Where Are You Looking From?

 I want to start out with two questions:

What does living a life of curiosity every day look like whether things are going smoothly or not?

How do you differentiate between your personal biased agenda and that of Spirit?

Centers for Spiritual Living's Global Vision states:

We see a world in which every person lives in alignment with their highest spiritual principle, emphasizing unity with God and connection with each other; a world in which individually and collectively we are called to a higher state of consciousness and action.

Where do we see that world from, though? Well, it all depends on where you are looking from ....or is it through?

Is it from the five senses?

Sight, sound, taste, smell, touch? Eyes, ears, nose, mouth, or skin?

Our brain?

The seat of the intellect, language, cognition, consciousness, creativity, logic, and knowledge? Where the electrochemical workings of 86 billion neurons and their synapses fire, and recognize, give meaning, and create narratives?

Most have the brain/head thing down, pronouncing to the world things like:

"I think...”

        “I understand...”

“I declare this in my life!”

“I reveal that in my life!”

Maybe the answers are in our hearts? 

That's the first organ that reveals itself in the body's development. It's not merely a muscle to pump blood, it has a complex intrinsic nervous system of over 40,000 sensory neurites firing off independently from those in the brain. The heart has been labeled by researchers in neurocardiology (defined by BH Nattelson as "the study of the neurophysiological, neuro- logical, and neuroanatomical aspects of cardiology, including especially the neurological origins of cardiac disorders") as a functional “brain.” This "brain" can learn independently, have its own memories, and feel and sense information. It also creates an energetic field to tell our brains whether we feel safe or not and acts as a regulator of our perceptions. 

We can think, pray or speak words until we are blue in the face and not a thing will manifest, at least not in the clearest way, unless we have feeling behind it. While we admire the intellect, we must realize that the intellect is not the creative factor in the Universe. Rather, it is feeling that is creative.   ~Ernest Homes 

As Neville wrote in his book, Feeling is the Secret:

Ideas are impressed on the subconscious through the medium of feeling. No idea can be impressed on the subconscious until it is felt, but once felt –be it good, bad or indifferent- it must be expressed. Feeling is the one and only medium through which ideas are conveyed to the subconscious.

Well, now we have got the heart-brain connecting. Is that the ticket on where we are looking from?

Maybe the answers are actually in our gut?

The enteric nervous system (ENS) consists of sheaths of neurons embedded in the walls of our gut. From the esophagus to the anus, the gut contains some 100 million neurons, more than in the spinal cord or the peripheral nervous system.  It uses more than 30 neurotransmitters, just like the brain, and carries 95% of the body's serotonin and other hormones and neurotransmitters that regulate mood, appetite, sleep, memory, and sexual desire and function. The vagus nerve carries information from the gut to the brain - mostly one way....up. But, as smart as it might sound, the ENS can’t balance your checkbook or compose a symphony, it mostly controls digestion from swallowing to the release of enzymes to break down food to the control of blood flow for nutrient absorption to elimination. However, the gut also controls self-preservation and mobilization and responds to challenges, opposition, and danger. It also helps determine our core sense of self through its reactions to our thoughts. The seat of inspiration seems to speak from there. Notice how in life we use phrases like:

“It takes guts to...” 

                         “My gut tells me...”

Some have the gut stuff/intuition thing going. The thoughts, feelings, and intuitive messages analyzed by the gut awaken us to a direct infusion of Divine Wisdom. But which one is fueling the life of curiosity from day-to-day, understanding, analyzing, and solving whether things are going smoothly? Which one is discerning between your biases, perceptions, and opinions and that of the wisdom of Spirit? What is driving your desires, revelations, and communing with the Universe? Is it ego or Spirit? 

When we Edge God Out, our ego’s desires can come from a place of scarcity, lack or fear, and the insatiable desire for more (which is a hint to a belief in scarcity), or to prove a sense of self-worth. When we are Entertaining God Only, Spirit’s call is one of Wholeness, Oneness, Infinite possibilities, Creativity, Freedom, and Truth. We are taking cues from the Infinite Wisdom of the Universe, beyond time and space. The spiritual practices of visioning, affirmative prayer (Spiritual Mind Treatment), and meditation assist us in letting go of those personal agendas which ultimately just get in our way or slow us down, and align with Divine Intelligence to experience a life of flow and ease, and manifesting our desires for ourselves and the world. That includes manifesting ideas, solutions, intuitions, as well as stuff.

As individualized expressions of the One Universal Energy, we have access to the infinite wisdom and intelligence of all space and time. It flows through us, as us, and for us as an individualized expression of this energy. However, it only does so to the degree that we set our previous ideas aside and tune in to its frequency, awakening to the impress of Universal Spirit. This direct revelation is available to us through our intuition, intelligence, and feelings working together; which places us smack in the middle of Heaven - the state of awareness of our True Nature.

