You come and go. The doors swing closed

Ever more gently almost without a shudder.

Of all who move through the quiet houses,

You are the quietest.

We become so accustomed to you,

We no longer look up

When your shadow falls over the book we are reading

And makes it glow. For all things

Sing you: at times

We just hear them more clearly.

Often when I imagine you

Your wholeness cascades into many shapes.

You run like a herd of luminous deer

And I am dark, I am forest.

You are a wheel, at which I stand,

Whose dark spokes sometimes catch me up,

Revolve me nearer to the center.

Then all the work I put my hand to

Widens from turn to turn.

Rainer Maria Rilke one of the great poets of the 20^th century certainly displays a quality in all of his work that asks me to follow something within me. It is that deep inner knowing place where all questions are dressed in answers. It is the place where everything exists and nothing is wasted. It is the Mecca of truth and the garden of unity. It moves as I move and at times the door swings closed and I try to pry it open and do, but find it has changed in awareness. I no longer look up, I look within.

As I experience this entrance and exit within my self I try to find the latch that will keep this beautiful place of knowledge open, but I find that my body consciousness keeps me in another state of reality. I see the shadows, created by my thoughts and watch as they become material objects which are my own manifestations. Quietly I watch a herd of luminous realities run through the inner forest of my consciousness.

 I have re-programmed my self to ignore my inner self and exist in a body that is born from that consciousness. My education taught me to be sane, but I act insane by performing the same acts over and over again and then I expect different results. I am caught in the spokes of a self who only senses the separation that I create by turning the wheel of not feeling good enough to love my inner self. My body consciousness creates an illusion that keeps the door of knowing half open, but every now and then I see between the cracks and I begin to expand.

This chosen duality issue turns me closer to my center. My body consciousness is doing what my inner consciousness has already experienced. The rigors of physical life turn me towards my center and my awareness increases with every turn. I say I am human and know that I am more, but I don't hear my other selves clearly and I become a separated thought in a puddle of my own rain. The thought, the puddle and the rain are all one; my beliefs about my multiplicity keep me from turning in a circular motion, I do it linearly using just one aspect of my self which is a choice.

Rumi understood his multiplicity in the 13^th century, which confirms that awareness is not only linear and restricted by my selectivity; it is expression of my inner consciousness. My formlessness is expressed through my physical form and I choice to accept it or resist it by my restricting beliefs about my own complexity of being. Wholeness cascades into many shapes.

As Rumi points out: 

You Embrace some Form

Saying "I am this."

By God, you are not this

Or that or the other

You are "Unique One"

Heart-ravishing"

You are throne and palace and king

You are bird and snare and fowler

Like water in a jar and river

Are in essence the same

You and spirit are the same

Your every idol

Prostrates

Before you

Your every thought-form

Perishes

In your formlessness

So there it is, in 13^th thought. The door to the place where everything exists is always open; I partially close it by my beliefs and perceptions. When I believe I am the door and what's on the other side, I expand in awareness and I sense the expressions of other forms of my own consciousness. Every turn of the wheel is another self changing and expanding in unrestricted awareness. I perish in my own formlessness and know I am multiplicity in a chosen form that comes and goes through the quiet house of All There Is.

http://www.shortsleeves.net/

http://halmanogue.blogspot.com/

Briefly, what I am proposing is that the psychology of the mature human being is an unfolding, emergent, oscillating spiraling process marked by progressive subordination of older, lower order behavior systems to newer, higher order systems as an individual's existential problems change. Each successive stage, wave, or level of existence is a stage through which people pass on their way to other states of being.

 When the human is centralized in one state of existence, he or she has a psychology which is particular to that state. His or her feelings, motivations, ethics, and values, biochemistry, degree of neurological activation, learning system, belief system, conception of mental health, ideas as to what mental illness is and how it should be treated, conceptions of and preferences for management, education, economics and political theory and practice are all appropriate to that state.

Clare Graves was born in 1914. He was a professor of psychology and originator of a Level Theory of Human Development. His work was the foundation for Spiral Dynamics, which has got a lot of attention recently. It seems that my nature as a human is an emerging open ended system of awareness. Graves saw this process of stable plateaus interspersed with change intervals as never ending; I progress through this spiral with my consciousness which has no limits.

Graves's ideas about this way of knowing are being studied and used throughout the field of psychology. His work has opened the door for Ken Wilbur and others to establish a Theory of Everything, which is an integral vision for Business, Science, Politics and Spirituality.

What Graves is saying is that there are different levels of consciousness that are interacting in human form at the same time. I have a tendency to use race and religion and politics to judge the thoughts of individuals, but it is actually the level of awareness of self that distinguishes me from those around me. Each level of awareness has been or will be experienced by me, so I am really experiencing different aspects of my self and using them as tools for expansion. It's not my physical birth place or time or the color of my skin that creates diversity, it is my consciousness evolving in a never ending stage of growth.

