Category Archives: Steps

Illucidations, Perspectives, Steps, Tools for Evolution

Creation and Interpretation

Creation and Interpretation. These are two primary functionalities of what is called “the mind”. For the purpose of this article we examine only those two functionalities.

The Temple Teachers called them the “Twin Minds: The Creative Mind and The Perceiving Mind”.

The Teachers also talked about Consciousness and Volition, which, interestingly, come down to about the same thing: Consciousness relating to the Perceiving Mind, and Volition, the ability to use what you know to change/enhance your environment, relating to the Creative Mind.

So there is a constant Yin/Yang of

1) perceiving something and interpreting it and,

2) to the extent you have the interest, opportunity and ability to act, you make a change by creating something. For one thing, a focus is created, an interpretation of value to the focus, and you give this creation a supply of significance and sustainability. It may be simpler to say that you interpret it good or bad, give it a degree of good/bad, name it, focus on it, define it, then do what you have to do to manifest it. If it suits enough of your fancy, the creation reaches significance sufficient to be visible (in physical) to self and others.

“OK…”, you may say, “what does this mean to me right now?” Does seeing this motivate me to focus any energy somewhere and enhance life as I know it?”

As humans, we have a relatively high ratio of volition to consciousness, i.e. the ability to use the knowledge we have to do something to enhance life. The Teachers talk about creation being “conduction” of life force, creating the present moment by moment in the direction of our choice, almost like spraying a hose of life force, if you will.

Illucidations, Perspectives, Steps, Tools for Evolution

A New Chapter

As always has been, the universe evolves from now to now, presenting new circumstances at an appropriate time. I’ve been easing into being self-employed since November due to a slow-down in business at work, and Friday last week was my last day.  Under the guise of “retirement” I intend to embark on my most creative chapter yet, increase exercise, eat wisely, open some doors and let energy flow though, guided by principles of Huna, my inner promptings and my training thus far.

Of course, if you want to move forward, you get to leave something behind, though our culture loves to keep things beyond the time they’re needed, and, indeed, promotes it.  One of the recurring themes in my study of “what is” and “what could be” is that every cycle naturally ends in release.  Keeping something beyond its appropriateness results in an accumulation of “stuff”, on physical, mental and emotional levels — and that slows you down on your journey.  In fact, it’s been said that our evolution to other realms depends on our being able to move on as soon as you have learned what was to be learned. You wouldn’t want to stay in the 8th grade if you had mastered all the necessary skills to graduate.

I heard a minister once say that when people want to change their life in some manner, she counsels that the first thing to do is to clean your closets, i.e. get rid of the things that are no longer needed, and the things that are not an appropriate part of the new life to be created. Sell or give things away that haven’t been touched in two years, recycle what can be, and junk what can’t.

And here it is, the beginning of Spring. It’s time to choose seeds, cultivate the soil appropriately in a place with the right amount of sun and space for the plant to grow to maturity. Do the same with projects: create/choose the appropriate environment, add the necessary functional components and support systems, and guide their growth with a loose rein.

Choose the destination, but allow the universe to present the vehicle, route and timeline as things progress. Too many expectations can lengthen the process according the beliefs about the steps involved. Things can be complex or can happen in a snap if Huna is used properly. Taoism calls it “Wei Wu Wei”, “Doing Without Doing”, or using minimum effort.

Ready to write a list of things to be done?

-Seymour Lovejoy

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Illucidations, Perspectives, Steps

Steps

Steps are phases of focus. The term “minutes of focus” has been used by proponents of focus, and often their sales, like “10 minutes of focus a day will create a new you”. I like to use it as a measurement of where you spend your time… as in, “Rate your activities in ‘Minutes Of Focus’, or “MOF’s.”, if you will. It’s a simple way to categorize, quantify or measure what you have experienced, i.e. by accumulated duration. The directions of focus measured in minutes of focus, when placed in order by total, as a report, will be a clear indicator of the personality you have accumulated to the present.

Then, of course, you can choose a new set for the future.

Before I started writing this, I decided to google the term “Minutes of Focus” and found a site for the book “Focus Manifesto” (http://focusmanifesto.com/) that has a Zen approach to a calm, creative lifestyle. It appears to be very clear, as one might expect from thousands of MOFs in Zen practice.

This begins a series of blog entries under the category of “Steps”. These can be steps forward, back, or to the side, mine and those of others, mankind even, factual or conceptual. I hesitate to label anything as a step forward or backward, proffering an opinion, as it were, but generally I would consider peaceful creative living, love and compassion as forward, and warring, hateful injurious activities as backward. But, hey, the world is unlimited in expression, and, of course, there’s the old saying “10 million idiots can’t be wrong”. I would hesitate to call anyone an idiot (unless,  perhaps it’s referencing a clinical condition) because even an idiot, has a large number of MOF’s in some category and could be considered highly experienced and very knowledgeable in that category, all things being equal. And we’ve all been “idiots” and we still dabble in “idiocy” on occasion. Right?

Seymour Lovejoy

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