Though we experience our True Nature to the degree we become conscious of it, we can use our built-in toolbox, the Divine Matrix, to be where we are looking from. The Divine Matrix is a structure that combines the simultaneous use of the Cephalic (head), cardiac (heart), and enteric (gut) systems. When we are looking from The Divine Matrix, the head, heart, and gut brains are communicating with each other, sussing up the situation as a unit, and coming up with the solutions as an integrated system of our consciousness, values, and beliefs. The Mind is an ever-expansive individualized essence of Universal Energy. This is how we experience life to the fullest.  And in doing so, we habitually, and as second-nature (though actually, it's our original-nature) we answer all instances, experiences, conditions, happenings, etc. with:

What is Spirit's Highest Idea of Itself in this moment?

Yes, the question and the answer in one sentence: What is Spirit’s Highest Idea of Itself in this moment, this situation? Living in this question invites us to listen to and from a different place, beyond the egoistic mind to that connection with the Universal Presence Mind, which is seeking to express in, as, and through us. 

Sometimes we require adjustments and repairs to our systems. Maybe our state of mind/being or belief is off-kilter and the following are not showing up:

• love for life
• joy for existence
• motivation to be alive
• state of gratitude

In essence, then, we are not in the groove of our Godness.

So, what do we do?

Ask questions to our most inner self. Questions open us to something new. Questions invite curiosity as a way of being. Questions break us away from what we think we know and desire and invites something greater within to guide us. It's time to re-awaken our heart intelligence and connect it to our brain intelligence, and simultaneously be open and ready for intuitive intelligence. As Ramana Maharshi (Hindu sage, early-mid 20thC) reminds us: 

...when the mind stays in the Heart, the ‘I’ which is the source of all thoughts will go, and the Self which ever exists will shine. 

There is a Cherokee word - ‘shante ishta’.  It means "the single eye of the heart," the single eye that sees what’s true, without judgment. Here's a spiritual practice that will put you on a direct path to heart-brain harmony, celebrating the shante ishta and awakening the intuited wisdom:

1. Close your eyes

It brings your awareness within

2. Put your hand on your heart!

  The heart is at the center of the body, the center chakra or energy point in your body. It is the gateway to an Intelligence both harmonious and holistic. And the touch brings a powerful awareness to this gateway.

3. Now be aware of your breathing and allow it to slow down

  Count 5 secs in through your nose and 5 secs out from your mouth. Do this a few times to get used to that rhythm. Allow it to take root in the cadence of your breath. This signals to the body that you are safe, freeing you from any stresses and opening the body and brain to healing.

4. Think or imagine someone or something that you care about, appreciate, or have gratitude or compassion for.

     Allow yourself to feel it. It could be for any person, this community, your puppy, something you received, or an insight you had.

Care, Appreciation, Gratitude, or Compassion!

This spiritual practice connects all three brains - the intuition from the gut, the feelings and intelligence of the heart, and the logic and knowledge of the brain. It harmonizes them for optimal decision making, creative discovery, learning, transcending, and manifesting. It gives one resilience in this ever-changing and too often turbulent world, inspiring one from the chaotic to the cosmos, and releasing one from the unformed destructive whirling dervishes to the lovingly controlled constructive creation. This practice also releases 1300 biochemical reactions that promote immunity and anti-aging.

Another way to bring the Divine Matrix in line is with what I call an Affirmative Incantation. An A. I. is similar to an affirmation, but is more thorough and goes deeper. Taking a logical and heartfelt path to your best self, it is a formula for consciously transcending success. It is alchemistic versus the repeated one or two-sentence affirmation which too often becomes a mish-mash of words that lose their power and begin to sound like the teacher from the Charlie Brown comics - "wah-wah-wah-wah-waaaah."

Here is an affirmative incantation for you to use right now: 

In this moment, I recognize that my life is the embodiment of Spirit’s highest idea of Itself as me. I see my Highest Self as my daily self, embodying every thought, feeling, and belief with the inspiration, love, and intelligence of the Universal Presence.

In an abundance of affluence:

I seek and I find.

I sow and I reap.

I discover and I engage.

I reveal and I utilize.

I Am experiencing my life through the best ideas in health, wealth, relationships, and creativity to bust through, soar, and zoom into a fabulous day.

Let us remember that there is only One Power and Presence, the One Source back of all things. And knowing there is only One Life, this Life must be who I am; who you are. Therefore each of us has the ability to allow the Infinite Wisdom of this Power and Presence to express through them, by living in the question: “What is Spirit’s highest vision of Itself as me in this moment?”

Living from a place of curiosity, and remaining open and willing to receive Spirit’s highest vision of Itself expressing through any situation in our lives, allows us to live and act from a place of Divine Guidance in order to create our Heaven, right here and now. 

• Are you willing to be surprised by what you discover about yourself?
• Everything is for our learning and growth, are you open? 
• Are you willing to be more interested in your spiritual growth than advocating for your limitations? 

We learn through curiosity. Remaining open to experience a shift of perspective, a new awareness, and a heightened experience of life is the key to an abundance of prosperity in all parts of our life.

Are you willing?