing that the few have in common. They all embezzle power from others.  They are parasites that feed upon a host.  Unfortunately, we are the host.  As dependent as we may believe we are of corporations, governments, banking institutions and the media, the few are even more reliant of our participation in their diabolical rackets.  They alter the very nature of the reality in which we live to support their means to this end.  Without our involvement, their structures of control and manipulation would vanish amidst the brilliance of the critical mass, global consciousness that is growing evermore with every minute of every day.

Solar and Lunar Beings

Most human beings in the world are “lunar” in character, meaning they rely upon external influences for motivation, acceptance, purpose and reference.  They are the passive force of humanity, the wallflower who watches the world go by.  Lunar Beings cheer for their favorite actor, politician, athlete or personality and subconsciously live vicariously through them.  They are the effect, the echo and habitually the victim.  Lunar Beings qualities are most often defined from without and their footprints in the sand disappear long before they are made.  Like the moon, they rely upon the light of others to be illuminated.

Solar Beings are at the source of their lives.  They are naturally radiant with positive energy, inspiration and intention.  Their first inclination is to share, relate with and empower others.  They are transcendent yet grounded into their physical life.  Solar beings sense and live all possibility.  They realize that fear is simply a raw energy to be transformed into an expression of love.  They are mostly left and right-brained balanced with a solid connection to their intuition.  Their macrocosmic understanding and multi-dimensional lifestyle aligns them with something much greater than themselves.  The life of a Solar Being is one of service for the sake of all.

Solar Beings are often targeted, demeaned and ridiculed.  They are the lone candle in a dark room, easily seen, envied and chastised for their outgoing, confident and beaming spirit.  Where Lunar Beings tend to influence things in subtle, covert and gradual ways, their counter parts thrive in the radiance of their unbridled expression and their need to be related with all.  Much like the Moon with the Sun, Lunar Beings place themselves in opportune positions to reflect the vibrant and empowering energy of Solar Beings.  The only difference between a Solar Being and a Lunar Being is one’s choice to be the cause of their fullest potential.

The Eternal Dance

Our society is imprisoned in a three-dimensional reality manufactured for the sole purpose of distracting, hypnotizing, entertaining and terrorizing its victims into a walking, thinking and working slumber.  While we are idly competing and fighting for our survival and those of our families, the commercial, political and financial screws are tightened continually beyond their threshold.  We are pitted against each other in an ancient, secret, exclusive and costly game of thrones.  With casualties that far outweigh the spoils of this war we call “life.”

The design of our daily existence is a vicious cycle of selfishness embodied in our pursuits of status, wealth, possession, instant gratification and archaic, empty achievements.  Everyday, we willingly sacrifice our visions, dreams, creativity, energy, personal power and integrity to an elusive vortex that hides behind the tapestry of our contemporary societal structures.  We are segregated from all that is true, just, righteous and possible to sustain a reality of disease, lack, illusion, obsolescence, monetary acquisition and simulated control and power.  Our life is not given to us to live; it is taken from us to serve the few at the gravest cost, our soul’s expression.

Lion Heart

The world is becoming conscious of the inequality, inhumanity, hostility and the horrific and elaborate networks of financial, corporate and political influence the few hold over the many.  In the wake of these realizations, it is almost impossible to maintain our balance, optimism, sensibility, peace and possibility.  What is more vital than our awareness of these enduring issues is how we respond to them.  It is almost inevitable that conscious people will have an instinctual reaction of anger, upset, frustration, hopelessness, helplessness and resignation.  After all, these are the very states of being the few need from the many to divide, conquer and rule.

The powers of dark and light shift to and fro unseen and un-sensed by the many.  The social undercurrents we feel and often contest with our distractions, denial and right-brain intelligence gather gravity and potency to enable this age-old, ill begotten chess match for false power.  Few will rise to face and many will yield to fall for the grandest illusion ever devised in the history of humanity, the fear of fear.  For it is not the engineered reality we should dread.  It is our unidentified, un-manifested and unexpressed truth, purpose and destiny that are the greatest tragedies the world will ever know.

We are all both Solar and Lunar beings.  Whichever one we are primarily is based upon our choices, our passion, our intention and our lifestyle.  Global transformation calls for lion hearted people to stand and speak amidst so many whom are kneeling and silent.   It is our common life path to encourage and empower others simply by whom we are being. When our response is taken with rage, arrogance and agenda, we will continue to enable our enslavement. When our stand is made with creativity, amity, ahimsa, happiness and love, our freedom is fulfilled.

In the Name of Life

In The Name of Life

“We cannot truly live until we die.
Die to everything familiar, comfortable, secure and known.
We must be willing to live our every breath,
so we may be able to breathe through our death.”

The Illusion of Life:
We are eternal beings of energy with endless possibility that co-exist vicariously through the disillusionment of a three-dimensional, physical reality. The societal culture in which we “survive” programs, conditions, indoctrinates and frequently threatens us with the mere probability of fear. It isn’t even “our” fear we feel that is the source of our perpetual anxiety. It is the illusion of an imminent fear that poses the greatest peril to our well being. (Please refer to my article, “The Fear of Fear.”) The bait and switch of reality diverts our focus from life and replaces it with the imposition of death.

