Rumination Filter

(7.11) The degree of harmony we attain is determined by our ability to appropriate what we require for our growth from each experience. 

The quickest way to transcend suffering and obliterate negative rumination is to attach value and meaning to conditions; to learn something. Value and meaning give purpose to hardship, and purpose is what mind is attempting to locate during rumination.Thus, if we can create or identify a lesson in our experience, mind will quit trying to come up with reasons to rationally explain what–in many cases–can not be rationally explained in a satisfying way.  More often than not, rumination involves reliving the past or imagining the future. Our rumination filter is the method by which we interpret all experience.  Our predominant mental attitude is the blueprint for the construction of our rumination filer.

Þingvellir, Iceland

 

Seeing Things For The First Time

(7.20) Many seem to think knowledge applies itself which is, by no means, true.

How did it happen?

Sometimes we can pinpoint exactly when a source point has been created. Source Points are when new dialogues are introduced.

There are four gross aspects of mind:

1. manas (mind)
2. citta (consciousness)
3. buddhi (intelligence)
4. ahamakara (conception of one’s individuality/ego)

(1) Thoughts or desires begin in mind. If we do nothing, the thought/desire ends. (2) If we deliberate or consider it, this is consciousness. (3) Intelligence decides wether to pursue thought/desire. (4) If we pursue thought/desire into reality, it is passed onto ego, an individuals sense of identity apart from others.

In some cases, the event is so insignificant that we are unaware a new dialouge has begun. These are the ones that most often highjack us-when our guard is down and we are relaxed. Just like a physical altercation, if you are relaxed, yoy will end up in better shape. So it is with a mental altercation. The catch is, this can also be a source point for suffering. Suffering is when you feel responsible for what was not in your control and avoid responsibility for what was. The longer you do either, the more intense your suffering. The sooner you resolve either, the sooner you can let go and move forward.

Progress happens when we integrate knowledge we have learned. Without progress, we will continue on the wheel of suffering. Many try to busy themselves with distractions or addictions. Some people do this to intentionally to hide from confrontation, others do this ignorantly because we can not see awareness they have never been aware of. This is why integration and transformation always seem so profound, because we are constantly seeing things for the first time.

 

Viðey, Iceland

 

Awareness of Opportunity

(7.16) Desirable conditions are secured by entertaining desirable thoughts only.

(7.77) Undesirable conditions are brought about by thinking, discussing and visualizing conditions of lack, limitation, disease, inharmony and discord of every kind. This mental photography of erroneous conception is then taken up by the subconscious and the law of attraction inevitably crystalizes it into objective form. That we reap what we sow is scientifically intact.

The greatest misconception about the law of attraction concerns the tendency to put the cart before the horse. The modern conception of the law of attraction is with regards to physical possessions or events. This is the great error.

When we speak of conditions we do not refer to physical/material conditions but states of being/consciousness. Our greatest power is our ability to control our state of being-our predominant mental attitude. More than anything else, our predominant mental attitude is responsible for creating states along the spectrum of inner peace through to inner catastrophe. These inner-states determine our perception and perception is awareness of opportunity.

We always have opportunity to control inner conditions. Often, a change of inner conditions will result in a change in outer conditions. If our awareness is limited, we are unable to recognize opportunity to instigate change. Inability is a reflection of our stubbornness or resistance to instigate change. Inability is a state of mind not an absolute truth.

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

― Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

Snæfellsnes Peninsula, Iceland

 

Insight Enables

Too often we look to situations beyond our control as the defining factors of our experience. Instead, we may begin to understand conditions as perceptions, or states of being.

Our purpose in life is to maintain our internal ecosystem. Sleep, hydration, nutrition, thoughts and exercise are all facets of this maintenance. As a part of nature, we will always be subject to forces beyond our control. This makes it so important to be ahead of the curve when it comes to what we do control. Being prepared mentally and physically ensures we are better prepared to face adversity when it arises.

(7.15) The law of love-which is the creative principle of the universe, adds vitality to thought while the law of attraction brings the necessary substance to growth.

(7.18) We can overcome every fear, lack, limitation, poverty and discord by substituting principle from error.

Pacific Ocean, Iceland

 

Tuning In

(6.7) Concentration is the highest personal achievement that can be acquired. It is the distinguishing characteristic of every successful person.

Mind is in a constant state of activity. Concentration is like tuning the radio dial so that you only hear one station clearly. This happens naturally when we are so completely absorbed in a situation that we are conscious of nothing else. More often than not, this takes work because it is rare to be so absorbed.

It takes work because mind is already active and we must consciously introduce a new dialouge that can drown out the rest.

(6.8) Concentration may be acquired by faithfully practicing mental exercise.

Mind is programmed to ruminate. As long as it’s ruminating upon a dialogue that supports our ideal state, we will benefit from this process.

Rumination is the process of mind that seeks to resolve the reason for phenomena.

