Fool’s Gold

/ Iam Saums / Leave a comment

Into the Mystic:

Before the era of mainstream spirituality and experiential ontology, religion ruled the kingdom of belief.  Billions of congregational followers flocked to their chosen church, temple, synagogue, mosque, shrine or sacred monument to seek answers only their Priest, Minister, Rabbi, Imam or Guru could provide.  Then, the spiritual revolution occurred and suddenly many seekers woke up to the realization they alone were responsible for their salvation.

Suddenly, the western world was awash with books, lectures, seminars, weekend retreats, weekly classes and You Tube videos selling shamanism as an applicable profession in the “real” world.  For hundreds or thousands of dollars one could become a shaman and almost instantly open a practice and facilitate ceremonies to heal and teach others to become one as well.  Eventually, common spiritualists came out in droves to answer this inauthentic, materialistic calling of the “new age.”

The shaman movement attracted curious, newly awakened, spirit-starved romantics seeking instant enlightenment through the repackaging of the oldest practices in the world.  Enter the opportunist that would reinvent the role of the intercessor to guide the re-born masses to Shambhala.  Now, more than anytime in the history of humanity, we see such a buzz and hullabaloo around the spiritual title “shaman,” and the broad range of modalities in which they may perform.

All That Glitters is not Gold:

In the midst of the excitement and fervor, these ancient ways were “modernized” into a form easier to understand, attain and practice.  The very essence of these sacred traditions and the experience required to properly practice them were sacrificed upon the altar of spiritual egotism and personal profit.  The rituals that had taken decades of time or longer to traditionally learn and perform would take only a matter of months, weeks or even days to the contemporary shaman.

The more this spiritual wildfire spread, the more the traditions were altered and/or re-invented to gratify a popular want in modern society.  Millions of people have been introduced to ways aged in the hundreds and thousands of years.  Yet, their teachers are not all wise and learned elders whose bloodlines had carried the cultural customs for generations.  The majority of the intercessors are merely actors most often playing a role that is far beyond their comprehension, ability, humility and commitment.

Now, it has become a trend to be a shaman.  Many mystify the masses with charisma, confidence, a little bit of knowledge and presentation ceremonies that may even harm the patients or participants more than they heal.  They have shifted the focus of the practice more upon themselves than on the spirits sourcing the medicine or the people requesting healing.  In many ways, the contemporary shaman has stigmatized and discredited the medicine way and caused challenges for the traditional ceremonial healers and their tribes.  The spiritualization and glamorization of these ancient, sacred paths have altered them forever.

The Heart of the Tribe:

There is a vital distinction between one who labels oneself a shaman and one who is a traditional ceremonial healer.   The ceremonial healer most often has grown up and lives in or around the community the medicine tradition has been kept.  The shaman most often has/does not.  The healer is willing to conduct a ceremony for very little financial return.  The contemporary shaman most often may not.  Most people whom practice ceremonial medicine do not call themselves shaman and some do not even know what that is.

In indigenous communities, those whom have understood plants, roots and our relation to the natural world have always held a vital role in the health and well being of their tribe.  Even to this day, when conventional doctors and the medical industry cannot treat the direst of situations, many traditional ceremonial healers are consulted and willing to help.  More often than not, they are severely under-compensated in comparison to modern-day physicians.  Yet, the commitment they made upon first entering their lifetime service far outweighs any concerns of comfort, convenience or status.

For many traditional ceremonial healers their experience began from the time they were adolescents, some from the time of childhood and some even from the time they were born.  It was a way of life for them for decades before the elders of their tribe acknowledged them as a leader on the medicine path.  To this day, it is a custom and a lifestyle that helps to sustain the strength, wisdom, history and ritual of their culture.  It is a tradition that preceded them long before they were born and will succeed them long after they have passed.

Few are called, Even Fewer are Chosen:

With the steady stream of spiritual practices and their accessibility over the last century, a decisive and detrimental shift has occurred.  There has been a gradual disassociation between the roots of these ancient ways and how they are conveyed and exist in the modern world.  To a great degree, the commercialization and popularization of these traditions has diminished their power and altered the expression of their energy.  The contemporary spin of these ancient practices has also provided inaccurate depictions and unrealistic perceptions to the unaware and unsuspecting novice.

The traditional medicine way is not something one may choose to become; it is something that chooses the ceremonial healer.  When this sacred exchange is established between the person who vows to help others and the spirits who bring the medicine, it is as natural as the progression of life.  They exhibit an awareness, intent and humility rarely beheld or experienced in our modern society.  Their commitment and dedication is beyond comfort, convenience, reason, sense and imagination.

As with many ceremonial practices, it is not about service to the self for financial, social or personal, spiritual benefit.  It is not about the number of patients/followers or how many referrals one may gather.  Rarely, if ever, does an authentic traditional healer consider ceremonial medicine an occupation or primary source of income.  It is about service to all without attachment.  It is the understanding and practice that the health and well being of a person in need far exceeds maintaining an image of importance or a lucrative practice.

The path of the traditional healer is one of the most difficult ones to walk.  There are very few, if any, reference points and it requires an extraordinary level of consciousness, compassion, purpose and dedication.  An authentic ceremonial lifestyle requires everything of the traditional healer.  There are no shortcuts and no concessions.  The ceremonial path may be one of the most amazing lifestyles we as human beings may experience.