From the moment we claim our consciousness, we are inundated with the daunting undercurrents of our eventual, earthly demise. Whether or not we are present to it, a part of our awareness is always transfixed upon this physical certainty. It may begin as a reluctant acceptance, yet it ultimately becomes a silent, arresting force that can accelerate our destiny with it. The more we resist the ultimate truth we one day will pass from this world; the more we give our power over to it. This perception we unwillingly adopt leads to serving a sentence instead of creating a life.

In the multi-dimensional experience of the now we are constantly birthing and dying simultaneously. From our cells in our body to our thoughts in our minds and our emotions in our hearts, we are progressively and continuously evolving and expanding our being-ness. Yet, it is our chosen perspective of life that determines its quality, purpose and fulfillment. We do not live in a culture that promotes, expresses and sustains the energy of life. We exist in a society that imposes, controls and manipulates the belief in death. It is our conflict with our own consciousness that enables our mortal experience.

A Life of Death:
Everyday of our lives we are surrounded by death. Whether it is the casualties of accidents, addictions, crimes, diseases, famine, prejudice, religious conflicts or wars, our senses are assaulted with the graphic images of fatality. We have become desensitized by its frequent illustrations of horror and finality. The media uses depictions of death to hypnotize and terrorize its consumers into a perpetual state of apprehension. Even our perception of death has been manipulated by our authoritarian culture to reflect an ultimate fear instead of encourage an opportunity for transcendent experiences of being.

Our adopted perspective of life viewed through the common filter of death results in our expression of age. Those whom resist it or avoid its inevitability usually age more rapidly than those whom accept it as a part of the blessing of life. Living with an intention of evading death leads to a diminished quality of life, often resulting in illness, injury and terminal disease. When we allow our lives to be filled with the imposing presence of death, we sacrifice our life force to our subconscious self. We transmute our truth, potential, purpose and destiny into anxiety, apathy, dis-ease and fear.

Within and Without:
The natural world, the environment and our contemporary society are saturated with a violent toxicity this world has never seen. It is one of the greatest epidemics the human race has ever encountered, yet rarely acknowledges. It is chemicals and additives in our food and water supplies. It is chemtrails, fracking and the extraction and refining of fossil fuels. It is lethal energetic frequencies of Wi-Fi, “smart” products and cell phones and their towers. We are perpetually being irradiated by the very technology invented for our “benefit.” Modern convenience has made our lives a walking death.

Moment to moment, our consciousness is conceded to the “death” we adopt as “reality.” It is everywhere in everything. We have grown so accustomed to its presence and influence we have conditioned ourselves to accept it as truth. In our pursuit of status, recognition, success, and survival, we have sacrificed our connection with the eternal abundance of the universe for fleeting, material self-gratification. We are hopelessly and helplessly hypnotized by this mirage of human existence. Our entitlement to a decadent mortality ultimately becomes our eminent destruction.

The nature of our culture is contrary to the energy of life. Humanity’s critical mass has enabled a regression of existence by fixating on what it does instead of who it is being. Everyday we emulate death by how we choose, or rather don’t choose to live our life. The essence of life is determined by creating possibilities of who we are being with the power of our choices and how we express them. When we are unwilling to breathe intention into our life with our commitment to it, our existence is absolute. There is no room for inventing our life to be anything other than it is. Our life becomes our death.

The Measure of Life:
The natural progression of our spirit on Earth is illuminated by our intuition, expressed by our heart center, interpreted by our minds and manifested into our physical reality with our actions. As above, so below. However, the structure of our contemporary culture eventually eliminates the relationship we have with our heart and soul. It emphasizes institutionalized thought, belief and fear to stimulate an inferior, instinctual lifestyle steeped in a plethora of addictions, attractions, distractions, deceptions and impossibility. Our lives are dead long before we begin to truly experience them.

Our life shouldn’t be dictated by our eventual death, our death ought to be determined by our life. It isn’t about life and death at all. This is the two-dimensional trap of our three-dimensional experience on Earth. It prevents us from identifying and claiming our natural expression of being. In the temporal world, our being-ness is the only thing we are that is eternal. Everything else is an illusion. Death is a control pattern, a business, a competition and an egocentric endeavor. Life is a thriving experience of everlasting truth, growth, empowerment, inspiration and abundance.

In a world of death it is very difficult to truly live. As challenging as it may be to live in a society that is continually dying, it is by no means impossible. We must be willing to let go of the death we cause and allow in our lives. The measure of our life is best expressed in our commitment and intention to identify and transform the death we are living. This way of being requires our authenticity, integrity, inspiration and purpose.

It is our soul’s destiny to stand in the face of death and choose to live in the name of life.

http://www.zengardner.com/in-the-name-of-life/

Eye of the Beholder

“The way we see the world is not how it is.
Who we choose to be in the world is what it becomes.”

Shades of Perception:

The bell is tolling in the broken down, forgotten cathedral of truth.  Its ring echoes down the streets and corridors through the cities, suburbs, projects and underbellies of the world.  We have become disinterested, desensitized and dismissive to its crucial, earnest and awakening call.  Once there was a time in the not so distant past when its chime would gather together all who were in earshot of its sincere signal.  Now, its beckon has droned off into the white noise of our insatiable desires for amusement, competition, intelligence, profit, vanity, self-righteousness and inauthentic security.

