Topic: Choosing a future

[Michael]

After some recent discussions on the subject of actively choosing a future, I feel it's time to address this technique directly.

Once again, anyone's experiences or views are welcome.

I'd like to kick off with two experiences of my own, just to set the scene.

1. Some may know of this story, as I have told it before and also in my book. I was on a bus between Chang Rai and Bangkok over thirty years ago. I think the foreign Asian country had some influence on this experience, as it opened subconscious doors, as well as offering possibilities that would not have been easy to grasp in my own country.

I was looking out the bus window at the landscape, when in a fraction of a second my eyes scanned a section of creek-bed rocks. In a split second, I became aware of something: without peering, I thought I might have seen something, but most likely not - a play of the light. I decided to 'choose' the less likely possibility, that there was a person on one of the large rocks, instead of the most likely that it was a tree branch or nothing. I recall feeling decidedly sceptical that this would work, and yet I intended myself in a strange way, towards the reality which included the person on the rock.

To my complete surprise, remembering this all happened in the space of a second, as I cleared my vision, there was a man sitting on the rock. Although a small thing, the situation had a deep effect on me. I lost some inner certitude of the independence of reality, and gained a bewildered certitude that we choose our world in some way, not exactly obvious. Of course I knew full well of this possibility, but had never come so close to having it demonstrated.

2. The wife of a friend of mine, many years ago, was very keen on new-age and new-age gurus. She had taken up the latest beliefs from America of how we can have anything we want, so long as we believe strongly enough that it will be ours. I see this is still a big idea in the US, and has even grown deeper in the common psyche there - but that's another matter.

She desired a new house, and she had taken some tickets in a lottery with a new house as the main prise. She went to work on this with the most amazing ferocity, employing every kind of mechanism possible to build her absolute confidence that this house would be hers. I was impressed. Not just pictures, plans of moving, plans of all kinds, but a powerful belief that this was her fate. She left no stone unturned, and gave herself over completely to the philosophy that we create our own reality. Needless to say, she didn't win.

I have pondered this matter over many years, and have come to the conclusion, that although there is truth in idea we create our own reality or that we choose our future, nonetheless, it is not so simple. There are many complexities to this basic realisation.

In numerous trips to India with my partner, where travelling on my own in my youth, I didn't care much what happened - I just went with the flow - but travelling with Julie entailed much more of making things work out to the best, and often to what we had planned. What I experienced was what I later recalled as a hundred discombobulations in every day. Over and again I would be left completely without a clue what to do next to save a situation. India is like this. So I was under continual pressure to rescue our future from often quite unpleasant possibilities which seemed inevitable. This was the most wonderful training ground for developing the techniques of choosing a future.

I'd like to sketch out some of the ways I have come to understand this issue, as well as some of the methods to get it working.

[nemo]

Choosing a future, is what I call aligning with timelines, if I got your impetus to the first post correctly. The malleable nature of reality and it's relationship to personal power is another irreducible truth , so I look forward to the continuation of this threads future.

[Michael]

"aligning with timelines": yes, that's another good phrase.

Before I get into the details of this process, I want to describe some of the things which work against our inherent and natural facility to elect for a different future.

Firstly, I feel we always elect our future, it's just that our momentum of choice is defined for us, by others. This means the first task for anyone seeking the freedom of choice, is to emancipate from the influence of others upon our identity, in the deepest and broadest possible way. This involves 'breaking the shell', and all that entails. So long as we haven't broken the shell, we simply see reflections of an inner world enslaved by others, whoever they may be. There is no possibility of freedom of choice while our entire universe is claimed by others. This is obviously a very large topic, so I only want to mark it here, as it represents possibly the greatest obstacle in choosing our future.

Secondly, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Every act we initiate, whether a physical, emotional or mental act, sets forth an energy into the void. From this void comes back an echo. That is the nature of existence. One of the most extensively developed and explored concepts around this 'echo', is the idea of karma which has been argued and discussed over thousands of years in India, and is still widely misunderstood. Basically there are two aspects of karma, closely linked to dharma.

The first aspect is that karma has degrees of manifestation. Some karma is deeply latent, and no attempt to deal with it is currently possible. Then there is karma destined to manifest in this life (as Hinduism believes in many lives ... well, most Hindus that is). Then there is karma currently being incurred as we live. Lastly there is karma that can only manifest in the future, not the present. There are many sub-variations to this.

