Response to Online Forum Question

Besides posting on this blog I have been participating in online forums that deal with “Awakening,” “Consciousness”and other topics within the spiritual online community. I have been posting some of these blog posts on these forums and have have been getting interesting feedback. After my post on “Resistance” I received a comment and then I responded. I have included the comment, my response and the excerpt from Letter Twenty “Appreciation:”

Comment:

I think that one of the problems is that we are so used to thinking about our future, and past, most people dont know how to think in the “now”. The mayans were great at being in the now. They used their calender, and the stars, and math to calculate what they should be doing today, in the now.

The only thing that I dont understand about “being in the now”, is how can you learn from your mistakes if you dont look to the past and use that information to make “the now” a better “now”?

I can see how thinking too far ahead can cause problems because whether people are aware of it or not, people tend to worry about their future ( I know I do, and lots of people I know do as well.) But worrying about it will cause those problems to matirialize in your future.

My response and excerpt from “Appreciation”

Yes it is difficult for humans to consciously live in the moment when the egoic mind needs to grope through endless thoughts of past and future. These time elements add to strengthening the false sense of security the ego has in store for us. Time is food for the ego. The present moment frees the mind from this stranglehold. The mind is forced out of the time zone and into the living flow. It is the natural way, but we have not evolved to that space of sensing rather than thinking. It is what all yogis strive for in their quest for realization. It is a state of Poise. This deep state of Knowing that brings an inner confidence and outer glow. As hard as it is to attain, in this less evolved species of ours, we are making progress. Remember it’s the journey, not the destination.

The following excerpt from Letters from 500 – Letter Twenty “Appreciation” elaborates on the essence of Appreciation and the value it plays in the future species. If we can take an iota of this message and bathe our psyche in its waters we will start to be free.

Appreciation connotes presence. In this sense it is a living entity, like faith. In this presence, the truth is known; the oneness is known. It is a tool unlike any other. It not only establishes reality within the awareness, it leverages its own contribution to that reality; that is, it provides a feedback loop of enhanced attention. It generates consciousness and consciousness generates it. Out of it comes allowing, gratitude and grace. Out of these qualities comes more appreciation. But humanity was disconnected from its own presence, its own native qualities—thus the breakdown in appreciative presence.

“I see what you’re saying. We humans are our own worst enemies, because we don’t know who we really are. We don’t know our own presence. But you do. You have evolved to know your presence. This must be remarkable for you.”

It is.

“How have you used appreciation in your world? What effects does it produce that are different from the human world?”

First, it guarantees our living in the Now. The appreciative faculty lives in our conscious awareness at all times. Going inward is not something we have to practice as the human species did. We live inwardly a priori. We come out from there—the reverse of your orientation. In fact, your destined path was to go in; ours is to go out. We are manifesters of spirit; you were seekers of spirit. I spoke earlier of the human mind as always looking to the outer world for validation. This is the illusion again—counter to true human destiny. True validation, for you and for all creation, comes only from within.

Second, the appreciative faculty gives us the ability to regulate ourselves with a natural sense. The benign anarchy of our world is founded on this. We know viscerally the effects of our actions on those around us. There are no environmental crises, as you often had, because we see our actions from the perspective of the environment itself. We have no fear, envy or hatred of one another, because we are the other; we cannot escape knowing this. It is no euphemism, but a living moment-by-moment experience for us. It applies to individuals, as well as nations and the whole global population.

Third, appreciation allows us to find natural balance in all our relationships. Our children and parents, lovers and friends, are recognized as aspects of the one Self, manifesting its own appreciation into the world of form. We are outposts of the one Self, applying its universal embrace and beneficence to everything we do in the world. As I said before, this renders morality obsolete.

Copyright © 2009 by Robert Potter