Our society has invented a disposable marketplace of compliance, censure, conquest, distraction, disassociation, disease, hatred and fear.  This has engineered such a distortion of reality and its perception that confusion, collusion and illusion reign.  Education, religion, politics, media sources and entertainment manipulate perspective into opinion further deluding common understanding.  The eyes and minds of the world are blinded by agenda, arrogance, belief, pride and judgment.  All that we have conceded to be our contemporary experience of life is simply a dream within a dream, within a dream…

What we have been led to believe is true are all lies.  Common and popular points of view have gradually alienated us from the truth.  The imposition of an artificial reality shapes, influences, overwhelms and ultimately annihilates any possibility of divergence.  Our perceptions are altered and distorted in our everyday lives.  Yet, they are even more so in our minds.  We are besieged by the onslaught of visual and audible stimulus and the energetic impacts of lethal, electromagnetic emissions.  As many thoughts we have are as many instances our perceptions of life are hijacked.

A Slight of View:

We surrender the potential and power of our perception as easily and frequently as we give our life force over to people, things and circumstances that are of little to no benefit.  We are shadows of the human beings we were born, inspired and empowered to be.  Instead of creating our lives as the expression of our truth, we predominantly emulate fantasies that prevent us from achieving our intentions.  We adopt layers upon layers of perceptual filters that inevitably obstruct our ability to see the world as it is, let alone ourselves as we truly could become.

We do not establish our own true perception.  We accept, adapt and adopt our point of view based on our external attractions, influences, relations and situations.  Creating our own perspective requires us to claim the power of our choice, purpose, life and destiny.  Our society does not support this lifestyle.  It discourages, punishes and condemns creativity and diversity.  It is counterproductive to the network of control the few enforce upon the many.  We all choose, or rather don’t choose to claim our true vision.  We resign ourselves to be enslaved by our own fear.

Our lives unfurl beneath a vast umbrella of human deception.  The world enables this grand swindle with its apprehension, attention, energy and unconscious consumerism.  Eventually, we all become vital components in this insatiable and insidious machine.  Our apathy, cynicism, indifference and resignation are the building blocks of our simulated perspectives.  Our perception doesn’t produce or influence reality.  Reality invents our perception.  It enforces an interpretive barrier in our observation of and interaction with how we understand reality and ultimately how we create our truth.

“We cannot see nor do we choose to perceive the world as it is because we deny our active role in its current dilemma.”

The Tao of Now:

Whosoever controls perception controls the world.  Much of society is ruled by opinion.  The facts, realities and truth of humanity are most often abandoned in the global, sacrificial ceremony we call “life.”  Perception is exploited into a vortex of greed, vanity and status.  This distortion of perspective separates us from each other and ourselves.  It inspires us to doubt our relatives, condemn the accused, hate our opponents and fear all who are distinct from the contrived norm.  It is this common fear that has become the superficial belonging we all cling to for importance, worth, orientation and relativity.

We are multi-dimensional beings with a four-dimensional consciousness existing in a three-dimensional reality having a predominantly two-dimensional experience.  This is our true nature when we are born into this world.  As we “grow up,” we are programmed by and conditioned to the three-dimensional reality and imprisoned in the two-dimensional experience.  We eventually surrender the eclecticism of our essence.  The piranha of contemporary culture maniacally and methodically takes it from us.  Yet, it is not simply a conditioning of the mind.  It is a manipulation of perception.

Linear time is the greatest weapon used in three-dimensional reality.  Our perception is consistently and relentlessly attuned to an ominous, possible future, yet most often focused on an incomplete and regrettable past.  Our lives are restricted by the uncertainty of what may be and the discontent of what was.  This is the mirage of common reality. The only experience that is true in our lives is this moment.  Everything else is an illusion.  Even the future is a fantasy in relation to the now.  Who we are being in the present is the only practice that will transform our life.

Eye of the Observer:

All of us are enamored within our personal hypnosis.  We invent fantasies to present our lives to others as being of great value, meaning and purpose.  We become so attached to what happens around us that we are not present to the extraordinary within.  Most of us live from our peripheral.  We rely upon external sources for direction, influence and motivation to make our choices, accomplish our routine tasks and endure.  This is the three-dimensional perception of our two-dimensional experience.  Yet, we rarely identify, consult and apply our own clarity, leadership, strength and wisdom.

The most overlooked and undervalued facet of our being is our “observing eye.”  This is our “third eye.”  It sources our epiphanies, insights, consciousness, transformation, creativity and enlightenment.  With this unique perception we are able to live from our intuition.  Our inner observer is not a locality within us.  It is an essential expression of our being.  This is our true personality.  It was who we were as children and who we are destined to be.  Our commitment to stand in and experience ourselves with the eye of the observer grants us the freedom to transform ourselves and ultimately reality.

We are not our perceptions.  No matter how much power we may give to them, they are merely echoes of our intellect.  We are almost entirely run by our positions due to our lack of commitment to consciousness.  Awareness for most is merely optional.  The less we create for ourselves, the more likely we become victims of our perceptions.  It may seem extremely daunting to reclaim our power from the imposition of this virtual reality.  Yet, our choice to transcend the tides of social influence and obligation is the distinction between simply surviving reality and truly thriving in our truth.

