Sind die Zeiten, in denen wir leben, heute unsicherer als in der Vergangenheit? Sind wir uns dessen heute, da wir das Internet und die sozialen Medien haben, mehr bewusst?

Oder führt unsere Konfrontation mit so vielen Informationen zu mehr Verwirrung, mehr Polarisierung, mehr Konflikten, wenn wir uns entscheiden, „auf welcher Seite“ wir stehen und warum?

Bei so vielen sozialen Medien heutzutage, und wer weiß, wie viele davon von KI erstellt oder unterstützt werden, was können wir glauben? Offensichtlich hängen unsere Überzeugungen von unserer Geschichte ab, davon, was uns beigebracht wurde und was uns zum Glauben konditioniert wurde. Dies bestimmt, wofür wir unsere Energie einsetzen.

Es gibt alle möglichen Vorhersagen über die Zukunft der Menschheit, alle möglichen Leute sagen uns, dass 2025 ein großes Jahr wird. Entweder im positiven Sinne oder mit Untergangsstimmung.

Wie viele von euch wissen, bin ich ein Verfechter davon, JEDEM, der mir etwas erzählt, kein Wort zu glauben. Jeder drängt seinen eigenen Glauben, seine eigene Agenda auf. Sie versuchen, mir etwas zu verkaufen, eine Idee, einen Glauben, ein Produkt, das auf ihrem eigenen begrenzten Verständnis und Eigeninteresse basiert. Als mir damals Optionen für meine Reise zur Reinigung des Raums angeboten wurden, habe ich mir diese Optionen angesehen und konnte nicht herausfinden, welche der Wahrheit am nächsten kam. Wessen Wahrheit? Es war offensichtlich, dass die Menschen hinter den Optionen nur ihre eigene Agenda vorantrieben, das, woran sie glauben sollten.

Das war für mich der Anfang, keine Partei zu ergreifen, nicht zu glauben, dass eine Seite gegen die andere ist, vielleicht hatten beide „Recht“, vielleicht hatten beide „Unrecht“. Seit diesem „Erwachen“ hatte ich im Laufe der Jahre viele Gelegenheiten, viele verschiedene Standpunkte zu vielen verschiedenen Themen zu hören, die alle die Idee bekräftigten, dass niemand wirklich weiß, wovon er spricht, sondern nur die Parteilinie vertritt.

Wie du dir vorstellen kannst, hat mich diese Denkweise, der ich kein Wort glaube, an einen Punkt gebracht, an dem ich überhaupt kein Interesse mehr an Medien habe, egal wie sie präsentiert werden. Jetzt verlasse ich mich auf mein eigenes Wissen, das aus meiner Clearingarbeit, auch Akzeptanz genannt, resultiert. Je mehr ich mich von jeglicher Art von Urteilen zurückziehe, desto mehr Mitgefühl entsteht (als Ergebnis eines tieferen Verständnisses).

Gleichzeitig ist es so, als würde sich mein Zugang zum Verstand (nicht lokal, wie bereits mehrfach erwähnt) erweitern, und es werden mehr Informationen in einem weniger polarisierten Zustand präsentiert. Dennoch gilt das Grundprinzip, dass man niemandem glauben darf, was er sagt, was bedeutet, dass ich sicher sein muss, dass diese Informationen mich auf einen Weg führen, von dem ich vermute, dass er zu einem größeren Erwachen des Bewusstseins führt.

Die Informationen, die mir zu Ohren kommen, ergeben größtenteils Sinn, nicht nur für mich, sondern für alle Menschen, mit denen ich zusammenarbeite.

Was hat das nun damit zu tun, dass wir auf das, was als Nächstes kommt, vorbereitet sein müssen?