If the shaman represents the branch of the ceremonial tree, the traditional healer is its root.

http://www.zengardner.com/fools-gold/

A Vision of Truth

/ Iam Saums / Leave a comment

The Incorporation of the Self

There are events in our lives that incite personal uprisings within us.  No matter how calm, quiet or peaceful we may be, in less than a breath we can become ablaze with upset, frustration and rage.  Something else happens in those moments when we come alive.  We are inspired, motivated, empowered and called into action and, most importantly, being.

These are the moments that make the greatest difference in our lives.  It is in the possibility of the present when we are able to acknowledge the true potential we are and can express when we choose.  The choice is simple.  We can succumb to the traditional conditioning of the fear we encounter through our distress and confusion.  Or we can transcend the self-induced boundaries of our being and embrace what has always been present for us to claim.  Our humanity.

Throughout our lives, we are energetically attacked mentally, emotionally and spiritually to the extent that we begin to adopt the thoughts, words, behaviors and actions of our authoritative assailants.  Be they our parents, siblings, friends, foes, teachers, preachers, co-workers, significant others or ourselves.  It is inevitable we will begin to talk the talk, enforce our false power and act out the given role for which we settle.

Whether it is one that we are coerced into, a family tradition or whatever may seem appealing to us, rarely is it one that we create for ourselves.  So it goes, the eternal revolving merry-go-round of life that promises thrills, chills and fulfillment.  Yet rarely, if ever, delivers.  Eventually, we begin to devise an artificial enlightenment.  It is developed from the weight we throw around, our temperament, intelligence, social status, achievements and the product of all of these, our self-righteousness.

Inside Job

At the heart of our self-righteousness are our greatest insecurities we safeguard with our very life force.  We all don a brave face to survive the daily melee of age, work, family drama and social turbulence.  Our personal boundaries gradually transform from the innocence and awe of a child to the clever and cunning false personality of our adult defense, our unbridled ego.

It is the subliminal development of our ego by the educational, religious, political and popular social paradigms to which we subscribe that commands the tone of our lives.  We have a tendency to acquiesce our true power simply because we do not know how to access, let alone share it.  We are not properly prepared to identify, develop and express the power each of us has been given.

Eventually, we begin to invent appearances, perspectives and beliefs that eventually result in a lifestyle of judgment and superiority.  These opinions construct our personal, perceptual prison that exists to keep us from obtaining all that is possible in our lives.  The focus of our life experience shifts from one of the heart and soul to one of the mind and body.  It is then we surrender to adulthood and the vision of our destiny dies.

The more personal power we concede to our self-righteousness through our own ignorance and arrogance, the more its benefactor influences us.  Our ego is so clever and cunning, if left to its own agenda; we become the victim of our own being, the ghost in the machine.  Unbeknownst to us, our ego uses our self-righteousness against us to control our lives, causing our uncertainty, adversity and needless suffering.

Facing the Music

We are all in a maze.  From the richest to the poorest, the healthiest to the sickest, the compassionate to the careless and the conscious to the unaware.  No matter how much we may believe that we are not shackled to the invisible boundaries of reality, we are.  Simply believing that we aren’t is the manifestation of our soul slavery.  Our self-righteousness suspends us in our own fantasy.

Our personal mystification, romanticism and indifference capture us.  We are at the cause of this epidemic of our being.  The allure of what is not tends to divert us away from all that truly is.  Our daydream lifestyle enchants and hypnotizes us, while an imposed, man-made reality frightens, entertains and anesthetizes us into a waking sleep.  This is the Matrix.  One in which we enable with our apathy, oblivion and life force every day.

We apply numerous filters to the vision of our lives and the world.  We adopt them from others or we devise them for ourselves from our fear, hurt, vanity, defensiveness or pride.  A collapse in our being occurs.  We begin to believe that we are our filters.  In these moments, our heart and soul is confined to our mind and body.  Most of us don’t know when this happens in our lives, and the majority of us don’t even notice that it has.

The Truth of Our Lives

The tapestry of personal filters we have adopted has blinded us to the mere possibility of living our truth.  The fact that living a true life is optional in the wake of reality is the reason there is such a lack of it in our own or in society.  When introduced to the truth, often our first response is resistance, cynicism, criticism and judgment.  What is really there for us is our fear and insecurity of all that we are unaware.

The greatest aspects of ourselves to which we are unconscious are our natural desires for creativity, compassion, empowerment, leadership community and love.  These are all the cornerstones of truly being human that are rarely taught, emphasized, encouraged and practiced.  These are the only qualities that can enlighten the human race toward the greatest of its potential.

Walking our truth is lived with strife, challenge, hardship and pain.  Our true path is not as excruciating as it may appear.  Those who powerfully choose to live their truth must do so in an artificial environment.  This is the most difficult endeavor.  There are few points of reference.  There is very little relativity with those around us.  After all, it is not possible to establish our own truth based solely upon that of another.

We are living in an era when pure possibility is more accessible than ever.  A powerful movement in our society has woken and risen to identify and claim their personal power.  A new experience is emerging from the declining constitutions of what we have accepted as real.  Those whom retrieve their forgotten truth will see it.  Those who stand for their truth will express it.  Those whom live their truth will be it.

Our truth is the vision of who are meant to be.

http://www.zengardner.com/a-vision-of-truth/

Versus

/ Iam Saums / Leave a comment

All the world’s a…game:
Our society is built upon a foundation of competition.  When we are born, we inherit generations of history lived habitually through cultural integration, relativity, co-dependence and survival.  These are the driving forces that ultimately impose the course of our lives even before we are conscious and present to their gravity and influence.  The more we live our lives, the more we are conditioned and assimilated onto the terrestrial chessboard.  Most of us remain oblivious to the fact that we are incorporated into it, let alone understand the elusive and variable rules of the game.