“The true power of experience is not in how it is seen, it is in how it is felt.”

http://www.zengardner.com/eye-of-the-beholder-2/

The Light in the Darkness

Into Shadow:

Millions of people around the world believe in evil as depicted in many ancient texts.  Human acceptance of what is portrayed as such is significantly why it exists in grand fashion.  It is very difficult to prove that it does without a shadow of a doubt.  It is more challenging to present or even discuss it without it becoming a debate about religion.  As contrary as they are, it is interesting how linked the light and the darkness appear to be historically and in contemporary times.  They are eternally bound to each other by belief, interpretation, exploitation and fear.  This imposed duality of common opinion has enslaved human kind since the dawn of time.

It is startling how human beings rarely if ever achieve a lasting enlightenment.  We may catch a glimpse of illumination, yet it is a fleeting epiphany that fades as the speeding luminosity of a falling star.  It is lost and forgotten amidst the relentless shower of diversions our society provides.  We allow the distractions to consume the quality and power of our lives.  We surrender to our personalized confusion with our lack of interest in creating them.  This is the ultimate darkness.  Not one that waits for its perfect moment to influence, command, embezzle and seize our energy.  It is one that we enable with our attitude, behavior, entitlement and emotional drama.  We sustain our own darkness with the conditions and restrictions we apply to our lives.  Our darkness is the measure of our human potential unattained and unexpressed.

Soul Persuasion:

We have been conditioned to live almost exclusively from our mind and body.  We exist within a social paradigm commonly adopted as “reality,” primarily steeped in left-brain activity and interaction.  Much as the fish that swims in water not seeing the limitations of its existence, we too are chained to the invisible boundaries of a manufactured lifestyle.  This is one way we align ourselves with negative energy.  We allow the darkness into our lives with our silence, selfishness, disinterest and the anesthetizing of our sensibilities.  We become vulnerable to the chaotic, lower frequencies we tend to perceive as “evil.”  These dark forces attempt to transmute our energetic signatures into a form easier to control, conquer and consume.

We witness the evidence of evil in society on a daily basis.  It is reflected in human behavior with war, destruction, genocide, inequality and injustice.  Darkness thrives in the malevolence of murder, rape, domestic violence, character assassination and the tradition of competition found primarily in politics, business and sports.  These attributes of human existence run rampant around the globe.  They bombard us with such frequency, impact and effect that we become desensitized to their horrors.  Yet, evil is not the monster under the bed or the demon in the darkness.  It is not an existential entity that preys upon our apathy, unconsciousness and fear.  It is we who sacrifice our personal power by the quality of our thoughts, behaviors, actions and emotional and energetic expression.  These traits expose us to negative energies that become hate, anger, vengeance, selfishness and cruelty.  Eventually, we render ourselves susceptible to these dark influences and they become our nature.  We become a conduit of darkness.

Bittersweet Truth Speak:

Our darkness does not appear to us typically as mythical, legendary, religious or commercial.  It is never as it is portrayed in a movie, a television program, a book or even a sacred text.  Our darkness is a customized expression of our being.  It is a reflection of who we are, unrivaled and unfounded within humanity and its communities to which we belong.  The generalizations of human darkness may seem similar, yet the specific qualities each of us conveys are as diverse as night and day.  There are over six billion people in the world with different perspectives, personalities and lifestyles and over six billion potential expressions of darkness.  It is only when we recognize our own contribution to the evil in the world that we may begin to transform its existence and impact.

We are not born to be dark or light.  We are brought into this world with all potential and possibility.  How we live and who we are is a state of being we gradually acquire with our chosen lifestyle, whether we are a shadow of darkness or an emanation of light.  As much as we would like to believe we are victims of circumstance, condition, reality or society, we are not.  This is the lie we tell ourselves when we are unwilling to find the strength and courage to take responsibility for our thoughts, choices and actions.  The more we surrender our personal power, the more we can be influenced and the more our darkness controls the course and expression of our lives.  When we acquiesce to our seductive tendency toward darkness and the false power and pleasure it provides, we yield our connection with one that is true.

The Light in the Darkness:

Darkness is so clever; it uses our own effort, energy and life force against us to further its agenda.  It exploits our ego as a channel to silently and constantly influence us toward choices and actions that go against our reason, free will, common sense and intuition.  The more we are aware of our darkness and its impression upon us, the more we are able to utilize it instead of the contrary.  After all, it is a powerful facet of our being.  It is ever present, no matter how much we attempt to avoid or deny its existence.  We can transform this expression of our being into a positive force that benefits our lives.  It is simply our perceptual fear of the raw, unknown power of our darkness that intimidates, weakens and immobilizes us.  We hand our power over to what may be, not what is.  With every fearful breath we draw, our connection with darkness strengthens and the fulfillment of our destiny wanes.

We are incapable of sustaining a capacity of being-ness for enlightenment.  Our lives are lived ever striving to become something that we can only be in spirit.  Perhaps this is the great mystery of life.  It has been said that the most powerful light is harvested from the greatest darkness.  Within this darkness there is only one thing that awaits us, our fear with which we react to the unknown.  Fear is the demon we all must face.  When we do, what once looked like a monster suddenly becomes a masterpiece of being when we see it for what it really is.  An illusion of existential authority enabled subconsciously by the power of our own fear.  It is an opportunity to draw strength from the deepest recesses of our being.  The meaning of life isn’t to become enlightened.  It is to free ourselves from the devices of our own darkness.  It is to face and transform the only darkness that truly exists, our own.

http://www.zengardner.com/light-darkness/

Guise of Divinity

“God is a concept, by which we measure our pain.” – John Lennon

Manufactured Divinity

We are all powerful, all potential and all possibility.  We are organic beings that produce energy rivaled only by the Sun and artificial invention.  We are descendents of the light of all creation.  Our hearts are electromagnetic energy generators that not only emit life force, yet connect us to everyone and everything that expresses life.  We are made from the same chemical compounds that are found throughout the galaxy and beyond.  We have the potential to transform any behavior pattern, thought and hereditary trait we may experience.  We have the capacity to create life and we possess the ability to take it away.

