Spiritual Growth: Raising your Consciousness

By David Zimmer

There are two types of knowledge, the knowledge you have and that your soul has. Similarly, there is the knowledge amnesia patients have about themselves and the knowledge they would like to remember. The knowledge you have does not assist you in knowing your true identity and what your soul has done. Likewise, the knowledge amnesia patients have about themselves does not help them to remember what they have forgotten. Experiencing various emotional experiences that stimulate an amnesia patient's inner-consciousness causes him or her to remember what they have always known. Similarly, your soul stimulates various emotional responses within your inner-consciousness so that you can remember what you have always known. That is why it important to silently observe how everything affects you emotionally, as well as how you respond to those feelings. Doing that assists you in understanding various cause and effect relationships. That understanding is "soul knowlege." It stimulates your inner-consciousness in a manner that allows you to experience your soul and be consciously aware of it.

Everything you experience is based upon your perception. An alternation in your perception changes what you experience. You soul uses that principle to create events that emotionally stimulate you to observe and challenge your perception. Not understanding the significance of these experiences, thought ignores, rationalizes or intellectualizes them. Your soul responds by repeating the experience over and over again until it gets your attention. Thought perceives that these experiences are obstacles or road blocks and either attempts to overcome them or to suppress them. You soul responds by increasing the amount of stimulation. Sometimes that intensified stimulation manifests as an accident, a serious illness or a devistating disaster. You can assist the soul by observing and understanding the cause and effect relationship of these experiences.

Debating, arguing or defending your perception creates conflict and prevents you from raising your consciousness. Another source of conflict is thinking, believing or deducing that you "understand" what you know. Whenever you do that your query or investigation ends because thought does not see any sense in examining what it knows. Whenever you acknowlege that you do not know something, you instruct the mind to observe and investigate. It is difficult to observe or investigate anything for thought is either chewing on the past or focused on the future. When it is not doing that, it is rejecting, denying or avoiding anything that conflicts with its perception. On one hand, thought wants to know something so it can end its investigation. That is why it seeks answers and conclusions as opposed to possibilities and probabilities. Although thought wants to end its investigation, it accumulates knowlege so that it can substantiate or prove that its perception is accurate. Thus, thought is constantly in conflict with itself or its environment. Conflict creates conflict, never peace. That is why thought is unable to resolve the conflict it creates. To have peace, you must begin with peace. That is why it is so important to set aside at least twenty minutes a day to allow the mind to quiet down. Thought will come to an end if you attentively observe it. Quiet and attentive observation is meditation. Many who meditate are aware of the fact. It also helps to schedule your quiet time so that you are able to do it at the same time and in the same location every day. The best time is when you can be alone and nothing will distrub you.

Your desire to protect yourself from being deceived, used or emotionally hurt causes you to create numerous facades. The more dependent you are the more fearful you become. As your fear increases, you create more defense mechanisms. You have done this so much and for so long that you have forgotten your true identity and nature. They are buried so deep within your consciousness that you are oblivous of them. And, your unresolved fears prevent you from looking for them. Yet, you think that you "know" yourself because thought falsely identifies itself as being one or more of the facades you created. Like you, thought desires to protect its perception. Unlike you, thought has had millions of years to develop thousands of defense mechanisms. Some of them are blatantly obvious, but most are difficult to see because they are extremely subtle and cleverly disguised. Therefore, you cannot use thought, perception or the condition mind to raise your consciousness or to discover our true identity. These can only be achieved by using something that is not an aspect nor product of thought or perception. Your soul has no relationship with thought for it is none of these. Consequently, it is wise to develop a mutual relationship with your soul so that you can challenge your perception and raise your consciousness.

Unfortunately, everything I have stated so far is merely knowledge, words that you can comprehend. Experiencing the reality of that knowledge transforms it into understanding. If you allow yourself to embrace the following ten premises, you will create various experiences that will alter your perception. The more you embrace differences, the easier and more rewarding life is.

