Understanding Our Patterns
All too often man ignores the wisest command ever given
by a sage, the famous “Know Thyself” inscribed in the temple of Delphi.
HOW OFTEN do I react to people and situations based on old habits (perceiving, thinking, feeling, behaving)?
SO MUCH of living a full and happy life is about know-
ing ourselves. And both the forming and the breaking of
patterns is a lifelong learning practice. The path to higher
levels of understanding who we are requires us to discern the patterns that are shaping our lives. Discovering which ones will sustain us, and which ones no longer benefit us, as well as which ones we might want to create, are important to understand.
LIFE IS A ROLE PLAYING. The story has been written and now we need to study the script and do the work of endless rehearsals when our patterns keep revealing themselves to us, learning the lessons we came here to learn.
Christina Reeves and Dimitrios Spanos
-Authors of the book
“The Mind Is The Map”
CHAPTER ONE – UNDERSTANDING OUR PATTERNS p.31,34, 2018
The Present Moment
“For those who have found the still point of entry, around which all –including themselves – revolves, everything is acceptable as it is, indeed, can be experienced as glorious and wonderful.”
Joseph Campbell
ANXIETY AND FEAR are the stuff of the mind about what might or might not happen in future, even if the future is one hour from now. The present moment does not create such emotions and there is no other reality than the present moment. We cannot go to the store to buy something yesterday. Nor can we go now to buy something tomorrow. WE CANNOT act in the past or in the future. We can only act in the present. Only in the present can we make decisions or respond to events or challenges. Only in the present can we exercise our free will to change our lives. The only point of power to create and change our lives is the present moment. There never was a time that was not NOW. There is no other time.
Part II Cultivating the Journey
Chapter Seven-The Present Moment
True and Equal Justice For All
Prejudice is a form of untruthfulness; and untruthfulness is an insidious form of injustice.
As individuals we tend to understand ourselves, and to explain our actions to others, in ways that are self-justifying. We try to present ourselves in a good light, as if to recruit others to personal supporters. The same thing happens at a societal scale. The dominant ideology always favors beliefs and behavior of the people in that society and often based on falsehoods. It is false to think that elitists societies which stigmatize a large portion of the population as inferior according to genetic differences or ethnic backgrounds is capable of true and equal justice for all.
What is it That is Actually Bothering Me?
Few of us have a very intimate knowledge of our patterns. All of us have developed habitual patterns of behavior and all automatic reactions are based on past experiences. What is it that is actually bothering me?
Synchronicity
Most important in this awakening is what James Redfield called the First Insight: our developing perception in our lives of meaningful coincidences, a phenomenon Swiss psychologist Carl Jung called “synchronicity.” Such moments always seem to bring us new information or a sudden opportunity. When we review these moments deeply, it always seems to be beyond chance, as though the events were somehow destined to occur in our lives. Biographies are full of such events.
Life Force Energy
LIFE FORCE ENERGY is exactly what it sounds like. It is the Universal
Energy that gives life to all things. Our thoughts are energy and give
rise to our emotions, which in turn are simply energy in motion like
invisible clouds hovering above and around our physical body. High
frequency emotions, such as love and joy, are bright, while lower
frequency emotions are dimmer and sometimes dark.
LIFE FORCE ENERGY enters our body through our breath and flows
through the acupuncture meridians and vitalizes the organs and tis-
sues. When the flow of this Life Force Energy is depleted or not in
balance, this will ultimately lead to disease in the physical body. These
depletions and imbalances come about as a result of physical and
psychological factors. Through our mental powers, we have the ability to
increase and re-balance the flow of Life Force Energy throughout the
body and, thus, combat disease.
Christina Reeves and Dimitrios Spanos
-Authors of The Mind is the Map
Experience Peace with Unconditional Love
We are living in chaotic times, our world is suffering, continuous moments of powerless and feelings of injustice. The condition of the outer world at the present time is such that those who sincerely seek the light and want the constructive way of life must have more than human help if they are to survive over the present period of chaos which is the accumulated discord generated by the collective humanity en masse through the centuries, and which is pressing heavily upon the outer experience of individuals and our world today.
What Habitual Patterns do I Engage in When I have been Triggered?
By accepting our undesirable habitual patterns, we can learn to gently and skillfully work with them, soften our sharp edges, and gain confidence in our ability to respond to our experiences with wisdom. What habitual behavior patterns do I engage in when I have been triggered?
What Strange Beings We Are
WHAT STRANGE BEINGS WE ARE!” noted the 13th Century mystic, Rumi. The bigger question might be, “Are we here to live passive lives, using the old programmed templates of our ancestors, or can we really create our own lives?” Today, scientific evidence suggests that we are creators of our own reality and that it is “our consciousness” that holds the key to our health, life, and even reality itself. As humans, we are receivers and transmitters of the cosmic Life Force Energy. Our body, mind, feelings, thoughts, intentions, conditioned responses, inner conflicts, and any unresolved emotional pain are all energy, and all energy is connected to all other energy.
– “The Mind Is The Map”
Our Responsibility is our Response-ability
Following the law of least effort, as nature teaches us, we will learn to accept people, situations, circumstances, and events as they occur. We will know that this moment is as it should be, because the whole universe is as it should be. Our acceptance of what is becomes total and complete as it is in the moment, not as we wish they were.
Accepting things and others as they are, we can learn to take responsibility for all of our experiences and even for all those we see as problems. Our responsibility is our response-ability. Taking responsibility means not blaming anyone or anything for our situation, for our feelings, for the attachment or the expected outcome we have (and this includes our self). Every problem is an opportunity in disguise, and this alertness to opportunities allows us to take each experience in each present moment and transform it into a greater benefit.