Yet, with all of the possibility we express, we have a tendency to become spellbound by our own belief.  With our reverence, we tend to hand over our personal power to a human invented supreme being presented as greater than ourselves.  Gradually we succumb to this “conditioning of the soul” and fall in line with common faith, otherwise known as religion.  We become dependent upon this invisible and imaginary force that, in some form or other, assumes the commonly accepted countenance of God.

We see this representation of divinity in so many people, in so many things and in so many ways within the numerous cultures across the world.  We not only begin to accept these rituals of belief, we take them, for lack of a better word, as Gospel.  We believe to the extent that we have trust in the doctrines and practices more so than we have confidence in ourselves or our family and friends.  The focus of our devotion toward our selected deity grows as our investment in our lives and in ourselves wanes.  We are diverted from our souls and into the arms of a social myth endorsed as “God.”

Edging God Out

The terminology and definition of “God” is a human invention to prevent us from connecting with and expressing our own spirituality.  When we explore this concept further, we find that the common interpretation humanity has adopted of God is only its perception.  At one point in history, a group of men had the idea to devise something that would allow them to be the “middle men” between God as they presented “Him” and the people.  They witnessed the blind and rapturous devotion the people expressed in their exaltation of the almighty focus of their faith.  They monopolized on it in the name of finance, politics, control, power and spiritual supremacy and segregation.

The agenda and strategy most religious organizations impose within their doctrines is becoming more apparent in our contemporary society.  Through the conditioning of the sacrament in many forms of faith, what seems to be missing is the connection that the devotee has with their chosen almighty.  It is interesting to witness the superiority of the “testimony” of those who are in a position of faith when they express it to their fellowships.  It would seem that the lessons being shared with their congregations dictate more of a principle for following belief rather than learning how to establish and maintain a union with their own spirit.

Our dependence upon a power distinct from our own has altered us to the roots of our being.  This reliance has built a barrier between our souls and us.  It has isolated us from our potential, possibility and personal power.  Our denial, unwillingness and fear have separated us from our relatedness with the natural flow of the universe.  We have enabled the publicity of God with our blind faith and hope instead of experiencing its fulfillment by establishing our own connection with our spirit and living our truth.  We subscribe to follow the ministers of belief and sacrifice our choice to lead our own way.  Where we once stood with consciousness, we now kneel at the altar of acquiescence.

The Voice and The Echo

If God is beyond our understanding, how could we ever recognize let alone understand the truth of its existence?  How could we ever hope to relate with something so superior to our consciousness?  Why are we expected to believe in one perception yet condone another?  How can we distinguish between that which is God and that which is merely a reflection proselytized by a representative of faith?  Why are we so hungry to believe in hope and faith yet eventually dismiss it to the peer pressures of our society’s “reality?”

There is a vast difference between God as we may experience it and its perceptual depiction.  There is no one in the world that has the authority, let alone the ability to accurately quantify, identify and articulate what God is, or what it is not.  Beyond all the meaning that humanity has attached to God, it is simply a word consisting of three letters.  It could be said that our own belief, energy, devotion and loyalty are the very elements that have given the concept of God its power.  It is our denial, fear and unwillingness to acknowledge, adopt and accept our potential for spirituality that has made the assumed existence of God all-powerful.

It is not God that has reaped the harvest of the critical mass of human belief.  It is those who have placed themselves between us and our connection with our souls.  It is human kind.  It could be said that God doesn’t need belief.  If God created everything, why would he need our faith or reverence?  Why would he need anything of us at all?  If the purpose of life as we learn in living it is to honor, keep and share it, why would we choose to dedicate a great deal of it looking outside of ourselves for what can only be found within?

Guide Of Divinity

We sense only a fraction of all that exists in the universe.  We experience life and the world through our own perceptual filter we have established in our lives.   We can begin to acknowledge that everything we have ever experienced of God is only that which we have learned or can relate to within ourselves.  It could be said that there is little difference between God and a human being.  We can create.  We can destroy.  We can express righteousness.  We can cast judgment.  We can bless others with our love and we can curse then with our hate (fear).

Who we are going to be and how we benefit others as well as ourselves is what makes us divine.  We are only human when we believe that is all we are.  As powerful as we believe God to be, we are as well.  When we let go of the stigmata of being human, we can accept the ultimate truth.  We are the guides of our own spirituality.  We are all of which we look to God.  We are the manifestation of God.

We are the emanation of life.

http://www.zengardner.com/guise-divinity/

Who We Are

The Fallacy of Physicality:

We are born into what most perceive a physical world.  We burst through the vaginal cavities of our mothers into a cold, cruel, complex and cutthroat reality.  When we are delivered, we possess everything we require to adapt, develop, excel, achieve, transform and thrive in life.  The moment we draw our first breath outside of the womb, we have attached ourselves to the material experience.  It is that expression of our will to live that determines our purpose, commitment and destiny.