The second aspect of karma is the degree of fixation. This operates in cross-matrix with the timeline of manifestation. Some karma is beyond our capacity to change, no matter how developed we are - it goes way down where no being can penetrate. Even Buddha said he never succeeded in penetrating to the beginning. At the other end are karmas which any fool can change with the minimum of effort. In between we have all the gradations of fixation matched by our level of potency to influence or not.

I use these two concepts, of karma and the shell, to indicate how we become imprisoned in our timeline due to the influence of others upon us, and the effect of our own past and current actions. You don't need to believe or not believe in these concepts - they are only presented to assist in gaining some leverage on what many have called 'cleaning the glass'. There is no possibility of electing freely for a different future, when we are consumed by fog and rendered impotent by weights and calcifications.

In the example I gave in the previous post, of my friend's wife, many would say the reason she didn't succeed, is that she didn't believe sufficiently. But if that were so, then the question becomes why? Others would say that she held subconscious fears that she wouldn't win, and these fears sabotaged her aspiration. This is a very significant factor. It is a common psychological insight, that we attract to us what we fear the most, we become what we despise, before we die we will commit the same crime for which we passionately denounced another. All these are examples of how deep negative emotions echo back to haunt us, as do deep positive emotions. Passion leads to suffering, is the ancient saying.

My view, is that she failed to win the house prize for a reason that everyone continues to ignore. So often I have heard of people coming across this belief that we are creators of our own world, who after applying themselves to making it happen in their lives, and failing, then denounce the whole idea. But they never seemed to consider that this possibility is conditional upon certain qualities of the person seeking to manifest it. That is why I have addressed the above elements, to draw attention to the fact that we have to work to reach a point of capacity. If you don't have the capacity in your being, no amount of praying, believing or positive thinking will do piddle-all.

In short, we need clarity, will, imagination, freedom of identity, audacity, and one further thing...

[nemo]

Michael, looks like you are going to rely heavily on karma, for your wifes friends failure and your explanation re: karma has some differences to how I view it. Would you like to talk about it now or after you said what you wanted to say?

[Michael]

No, I don't intend to rely on karma, it's just a tool to help dissect the often mysterious way we sabotage our own potential. It's not the only tool, and not one I use myself a lot, and yet I do find it has a reasonable value when I am confronted by intransigence in my efforts. But from a practitioner's perspective, karma only describes things theoretically from a meta level - one has to know how to dive to the source of a problem, which requires knowledge of shamanic instincts.

Nonetheless, I quite like the theories of karma, and know that in Hinduism it is a very huge and complex body of study.

By all means, I would be interested in your take on karma. I'm in no rush to get out the next parts of this thread - strike while you mind is on this aspect.

[Kal]

Said I leave but Michael's threads are interesting and full of knowledge.

I may delete the post but as long...

One factor that I want to also mention is Spirit.The Spirit.

As far as I know Spirit reflects to everyone, not just the 'seekers'.

I 'm not sure and you can never be too accurate with Spirit, talking about it for one thing but it seems it has a purpose like one would say a plan.

[nemo]

Well my take on karma, long or short version? Maybe it could have it's own thread, or already does in this forum.

The short version is that karma in my view in general tries to explain something from within a confined interior perspective. Much like a character in a book reflecting on his or her role, as the pages at the beginning of a book develop the character the following pages reveal why the character is in the book in the first place.

Let's say in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, there are certain necessary elements for there to be a story, and all good stories have a contrast. The classic good verses the bad.



So according to traditional karmic view then if Gandalf reflects on why Saruman was able to defeat him and cast him to the top of the his tower, and just chalked it up to karma, well to me it just seems a little silly.

I operate under the premise that all is equal, and that perspective comes from seeing that I am just firing up emanations within a complex universal play, I am probing emanations, and there is no separation, between me and the emanations.

What karma is really attempting to explain, is the energetic thrust, matrix and or eddy that is best explained I believe in the CC book Fire from Within in the chapter The Rolling force. In your first post Michael you correctly stated that as we live and do and think we are energetically interacting with the universe at large.