We are livestock in a global farm.  We are raised and programmed to compete with each other in the grand game of “life.”  Everyday we go through the motions of playing a role to which we adopt and comply.  Our experience upon this earth has and is massively manipulated.  It pits us against our fellow human being in a commonly accepted and dysfunctional community called “society.”  This distracts and amuses us away from obtaining the vision, intention and purpose to establish our calling and create our destiny.

Competition is everywhere, in everyone and in everything.  It begins for most of us at an early age in the mandatory educational system.  We are integrated into classes that signify the degree of our assimilation, comprehension and social programming.  It is then we encounter one of the greatest and most effective stimuli of opposition, sports.  This influence impacts the many facets of our lives.  Through them, we are introduced to dependency, aggression, involvement, and contention.  Spectator sports provide the vicarious thrill of victory and the inevitable agony of defeat.

“War is the ultimate expression of competition…someone wins and someone loses.  We even pray to God to favor our side for “victory.” – Laura Saums

Choosing Sides:
Our participation in the game begins when we enroll and engage by taking a side.  It may be in our selection of a political candidate or party, a spiritual leader or religion, an athlete or sports team or a product or its corporation.  This false choice ushers us into a realm of vicious cycles and endless sparring.  We become conditioned into believing this cutthroat custom is the meaning of life.  We develop an attachment and addiction to this lifestyle.  The fix to the craving is that someone must win while many others must lose.  This approach to life sacrifices our creativity, potential, individuality and spirit.

Once we have drawn the line in our proverbial sand, we further entrench our heels in deeper with our egotistical projections.  Our arrogance, self-righteousness, defensiveness, blind faith and fear constructs the wall around us.  We are eventually isolated from the way society and the world really is.  We become seduced and ensnared within our personal fantasies, simulated security, hollow professional accomplishments and imitated existence.  With every anxious and oblivious breath we take we give away our personal power, possibility, purpose and destiny.

“Competition only leads to destruction.  Whereas amity leads to creation.”

Inner Contest:
In order for us to identify, understand and transcend the competition that motivates, influences and imprisons us, we need to discover its origin.  As it is with every element in our experience of life, it must first exist within us before it is brought into our lives.  We are blinded by the drama of social reaction.  We fail to see our possibility, claim our intention, establish our truth, and express our purpose when we are drawn into the elaborate, two-dimensional web of opposition.  We become so enamored with the game, we relinquish our reason, sensibilities, enlightened emotions and intuitive potential.

It is extremely difficult to create the necessary energetic containment, balance and expression within to transcend reality.  We are constantly provoked, stimulated and influenced by the illusory life of yes and no, up and down, right and left, back and forth, day and night and dark and light.  The more we engage in the energetic vortex of competition, the less likely we are to experience not just the truth of our lives, yet also the truth of ourselves.  When we are immersed in the chaos, drama and synthetic excitement of contest, we sentence ourselves to a life of division and defeat.

This begins and ends within each of us.  As aggressive as we are in our daily lives is as much or even more of how we are with ourselves.  All of us are our most bitter rivals.  When we are sparring with others it is a reflection of how we are relating to ourselves.  What is ultimately both challenging and intimidating is observing and accepting how unconscious we are of the competition we hold with ourselves.   We are always at war within.  When we are oblivious to our inner dysfunction, we surrender our attention, focus, awareness and energy.

Transcending the Game:
For many, life is simply a game.  The design of this game is always the same.  There is engagement, participation, drama, trends, successes, failures and outcomes.  We deceive ourselves into believing that there is nothing more important or worthy of our time.  It becomes our sole purpose of existence.  How we participate often determines our personal, professional and social worth.  We are so driven and obsessed by it we become slaves to its strategy and agenda.  The thrill of the game far outweighs the essential need for an intentional, empowering and fulfilling life.

We are all addicts of the game.  We compete against ourselves with unrealistic ideals, unreasonable expectations and impossible aspirations.  We are distracted from the possibilities, purpose and destiny that originally inspired our engagement in our lives.  There is always a steep price to be paid when we play a game that readily devours our vision, confidence, imagination and inspiration.  We willingly sacrifice the greatest aspects of our lives and ourselves to contend for the mirage of our heart and soul’s desire.  When we “win” the game, the victory is fleeting, lonesome and artificial.

It is virtually impossible to compete with others.  Every person is different based upon his or her social environment, upbringing, family dynamic, inspiration and quality of life.  Yet, we are constantly provoked and conditioned into vying for achievements, assets and greed instead of creativity, illumination and community.  Competing against our selves within the confines of reality is just another artificial endeavor.  It is a simulated lifestyle of civilizing ourselves at the cost of our consciousness, unity, love and destiny.  Freedom, wisdom and enlightenment are experienced when we refuse to comply.  The game is not only fixed, it is an illusion.  Transcending it is the only way we all truly win.

http://www.zengardner.com/versus/

Music in the Key of Soul

/ Iam Saums / Leave a comment

The Conquest of Noise

It does not take an aficionado to observe the declining quality of contemporary music.  When we dare to explore the radio dial, we often find a barrage of noise attacking our ears and senses.  We may search for the message and our connection with it, though rarely are we able to enjoy or resonate with the songs or the frequency in which they are recorded and broadcast.  Where once we were empowered, inspired and happy in our listening, now we often experience the side effects of corpora-tized sound.