The first twenty or more years of our lives we are processed through a vast labyrinth of information, rules, disciplines, social structures, evaluations and tests.  We experience few successes, many failures and parental, peer and authority persuasion.  With every day that passes, we yield more of who we were born to be and become more of a product of that which society conditions us to be.  We are so distracted by what is going on around us we are oblivious to the gradual death that occurs within.  We sacrifice our heart and soul in a needless pursuit for inauthentic belonging.

It is easy to be drawn into the fear, drama and reality of physical life.  The potential of pain, illness, punishment, disease and death is an ample antagonist to ensure our compliance.  Yet, no matter how “real,” dire or shocking it may be, the physical world is an illusion.  We have allowed ourselves to believe that all we see is all that is real.  We have turned our backs on the essence of the universe and ourselves by being seduced, stimulated, entertained and enslaved by our sensuality.

The House of Mirrors:

The greatest enigma in the existence of humanity is the mind.  There is nothing in our being-ness more active, complex, spellbinding, intriguing and bewildering.  From an early age we are confronted with millions of ideas, thoughts and judgments that bombard us and shape the course of our values, opinions and perceptions.  As our intelligence develops, our innocence, sense of wonder, intuition and creativity fades.  Decades of exposure to institutional information deprive us the development of our true wisdom.

There is a schism that matures in our minds during the process of our education, belief and social influence.  Our societal structures are engineered in a way to prevent and even prohibit us from connecting with others beyond our instinct and intellect.  These systems focus on the growth and programming of our left-brain so we eventually resign ourselves to a linear existence.  These methods gradually segregate us from our right brain and our natural desire and necessity to create and express.

As we mature into adulthood, we find it more difficult to experience life beyond the boundaries of our mind and body.  Our ability to feel and intuit with our heart and soul is distorted by the rigid guidelines of the common reality.  When we transcend this two-dimensional lifestyle, we relate emotionally and spiritually with others and we experience vital life epiphanies and insights.  These encounters are the breadcrumbs on our path of illumination, when we choose to acknowledge and apply them to our lives.

The Heart of the Heart:

Society has taught us that matters of the heart are a sign of weakness and a minor priority in life.  Emotionality has been attributed more to women than men.  Like the schism in our mind, this popular perception has caused a division between the sexes that has separated us not only from our relatives and significant others, yet also with ourselves.  The human race has become a de-compartmentalized species afraid of its own shadow.  Our fear of feeling has alienated us from our soul.

Our heart is the forgotten warrior of our being.  Amidst the constant demands of our body and the continual drone of our mind, its enduring and omnipotent presence centers and grounds us into a multi-dimensional existence.  Our instincts may deceive us and our intelligence may outwit us, yet our heart is our truest human quality.  Its very expression offers clarity, guidance, insight and enlightenment.  In the moments of our anger, upset, drama, confusion and fear, it reminds us who we are.

The center of our inner universe is our heart.  It is the eternal, electromagnetic core of our being, the gateway to our soul and the lightning rod of our intuition.  It is of course the most vital organ that pumps and distributes blood throughout the body.  Yet it is also what provides our body and energy field with essential life force.  It balances, sustains and expands our being.  The quality of our experience of life is dependent upon how conscious of, present to and expressive we are with this energy.

The Song of the Soul:

When we choose to transcend the trappings of the mortal world, there is a place within us all that reflects a brilliance, beauty and majesty greater than any beheld on earth.  It cannot be seen, heard, touched, tasted and barely can be felt.  It is only experienced beyond our sensory expression.  It is a feeling, yet much more.  It is in the moments when all of our senses work in concert with each other we are able to capture a mere glimpse of the absolute splendor of our soul.

Every time we close our eyes, ears and mouths we become present to our purest potential.  Our truth can only be found beyond the intimidating silence within us all.  We are related with our bodies, minds and hearts, though we are so much more than we could possibly imagine.  We may never experience the infinite heights and profound depths of our spirit until we transcend the physical world.  The influence and impact of our body’s desires, our mind’s reason and our heart’s empathy are our greatest distractions.  As inevitable and inescapable as they may seem, they are not insurmountable.

Who we are is a conduit of energy that channels the essential elements of free will, creativity, life force and love.  We are an expression of focused being with the purpose of sharing our essence with the world.  Who we are is the manifestation of everything that has ever been, is and will ever be.  We are only as powerful as we choose to be.  Who we are is the missing piece to a magnificent mystery only our true destiny may fulfill.  We are everything we have ever sought to find outside of ourselves.  Who we are is the measure of our passion to live life, affirmed by our birth and freed in our transcendence.  We are the expression of the source of all creation.

Who we are is the vision of pure being come true.

http://www.zengardner.com/who-we-are/

The Frequency of Being

Wake:

Our lives are defined and cultivated by how present to, interactive and expressive we are with them.  The nature of our consciousness is the exact manifestation of our experience.  Yet, before we may be able to reap the benefits that awareness brings, we must first wake up to all of which we are not cognizant.  We must be willing to identify with all that we don’t know.  In fact, we need to reveal all that we don’t know we don’t know about our lives and ourselves.  We must transcend the imposition of contemporary reality and our conditioned selves to accept, embrace and live our truth.