1. Questions are more beneficial than answers. Just as each step begets another, your path through life is determined by the questions you ask. Each open-ended "what" and "why" question begets another question rather than an answer. Thought, in its pursuit for more knowledge, seeks answers. Answers never resolve anything because they are more of the same rather than something new. "How" questions seek knowledge rather than understanding. Asking "what" and "why" questions changes our focus and allows you to understand what you are observing. The understanding gained from one question causes you to formulate another that assists you in gaining a deeper and fuller understanding than its predecessor.

2. Everything is constantly changing. It is impossible to hold on to anything in life for everything is constantly changing. Holding on to the past keeps you in the past and prevents you from experiencing something new. The past is the known. Challenging the known alters our focus and allows you to "let go" of the past so you can experience something new. Open-ended questions challenge the known and facilitate the detachment process.

3. You have to stop what you are doing to see what you were doing. Pursuing prevents you from seeing what needs to be seen. The slower you move, the less blurred your vision and the more you see. Quiet and attentive observation allows you to see even more. Such a view is free of all distractions, especially thought. All your senses - every part of your being - is focused on what you are observing. This qualitative sight is commonly called meditation. The more you meditate, the more you function with the soul rather than thought.

4. Everything serves a purpose or it ceases to exist. Nothing in life is ever really wasted. Everything you encounter or do in life helps you to grow and evolve. You unknowingly judge life, others and yourself when you allow thought to label something good or bad, right or wrong. Looking at everything as a possibility, a probability or potential resource alters your focus. In turn, you cease to judge and begin to discover opportunities you never knew existed.

5. You learn what is right by experiencing what is wrong. You live in an imperfect world so that you can understand perfection. Nothing new would ever be learned if you never erred. Your errors provide the motivation, the environment and the resources needed to learn. Seeing err as a potential learning experience changes your perception and reality. The more you allow yourself to err, the less seriously you take yourself. The more you do that, the more open and flexible you are. In turn, you learn more and discover how enjoyable learning can be. Life becomes an exciting adventure rather than dull and tedious.

6. You are always experiencing what you need to experience. Problems and undesirable predicaments cause you to focus on what you perceive that you do not have. Your pursuit causes you unknowingly ignore what you have. Focusing your attention on what you have alters our perception. You cease to pursue and begin to develop what you have. In turn, you assist the soul in achieving its objective. Seeing life as your ally rather than your foe allows you to achieve the impossible.

7. What occurred is not important; what is important is how you respond. It does not matter what happened to you or who did it to you. What matters is what you do about it. Focusing our attention on what happened to you or who you perceive is at fault does not resolve anything because it prevents you from observing your response and what can be done about it. Attentively observing how everything affects you emotionally and how you respond to those emotions changes our focus. In turn, you see what you can do to resolve the problem and prevent it from occurring again.

8. You learn from observing and embracing differences. More of the same begets sameness and stifles your growth. Sameness, the known and routines provide a false sense of security and cause you to err. The more you err, the more fearful you are and the more comfort you seek in the familiar or the known. Disrupting your routine and embracing differences alters your focus. In turn, you stimulate your growth and diminish our fears. The less fearful you are, the more security you find in the unknown.

9. Everyone is doing the best they can. It is easy to criticize or judge another, especially yourself. Your expectations of others and yourself prevent you from seeing that everyone is doing the best they can. Unless you can communicate with another's soul, you have no idea what their soul desires to experience. Allowing others to be themselves and experience their uniqueness changes your perception. You cease to critique and begin to value and respect uniqueness. In turn, you become a supportive ally rather than a derogatory spectator.

10. You are not alone. In the depths of your depression, despair or anger it is difficult to see that others have experienced what you are experiencing for life treats everyone the same. The more alone or isolated you feel, the more difficult the task becomes. Your ability to see, acknowledge and accept that you are not alone alters your perception. It gives you the motivation, comfort and reassurance you need to accomplish the task at hand.