Da ich wirklich keine Ahnung habe, was das sein könnte, kann ich weder vorhersagen, noch vorgeben, die Zukunft zu kennen. Ich glaube jedoch, dass „Veränderung“ das Einzige ist, worauf wir uns verlassen können. Nichts bleibt, wie es ist. Unsere Welt, oder zumindest unsere Wahrnehmung der Welt, befindet sich in einem ständigen Wandel.
Sie verändert sich in erster Linie durch die Energie, die in die Welt eingebracht wird, durch die Gedanken, Worte und Handlungen der gesamten Menschheit.

Viele Menschen leiden, weil die Veränderungen Konflikte, Sorgen, Ängste und Zweifel hervorrufen.

Wir leiden aufgrund unserer Abhängigkeit von unserer Vergangenheit, davon, wie die Dinge letztes Jahr waren! Dies ist nicht unbedingt eine bewusste Abhängigkeit, sondern liegt in den meisten Fällen an Aspekten des Selbst, die im Unterbewusstsein verborgen bleiben (Carl Jungs Schatten!). Aber Tatsache ist, dass der Körper Veränderungen ablehnt, insbesondere wenn sie zu scheinbarer Unsicherheit führen. Selbst unsere Körper, die an bestimmte Seinsweisen gewöhnt (süchtig) sind, empfinden Veränderungen als schwierig.

Neurologisch gesehen befinden wir uns in einer Routine, in der Neuronen in einem vorgegebenen Muster feuern und immer wieder dieselben alten Neuropeptide erzeugen. Dadurch empfinden wir dieselben Gefühle, an die wir uns über viele Jahre hinweg gewöhnt haben. Das ist Sucht.

Wir bleiben aufgrund von Vertrautheit süchtig nach der Vergangenheit, aufgrund unserer Unfähigkeit, Veränderungen objektiv zu betrachten, und aufgrund unserer Unfähigkeit, Urteile, die auf vergangenen Bedingungen und Erfahrungen basieren, loszulassen.

Diese Unfähigkeit führt zu so viel Widerstand gegen Veränderungen. Unser Körper widersetzt sich Veränderungen, was zu größeren Konflikten und mehr Unbehagen führt.

Und wir widersetzen uns Veränderungen, weil wir immer noch einer Geschichte mehr glauben als einer anderen. Aus einer konditionierten Sichtweise ist der allgemeine Glaube, dass eine Kapitulation es dem, was wir ablehnen, ermöglicht, zu dominieren.

Was wäre aber, wenn (!) wir aufhören würden, den Geschichten anderer Glauben zu schenken? Was wäre, wenn wir polarisierte Standpunkte nicht mehr unterstützen würden? Was wäre, wenn wir aufhören würden, zu urteilen? Was auch immer du denkst, dass passieren wird, ist immer noch nur das Produkt eines polarisierten Geistes. Du kannst nicht außerhalb dieser Box denken, von der du abhängig geworden bist.

Wenn du in diesem akzeptierten Rahmen bleibst, wirst du leiden, wenn sich die Welt verändert. Tatsächlich wirst du aufgrund deiner Bindung an deinen Standpunkt teilweise für die Schaffung einer konfliktreichen Welt verantwortlich sein.

Was wäre nun, wenn (!) du aufhören würdest, an deine Geschichte zu glauben (oder auch an die von jemand anderem)? Was wäre, wenn du aufhören würdest, einem polarisierten, wertenden Glauben Energie zu geben?

Was wäre, wenn dies eine neue Realität schaffen würde, möglicherweise eine parallele Realität, in der es keine Konflikte mehr gäbe!

Denn ohne Widerstand ist Veränderung kein Problem mehr, ohne Widerstand gibt es keine Abhängigkeit mehr von der Vergangenheit. Ohne Widerstand bemerkst du vielleicht nicht einmal eine Veränderung, denn du kannst eine Veränderung nur bemerken, wenn du Widerstand gegen diese Veränderung hast. Stell dir vor, du wachst eines Morgens in einer Welt ohne Konflikte auf. All dies ist möglich, wenn du deine Anhaftung, Recht zu haben, loslässt.