This requires radical, unconventional thinking and instincts.  It also necessitates an enlightened emotional and intuitive way of being.  It isn’t for us to simply wake up, discover and contemplate the war, chaos, drama, injustice, competition and violence in the world.  There is little if anything we can do about this.  It is for us to acknowledge, manage and transform these characteristics within each of us that contribute to these common maladies, diseases and atrocities rampant in our society.  None of these things existed until the human race outsmarted itself with its own “intelligence.”

One of the most potent and destructive vicious cycles ever invented by humanity is its relentless tendency to expand its intelligence at the cost of its consciousness.  Our ordinary, two-dimensional life sentence of self-righteousness, condemnation, proving our intelligence, belief, wisdom and importance are all just expressions of our living slumber.  In the presence of awareness, compassion, kindness, cooperation and love, none of these things matter.  They are only traps of the mind that lead us to our self-induced prison.

Awaken:

Once we have chosen to wake up from the dream of reality, it is our human destiny to kindle the fire of our consciousness.  How we tend it and who we are being expresses the quality and fruition of our life.  We need to acknowledge and understand that being “awake” requires a true and continual intention to relate with and expand our consciousness.  Our awakening isn’t an event at one point in our lives.  It is a frequent, multi-dimensional experience that constantly inspires and empowers us beyond the limits of our social conditioning and fear.

One of the greatest obstacles and distractions on our path toward awakening is our ego.  Its militant aspects relentlessly seek to take the spotlight from our soul.  It captures us in its elaborate tapestry of thought, perception, analysis, judgment and narcissism.  Yet, its intention is not one of supremacy or maliciousness.  It is simply exercising its nature in the only way it can.  It becomes dominant when we allow it to be an unbridled force of havoc and harm.  Without appropriate observation and regulation, it becomes a multi-faceted personal weapon.

In our pursuit of comfort, security and escape from reality, we allow ourselves to become idle, complacent and ordinary.  We commit the ultimate self-crime by giving our personal power away and allowing society’s artificial authority and conditioning to lull us to sleep.  Life is not defined by our material successes, possessions or footprint.  It is lived in our awareness, willingness and purpose.  Anything that lives is always in a state of movement.  The power of our life is equivalent to the measure of its expression.  So it is with our awakening.  Our awareness is ever progressing and expanding with our intention, commitment, empowerment and love.

Rise:

There are many times in our lives when a door of opportunity is opened before us.  Yet, rarely do we see it.  When we do, we psych ourselves out using a number of reasons, excuses, obligations and fears.  These are the possibilities that create the life we have always yearned to live.  Though they may seem bold, outlandish, far-fetched and terrifying, they are glimpses of the extraordinary in a reality steeped in the ordinary.  Our opportunities are frightening because they present themselves only to us for our experience.  It simply requires us to choose, to live and to be them.  This is how we express our power.

As human beings, we rarely, if ever, rise to the occasion of our destiny.  Many of us don’t know our true purpose in life.  We are forced through a process of education, indoctrination, conditioning, parental and authoritative guidance/discipline and constant peer pressure.  These influences keep us in a continuous state of anxiety, bewilderment and fear.  We become the effect of an elusive and hidden cause.  One we witness many chasing yet only few achieving.  We are lost in the maze of reality’s distractions till we are inevitably severed from ourselves.

Every moment we live is an opportunity to be in the present.  This is not merely a religious, dogmatic or spiritual principle.  It is our only possibility to be the fullest expression of our being.  Any other way of living is a distraction from this simple yet insightful revelation.  The sooner we acknowledge, accept and apply who we are to how and why we live, the sooner we will fulfill on our destiny and become whom we were born to be.

Truth:

Most of us live our lives in the wake of our reactionary instincts, thoughts and the drama of our unconscious emotions.  This takes us out of the present moment and separates us from our consciousness.  Few are aware of the severity this inner violence has upon us and how it devastates the evolution of our lives.  Who, why and how we are being in our life inspires our awakening.  Our frequency of being is the avenue for our heart and soul’s expression.  Its energetic signature and regularity deepens and expands our vision, truth, intention, creativity, relatedness and love.

There is no textbook, course, lecture, seminar, retreat, guru, shaman, preacher, teacher, friend or family member that can guide us to or establish our personal truth.  Our truth is not offered best with our overconfidence, over-zealousness, self-righteousness, arrogance and competitiveness.  In its truest nature, it is rarely spoken.  It is best shared silently within us for the purpose of personal acceptance, growth and transformation.  Our truth is the one thing our communities and the world needs most.  Only when it becomes our way of being will it reach its fullest potential.

From the moment we are born we have millions of opportunities to wake from our reality, awaken from our perceptions and judgments, rise above our limitations and fears and establish our personal truth.  For most, the expression and frequency of being in life is optional.  This is the slavery of our soul.  It is not some external person or elusive force that prevents us from being.  It is we and we alone.  There is no one else who can lead us.  There is no one else who can free us.  Every moment is our opportunity to free our souls.  Every moment is our opportunity to be.

http://www.zengardner.com/frequency/

Awaken

“Don’t you get tired?  Aren’t you fed up?  Pushing the agenda for the higher ups.

Could you be wise?  Won’t you be free?  Living an illusion for this fantasy…”

The Viral Man:

Since the first footprint left by the earliest civilizations, mankind has always sought, fought, built and destroyed to leave its signature.  Its very existence has become an antithesis of nature.  Its mind has made it such that the natural world is something to be conquered to measure its success, progress and worth.  Generation after generation has sparred with everything it has perceived to be a threat and challenge to its survival.  Monuments have been crafted to represent the artificial power, might and wisdom mankind has stolen from nature and manipulated with its timeless arrogant desires.

