Only One Total Experience at a Time

Have you ever considered the fact that no matter who you are, you can only have one total experience at a time? This may sound kind of obvious, but it is really an amazing concept.

Even if you were a being that had the consciousness to experience multiple senses of perception and be aware of past, present, and future simultaneously; it would still only add up to one total experience for you.

The picture above is a good illustration of this. Of course, we could not effectively focus on all the screens at the same time; but if we could, it would still only be one total experience. Imagine each screen represents a full array of perception of the displayed area in its own right. In other words, it is a representation of you actually being in that location and being able to see, hear, feel, touch, and taste everything there. It would be a scaled down version of being omnipresent. And yet all of it being experienced by a single being is still only one experience all together.

To understand this concept is to understand why the present moment is so powerful. There can only be one present moment experienced at a time; no matter your perspective. Even if space and time can be transcended and all of eternity is but a moment; it will still be experienced as the present moment.

Do We Have A Choice?

Excerpt from the book, What Is Really Good?

Destiny and Free Will

There has been a millennia long running debate on man's free will verses destiny. It has been argued that man's free will is an illusion and that fate, destiny, or God’s plan can not be escaped. It has also been argued that man has absolute free will and can control his destiny.

A major supporting argument for man having the ability to forge his own fate is the nature verses nurture example. This deals with what influences the lives of mankind more:
• Nature - natural circumstances such as the genetic make up of people, preprogrammed instincts and characteristics passed down by DNA through ancestral lineage
or
• Nurture - as in environmental influences on people. This includes cultural influence, educational opportunity; basically all learned behavior

It has been proven that what a person is exposed to and adapts to, has a much greater influence over their lives than genetics alone. Therefore free will is what a person learns and applies.

On the other hand, one of the supporting arguments for free will being an illusion is that everything about our life is predetermined. We have no control over our genetic predisposition and over events that happen to us throughout our lives. We can not fully control our environments in the same way that we can’t control our genetic make up. From this, many conclude that we have no free will.

So which is it? Is it all predetermined from the moment we are conceived or do we have a real choice in the matter? The answer is a combination of both.

It is an absolute inarguable fact that we do not choose our genetic make up. It is also true that we do not choose many of the conditions and situations that arise in our lives. This is where acceptance of what is, is useful. We can, however, choose our environment. We can also choose what we allow to influence us. Even if you are incapable of relocating, your very perception and interpretation of it is all the choice you need to change your experience. This has already been illustrated in the first chapter. Two people can have the same situation with totally different experiences.

For more on this and other topics, read What Is Really Good? and stay tuned.

Enjoy Your Day

Have you ever noticed that in order to enjoy anything, you have to be in the present moment? Can you remember a time in your life when you truly enjoyed anything that was not going on in the present? Sure it is possible to not enjoy things that you like because your attention was not fully in the moment, but never the other way around. How can you enjoy something you like without giving your attention to it?

To be in a state of joy is a higher form of acceptance. If a person is in resistance to something, a form of stress is experienced as opposed to joy. The easiest way to be in acceptance as opposed to resistance is to be without ego fueled thoughts. Focusing your attention into the present moment and not anticipating the future or regretting the past literally slows down stressful thinking and can help bring about a state of acceptance. Contentment may be experienced. If there is something you really like going on, joy will be experienced. (See "I Can't Wait")

Stay in the moment and enjoy your day!

For more ways on how to become aware of the present moment, read What Is Really Good? and stay tuned!

Synonymous With Life

Observing how a lot of words in language can have synonymous meanings behind them can lead us to not get caught up in the specific words themselves, but to see the true meaning that they point to.

Take a good look at the words: me, myself, I, life, experience, perspective, and world. Notice that they can all refer to the true essence of your self and the way you interpret your essence determines how you feel.

Just to illustrate this; see how interchangeable they are in a sentence.

• ____ really good right now.
• I'm really good right now.
• Life is really good right now.
• My experience is really good right now.
• My world is really good right now.
• My perspective is really good right now.

I remember as a kid hearing the saying, "When you point your finger at someone, three fingers are pointing back at you." It is really only upon the shift in my perspective that I was able to gain true understanding of this saying.

Everything that you perceive out side of your self is really only relevant to you in the way that you internalize and interpret it. If it does not exist with in you, it does not exist in your reality. To illustrate see Eye of the Beholder and Life is Open to Interpretation.

Everything and everyone in the world is a reflection of you. It's all about perspective. To expand on this further, read What Is Really Good? and stay tuned!

Feeling "Great-full"

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

It has occurred to me, that choosing an arbitrary day to feel thankfulness and full of gratitude is as useless as every other holiday. Don't get me wrong. I realize that holidays have their usefulness to the majority of people right now. But everybody gives a holiday their own meaning regardless of what is meant to be celebrated. For some it is a day off from the usual toil to do with as they please. For others; it is a time dedicated to spend with family that is not usually seen. No matter your personal take on this or any other holiday; you are correct in your feelings about it.