A hostile takeover has been executed with boardroom secrecy and precision.  It has nearly sacrificed the essence of music.  Initially it was the manipulation of the frequency in which music was tuned, performed and recorded.  Next it was the elementary, commercial, propaganda-laden lyrics influencing our listening, perceptions and lifestyles.  Then it was the incessant promotion of untalented people singing meaningless songs to distract us from the real issues in society and ourselves.  Now it is the control of the industry by the unoriginal few at the cost of the passion and creativity of the many.

An Uphill Battle

It has become exceedingly difficult for musical artists, i.e. singer/songwriters and composers, to find their audience and niche let alone succeed in the contemporary marketplace.  The industry has become an exclusive club of untalented and elitist entrepreneurs seeking instant stardom and financial windfall from engineered music that is here today, gone yesterday.  This has produced a system that has mirrored the pyramid schemes found most often in the corporate finance and business sectors.  Creativity and empowerment in music has been greatly replaced by popularity and profit.

The music industry is rigged.  To some degree it always has been, much like many other forms of artistic expression.  Creativity in music has become less about the art and more about what the artist is willing to sacrifice.  Hit singles and endorsement deals are the standards of success.  It is more about pushing corporate agendas then artistry.  The customary recipe for music is repetitive, trance-like lyrics that program explicit and subliminal messages to alter the thought patterns of the listener.  It applies mechanistic beats and multi-layered sounds more so resembling racket rather than music.

The common tuning frequency in music has been 440-hertz since the World War Era.  It was altered from 432-hertz to promote the energy of war and conflict.  The difference is less than a half step in diminished chromatic tuning.  The energy of 440-hertz is dark, chaotic, puts the listener on edge and can incite reactions of aggression, confusion and cognitive dissonance.  Most listeners of music, as well as the musicians that play it, do not possess a heightened awareness or understanding of frequencies.  The denser vibrations of music impose a forceful persuasion upon even the peripheral audience.

Revolution Reveals the Truth

Most artists and musicians have accepted the conditions of the industry, much like most human beings have adopted the rules and regulations of their society’s everyday reality.  Most are desperate, overwhelmed and willing to alter themselves and compromise their artistic integrity just to survive doing what they love.  Very few have been able to manifest their musical vision into its most pure and true expression.  Those that have, find it exceptionally challenging to gain the necessary attention, support and longevity to sustain their craft into a lucrative career.

The most vital and symbolic element in the dynamic of an artist’s successful creativity is their willingness to stand for, be confident with and share their expression.  It is a given in the contemporary climate of the arts that there are far more things against than are with them.  It isn’t merely their passion, desire or even the need to create and perform that can carry an artist to their melodious paradise.  It exists in their way of being and the energetic quality of their expression.  This is when the excitement, creative power and relatedness happens that allows musical artists to transcend the industry’s authority.

The Power of Expression

It may seem difficult to follow one’s vision in the process of writing, recording and performing music, yet it is as vital as our heart is to our body.  Each one of us received the blessing of life in this world.  Each one of us was given a voice and an avenue of expression.  The majority of us rarely discover ours, let alone convey it.  Our creativity isn’t just an ability or gift.  It isn’t even for the love or the freedom we experience while we are playing music.  It is our eternal life force made manifest.  It is our destiny articulated in sound.  It is who we truly are when we allow ourselves to be.

As artists, the measure of our creativity is in the declaration of our truth, purity and illumination.  In this age of contemporary music, it is very easy to be influenced by the external forces around us.  We may even catch ourselves unconsciously imitating the current popular melodies or beats we may encounter. Only our own true expression kindles our creativity, life force and energy.  It transforms our environment as well as our selves in our pursuit to expand our artistic being.

Who Feels It Knows It

All music is born from silence.  Everything that is creatively possible as music is first silence before it is transposed into sound.  The greatest music ever composed has had an evocative presence of silence to enhance its melodies, harmonies and rhythms.  The silence between the notes and beats have always expressed the enchantment and mystery of a song. Silence is the most overlooked yet powerful element in music.  It is in the silence where the soul of music is found.

Creativity is an eternal, multi-dimensional presence.  It plays the artist as an instrument in a communal exchange to become sound in physical reality.  However, the artist must be present and open to this force for it to flow through them and be expressed to its fullest potential.  This requires a great deal of de-programming and releasing what one has learned and believed to achieve an enhanced ability to feel and intuit.  This is the cornerstone of the transcendent relationship between the artist’s soul and the source.

Music is not something that we write and perform.  It is quite the contrary.  It is a stream of consciousness that moves through us when we have reached an enlightened expression of being.  All artists stand at the mouth of this current, yet we are not its source.  It is a sacred, ethereal bond we establish with our willingness and dedication to let go of who we think we are and become who we were meant to be.  It is not in the notes or even the instruments we play.  It is in the resonation of our soul’s harmony in concert with the melodic source of creation where music thrives in its purest and truest expression.

Music is the song of our soul.

The Usual Suspects

/ Iam Saums / Leave a comment

A Dime a Dozen
They are found on the covers of magazines, books and a myriad of publications.  There are CDs and DVDs of their speeches, lectures and classes.  They host seminars, retreats and special engagements.  Their links are added to hundreds, perhaps thousands of websites.  They write forewords and brief praises for lesser-known author’s books.  They hob-knob and network with celebrities, politicians, athletes, business executives and royalty.  Their faces are even seen on TV, billboards, marquees and in movies.  They are the new age of applied mysticism.  They are “The Usual Suspects of Spirituality.”