The natural world and all of its mysteries, wonders, majesty and life is simply not enough in its true, raw and rugged expression to satisfy mankind’s desires.  It had to remove, dissect, deconstruct, diminish and destroy nature in order to examine and exploit it.  Nature’s resources were extracted, altered, manipulated, boiled, burned and exhausted at an astronomical rate.  Whole ecosystems were sacrificed upon the altar of mankind’s progress, convenience, industry and wealth.  It gradually placed itself in the center of the cycle of life as it imprisoned the world with its greed, selfishness and insatiable hunger.

There is one term that best symbolizes what mankind’s reality has done to the Earth, “virus.”  It is interesting how viruses seem to originate and localize around human life.  It is vital to acknowledge and accept that viruses are a product and expression of the human race.  The very nature of a virus correlates so perfectly with mankind that the two have become synonymous with each other in life and in death.  Our toxicity as a species has reached a degree to which we have become a contagion.   This infection has wiped out civilizations, ecosystems and environments with war, disease, famine and human refuse.

“Cast your chaos to the rising tide.  Time to be present to the fear inside.

Kingdoms will rise.  Kingdoms will fall.  Truth is eternal when we heed the call…”

Society of Illusions:

There is nothing more devastating to a culture than the greed that corrupts it.  We can see it everywhere in our daily lives when we choose.  Advertisements, television programs, celebrities, professional athletes, politicians and even religious and spiritual organizations fall prey to it.  The mentality of excess has woven its way into the very roots of our society.  It has polluted our compassion, good will and need with vanity, self-righteousness and want.  It is much more than just a chosen way of life for those with the means.  It has become an entitlement that costs many the quality of life for the benefit of the few.

We were all born into a life of illusion.  Even before we breached the birth canal of our mothers, the wool was pulled over our eyes.  Our development through educational, religious and social institutions further indoctrinated and assimilated us into a reality of lies.  We were harnessed at an early age with a burdened inheritance of mere survival in a society designed to continually oppose us at every turn.  The machinery of reality persistently strips us of our free thought, emotion and creative expression, as we are bombarded with the many facets of conformity.  Ultimately, the harsh conditions of living in the contemporary world condition us into a lifestyle of apathy, denial, disinterest, cynicism and acquiescence.

“Will we pretend?  Are we asleep?  Hiding in the shadows from the fears we keep.

Will we arise?  Can we amend?  All that has fallen at the hand’s of men…”

Turning the Tide:

As diabolical as mankind’s global agenda may be, it is fragile and vulnerable to downfall.  Each one of us enables the chains of our daily slavery to society and its reality.  It is a vampire that takes everything we bring to it and provides little to nothing in return.  Yet we continue to feed this monster.  We crawl through the wreckage of our broken dreams, shattered imaginations and forgotten possibilities to prove our worth to a careless and clueless society.  As we weather the storms of our lives, we retreat to the false comfort and security of our abodes seeking fulfillment from entertainment and amusement.

There is a “breakthrough” point that occurs from either being enraged or inspired.  Many that are moved by anger tend to lash out in protest and become ensnared in the trappings of our totalitarian society. When we express ourselves negatively, we will always attract an equivalent outcome.  Authoritarian figures rely upon rebellion so that they may deal with dissidents with force, inequality and injustice.  It is used as a weapon to amend and enact laws and implement social regulations and restrictions to restrain and bury human creativity, consciousness and enlightenment.  Revolutions that were once loud, chaotic and unpredictable must now be silent, gradual and focused.

Contemporary society primarily continues to do the same thing in the same way over and over again expecting a different result.  The human life experience in many ways is a lifestyle of lunacy.  Our tendency as a society is to exist in a myriad of vicious cycles that keeps us in a perpetual state of drama, confusion, indifference, irresponsibility and duplicity.  When we blindly and defiantly defend our positions, we further entrench ourselves into our social captivity.  The human prison may be engineered and maintained by a select and secret few, yet it is we who allow ourselves to be enslaved daily with our participation and our choices or lack thereof.

“Cast your darkness to the rising sun.  Time to awaken for we are the ones

Nations will rise.  Nations will fall.  Life is eternal when we live for all.”

– Iam (lyrics from my original song “Awaken.”)

Awaken:

The human race as a whole has been asleep for a good portion of its existence.  The elements of our slumber have been our perceptions, opinions, intelligence, denial, self-righteousness and selfishness.  These are the bars of our personal imprisonment.  The accumulation and development of these qualities that “mature” our personalities are the very things that prevent us from becoming who we are truly meant to be.  In our attempt to belong to the society in which we exist, we automatically and willingly surrender our personal truth, power, purpose, consciousness and amity.  We turn our backs on ourselves.

Every day is an opportunity for us to choose to live a conscious life.  The more we create this possibility, the more we establish this reality, the more human beings will contribute to the communal awareness.  This is happening now.  We need to come together to be our fullest expression of being as a global family.  This is how it is in spirit.  No one else can create, establish or contribute our expression in this universal destiny.  When we choose to live our truth, creativity, imagination, ahimsa (non-violence) and kindness, we will transform ourselves and ultimately the world.

http://www.zengardner.com/awaken-4/