In the Egypt thread I explained how I see the eagles emanations and how they are made up of time. What is moving around in those emanations are parts of the eagle reflecting to itself what it is and many parts of itself exist in a state that is not aware. That part that is not aware is described by DJ and the Toltec tradition as the tonal, and the tonal because it is not aware, creates the intent of the first attention. So to me the tonals of the past that cared too, tried to explain the world made up of the intent of the first attention, forgetting that this world is really meant to be a part of the eagles emanations that are exploring limitation.

Naturally the game, the furrow of time not knowing itself must question why the things like something bad happening to someone good, and cheaters winning and so on, and as in your wifes friend, she must of not got something right because that house did not manifest as she had believed.

That is my take on karma, karma is only an incomplete description of something from an incomplete view. Much like the character in the book, is not the reader of the book. The tonal is not the nagual, without the nagual, the tonals view will always be a partial view.

[Michael]

If I understand you Nemo, you raise some of the variations on the understanding of karma. I don't want to follow the concept too deeply, because I am aware there is a huge body of thought around the subject about which I know very little. But I will take up your points to this extent:

There is definitely a problem with the idea that karma, the idea that reactions flow back to us based on the impulse of our own actions, when you take into account numerous reflections upon how we view the world and why we act in certain ways.

1. The majority of people are not freely responsible for their actions. Basically, people behave in ways determined by external influences. This means that very little karma can be personal. Once you join any group, you automatically take on a portion of the karma of that group. In this view, we weave into a karmic stream when we are born, for wich we bear no responsibility, yet we still have to wear the consequences. This view can become very complicated.

2. Our karma is a reflection of our actions and attitudes. Meaning we project meaning on to the things that happen to us, built upon the same meaning that generates our actions. The liar see people lying to him, the deceiver perceives others deceiving him, the lover sees the world loving him, and so forth. This view sees karma as the two ends of the same stick, but once you drop the stick, the whole process vanishes. Buddhism pays a lot of attention to this approach.

3. Because we operate in multiple layers, the karma of one layer is not necessarily the same as another. In the physical world, we may go against our societies rules, for which we then incur a karmic cost. But on a deeper moral layer, we may be following an inner directive, which thus reaps us a karmic benefit. Then again, on a layer associated with our higher self, because the actions were done in a state of non-self-awareness, no karmic effect is possible.

4. A lot a attention in Hinduism is around another aspect - following the natural inner path. To follow another's path creates negative karma, but to go against the established spiritual rules of society also creates negative karma. To try to be something you are not, to seek to become something that is not your true inner destiny, means bad karma, and this is the basis of the caste system, as it includes the inner nature of whole groups of people. To kill for a 'priest' is bad karma, but for a 'warrior' it may be good karma in the right circumstances. Personally I find problems with this due to the fact that it takes an adept to free oneself from the illusions of 'natural self'.

Getting back to our topic, this discussion does draw attention to one significant point. For sleeping consciousness, karma is all about a closed-circuit reflection loop, which can't build deep roots because there is no aware responsibility involved. But as soon as a person begins to awaken, the consequences of their actions have deep and lasting effects. For a common man to feed inanities in the form of wisdom to another, matters very little. But if an aware man were to deceive someone seeking knowledge, by simply offering the illusions the seeker is asking for, then that man builds for himself a very deep pit. This is the reason why true guides are not interested in winning praise and affection from those who approach them, because they know that the consequences for them in such a deception far outweigh the pleasures of being liked. By the way an aware person treats those who present with the desire to know truth, they are actually choosing their own future. So they are extremely careful to choose wisely.

But this is not the end of the matter. Many exponents of karma believe that everything is due to karma. That forgets what Nemo mentioned about multiple timelines, and that time is not linear when seen from a meta view. It also opens up a problem of the existence of accidents. Nonetheless, I find karma loses its whole significance once we adopt the view that life is personal discovery. Karma can only really belong to those who are trapped in the world of good and bad luck, of sympathy and antipathy - of things I like and things I don't like. Once you shift to a view of life as one providing opportunities for development and realisation, karma still applies externally, but it is not relevant to the intent of the inner alignment and direction.

Alas, it remains relevant to the person seeking to transition from non-awareness to awareness, because it creates multiple illusory pathways to awareness. We all have to battle with the fog and cobwebs in order to gain that precious point of purchase on a real path. Thus it remains an obstacle to choosing our future.

