Mind

Is the abode of God anywhere but in the earth, the sea, and sky, and air, and virtue? Why do we seek the heavenly ones beyond? Whatever you see, and whatever you touch, that is God. - Lucan

We are like any other mammal, giving live birth and loving our offspring. Our cognitive power is what separates us from the rest of the mammals. Unfortunately this cognitive power has the ability to crush us with significant trauma. What you need to do is to clear your mind of all that is preventing you from seeing God. This is a huge task. From the moment of birth you begin to accumulate experiences that can help, but mostly hinder your insight to God.

Jesus said, according to the Gospel of Thomas, "When you strip without being ashamed, and you take your clothes and put them under your feet like little children and trample them, then [you] will see the son of the living one and you will not be afraid." Jesus was telling these people to drop their inhibitions, remove the crust of learned behaviors and responses.

When we conjure up an image of small children dancing naked around a sprinkler on a hot summer day, we can easily marvel at how free they must feel. They can feel the joy and bliss of freedom without the weight of emotional burdens.

As we journey through life we accumulate instinctive responses to hurts or fears. These responses become second nature and become painful to explore. Then we shut down that emotional freedom and become trapped in our own minds. Oftentimes "demons" prey on us. These are the demons we read about so often in religious texts. We read that Jesus went off into the desert for forty days and was tempted by the devil during this time. Was this a real desert or a desert of the mind where his internal demons fought for control?

We reflect back to these previous experiences in the present moment. We may have previous relationships that were painful. For example, suppose you had a relationship with someone who was an alcoholic. You would become upset each time they drank to excess. After that relationship ends you start a relationship with someone else who isn’t an alcoholic. Each time this new person has a drink of alcohol your mind immediately jumps to the unlikely conclusion that this new person is also an alcoholic.

This same transference can happen with your friends. Suppose your relationship with your spouse is very bad and that you are staying with your spouse only because of your children. You are talking to a friend and she is describing a few instances where her spouse hurt her. You immediately draw the conclusion that her spouse is just as bad as yours. You have transferred this feeling from your spouse to hers.

Recognizing these experiences, feeling them in our bodies and preventing them from clouding our moment of reality should be our goal. They keep us from experiencing the present moment with a clean sheet of paper. Instead of immersing yourself in the present moment, you are “replaying tapes” from old relationships. You are doing this without any conscious recognition of it. Your mind is on autopilot.


Joel DiGirolamo, All material copyright PranaPower, LLC