Your “higher consciousness” can also be called “the soul” and at an even higher level, “consciousness” itself. It is your essence, the source of “intuitive insight” and high positive emotions such as love and joy. When you are in a peaceful “observer mode” you operate at this level. Your conscious mind (also called just “mind” or “ego”), is the realm of conscious choices, will, action and analysis. While conscious and deliberate action is required to “program” the subconscious, that which you are aware of consciously is only the “tip of the iceberg” and most of your life and reality are actually regulated by the Subconscious. From this illustration you can see that your Imagination as well as your self-image have a much deeper root than your conscious thoughts and plans. Goals and Plans will help you move in the right direction, but they would be more effective if you first create change at the level of identity and imagination. In order to serve you, your subconscious needs clear orders in the form of values and emotions that are linked to images. As you repeat your emotionally loaded images, they eventually become subconscious. From there you radiate a new “vibration” and begin attracting a new reality. Your subconscious resists change and requires proper emotional convincing to shift to what you prefer. The “Unconscious” is like the sub-sub-conscious in which suppressed experiences are stored. Applying emotional processing to the unconscious can cause some emotional pain but also great release. Once your life is going exactly as you like, you can assume that your subconscious is properly programmed. In that case you’d rather not meddle with it. But until then, work with your subconscious and your emotions and mental images to create that which you prefer.

The Lighthouse in Search of Light

Once upon a time there was a Lighthouse in search of Light. With his ray of light he swept over the lands and waters looking for light, not noticing that what he was searching with is light. His beam fell on various objects. Some of the objects reflected the light and the Lighthouse said: “Ah! I found it! That is the Light!”, still without noticing that he himself was providing the light. After awhile the Lighthouse realized that the light of the physical objects was not permanently there, that he had not yet found the ultimate source of Light. And so he continued his restless search. Then, one day, he discovered another Lighthouse. And the other Lighthouse discovered him. And then he was bathed in the Light of the other tower. “That is IT!” he exclaimed. “I have never seen that much light!” And he fell in love with the other Lighthouse. But because he still did not notice that he himself was a source of Light, he became dependent on the other Lighthouse, dependent on its Light. And every time the other Lighthouse put it’s light elsewhere, he missed the warmth and comfort of its Light and felt cold and lonely. One day a wise old sage visited the Lighthouse and told him that he already is what he is looking for. That the tool with which he is searching is what he is searching. “God cannot be understood because God is what understands” and “The eye cannot see itself, because it is that which sees” the sage said. Then the Lighthouse noticed it’s own radiant light. And he learned the ability to consciously direct his light and warm others and himself with it. He learned to change the intensity of the radiance according to the situation. And the Lighthouse became Enlightened. Or more precisely: He finally noticed what he had already been all along.

Note: Replace the word “Light” with Attention/Energy and the word “Lighthouse” with you and re-read the story.

Experience Ecstasy out of Nothing

In one of my last email-coachings I asked the student to choose a boring or normal part of town and go sit there. His task was to sit there without phone, book or object. How long? Until he felt ecstatic. “No matter how long it takes, stay there until you feel fantastic” I told him. The only breaks he was allowed to take were for the restroom and food.

The reason he was given this task was because he had lost the childlike ability to feel awesome independent of circumstances, surroundings and substances. The further away you move from the soul, the more “stuff” you need to feel anything. This exercise might go a number of ways. In the first hour you might feel OK with it, relieved to finally cut yourself lose from the bombardment of TV, Internet, Coffee, Voices telling you how it is and how it is not. The second hour might bring up some agitation because deeper, suppressed emotions arise. But as you allow these to come up and keep sitting, they will dissipate and take you to a higher level of energy. In the third hour you will begin noticing things about your surroundings you may not have clearly noticed in years…such as how beautiful the trees are. It does not matter whether this exercise takes 3 hours or 30 hours. The aim is to feel ecstasy out of nothing and with no help from anything.

If you can feel Ecstasy no matter what is happening around you and especially when nothing is happening, you have regained your soul and transcended the constant need for input and events outside of the here-now. You will then bring elation into your life instead of expecting to get elation out of your life.

Unlimited Being

Imagine a tiny dot on a white piece of paper. That tiny dot is what most people have narrowed their attention to and identified with when thinking they are their body/mind. The rest of the piece of paper and beyond in all directions and dimensions is the vast expanse of all-that-is. Therefore, more open awareness rather than being narrow and pinpointed goes in the direction of Unlimited, Cosmic Consciousness. Opening in this way, so that you are not only involved with the tiny dot but at least the rest of the area surrounding it, allows you to more easily experience new realities. Creating new realities would mean to create a new tiny dot. That is easier from a perspective outside the original dot. Otherwise you’d only be creating over the already existing dot, which would look messy.