Menntaskólinn við Sund, Reykyjavik, Iceleand

 

 

The Art of Gratitude

Mind is governed by learned behavior. Morality is an afterthought. To understand this is essential to transcend from the chaos of profound selfishness to the harmony of intentional boundaries (discipline). Removing chaos does not eliminate conflict, it gives conflict meaning, by providing the opportunity to learn. Learning, necessarily, involves integration.

Shame is a shadow emotion. Shame identifies and reinforces negative beliefs one may have of themselves. Just like anger, shame is usually misdirected towards others, in an attempt to deny dealing with the cause. Shame is an effect. If you want to change the effect, you must change the cause.

We may overcome adversity by channeling all emotion through a filter of gratitude. Gratitude is the art of recognizing how fortunate you already are.

Iceland

Overcoming Adversity

Our predominant mental attitude is directed by confrontation. What we choose or refuse to act upon guides the development of conditions. This is the story of evolution, be it our species or an idea.

The comfort of instant gratification keeps us from accepting responsibility for how choice contributes to the unfoldment of conditions. Choice is the byproduct of thought. Inaction of thought is a choice. The choice of inaction is thought.

Discomfort can be avoided by taking initiative to respond to conditions in life. All conditions are opportunities to gain wisdom by relying on observational response rather than emotional reaction.

The only way to maintain comfort is through discipline, otherwise the conditions of life will continue to feel overwhelming. Comfort is always an illusion. Discipline develops personal morality.

Listening allows us to access the unconscious. Consciousness holds us accountable to knowledge we have gained by allowing reluctance to hold us back from awareness. This conflict is what keeps consciousness endlessly in pursuit of “awakening” the ego; a conflict all mythology reflects and all religion rests.

(7.20) Insight enables us to understand the value of making application of knowledge we have gained. Many seem to think knowledge applies itself, which is by no means true.

Self governance is the only suitable alternative to prescribed or learned brief systems. The self realized person constructs and maintains personal morality on the basis of love. Anything less than love is an instant capstone preventing the maturation of consciousness to the individual.

As a part of nature, or physical bodies respond to our willingness or react to our reluctance to participate with natural law.

Snæfellsjökull, Iceland (Jules Verne’s Journey To The Center of The Earth inspiration)

Our Greatest Currency

Do what you can when you can because life will always present us with unanticipated scenarios. How well prepared we are to deal with these scenarios determine our quality of thought, and we know that our quality of thought determines how we perceive conditions.

(3.11) Inductive reasoning is a process of the objective mind in which we compare a number of separate instances with one another until we see the common factor that gives rise to them all.

Inductive reasoning gives way to forward thinking, the ability to anticipate and be prepared for possible conditions.

Mind is like a cauldron and how you spend your time is the ingredients. The conditions you meet in life are the meal.

Mental activity is a reflection of how we spend our time. If you want to change the object of your thought, change how you spend your time.

(6.19) The result of a change in thought results in a change of conditions.

Our most valuable currency is time. How we spend it will determine the choices we make and unfolding conditions that result. Products are marketed as lifestyle brands, and are designed to appeal to specific qualities of behavior that arise from emotions of the archetypes.

The method for overcoming all forms of frustration, is to constantly spend your time in active preparation for the conditions you desire to see manifest in your life. This same method of empowerment is utilized by worry to consume us. The subconscious does not discriminate, nor does it differentiate based on value, health or morality. It operates by the principles of natural law. Actions inspired by emotion create conditions.

Reykjavik, Iceland

Invariable Victory

We’ve all heard, “It’s not about quantity but quality,” or some variation of this concept, usually in reference to the acquisition of material goods. And is soon followed by the popular quip, “you get what you pay for.”

If time is our greatest currency then experience is a spectrum, circling between quality and quantity.

If you were to start a new book each day, regardless of whether you completed the one you started yesterday, you could create a lot of new experiences (quantity) but the quality of those experiences may not be as great than if you started a new book only after finishing the last. Similarly, if you aspire to be a baseball player, an astronaut, a cowboy and a pianist, your competence and skill will develop in tandem with whichever activities you may engage that can be applied to your aspiration.

(5.23) Power is manifested through the individual. Each individual is a channel whereby energy is differentiated in form.

Iceland

The Other Way

Belief systems are the filters through which we organize options of experience. They can be very helpful, in this respect. Although it seems to me that enforced morality creates conditions for inequality, as sure as the absence of morality ensures it. What are we, then, to do?

The idea that others should be expected to uphold the standards I set for myself is impractical. That could only work if all people, everywhere, shared the same individual experiences. Morality is not a well defined system of group integrity, it is a general foundation upon which each individual builds a structure of personal beliefs with regard to their experiences.

Mind seeks to resolve inconsistencies it encounters. Ego understands inconsistencies as discrimination. Transcending ego rises above emotional attachment to conditions and chooses love rather than discrimination.

(2.3) The value of the subconscious is enormous. It guides us, it warms us, it controls the vital processes and is the seat of memory.

(2.4) The conscious mind has the faculty of discrimination, it has the power of reasoning. It is the seat of the will and may impress the subconscious.

Iceland