Eine recht einfache Frage. Die Antwort kann von tief religiös oder politisch bis hin zu den alltäglichen Überzeugungen reichen, die wir über uns selbst und unseren Platz in der Welt haben.

Doch wie oft hinterfragen wir diese Überzeugungen, denen wir anhängen? Hinterfragen wir, woher sie kommen? Basieren unsere Überzeugungen auf Glauben? Auf Wissenschaft? Auf Erfahrung? Aber warum stellen wir bestimmte Überzeugungen über andere Überzeugungen?

Warum sind wir uns unserer Überzeugungen so sicher, sind sie wirklich besser als die Überzeugungen anderer?

Im Grunde hängt es davon ab, wo du geboren wurdest, wann du geboren wurdest und in welches soziale Umfeld du hineingeboren wurdest. Welche Überzeugungen hatten deine Eltern? Hast du ihre Überzeugungen geerbt? Und was ist mit der Gesellschaft? Hast du die Überzeugungen deiner Gesellschaft übernommen? Sicherlich hat die Gesellschaft diese allgemein akzeptierten Überzeugungen immer wieder als „real“ bestätigt.

Ein Glaube ist sicherlich ein Produkt der Konditionierung. Deine Eltern geben dir ihre grundlegenden Überzeugungen weiter und bestärken sie jeden Tag, den du mit ihnen verbringst. Du verlässt das Elternhaus und hältst immer noch an diesen Überzeugungen fest. Diese Überzeugungen werden einen sehr grundlegenden Einfluss auf den Rest deines Lebens haben.

Viele Gedanken, Worte oder Handlungen basieren auf einigen grundlegenden Überzeugungen darüber, wer du bist und wie du in die Welt um dich herum passt. Je nachdem, wie stark du dich zu verschiedenen Überzeugungen bekennst, wirst du dich in Situationen wiederfinden, die deine Überzeugungen entweder unterstützen oder in Frage stellen.

Die vielen verschiedenen kulturellen Überzeugungen schaffen die Vielfalt der Welt, was eine erstaunliche Sache ist. Probleme entstehen, wenn einige Kulturen versuchen, ihre Werte einer anderen Kultur aufzuzwingen, weil sie glauben (schon wieder dieses Wort!), dass ihr Weg der bessere Weg, der richtige Weg, der einzige Weg ist.

Was macht das Glaubensmuster eines Menschen besser als das eines anderen? Ist es der Glaube? Oder ist es einfach ein Zahlenspiel? Je mehr Menschen auf die gleiche Weise glauben wie du und dir ein Gefühl der Gerechtigkeit vermitteln?

Ein offensichtliches Beispiel ist die Religion, die Kreuzzüge! Eine Religion mit einer sehr großen Anhängerschaft gerät in Konflikt mit einer anderen Religion, die ebenfalls eine sehr große Anhängerschaft hat. Beide glauben, dass sie im Recht sind! Unzählige Menschen sind im Kampf für ihren Glauben gestorben. Doch all diese Jahre später dauert der Konflikt immer noch an.

Ein Beispiel aus jüngerer Zeit ist die Politik. Die Linke und die Rechte (?), wenn eine Gruppe davon überzeugt ist, dass ihr Weg der bessere ist. Dies wird immer zu Konflikten führen. Je stärker eine Gesellschaft polarisiert ist, desto mehr Konflikte wird es geben. Und Konflikte beginnen nicht damit, dass man gegen andere kämpft, die eine grundlegend andere Überzeugung haben als man selbst. Sie beginnen im Inneren eines Individuums.

Wenn wir stark polarisierte Standpunkte vertreten, erzeugt unser Fokus auf diese Überzeugungen über die Neurologie eine bestimmte Chemikalie, die in den Körper freigesetzt wird und wiederum eine Veränderung in der Physiologie hervorruft, die wir als Gefühl oder Emotion interpretieren. Je mehr wir uns mit dieser „chemisch induzierten Emotion“ identifizieren, desto mehr scheinen wir zu dem zu werden, dem wir Energie geben.