[nemo]

Nice summary Michael, My understandings have come from seeing, so I am not well versed at all in the karma explanations from the past. There may very well be something that has been presented that agrees with my seeing, but I have not come across it.

There is a binding force that maintains the first attention assemblage point position, and changing the way you interact with the emanations at large is part of ..................

[runningstream]

I am also enjoying that . alignment , now as the day unfolded , i pondered to myself of resistance , and the middle , no emotional investment between right and wrong and the sway that accompanies it , after giving such mind to things of no mind , the day became furiously hard and i so also , at the peak , i looked back upon it and said " tomorrow is a new day"
Then nargajunas " nothing whatever arises , not from itself or another , not from both itself and another"
This accompanied by the pondering of first " a world of energy , sexind
A world of objects"
And as i wrote to you a woman appeared who spoke in a high pitched frantic annoysome voice ,
I also wondered as in new
Age speak if " i had created her to giv me a lesson"
Looking back to
My heart
My true voice says
The pretend edness of holding a vision which does not stack up against " reality"
And chosen " path" as chosen reality
As " fuck the pretend crap and pretensive"
As i now wonder to the creation of such realities as i have experienced the opposing end of that stick
" interpretation system becomes evident , and also " skillfulness"
Yet " lesson "
And path of heart ,
Now the words
Jesus spoke  something like
Whosoever will follow my father to leave all behind
And begin to walk or some such.

I appreciate this thrEad very much as i do a lot here .

interpretation systems come back to what works i suppose , in which case evolution is endless

[runningstream]

Life does
Always seem so short
I
Looked uP to the most beautiful clouds
In my despair
And just went whoa
It was a genuine whoa
And i have no time for falsity today
I listen and find the rock bottom
And know this is the voice that awakens
A great change
Though that great change
Is never constant
It just is something different
It would be hard for somebody who will not change
To understand it
Yet thats change
Hard work

[Kal]

------

I come to realize that 'becoming' the double/the dreamer is most essential.

choosing the path must begin/have this premise as "a" future to follow.

Being your real authentic self.

To mention that the world is a hard stage is not necessary, I 've mentioned ...it in the other threads.

[Michael]

Yes, much could be discussed on karma, as in its basic form it is something we all have experience of, if we are sensitive to the world in which we live.

But for me, in a nutshell, it is a concept that refers to one salient feature of our existence: that we are not separated from our world. This remains, or rather is increasingly, a contentious view. The whole applauded attitude of the world as something to be dominated and conquered, that it is not only indifferent to our actions, but that we have the freedom to act with complete impunity in any way whatsoever, so far as the world is concerned. We may dispute whether we have some obligation to our own inner sense of morality or conscience, but it rarely occurs to anyone that any kind reciprocity exists between us and the external world.

We believe we exist in a vacuum.

Karma, in all of it's variations, speaks of the fallacy of this separated belief.

[Michael]

Now to the actual practice of choosing a future.

The first step is to address the issue I mentioned previously, where people could argue that my friend's wife didn't win her house prize due to a fear of failing. This is definitely a well known pattern, where the fear of failure sabotages our confidence, and thus the ability to release our full potency.

Thus the first thing we need to do before we focus on choosing, is to face the consequences of it not working. What if your preferred future fails to materialise? How would you feel? But more than that, what if your worst fears for the future were to happen? How would you feel about that?

We can't effectively move forward in any intent, unless we have come to grips with the images of disaster. There are two responses, which influence each other:

1. Firstly, we have to reach acceptance of fate. I call this reaching a neutral position. You don't have to feel happy about disaster, but you do have to face it, and work through the emotions until you reach a point of neutral. This is not that far-fetched, because if you are on the path, you will have to reach a profound position of neutrality as a basic task. Typically approached in meditation, but in whatever way you prefer, equanimity has to be secured as the fundamental inner posture of our being. So to draw on this for the future choosing exercise is only a small step. Needless to say in consequence, that choosing a future is really an advanced practice for a practitioner of the path - it is really not available to anyone else.

Saying you have to be advanced on the path to succeed in choosing the future, doesn't mean you can't try it. In fact, you should be exploring this from the start, because there is so much inner subtlety to this practice, that we actually hone something mysterious inside us on our way to proficiency. It helps to have a deep sense of humour, a good belly laugh at the absurdity of the universe - nothing is fair.