Many of them have careers in very different fields prior to their “enlightenment.”  Some are doctors, authors, musicians, ministers, scientists, poets and professors.  Some may have experienced hardship, injury, loss and near-death experiences.  Many of them have had authentic insights that led to a change on their life path.  Most, if not all, have found them selves enamored with the awe, splendor, humility and illuminating epiphany of the expansiveness of universal awareness, relatedness, truth and love.  Yet, in the presence of the greatest experiences they may have had, their sacred union with spirit is often wagered for the fame, fortune and artificial fulfillment of the contemporary marketplace.

Edging God Out

We are all graced with consciousness.  When we become present to it, we transcend beyond our known selves.  In the majesty of this being-ness, we feel connected to everyone and everything.  Within this experience resides all possibility.  There is no desire to prove our intelligence, value, wisdom or spirituality.  There is only a need to relate and express with our spirit to sustain the balance and harmony of multi-dimensional life.  We exist in a beautiful and fluent dance of eternal energy, ever inspired and empowered to be our greatest manifestation.

This is a very challenging union to maintain.  Most human beings have not transformed themselves in this essential way to be present and interactive with the divine mandala we experience as life.  It is nearly impossible not to fall victim to our ego.  After all, as our consciousness and connection with our spirit grows and expands, so does our ego’s presence and influence.  It exists in and of itself, divergent from our reason, intelligence, wisdom and compassion.  It is what it is and forever shall be as long as we are human.

This gives us an insight as to how easy it is for a Spiritual Leader to not only become influenced, yet also run by their ego.  Belief is a double-edged sword.  On one side, there is a natural inspiration and inclination toward innocence, wonder and curiosity.  These qualities clarify and empower personal truth.  On the other side, there are strategies and agendas toward control and manipulation for the sake of self-worth, self-righteousness, spiritual hierarchy, entitlement and monetary gain.  A Spiritual Leader who does not commit to a practice of authenticity, humility and transformation will always misguide the very people they are attempting to lead.

Transcen-“dance”

The onus does not rest completely on the Spiritual Leader who has fallen prey or succumbed to their ego.  The common reality in which most of us exist lends greatly to this unfortunate outcome.  In order for there to be a measure of success in anything within this three-dimensional construct we call “reality,” those attempting to achieve it must interact and become a part of its program.  They must surrender to socially-prescribed conditioning in order to function and excel within it.  This instantaneously diminishes the energy frequencies with which we all connect, relate and unite through our higher level emotional being and our intuition.  The moment we intellectually and instinctually disengage from this extraordinary communion with our heart and soul, our spirituality is quantified into “reality.”  All possibility of living our true destiny is lost.

Our society is overpopulated with “spiritual opportunists.”  They learn just enough to charm, romance and outwit potential, unsuspecting clients, patients and customers.  The less we are aware of the bittersweet truth of authentic spirituality, the more its intellectually modified version hypnotizes us with its false luminosity.  Our pursuit of comfort, convenience, safety, knowing, entertainment and compliance with “reality” are the greatest common distractions from our authentic spirituality and true-life path.  Once we have subscribed to the quest for our mortal luxuries, what we have sacrificed of our soul goes beyond our imagination.

This is the primary reason why congregational religion, new age organizations and spiritual societies work mainly for the Spiritual Leader and rarely for the Spiritual Initiate.  These methods hinder the growth and expression of awareness far more than they help.  They are generalized social systems founded upon the structure of a three-dimensional reality to control the progress and expansion of individual and global consciousness.  They do not represent, relate or harmonize with the universal, multi-dimensional natures of our spirit.  Each person’s soul is unique and diverse.  It is actually impossible for one or a group of individuals to provide guidance or illumination on another person’s life path.  Only the person who chooses to discover the mysteries of their own soul and destiny is appropriately qualified and born to do so.

Soul Savior

Spiritual Leaders are only as genuine as their commitment, loyalty, humility and authenticity.  Their willingness and intention to evolve and transform in the service of their community and the world ought to transcend any notion of personal benefit they may achieve.  They may have knowledge, understanding, experience or wisdom that makes a great deal of sense in the moment it is shared.  However, when it is applied to our own lives, its value may fade as quickly as its appeal.  The wisest people are those whom are able to identify and discern when another’s wisdom, however popular or successful it may seem, does not apply to their own.

Spirituality is not a freedom from ego.  It is a practice for us to manage its relentless and inevitable impression.  An authentic spiritual path is not about belief.  It is all about who we are being and how we are living everyday.  Spirituality is about claiming our personal power and becoming the leader of a destiny to which only we were intended.  We were not meant to occupy a seat in someone else’s vision.  We were born to be the manifestation of our own.  We are the only ones who can bring our unique expression of purpose and transformation to the world.

We live in a society where it is very easy to exist vicariously through the perceptions, judgments, experiences, understanding and wisdom of others.  No other is meant or intended to guide our spirit through its life experience on Earth.  We may have epiphanies of relation, orientation and synchronicity with others when our paths may cross.  Yet, all we are is the expression of our choices and who we are being when we make them.  Living our authentic spiritual path may be challenging, humbling, wearisome, inspiring, empowering, enlightening and transformational.  Though its reward may never bring us a sense of comfort, status and accomplishment, it will always unite us with our soul.

http://www.zengardner.com/usual-suspects/

The Frequency of Being

/ Iam Saums / Leave a comment

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/

Being Present in the Present

/ Iam Saums / Leave a comment

Living History:
We are surrounded, enamored and consumed by our past. It is in everything, everywhere and everyone we know. It is our comfort zone, our personal security blanket to protect us from the world. Our past does not haunt or stalk us. It is in us. It lingers in the shadows of our minds like infinite echoes eternally bouncing off of each other. When we choose to view our lives through our antiquated filters we are living in our past. Most of us avoid releasing our past from our perception. Eventually, we fail to see how much of our past is in our present and inevitably our future.