Es dauert nicht lange, bis wir davon überzeugt sind, dass das „Gefühl“ unser eigenes ist. In der Überzeugung, dass wir dieses Gefühl sind, neigen wir dazu, es um jeden Preis zu verteidigen, sodass wir uns sofort in Opposition zu denen befinden, die sich mit anderen Gefühlen identifiziert haben. Natürlich spielt Toleranz gegenüber anderen Überzeugungen eine Rolle in unseren Beziehungen, aber diese Toleranz hat ihre Grenzen. Wenn der „Andere“ scheinbar unsere „Grenzen“ überschreitet, wird die sichere Zone, in der wir leben und agieren, herausgefordert, und wir müssen etwas „tun“, um dieses unangenehme Gefühl zu korrigieren oder zu modifizieren, das entsteht, wenn wir aus unserer Komfortzone gedrängt werden.

Je mehr wir Druck ausüben, desto mehr Widerstand erfahren wir. Dies führt letztendlich dazu, dass bei beiden Parteien eine größere Menge des mit dem Gefühl verbundenen Botenstoffs entsteht, was das Gefühl verstärkt. Wenn das Gefühl bei einer der beteiligten Parteien Unbehagen hervorruft, werden wir alles tun, um diesem Gefühl zu entkommen. Gewalt kann ein letzter Ausweg sein, aber sie ist immer möglich. Nicht unbedingt körperliche Gewalt. Gewalt kann verbal, emotional oder psychologisch sein. Dies trägt zu den Feindseligkeit zwischen den beiden Parteien bei. Manchmal wird dieses Gefühl übertragen und die Spannung baut sich in jeder der beteiligten Personen auf. Diese Spannung führt im Grunde genommen dazu, dass sogenannte „negative“ oder „giftige“ Chemikalien in den Körper gelangen, was zu allen möglichen Problemen führt.

Manchmal körperlich, aber oft emotional, beginnen die Körperfunktionen zusammenzubrechen, wenn sich der Druck im System aufbaut. Das Nervensystem des Körpers kann nur eine bestimmte Menge an Stress aushalten, bevor Symptome auftreten. Ziemlich bald befindet sich der Körper in einem Kampf- oder Fluchtzustand, was für den Körper kein heilsamer Zustand ist. Um überhaupt mit der Selbstheilung beginnen zu können, muss sich der Körper in einem sicheren und entspannten Zustand befinden. Kampf oder Flucht ist definitiv nicht dieser Zustand.

Wenn ein mechanisches, elektrisches oder menschliches System übermäßigem Stress ausgesetzt wird, entstehen mehr Probleme als das System bewältigen kann, und Teile des Systems, die zu schwach sind, um dem Stress standzuhalten, brechen zusammen. Unser Körper ist genauso. Wenn wir mit zu viel Stress konfrontiert werden, suchen wir nach einem Ausweg. Wenn wir uns auf einen Feind konzentrieren, ob real oder eingebildet, dann entladen wir uns an diesem Feind, in dem Glauben, dass wir uns dadurch wieder sicher fühlen werden.

Das wird es nicht. Denn das grundlegende Problem, die Verbindung zu einem bestimmten Glaubensmuster, hat immer noch das Sagen, wenn auch aus dem Schatten heraus (Jungs Unterbewusstsein).

Der Konflikt geht weiter, weil die Partei, die du für den Feind gehalten hast, zurückschlagen wird.

Und so geht es weiter.

Und das alles nur wegen eines Glaubens, der dir als kleines Kind eingetrichtert wurde. Ein Glaube, auf den du keinen Einfluss und keine Kontrolle hattest. Ein „überkommener“ Glaube.

Ist das die beste Verwendung deiner Zeit auf diesem wunderbaren Planeten?

There are some profound truths abut the self, or who we have come to identify with the self, accessed as a result of ‘clearing.’