2. Secondly, once we have acquired acceptance of whatever fate will throw at us, we can go further. We can elect to shift slightly forward into a position of what I call 'edge'. Meaning we lift our energy from its static form in the neutral posture, up the length of our being and adopt a posture of very quiet, very confident and very ready leverage on whatever will come our way. We reach an elected belief ('having to believe') that we will not only be adequate to whatever comes our way, but in fact we will be able to fully exploit it for the purpose of our inner quest. Meaning we can turn anything to our advantage. That is edge! A quiet glint in the eye, and best learnt from watching cats. You are sending forth a message into the ether, that you are a force to be reckoned with.

Never allow this to become arrogance, or cockiness. It is simply a perennial state of being ready.

Once you have worked your way through these two postures, you are in the best position to focus on choosing a future. Like the Hindus, you always have a fall back position if everything fails - you can revert to the task of moksha, which is always the main game. Choosing a future is just a great pastime for self-evolution, but not meant to replace the task of inner silence.

Vimalananda once explained how after a long period of renunciation and meditation on a mountain as a penniless sadhu, when he returned to the social sphere he could affect the world of those who sought his mystical intercession in their life struggles, with only the slightest turn of his focus. As time passed and he found it more difficult to produce the desired results. He told this story to emphasise how significant the state of ultimate renunciation is for choosing the future. Greatest power comes from greatest silence.

[Michael]

Next you have to ask yourself, is your vision of the future really for the best?

This is very important, because we are always in a situation of knowledge-deficiency. This is also why many great sages of the path have said they never use their powers to choose a future for themselves - only for others. Because they trust that the source of everything is already looking after their interests in a way impossible for them to match.

Now I have a great sympathy with this view, and I also take it as a default position. But I also hold that there is a place for our efforts. I was once impressed by a Spiritualist text (I used to be into Spiritualism in my research days), which said that there are so may spirits surrounding you, ready to help, but until you make your mind up what you want and what direction you want to go, no one can help you.

Another book from back then, The Clan of the Cave Bear (I never did read the last in the series), had a great comment about the whole issue of the 'world agreeing with us' as explained in one of the early CC books. She said that a sign comes to us that we have made the right decision, after we take it rather than before. Now this is not always true - often a sign comes while we are contemplating alternatives - but more often we get a yes or no sign only after we have stepped forth. This again suggests hidden forces assist those who make decisions, not those who dither at the crossroads.

This is why I say there is a place for our opinion in this whole scheme of energy through which we pass, and it is our offering, more than our duty, to go to extreme lengths to ensure the decision is one of maturity and depth of understanding, having considered all options. I am saying, our voice is required!

Once you have progressed along the path, you develop a relationship around what I just talked of - signs. Eventually it becomes second nature, and these signs seamlessly integrate with our thinking and feeling. I say feeling, because really most choices come from feeling, rather that thinking. A friend of mine once developed a board game based on the I Ching, where decisions had to be made to select a 'square'. I always won this game, but never let on how. He had devised an elaborate construct of reasons and strategy for square choices, which was part of the game. I rejected that, and chose a square entirely on my feelings of attraction. I looked at the squares and chose the most beautiful. I have lived my life in the same way ever since. But that doesn't mean I haven't chosen the hard road - the easy road is almost always a false road. I will return to signs later in this thread.

So, knowing our preferred future may well be a bad mistake, we do have to act, and to learn the art of choosing a future. Thus we make our choice, then jump. Looking always for signs that we are right or wrong. In this technique, it is of absolute importance to know you do not have to believe yourself to be right. In fact, exactly the opposite - you have to retain an open mind. I should say that many who know me think I don't do this, and are astounded by the utter determination with which I pursue a goal. They don't realise that I retain an open mind constantly. What they see is the unyielding momentum I have built over many years, simply doing it's thing.

It is far easier to practice and be confident of a choice when dealing with small matters. When we seek to choose a future in major matters of our life, or of others, then we do need to pause sufficiently until the will rises up undeniably from the depths within, that a choice has to be made. By that time, hopefully, we have the techniques hones through years of practising on small matters.

The next issue - imagination...