We live in times where, for those who are consciously awakening, a more intimate and intricate relationship with Spirit — including nature in all its forms — is becoming a priority. The heightened sense of separation from Spirit that many feel is to some extent encouraging humanity towards exploring deeper and more inclusive ways of connecting with all of life, via their own higher nature.
The pace of our current lives, in which we are experiencing escalating change in the world and in systems around us, appears to dictate that we act in opposition to our inner process and higher principles. A crisis of purpose emerges, in which many feel unready to effect the necessary changes, in the face of evermore evident and unsustainable contradictions.
Conditioned thought exists as the result of the subconscious absorption of environmental imprinting, which includes social, religious, historical and political influences, etc. The development of our relationship with our higher nature requires that we nurture the ability to transcend those aspects of conditioning that would hold us back.
One of the realizations emerging amongst many who are approaching higher consciousness is the need for dedicated inner work, in order to bring about a state of balance. This work includes the regular practice of meditation, via which the results of a deepening awareness of the spiritual life can be carried into daily activities. Amongst other benefits this practice fuels our essential loving nature. It also supports the expression of conscious creativity and the ability to work with change — qualities which life asks each of us to weave into every aspect of our experience.
A fundamental part of being human involves maintaining harmony with nature. Disharmony occurs as a result of being out of touch with nature, including the nature of who it is that we essentially are. Emotional imbalance, illness and various other conditions serve as reflectors (or reminders) that this connection has to some extent been compromised.
Whichever facet of our lives we focus upon, whether it be the food we eat, the attitudes we hold, the company we keep, or the practices that we undertake, it is helpful that we regularly remind ourselves to remain centered within our ‘natural’ self; within the energy of consciously recalling times when we felt at one with nature — thereby carrying the resulting feeling of ‘at oneness’ with us into all of our activities.
Consciousness beyond conditioned thought — where there is a deep inner comprehension of oneness — reflects our original state of being. This state of being, which might also be described as unity consciousness, is gradually re-awakened as we connect more deeply with our higher nature.
This awakening requires a certain dedication to the establishment and maintenance of inner silence. The extent to which we are able to achieve silence and the resulting inner stillness determines the extent to which we can open to the ‘higher mind’ — beyond the thinking mind.
The ‘higher mind’ — beyond the predominantly ego-based intellectual paradigm — creates thought. It brings new thought into being and is intimately linked to the evolutionary process. The ‘higher nature’ (and the experience of the ‘higher nature’ beyond that which we would understand in terms of the mind) involves what might be described as divine experience. It is beyond intellectual description and can only be expressed in terms of feelings and sensations, such as the experience of light, joy, energy or sound.
What emerges from the elevated experience referred to above is (to a certain degree) translated into thought, in our daily experience. We might then put this into practice or ‘walk’ it into our world or environment, thus sharing it creatively with others. It may translate into words or deeds, or manifest as something intangible.
Entering a state of higher consciousness — a term used to explain experience that transcends conditioned thought — takes us into more expanded dimensions of conscious being, involving frequencies that for the most part cannot be ‘measured’, from a conventional scientific perspective. The spontaneous expression of love and kindness are examples of the transcendence of conditioned thinking and doing.
In order to develop a deeper connection with higher consciousness — the realms beyond the physical — it becomes necessary to embrace and develop higher senses; faculties that are in certain ways parallel to the physical senses but exist on higher levels. This process involves remembering who we truly are as spiritual beings. As each physical sense evolves through various higher stages certain conditions become apparent, such as joyful and creative action, dynamic service, profound realization and the conscious striving towards excellence (including the attainment of higher knowledge). As we sense these awakenings occurring within us, we are inspired to reach out to our higher nature as if taking a hand; thus allowing ourselves to be guided through the higher experience.
The dream state also guides us beyond materially based experience. It involves reflected thought patterns, symbols and feelings. When we look at the way dreams are ‘put together’ and recalled, we recognize that we are dealing with a state that is transcendent of logic and the intellect, even though we might use these faculties to describe the dream in attempting to make sense of it, or learn from it.
The conscious experience of dreams is a portal to the journey which transcends the realm of conditioned thought, beyond the realm of thinking and doing — into the state of:
Being, yet creating;
Stillness, yet radiating.
These words attempt to describe what might be referred to as an aspect of enlightenment. However, because the term ‘enlightenment’ has become loaded, like various other terms within society, it has come to be perceived by many as something almost unattainable, unless complicated and all-consuming practices become the daily routine.
Nevertheless, what is being called for by life is a significant shift in practice, replacing certain mundane, habitual practices with conscious inner practices and, where need be, profound life-changes. Life is beckoning us towards these things and it is helpful to pay greater attention, especially when spending time in nature and when feeling in touch with our own higher nature. Life is encouraging us to recognize the guidance that takes us beyond thought, to listen to the bird-song and the wind through the grasses or the trees; and to feel the heat and light of the sun and the moisture in the air. We are being called to open our higher sense perceptions and to allow the analytical senses to wane somewhat — not to disappear, but not to constantly hold ‘center stage’, as they commonly do amongst the majority of humanity.
Most people live in a state of analysis and judgment — seeing all in terms of ‘I’ and ‘other’, instead of experiencing life in terms of ‘I Am’. As we experience all that is around us from the perspective of ‘I Am’, we begin to become one with ‘All That Is’. We begin to transform — via the feelings that transport us into that state of being. As we do that, we recognize the language beyond words, beyond conditioned thought and analysis … the language of divine unity.
Life is guiding us towards new levels of awareness and new states of being in order to help us align with the changes occurring within our reality. It is offering us the opportunity to step up before it becomes necessary to do so as a matter of survival. It is far preferable to consciously effect changes before change is urgently required, and thus to become the embodiment of change within the environment, rather than one who is forced to change by the shifting paradigms.
The process of expansion into higher consciousness requires that we honor universal principles as well as the natural environment, and thus allow ourselves to be guided by them. Achieving this is an enormous step, for when we are truly in harmony with these things; we are able to express the authentic essence of who it is that we are as spiritual beings — thus becoming one with all of life.