In order to begin to access and understand these ‘truths’ though we must practice ‘clearing’ aka ‘acceptance’ often. It is only by continued practice can we even begin to grasp the powerful nature of the path that we are walking.
Fortunately there are milestones along the way to indicate, if we are listening, our progress. For each of us this varies according to several factors, they could loosely be defined as;

When we began this journey of introspection and self discovery.
How long we have been on this path.
Our readiness to be open to new ways of thinking and being.

Yet, no matter where this journey into the self began, the milestones still exist. My milestones came thick and fast in the early days of the journey, before even ‘clearing’ came along. As I suspect they have for you.
As this article is more centred around clearing I will restrict my steps along the way since clearing.

The mostly occurred while I was teaching others. As I was sharing my ‘story’ “Ah Ha” moments came, sometimes emotional, sometimes even physical but mostly mental, as in it was like watching a movie. In the early days of teaching these moments were quite profound, yet, as the journey progressed they became more and more subtle, until they were barely noticeable.

I can only attribute this reducing of intensity to the fact that I was breaking down old patterns in the early days of the journey, having broken down many, more subtle patterns showed up, requiring less energy to move through them, because of the earlier breakthroughs.

This process has not stopped, indeed if anything it has become more profound. As a result of the moving through the past, I appear to have opened up to a much deeper understanding of our true nature. Maybe I am not at the end of the road yet, but if I were to compare myself to that which I ‘thought’ I understood a few years ago, then that self was truly naive. (What does that say for the self now!)

My current understanding has arisen as a result of the clearing of (self) others and the environment greatly assisted by the many workshops I have presented over the years. By constantly repeating information and answering the same old questions time and time again it is not possible to remain in the past. A benefit for those who return often to the workshops, for they are exposed to the same information but always hear it from a different view point.
Now, my perception of the self.

If we look at how our path has unfolded over the years we will see that our early years were very formative. We appeared to have no control over the patterning of those years, our brain being in a receptive state, yet to develop the ability to discern.

As we grew our lives unfolded based on the course already established during this first 6 years. Then, as we perceived the world through those conditioned eyes, we developed expectations based upon that early conditioning. One of the most important parts of that expectation was to take ourselves seriously, to assume that the thoughts, feelings and emotions were ours, we were trained to believe this. Trained by parents, siblings, educators who in their turn were trained to believe this.

So then we see ourselves giving energy to certain thoughts, to particular feelings. The more energy we gave to any thought or feeling the more that feeling took on a sense of reality, as though it were indeed ours. This happens on a biological level when we associate, or give energy to an emotion, for example, we are simply instructing the brain to produce more of a certain chemical which eventually becomes that which we call a feeling, or emotion. The more energy we give that the more intense it becomes, the more intense it gets the more we think this is mine, this is who I am.

Yet the majority of information that we are exposed to is simply energetic transmissions given off my others or environmental factors. We feel something, we identify with that feeling and we become that feeling.
A quick example, I was in an elevator many years ago, there were two other people in the elevator. One was complaining a sprained ankle he hurt whilst skiing. The elevator reached the ground the other two went off in one direction, I left for the exit. After three steps my ankle collapsed and I managed to limp along for three steps before I realised that the ankle pain was not mine, it belonged to the guy in the elevator. Immediately the pain vanished and I was able to continue my day without suffering with a sprained ankle.

This is just one example of many, it is happening to us all the time, and dependant upon our understanding, we will continue to identify with all phenomena that we experience. We do this without any real awareness, victims to that early conditioning.

Now, imagine that all of your life has been like this, you have taken on symptoms and feelings, even thoughts, that have been ‘created’ by environmental or personal interactions with others. None of that which you previously identified with was yours, it became yours as a result of the energy you gave to those thoughts or feelings.

