Reframing my Perspective

Reworking my World and Life View

From the ground up

How do I begin?

First, rather than asking to what extent I have been conditioned,

I ask myself, do I know that I have been conditioned.

Count the many ways…

Most of conditioning lies in the subconscious mind tricking us into conformity, making us feel guilty when we don’t fit in, when we go against the current, when we think different.

The uniqueness of each of us is then buried, without our awareness.

Sameness devours uniqueness giving conformity status as the alpha wolf.

The other trick thought pulls on us is this: “Thought create the world and then says, ‘I didn’t do it.’”

Another trick I realized early on during this journey are these two things about “knowing”.

“If I already know… I can no longer learn.”

“Most of life is remembering what we already know.”

What this means is that there is a deep knowing, often a collective knowing in our bones. This is there awaiting our discovery. Too often we don’t pay attention and we miss it.

For me, I had to silence the external voices so that I could hear my inner teacher. Otherwise the external noise is so loud we will never hear, even if we listen.

Deconstructing (discerning truth and untruth, reality and illusion)

We must begin by discovering the underground river of conditioning that is affecting every aspect of our thinking, our words, our beliefs, and our actions.

We then must be bold and begin to deconstruct and even destroy that which we have been told to see, think, say, and do. Bare in mind that most of this is coming from external sources and authority that has as its only goal, conformity and compliance. complacency and comfortableness. Cultural conditioning is a powerful thing and includes shaping the beliefs and values of consumerism, politics, and religion.  

For me, this has been a 15 year process of intense inner-work; constantly attentive and intentional. Whenever I let up a little, I start sliding backward. If I am not progressing forward, then I am regressing backward into the worldly mire of being a second-hand person.

For me, this progress is like maturing. As we let go, give up, and give in to that which is greater than me, the forces of progressive change in the world, I felt like it was no longer my choice. I never chose this journey. It chose me. And once it got a hold on me, it would not let go. I’ve often longed for the comfort of the cocoon, the conformity of the box, the sameness of the bubble, going back to the person I was, all conformed and in my place. It would have been so much easier.

Clearing the Debris

Once we claim our inner landscape as our own, we must then be intentional about attending to our inner lives. Much of the work lies in understanding and identifying the debris. This takes constant discernment. I mostly identify debris by its source. Did it come from within (rooted in my bones and life-giving) or did it have an external source of authority that was forced or an expectation that was dead to me. This external source can be people and institutions that proclaim dominance and power over us. This also includes more subtle forms of influence like politics, religion, and culture. Our inner landscape can become more like a dump of randomness and chaos than a garden of beauty and a purpose. Are we attending and nurturing our inner selves? Or is it full of garbage that we have never taken the time to clear, mostly unaware that it is even there. Many of us become hoarders, unwilling or unable to let go of the junk we cling to far after its usefulness in our lives. Often it becomes our external source of comfort, security, and even certainty. This is how so many people become so easily influenced and and even brainwashed like in America over the past 6 years. This is a dehumanization process that steals one’s uniqueness and one’s voice; like cattle to the slaughter. There has been no design and no forethought in american culture, politics, and religion. It just mindlessly conforms to power and promises, even though they are contrary to that which is good.

Designing 

(a garden nurtured and permeated with the fruit of the spirit, a culture of gentleness; rather than the current theology of violence and exclusion, or the politics of meanness and dominance)

Fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control.

If design is not intentional, then it is not design. Like most of urban planning, the city sprawls without any thought of sustainability, walkability, or nurturing relationships. The present culture (including politics and religion) is completely undesigned and unintentional. It is a power grab. There is no forethought except to create a world that works for the powerful and privileged. This is a great example of what happens in such chaos. People believe and follow thoughtlessly and with no foundation of design, people are as fickle as the wind, blowing any way the great leader and his media says while believing anything they are told; while lies and propaganda run rampant. I’ve never imagined that so-called Christians could so easily follow the media and the powerful.

The “Way” that I propose is the narrow way. The broad road is easy and is built for those that conform to this world, for those that believe what they are told, for those that follow like sheep to the slaughter.

“Be not conformed to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  (Romans 12:2)

Reconstructing

(politics of peace, theology of compassion, gentleness, and inclusion; a life-giving theology and politics of a world that works for all)

During the past 3 or 4 years, I’ve been reflecting on all that I have learned through my 16 year journey inward and downward. This has been an intense and intentional journey of contemplative reading, listening, learning, and writing. I realized that the insight that illuminated much of my inspiration from within is that framework that I am putting in words now. I sensed a powerful and profound truth that had taken hold of me. Though this truth has been unavoidable, it remained inexplicable until I was ready to let go of all that is old and to put together all that is new. Even at the beginning of this contemplative journey, I was given the concept that became the title of my blog. Living with Open Hands; as an expression of an open mind, open heart, and open will. I have been going deeper and deeper into these truths and they have held solid, like a house built on solid ground rather than sand. This has become a plum line with which to measure whether my beliefs and actions are empty (dehumanizing) or plenary (fully human and overflowing with goodness). This fullness can also mean integral and whole. What I now see is that most people do not bother to seek inner truth to define and guide their lives even though all religions refer to the inner teacher, inner spirit, inner guidance, inner light. It is easier to do as we are told. Believe and obey the external authorities in our lives as if they have a clue about my own meaning and purpose.

So as I reconstruct my life, I don’t believe this is possible without some sort of framework that is more than a human construct like the teachings, theologies, and religion of man. This is deeply personal and even though people want to be told what to think, say, believe, and do, this all must come from within. There is no external authority that knows me and can direct my path because we are all different. If we believed this, we would all end up on everyone else’s path with no clue where we are going. No two people’s paths are the same and no two people’s meaning and purpose are the same. 

“There is in all visible things an invisible fecundity, a dimmed light, a meek namelessness, a hidden wholeness. This mysterious Unity and Integrity is Wisdom, the Mother of all, Natura Naturans. There is in all things an inexhaustible sweetness and purity, a silence that is a fountain of action and of joy. It rises up in wordless gentleness and flows out to me from the unseen roots of all created being...”

“Gentleness comes to him when he is most helpless and awakens him, refreshed, beginning to be made whole. Love takes him by the hand, and opens to him the door to another life, another day.”à

― Thomas Merton

Similarly, beyond all disciplines and fields of study, David Bohm "believed fundamentally that beyond the visible, tangible world there lies a deeper, implicate order of undivided wholeness."