It isn’t that the past is particularly safe, comfortable, enriching or illuminating. The past is relative. It is only beneficial to us when we may overlook something advantageous in our present. Its greatest value is in the expression of our awareness in the moment. Consciousness is the true measurement of our experience. The more conscious we are in our present, the more we will harvest from it when it has become our past. Who we were and who we may become ultimately creates who we are.

Our society is living in the past. We are constantly conditioned, influenced, entertained and frightened into its familiarity, certainty, docility and false security. It is an illusion we consciously and unconsciously construct and sustain for the sake of our selective remembrances, possession accumulations and professional achievements. Our past is a fragile and diverse fantasy we enable to escape the severity of society’s present reality. This survival strategy we adopt disconnects us from our lives and imprisons us with our own apathy, pride, cynicism and fear. We become enslaved by our experience with the artificial safety and finality of our relativity.

Over the Horizon:
As human beings we have an extraordinary power to focus our attention, project our energy and connect with anything we choose. Whether it is a healthy or unhealthy expression, the ability to do so is inexplicably misunderstood, disregarded, invalidated and unemployed. We live in a social structure that has gradually diminished and destroyed the necessity and importance of being the pioneers of our true path. It scatters us into various directions leading us away from our lives and ourselves. We have been persistently distracted, traumatized and emasculated into our soul’s sacrifice.

Whereas our past may dictate, alter or consume our present, the probable future can be equally as ominous and influential. When we fantasize about what may be, we inevitably compromise the awareness, quality and possibility of our present. We become a perpetual pendulum swinging between what was and what may be. In so doing, we rarely occupy our present long enough to give ourselves the opportunity to identify, cultivate and manifest our truth, mission and life. Our present is annihilated by the existence of our archaic memories, empty dreams and unconscious fears.

Our future is dependent upon our insights, thoughts, choices and actions in our present. It is in a continual flux until the moment we manifest it into our present reality. When we have produced an outcome in our lives, it becomes a fixed experience that instantaneously becomes our past. Even when we alter the dynamic of its existence, it is simply a variation of an obsolete life experience. More often than not, we are kicking the proverbial can of our future further in front of us just before it is actualized. Even our ideal perception and desire of what we would like our future to be can alter its creation and existence.

The Present of the Present:
At any time in our life we may find ourselves a split second ahead or behind expressing our purpose and creating our destiny. Unbeknownst to us, the achievement and success of our intended fate is often earned or lost within the slightest degree of experience. This slim measure is the distinction between living in the past, the present or the future. We neglect to generate and maintain a functional consciousness that would allow us to acknowledge and distinguish this minute diversity. We are rarely effective in our ability to keep our lives, let alone ourselves in the moment.

However difficult it may be to ground and center ourselves into the present, it is vital to our evolution. It is only in the present when we are able to connect with our intuition. It is only in the present when we find the sacred balance and harmony within that allows us to obtain and express our vision, purpose and destiny. It is only in the present we can fully become who we were meant to be. It is only in the present when we are creating our life. It is only in the present when we can fully experience love. The past and the future may appear real. Yet, the present is all that is true.

Beyond Now:
There is an infinite emanation of life occurring in the present that is beyond our senses, comprehension, competence and imagination. Before we are able to acknowledge, understand and interact with the multiplicity of the present, we are inundated with social diversions. Our three dimensional reality, social conditioning, common sense and beliefs compromise our consciousness, creativity, possibility and intuition. This temporal battle rages within us. It sources our insecurity, uncertainty, indifference, cognitive dissonance and fear. We become that to which we concede.

The present is a proactive, powerful, creative and extraordinary life expression. When we are in and aware of the present to the best of our ability, we live everything as we were intended. What once appeared to be linear in dimension, perception and experience transforms. We become aware of the multi-faceted existence of being. This is not something that is initiated simply by our shift in consciousness. It is the natural dynamic of universal experience. The present is an eternal gateway that allows us to exist in concert with numerous realms of being.

The present is not the destination of our journey. It is simply the foundation upon which we choose to live. The present is as unpredictable as the future. It is a multi-dimensional experience of being. Infinite possibilities are expressed from the womb of its presence. When we seek to control, inhibit and manipulate its outcome, it results in only what we individually think or believe. The present isn’t intended to satisfy the ego, desire and will of the few. It exists to transform, inspire and empower all. When we are conscious and related in our lives we truly experience it. Only then are we able to be an infinite expression of the present. Only then are we able to create, share and be the fulfilled nature of its possibilities.

http://www.zengardner.com/present-present/

Awaken

/ Iam Saums / Leave a comment

“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/

The Greatest Illusion

/ Iam Saums / Leave a comment

“Spirituality and being spiritual mystifies us from being all who we are truly meant to be.”

Soul Distinction:

We are not spiritual. When we are attempting to be spiritual, we are not being spiritual. We may practice one or many styles of spirituality enough to consider or call ourselves “spiritual.” Yet, by our very nature in relation to the common reality and the dynamic of contemporary society, we are not. We may give the appearance or impression that we are or do, though we truly aren’t and don’t. When we present ourselves as being “spiritual,” we aren’t “being” spiritual, but more often disingenuous, eccentric and superior. When we believe we are enlightened is usually when we are furthest from it.