Our reality then, has been built on a house of cards. Deconstructing this house should be a goal for all of us, to see beyond the limited reality that we have bought into, through no-fault of our own. It seems though, that our attachment to that which we believe about ourselves is so strong that few people begin the path out of this particular rabbit hole.

Back in the day before the Internet I read a book, ‘Recovering the Soul’ by Dr. Larry Dossey.

In it he discussed the possibility / likelihood that Mind is Non-Local. At the time it was just an Interesting concept. Yet as I continue following the path of Acceptance, aka ‘Clearing’ this idea has taken a hold of my imagination and seem to be perfectly logical to me now.

What does this mean? Mind is non-local. I think the simplest explanation is that ‘Non-Local’ means something that cannot be confined to time and space. It is everywhere at all times.

Does this just refer to The Mind, however you want to interpret that? Or does it include that which passes for the individuals mind?

I would be interested in feedback on this because my current understanding, not commonly known or accepted, is that we do not have a mind per se. What we do have is an amazing nervous system that interprets Mind.

Some recently have put forward the idea that we live in a computer simulation, a recent hypothesis, but could the answer be similar. I wrote last month about the Buddhist concept of the Bardo, aka a realm of becoming, an intermediate state produced by the unfilled desires, fears or whatever Karmic Charge the individual held at the moment of death of the body. This gives energy to another Buddhist concept, and I quote Erwin Schrodinger,

“Every man’s world picture is and always remans a construct of his mind and cannot be proved to have any other existence.”

There are many well known people throughout our recent history who have come to similar conclusions. The Buddha was reported to have said “The objective world arises from the mind itself.”

But whose mind was he referring to, did he believe we had an individual mind or was he referring to the Mind.

If we can be open to the possibility that we do not have a mind but are a part of The Mind, from which we access all information, thoughts, ideas and concepts and that which we are able to tune into is limited by the beliefs that we have been taught by those who walked this earth before us, themselves victims to their own history, then we can see that where our attention / focus goes our reality follows.

This is simply demonstrated, if you sit quietly for a moment, and then imagine an unpleasant situation, do you notice a change in how you feel? Then, think of a pleasant memory, does that change how you feel? If you practice this it becomes obvious that as you focus shifts, so does your physiology. If you continue to give energy to a negative feeling that will translate into an uncomfortable feeling in the body. Likewise if you focus on a positive memory that will create a much more pleasant feeing in the body.

Back for a moment to The Mind. How do we access this Mind, I believe it is through our nervous system? We see shape, form, colour, we hear sounds, we smell aroma, we touch, we taste, we also sense. So our awareness, depending upon where it is focussed, is analysing, interpreting our environment. Other creatures, with different nervous systems see and experience this very same world in very different ways.

We expect the world to be a certain way because we have become used to, or familiar with its appearance, so much so that we continue to expect it to behave in the way we have always seen it.

Because of this familiarity nothing seems to change. Yet surely you have noticed when giving energy to dark or depressive thoughts the world appears to be an unwelcoming place, yet, when we are joyful in our outlook then the world reflects that joy.

This is a very simple example of how our interpretation of the world, based upon our conditioned awareness, is shaped by our expectations. When millions of people – individual aspects of The Mind – all put their focus on one thing, then that, whatever they give attention to, appears to be real, but its reality is a product of their focus, having nothing to do with any deeper reality.

Imagine your nervous system to be like a radio transceiver, it receives and sends information. For most, if not all of us, that radio is tuned into a limited number of radio stations. Limited by out conditioning to believe things are as they appear to be. I suspect that several of what we might call, the great minds of our time, had access to a lot more information than most of us.

Yet Mind, being non-local is there, always present, always available, so it should be possible for each of us to access much more of this mind than we currently do.

I believe the only thing holding us back from this great wealth of knowledge and experience is our addiction to the past.

We are stuck in a routine, in a limited belief about who we truly are, this addiction to a routine will always be the only thing that prevents us from greater access to The Mind.

The way out of these limitations is, I believe, the practice of acceptance.