When I apply Graves's theory to the present conditions that exist around the world, I clearly understand why peace is such an elusive state of being. There are so many levels of consciousness interacting with each other; the first stages or levels are interacting with higher stages and they are unaware of why, so the body consciousness fears the unknown and I resist instead of accepting. Change although it is a constant in human development is a threat to the body consciousness and the illusions created by it. Thoughts of separation guide my actions, and I do what I have always done, destroy instead of understand in order to become aware. The face of the world is filled with the blemishes of an ignorant and self-defeating separated body consciousness, but it is the method I choose to expand, it is not a death sentence it's consciousness creating awareness.

Consciousness continues to expand and my body consciousness does blend with my inner self at some linear point. My awareness of other levels of consciousness become apparent and I begin to experience them. When one self moves through time and accepts rather than rejects other levels of awareness I integrate with my entity. I am a dynamic spiral as Graves explains and I never out of sync regardless of my position within the spiral. There is no beginning or end, there is only the awareness that I exist in every aspect of it.

http://www.shortsleeves.net/

http://halmanogue.blogspot.com/

Beauty is constituted by the free harmonious play of imagination and understanding.

Immanuel Kant, born in 1724 was a German philosopher. He is regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of the 18^th century and his thoughts are still studied around the world. His work is a rock in the foundation of metaphysics and epistemology. He spent his life questioning the nature of reality.

Philosophers have discussed beauty for centuries. Kant said that when we think something is beautiful, we want to share it in some way, or at least get confirmation that we are right in thinking that object or person can be labeled beautiful. Other great thinkers say that beauty is a reflection of our inner consciousness, which is expressing itself in physical form. Beauty is obviously diverse as well as complex in nature, it represents part of our belief structure and how we perceive the world around us. Rumi, the 13^th century poet and philosopher said: We are surrounded by beauty, but we usually have to be walking in a garden to appreciate it.  Whatever the definition used to explain beauty, it's safe to say that beauty changes as my beliefs about it change.

Natural beauty is something within me, but the rigors of daily life cover that beauty with fear and anger, so I separate my self from that innate quality. I then try to construct beauty in some other form using art, music, personal style or body consciousness and then label it beauty based on my perceptions. I spend a lifetime searching for the beautiful aspects of physical life and when I think I know what they are, I built a self that represents that beauty and share it with the world in my own way.

Physical attractiveness and an individualistic personality define beauty in physical form, so I go to extremes to build an image that fits my beliefs about the external nature of beauty and expect my peers to compliment my dedication to that goal. I reach that goal at different times and use extraordinary means to maintain it and keep it as I travel through time. I discover that beauty is a thought that I create and then manifest using my imagination and creativity. Beauty is and will always be a subjective aspect of consciousness, which is expressed objectively. Life is for the experience and if I can define and do define beauty by my thoughts about it, beauty can be whatever I want it to be. That's the beauty of being aware of the beauty of my inner consciousness. It's in a constant state of change and beauty is a tool I use to express those changes. Beauty is a root of consciousness and when I allow it to grow freely I physically experience it in its natural state.

http://www.shortsleeves.net/

http://halmanogue.blogspot.com/

The great sea set me in motion.

Set me adrift.

And I move as a weed in the river.

The arch of sky

And mightiness of storms

Encompasses me,

And I am left

Trembling with joy.

That's an old Eskimo Song that describes ancient thoughts about physical life. I am a weed in a river set in motion by the great sea and connected to everything around me. My roots are nourished by the sea of consciousness. The Eskimo's understood and were aware of that sea and lived in it everyday as they experienced there own manifestations. 

Now is a time of great change. I measure change linearly and I focus on my choices and express my self in awareness. Each flood, tornado, hurricane and earthquake is the action of consciousness and I am aware of them to understand the power of my own creations. These mighty earth changes, express the changes that are occurring in my inner consciousness. How I perceive these events changes my beliefs about them and I learn something about my self. I find that I am surrounded by energy that has the ability to communicate with me in complex, as well as simple ways. It is up to me to listen and change in sync with the flow of my river of consciousness. I am a whole part of that action and I choose what role to play in the present moment by being centered in what appears to be uncertainty, but it is actually clusters of consciousness expressing expansion and action with different imagery.

Action is the manifestation of consciousness and the idea constructions of collective consciousness are experiencing physical manifestations of that action. All thoughts become solid matter so the combination of resistance and acceptance produces the mightiness of the storms that encompass me on an individual level, as well as a collective level. There is no separation of consciousness, but there is unawareness of the different energies that form aspects of my entity, as well as the collective entities that form a bubble of reality.

My energy adds depth to the great sea of consciousness. I set my self adrift in rivers that contain diverse realities and tides of energy that form clusters of consciousness in order to expand as a weed, which continues to blossom with the fruit of awareness. I am left to create and share life in a bubble in order to feel the energy that expresses itself within, around and outside of the bubble. The arch in the blue sky reminds me of my inner world which is filled with the vibration of color and the tone of expansion. The Eskimos and I tremble with joy as we touch the sea with one drop of consciousness and continue to float in eternal rivers, which have different channels that bend and flow with the tide of change. I am one weed drifting through clouds of consciousness in order to add more drops in the sea of eternal consciousness.

http://www.shortsleeves.net/

http://halmanogue.blogspot.com/