There is magic in the air. It waves hello to us every day. We can’t see it because we are tied up in our need for freedom. Freedom! The mind’s concept, not a reality. “Free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last.” Such powerful words. When will we be truly free? What do we know of this actual freedom, the one outside the mind’s view and inside the heart’s view? [F]read on dear seekers, Freed-OM!
December 4
RP: I was just rereading the conversation we had a month ago. It was about ‘writing the script’.
That topic makes me wonder—as I often have—about destiny and making plans for the future. Does this ‘script’ we’re creating mean that we are bound by it; does it constrain us and turn us into automatons? How committed are we to it? Is there room for free will in this?
AS: Freedom both exists and does not—it is entirely ‘free’ to exist in that way. The highest ‘free will’ lives within the whole being, observably. Take, for example, a flock of birds on the wing, turning and swirling together in perfect synchrony. The flock is following the instinctual impulses each bird is receiving from the timeless field. It has the freedom to fly in any direction it chooses, collectively. Yet for each individual bird in the flock, freedom has been surrendered to the whole; this, even though the instinctual impulses are received singularly within each animal. The ‘collective’ exercises freedom, while the individual both channels it and surrenders it.
In a human example, in strong belief systems such as religion and politics, individual freedom is surrendered to circumscribed boundaries of dogma and party line. The minds of followers are directed to think and act as they are told, not as they would independently. Nevertheless, individual awareness possesses a powerful urge to behave free from constraints, free from ‘authority’. Obvious conflicts arise when a dominating collective body arrogates free will. Over time, instinctual awareness must prevail, however, overturning ‘false’ doctrines that temporarily thwart ‘true’ nature.
To answer your question about being ‘automatons’, I would say this can temporarily be the case for unawakened humanity. Many people act in this accord for long periods of time. The so-called ‘script’ is performed ambiguously, clouded by inaccurate interpretations. However, as evolution proceeds—and truth works its way nearer the surface of awareness—the false constructs cannot maintain themselves; they have no true internal power for survival. That which is ‘false’ is empowered from without, not from within.
The ‘script’ is empowered from within—the source of true power. It, too, works its way out to the surface of life, gradually allowing the false constructs to erode and crumble as they will. That which the collective consciousness presents to the world for performance in outer reality eventually manifests clearly. By turning your attention to it—with conscious intention—you may be appraised more directly and rapidly of its path.
Destiny is largely determined as an interplay between collective and singular awareness, between truth and falsity. It is always performed ‘in the moment’. It does not require a place or position in the future; its destination is forever Now. In this light—as we become awakened—destiny is more a concise statement of what instinctual intelligence tells us about ourselves in the moment. Destiny is the mirror image of presence and truth. It reflects this reality to us.
RP: Whoa! What? This does not compute. How can presence have a ‘mirror image’?
AS: Simply because it is manifesting into a duality context. All expressions in this context entail mirroring. Destiny is often mistaken for a future condition or fulfillment, a pronouncement of what will make you more of what you are. Conditioned by the temporal format, this is indeed often interpreted with a ‘future’ orientation. However, since there is no real future—all events being iterations of momentum in the Now—that which constitutes presence has its consequence inside its own selfsame space of ‘no time’.
RP: I never thought of presence as having “consequences” either.
AS: No you didn’t. But all moments are ‘momentous’. They are the flowing essence within the Now, continuously moving and producing the effects of action—that is, destinations. But they are always realized now. Presence is the impression of conscious being—in the present. Destiny is its expression.
RP: Wait. I’m trying to process what you’re saying. Expression? Impression? I guess I can understand destiny as an ‘expression’. But it has always seemed dependent on the future, the passage of time—reaching somewhere, a place of fulfillment. Doesn’t destiny mean a condition we haven’t achieved yet?
AS: As difficult as it is for your human mind, please consider that time is just a form. All forms begin and end. Before time became ‘formalized’, it was—and still is—nothing, no ‘thing’; and duality was yet unformed. As such, presence and destiny are not separated. Desire and fulfillment, intention and extension exist simultaneously.
RP: This has always been difficult for me. I get ‘timelessness’ intellectually. I get the Now. I can actually feel it. But I also feel the passage of time—from one moment or minute to the next. Like right now: It’s taking time for me to write down this dialogue. How can that all be in the Now?
AS: Let’s use this as an illustration. The ‘writing down’ does in fact take time. Where do you suppose it ‘takes’ that time from?
RP: What? Are you just playing with semantics here?
AS: No, not at all. The time you ‘take’ comes from somewhere; it really does. The ‘time’ passes in and out; it then returns back where it came from. The task of writing eventually ends. But what does not end—and what does not begin either—is the underlying presence and destiny of the moment. It simply is. This is the Now; it is formless, and yet full and fulfilled within itself. What is not fulfilled is the ‘writing’; that requires time—putting thoughts into form, to wit, information. The act of writing ‘takes’ form out of formlessness; and the intention-action is what creates its own time.
Try this, as an exercise in creating time: Stop. Look away from what’s immediately in front of you. Unfocus your eyes a bit. Unfocus your attention, particularly your mental attention. Relax. Sense the timeless moment beneath your eyes. Look at an object now. Feel this intention generating the time required to observe.
RP: Well, I do feel a connection. It’s like focusing the lens of a camera. The ‘unfocused’ is a timelessness state; focus is like time.
AS: Congratulations. You just felt the relationship between Now and the form, time.
RP: Interesting. That exercise gave me a feeling for the objects and movement around me being embraced by, hmm, an invisible field.
AS: That is the field of presence. Every being shares in this vitality. Now, as we slide back into your former topic, let us say that you can also sense ‘destiny’ in this same way. What is moving within the space of vibration you felt obeys Newtonian laws: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. As presence acts within the space, it spontaneously generates destiny in that time-space arena. Look at it this way: Presence is an inner function, focused outwardly; destiny is an outer function, focused inwardly—hence a ‘reflection’.
This process is the time-based world of duality, all of it is occurring and directed within the Now. Time is subordinate to timelessness; it is a dependent variable. It could not be otherwise: Time cannot be detached from the moment; it cannot alter or exceed the moment. Destiny and presence are held together—one acting within, the other without, and both interacting inside each other.
RP: Well, I’ll be damned. I don’t know if I’ve really gotten that or not. But thank you, nevertheless. Here I must stop; I can’t hold any more right now. I have to close this dialogue; the ‘time’ is up. I’m sure it’s going to return where it came from—the timeless space.
AS: Yes, it is. And so, all is well besides.
© 2021 Robert Lee Potter
Letters From 500 