Living a spiritual life is publicized as something we must learn and develop; yet it is something we rarely experience or become. Whatever medium of spirituality we may believe we are performing is a characteristic of our individual interpretation. It is simply not possible for us to share the “wisdom” we may discover, adopt, reflect or convey. It is ours alone and may only work for us in our lives. There are over six billion truths, perceptions, opinions and encounters with spirituality in the world. It is narcissistic to believe that “our” understanding of spirituality is universal or “the one.”

When we choose to embrace living a lifestyle that brings us into alignment with our soul’s purpose and destiny, we begin to draw lines of distinction between what we believe our path to be and what it truly is. More often than we would like to accept, how we choose to live determines whether we are talking and proselytizing a spiritual life or walking and living it. The use of the term “spiritual” implies that those whom are intending to be it are not. Most people that seek to live a spiritual life never realize that they may be feeding their ego more than they are being an expression of their soul.

Lost in the Logic:

Relation with the spirit is a very unique experience. When we attempt to quantify our illuminations using thought and reason, we have already diluted and eventually lost their true essence. When we listen to a spiritual speaker, read a book or an article 😉 or watch a video, we aren’t receiving the entirety of the message or its wisdom. It is compromised as soon as it is translated from a four-dimensional experience into a three-dimensional reality and captured with two-dimensional logic and ideology. As soon as we attempt to speak about it we have already lost it.

Many “spiritual” leaders, gurus, shaman, ministers, priests, etc. have sought to be an intercessor for all emanations of spirit. Many members of congregations, fellowships and religious and spiritual organizations have willingly sacrificed their personal truth, power, purpose, freedom and destiny seeking outside of them that which already abides within. The pursuit of artificial belonging, comfort, convenience and common belief ultimately “converts” a revolutionary, transformational four-dimensional experience into a contrived and routine two-dimensional secular sentence.

Ritual of Rhetoric:

As central as the ritual is to one’s practice, it is not the end all be all. It may seem ideal to live a life in constant ritual, yet it is not realistic, nor is it beneficial. At some point, all of us must return to our daily lives and apply to them what we have experienced in ceremony. If the spirituality one is practicing is not proactively useful, personally innovative and progressively transformational, it can become more of a detriment than a benefit. Millions of people use rituals everyday to escape the reality to which they subscribe. Even a ceremony can distract one from the evolution of their life.

Rituals open the door and guide a person into the realms of epiphany, consciousness, appreciation, transformation and wisdom. These practices allow us to step outside of our lives and ourselves and experience something new, bold, radical and revolutionary. They allow us to relate with our heart and soul through our connection with the vision, insight and expression of our intuition. Ceremonies balance our body and mind with our heart and soul. They assist us in establishing and maintaining the sacred alchemy of our four-dimensional potential.

Participating in ceremony is essential with our intention and need to live harmonically and symbiotically with our heart and soul. The frequency of our participation and our experiences help us to discover and sustain our awareness to, relation with and expression of the creative force of the universe. This is our fullest potential which all of us are born to bring into three-dimensional reality, beyond even our imagination. This is the life force that creates the possibility of transforming ourselves, our reality, our environments and ultimately the world.

Soul Distortion:

We have been turned around so many times in our lives by the common reality and the society in which we live that we fear and resist all that we should embrace and apply. We surrender and acquiesce to that which is outside of ourselves as our celebrated contemporary lifestyle. It has become the customary way of life. We have found a false sense of security, worth, empowerment and fulfillment in being afraid of our own shadows. Throughout our lives, our fear grows to be insurmountable. It ensnares us into a perpetual state of delusion, confusion and indifference.

Eventually, we allow the social rules, obligations and havoc of our human experience to distort our intuitive vision and suppress our emotional expression. We do not truly live. We merely survive a two-dimensional existence. We attempt to compensate for the lack or loss of our heart and soul with left-brained intelligence and gratifying our insatiable, instinctual desires. We become masters of reason, opinion, duality and common sense. With every shallow breath we take in our unconscious existence, we further sever our relation with our soul.

The Illusion:

Before we are able to comprehend the necessity of our relation to and expression of our spirit in our life, it is relentlessly charmed and seized by numerous facets of society. As children, we live from our heart and soul before our bodies develop and our minds are manipulated with two-dimensional intelligence. As we “mature,” our emotions are repressed and we are alienated from our intuition. We begin to believe the truth of those around us as we inhibit and bury our own. We live so removed from our heart and soul, what we are faced with on our deathbed is our fear of the unknown we ourselves enabled.

We are programmed, conditioned, educated, emasculated and enslaved into an artificial, three-dimensional reality living a two-dimensional existence. Everything that we are told we ought to live for by our family, friends, peers, teachers, preachers, professional associates and authoritative figures is the mask of the illusion we call “life.” We drive ourselves with the initiative of acquiring more to eventually buy our freedom from the communal prison of reality. When we reach the mountaintop of “retirement,” we isolate ourselves further from the world. Our surrender is complete.

The greatest illusion ever invented by humanity was the belief that we are separate and divergent from our soul. Our society is built upon this lie to sustain this deception for the benefit of the few at the cost of the many. The common acceptance of this perception has segregated us from the extraordinary expression of who we truly are. It has condemned us to the shadows of existence from our fulfilled potential and the true purpose of our destiny. Yet it is our own fear of the pure power of our soul and our lack of loyalty to it that has suppressed and separated us from our four-dimensional experience.

We are whom we have been waiting for. We are the key that unlocks the door. This has always been the truth and purpose of our lives. This is why we are born into this artificial, three-dimensional reality and consistently challenged by a two-dimensional existence. It isn’t to sentence us to a life of fear, servitude, escapism and self-indulgence. It is to inspire and empower us to choose to transcend and transform this simulated reality. This is how we discover and declare our personal truth, power, purpose, freedom and destiny. This is how we become the soul we are meant to be.