As for myself; I have come to realize the futility in designating specific days of the year to feel certain feelings that could be felt every day of your life. Birthdays have lost their meaning because I have realized that every day (and every passing moment) you are reborn (see Good Morning!). New Years is exactly the same. Every passing moment starts a "new year" depending on your perspective and frame of reference. Valentines Day can be everyday if you feel strongly about your significant other. Christmas can be everyday as well if you can acknowledge the birth of Christ in your own being and continuously feel "good will toward all men". I think you get my point. There isn't a holiday that exists that can not be celebrated with every waking moment.

On the other hand, there is something to be said and felt when there is a majority of people on the same page. The resonance that occurs when most people are acknowledging the same feelings is tremendous and beneficial to all who participate. It would be great if everyone agreed to make everyday a holiday.

As for Thanksgiving in specific; feeling gratitude is a high form of acceptance and adaptation. It is a truly awesome feeling. My interpretation is not official, but I think it's no coincidence that the word grateful sounds like great full. In other words, to be grateful is to be full of greatness. When a person is grateful, they are in full acceptance of what is, and as a result they are in tune with the greatness of the Universal Intelligence. This is an empowering position to make things happen.

To find out more on the benefits of the attitude of gratitude and more, read What Is Really Good? and stay tuned!

Dimensions of Reality

When you really stop and look at it; mankind has always been on a quest to define what we are, what our world is, and the relationship we have with our reality. There are certain 'big' questions that people from all walks of life, and from all over the world, have asked themselves for thousands of years. Some of theses common questions include:

• Why are we here? What's the purpose?
  
• What is life? What animates us?
  
• What is real? What is absolute?
• Why are things the way they are?
  

People have not always taken the same approach in attempting to give life and reality definition. Among some of the main ways that we have approached these and other questions are: philosophy, science, and spirituality.

As a kid, I was always attracted to all three of these routes to explaining reality. It was not until I got a little older that I realized that they are all actually one in the same.

To illustrate and blur the lines of these categories of self perception; I invite you to take a look at the work of Rob Bryanton. He has written a book called, "Imagining the Tenth Dimension", and has a website, and a very informative blog devoted to the subject.

It is truly amazing how quantum physics' String Theory which has developed to the more complete M Theory is actually starting to prove what philosophers and holy men have been saying for ages.

Bryanton's book explains in plain language how to interpret and understand these concepts. He also has an outstanding video that helps to stretch your mind into comprehending the dimensions of reality that have been referred to in quantum physics theories and spirituality. Check it out. Imagining the Tenth Dimension.

Book Smart vs. "Street" Smart

Have you ever noticed the difference between book smarts and "street" smarts? Which do you hold in higher regard or feel is more important?

Book Smarts can be likened to a formal education or practicing only what you have been told. It is to learn and apply concepts and information that are really only second hand to the student in nature. In other words, none of the knowledge is your true experience. Life has yet to prove any of it to you. It is traditional perspective now seen through your eyes.

Street Smarts can be likened to your own personal perception and experience. It is an almost instinctual and more overly, intuitive knowledge. It comes from experience which has directly affected you. It may stem from a higher sense of perception and being in tune with your reality. It may even be information that you learned from books or other people. The difference would be that the information went beyond a mere concept and became your true life experience.

Check out "Who Told You To Move?"

Don't take my word for it. That would be the 'book smart' thing to do. Put the info to the test. Is it true for you? Gaining the perspective of experience is the 'street smart' way to go.

The End IS the Means

People talk about having to do certain things because it "is a means to an end." This kind of perspective puts a moment in the future at a higher level of importance than right now.

Some people spend the majority of their time in the company of the means and a lot less time with the ends. You could say that they literally depreciate the value of their lives by choosing to see the present as a means to an end.

In the 'end', there's only going to be another moment that won't be too different from the moment you are having right now. Your going to have to be in good spirits to enjoy anything regardless of what it is. Whatever is planned to make the 'end' great, does not make it great alone. Good spirits make the 'end' great.

The current moment is not a means to an end but an opportunity to be in high spirits. Once this is realized, the 'end' becomes the means. The journey and the destination may be seen one as in the same.

Stay tuned.

Aliveness

Aliveness. The very feeling of life itself.

Aliveness is perceiving and observing all experience being generated by your senses. The interpretation of the experience is only a reaction to aliveness and should not be mistaken for the aliveness itself.

Aliveness listens to all thought in silence. Aliveness watches everything patiently. It is the part of you that lets you know what you dreamed after you woke up.

Can you feel your aliveness?

Can you feel your very presence? Can you feel the essence of your awareness? Can you feel your own energy or vibe?

Aliveness is usually overlooked. If you give it attention, you grow more alive. Don't take my word for it. See for yourself.

Read What Is Really Good? and stay tuned!

Whatever

Whatever happens, there is a constant. There is something that all existence has in common. It might be considered an abstract concept since this constant is not a thing, but the absence of things. Maybe you could call it nothing or no-thing; but it is definitely there.

To realize this underlying 'whatever', is to feel or perceive what is usually not given any attention. It is silence that exists before, during, and after all sound. This silence is what allows sound to exist.

It is the stillness that exists before, during, and after all motion. This stillness is what allows us to perceive motion.

It is the space that exists before, during, and after all matter. If not for this space, matter would have no where to exist.

Whatever has happened, whatever is happening now, and whatever will happen; this constant is always present. It is beyond time. It is truly eternal. It can not be separated from reality. It is the very fabric of everything. It is the essence of all.