So let’s experience some of this Unlimited Being and not only read about it. As you sit there, relax. Let go of any tension on the out-breathe. As you sit there and read this, notice what you are aware of. You are aware of these words, but become aware of a little more. The sounds in your surroundings. What the chair you are sitting on feels like. Aware of your body. Aware of your breathing. Aware of the objects near you. You have now opened your awareness a little, expanded it from that tiny dot to something slightly bigger.

You are not that which you are aware of. Anything you can observe you cannot at the same time be. You are not the cup, table or the computer. As the observer, you are separate from them. Likewise you are not your body and mind. Don’t take my word for it, check for yourself. Are you aware of your body as it is sitting there? Are you aware what you call “mind”, that stream of thoughts coming and going?

Who is the one that’s aware? You are identified with the body, obviously, and your awareness likes “hanging around” in or near the body and mind, but you are not that. Try pointing to where “me” resides. And if you now point to a part of your body, who is doing the pointing. The hand? Are you your hand? Not hardly. Your brain? Are you that piece of meat called brain? I doubt it. You are not a body or mind. If you are having a difficult time experiencing this right now, then could you at least acknowledge that your awareness is not limited to the body/mind?

Feel the Body. Now expand your attention to all the empty space surrounding your body. And expand attention to some tree or object outside of the building you are in. You are experiencing that awareness/attention is not limited to the body. Otherwise all you could perceive is the body.

It is as simple as that. You may have thought that you are going to skyrocket to the state of enlightenment.

But experiencing this Unlimited Being is more natural, more relaxed, more normal and also more attainable than that. You just did it. And rather than going for this thing they call “spiritual enlightenment” I´d recommend you relax into what you already are and gradually deepen this small bit of relaxation you felt. You already are Infinite Being, Unlimited Awareness, All-that-is. Actually there is nothing to achieve, nowhere to go, nothing to do, no program to go through, nothing to solve. Beingness Just Is. The trees just are. Your body and breathing just are. None of it requires your maintenance. None of it requires your extra effort. None of it requires your achievement. None of it needs to deserved. Feel that Beingness for a moment that is already whole and perfect, in the here, in the now.

If you could just sit still and aware and be present a few minutes a day you’d open a bit and rejuvenate because of that. What keeps you narrowly focused on that small dot is resistance toward what-is. And the only time we’re willing to let go of all resistance and “Just Be”, is during sleep. During sleep we allow ourselves to relax back into that vast expanse which we are. And because of that we regenerate during sleep. So if you could do this for a few minutes while waking you would not need that much sleep and you’d also feel more refreshed throughout the day. What-is here and now requires no effort. So sit some minutes a day and just Be. Be that which is aware. Be that which is effortless and natural. And when you’ve accepted the state of being that has no resistances, no desires, no needs, no urgencies, no obligations…then, if you still care, focus on the realities you prefer or do the jobs and activities you prefer – now much easier from that state of rest.

Becoming Lighter and Lighter

Generally. the Ego resists everything and the Soul embraces everything. The negative that is resisted grows and the positive that is resisted disappears. The negative that is embraced disappears, the positive that is embraced, grows. This powerful lesson is easy to understand, but applying it in daily life is a lifelong exercise. As you invest conscious effort into practicing this you become lighter and lighter, less and less dense. So just remember one thing – that the Ego is always “away from” and the Soul is always “towards”. The Ego is always “No”, the Soul is always “Yes”.For the Ego its always too hot or too cold. When in a Relationship, the Ego wants to break free, when free, the Ego wants back into a Relationship. It is never happy. The Soul on the other hand, enjoys both. It embraces all. What happens when you embrace all is that you become more like the soul…light and tranquil. Negative energy more quickly moves out of your energy-field because you are not keeping it there with your resistance. You can begin saying “Yes” to life….including taking out the trash. That can be an enjoyable thing to do. You can embrace taking out the trash. And what happens? While you were taking out the trash, you were not projecting resentful energy into the Universe, but tranquility. The Universe never sleeps. It registers everything you signal out. All of your emotions are vibratory signals bringing back to you what you put out. The Universe cannot discern whether you are taking out the trash or making love. It will simply respond to whatever energy you put out. Your life, as you experience it today, is the sum total of all the vibratory frequencies you have put out.