“The greatest illusion isn’t that we are separate from each other.

The greatest illusion is that we are separate from our souls.”

– Iam

http://www.zengardner.com/the-greatest-illusion-2/

The Lie We Live

/ Iam Saums / Leave a comment

Living the Dream:

“Dreaming and dreaming your freedom away,
The world keeps on turning and taking your days,
And you fall faster and faster and you fall deeper and deeper asleep.”

Go to school.  Get a job.  Get married.  Buy a house.  Have kids.  Retire.  Grow old.  Die.

This is the formula for the “American Dream.” We don’t know who invented it and we don’t really know how effective or fulfilling it is. Yet, we chase this dangling carrot mostly because everyone else does. It is one of many societal standards that set the tone for an artificial, victimized and oblivious life. Billions are engaged, mesmerized and imprisoned by “the dream.” They are rendered powerless and fall prey to it. They measure it by their titles, possessions and bank accounts. Most people live out their entire lives never knowing whether or not they actually achieved their dream.

The human race has never reached its full potential. As a global community, we haven’t even seen the horizon. There is a stark distinction between vision and reality. It is difficult to see one’s vision when it hasn’t been defined let alone beheld. The primary reason why we as a society have been unable to transform our lives and our experience of them is our lack of shared and manifested vision. This is the evidence of our narcissistic focus. It prevents us from reaching our full potential as a community. Our vision has been high jacked and manipulated into what we refer to as the “American Dream.”

There is a deficiency of creativity in contemporary culture. Our lack of vision and imagination as a society has chained us to a reality where our dreams are not our own. We surrender our power to numerous people, vices, institutions and circumstances because we are terrified of claiming and expressing it. Eventually we allow the structures of society to shape us into “functionally acquiescent” adults. We settle for positions that give the impression of purpose and achievement. Yet in truth, they are self-centered and serve only the few at the cost of the many. We are so accustomed to this “dream” it has become our life (lie).

The Lie of Life:
At some point in our lives, we are inspired, empowered and enlightened by the epiphany of our purpose and destiny. Once we make a connection with this calling, it continues to transform and expand our very experience of life. It is an eternal energy that illuminates and guides us toward our true passion and expression. There is nothing else in our life that inspires our excitement and fulfillment. The younger we are, the less our egos are developed and the more we are aligned with our true path. Yet, as we mature into adults, we replace our genius with intelligence.

There is the fantasy we all invent of a life we wish to have called our “daydreams.” Then there is the fantasy we all enable with our compliance and participation called “reality.” Most of us get caught between the two in our quest to merely survive. While we bounce back and forth between the two chasing the “American Dream,” we sacrifice our life force. As we succumb to the myriad of influences and obstacles reality imposes, we live further away from our destiny. We become a reflection of a lie instead of an expression of truth.

The lie of life we adopt becomes our reality and eventually our truth. Whenever we encounter the truth of another, we tend to react with defensiveness, self-righteousness, criticism and judgment. Consciously or unconsciously we attempt to diminish their truth to endorse, praise, impose and preserve our own. Living a lie compels us to act superior, eccentric and conceited. It compromises our sincerity, kindness, empathy and possibility. When we allow ourselves to be seduced by the lie of life, we sever our relatedness with our heart and soul. It segregates us from all that is sacred within.

The Forest for the Trees:
Reality is a lie. This is why our lives are a lie in relation to reality. Society has been and is engineered to project an illusion of life. It is a simulation imposed upon the human race to deceive us into believing that it is real, or even true. Our belief in this illusion makes it a reality. This is how powerful we are as human beings. Yet, our power has been manipulated against us to manifest and maintain this illusion we accept as life. Only when we remove ourselves from this global hallucination are we able to see it for what it truly is, an invisible prison that embezzles our energy to sustain its existence.

All of us fight to protect the investment we have in the illusion. We sacrifice anything and everything to hold onto as much of our synthetic paradise we can. Sometime during our early adulthood we stop resisting and revolting against society and reality and we begin to join the ranks of the billions who have succumbed to its merciless influence. We begin to believe that our contribution may make a difference. The rare instances we may find truth in the lie is either our own experience that has little value to others or just another facet of the lie of life. A lie can appear as truth when we believe it into reality.

It is much more difficult to live the lie than it is to live the truth. In this upside down world it may seem easier to give our power away with our vote, dollar, energy, amusement, addictions, obligations and lifestyles to indulge our entitlement as human beings. We have been conditioned to believe that identifying, establishing and living our truth is needless, arduous, painful and dangerous and could lead to fatal consequences. The stigmatism of fear that has shrouded the existence of truth in this world has sustained the illusions of war, greed, violence, murder and environmental holocaust. This is the cost of our compliance to the lie of life.

All of us are accountable for this grand illusion. All of us have enabled it with our fear, failure and unwillingness to be our truth in a world of lies. When given the choice between making a difference and making money, we have eagerly opted for the latter. Our experience of truth is being torn apart by our artificial “responsibility” to the lie that is reality. The greatest lie of life is that reality is “real.” Living this lie gives us a false sense of purpose, security and fulfillment. It is a permissible excuse from standing in our truth. The measure of the lie we live is found in the measure of the truth we sacrifice upon the altar of our vanity, arrogance, expectation and entitlement. Our lives will never come true living in the lie of life. It is only when we create our lives and live them will they become true.