More on this next month.

This is something that has been gaining in my awareness for sometime now but only recently has any clarity arrived around this interesting topic.

Briefly ‘Bardo’ is a Buddhist term used to define, in Buddhist terms, ‘A Realm or Becoming’. A realm of becoming can best be understood as a state of being, the result of previous levels of understanding (or lack thereof!) Similar, though more complex than the concept of Heaven and Hell, the Bardo’s are many states in between these two extremes.

Imagine having unfinished business here on planet Earth, whether you are conscious of that business or it remains buried in your subconscious. This ‘unfinished business’ can be referred to, for the time being, as charge. Like the charge held in a battery, the battery is able to illuminate the lamp until the charge is exhausted. So it is with us on our journey, once charge has been exhausted we move into a different state.

While charge still exists then, at the moment of death, when there is no longer a discriminating mind to determine our actions, the charge takes over and we find ourselves in a state of being, a ‘realm’ that is the result of the main charge (unfinished business) that we held at the moment of death. At least we would find ourselves if there was still a discriminating mind to observe and provide feedback.

As there is no longer this ‘mind’ after death there is no way we can be objective about the reality in which we awaken. We remain, as far as I understand, in this realm until the charge is exhausted, when according to Buddhist teachings, we are re born into another body to continue the journey, still needing to work out the charge. Again, according to Buddhist beliefs, any charge can only be worked out while in a physical body. The trick here is that when we are born we tend to forget all about this charge and quickly get assimilated into this new body, getting drawn into the drama of a world that we are born into.

The goal of every Buddhist is to awaken to this understanding and consciously work through charge, until, like the battery, no charge remains, thus taking a significant step along the road leading to the enlightened state of the Buddha.

This may or may not be a part of your conscious journey but ‘if’ the Bardo’s exist – regardless of your current beliefs – then it is something to consider.

Your past dictates your future.

Now there’s a thought.

And here is where it gets really interesting. Many years ago I heard that some Buddhists claimed that this reality, this physical world that we live in is also a Bardo. When I first heard that I thought it was an interesting idea but had no real understanding of what it really meant.

As I have travelled along this path, of ‘Clearing’ or following the teachings of the Buddha, my perceptions have gone through many changes, several ‘reality’ shifts later and I can begin to understand more about this reality being a Bardo.

The thing, as I understand it, about Bardo’s is that the dominant charge we still had when the body died is ‘reborn’ into a reality that reflects the charge. So there are many possible Bardo’s, all individual to the degree each person’s charge is unique. Of course that is not the case, many collective ‘beliefs’ are held so some Bardo’s are occupied by many people (?) Or souls.

Collective beliefs are easy to understand when we look at this world that we live in and see how these collectives manifest, either as country specific, race related, religion based, political points of view or judgements based upon long held belief patterns, the list goes on. If the charge held around any of these issues is strong enough it can easily be seen that such charge will dictate where ‘You’ will go next on your never ending (?) journey. Individual charges are less obvious but equally as powerful, unfulfilled desire, old anger, resentment and many more can all contribute to where ‘you’ end up next. Ultimately there is no ‘you’ to end up anywhere, it is just the association with the body, thoughts and feelings and consequent charge that maintains the illusion of separation and determines where the soul will next appear.

If indeed this reality is indeed a Bardo, then it follows that each of us are exactly where we are supposed to be. Some are in hell, some in heaven, many in between. Some in poverty, some in abundance, some in happiness, some in sadness. There is room for all manifestations of charge in this world, everyone playing out the charge that brought them here.

Now, another ‘if’. IF the reality which you currently experience has sucked you down the rabbit hole well and truly, offering no glimpse that it is in fact just a rabbit hole, then you would be lost in that reality, blindly working through charge, either adding to the charge or collapsing it as you are able.

IF the reality in which you currently exist offers a way out, not by adding charge, not by taking the experience personally, not judging, to the best of your ability, that which shows up along the path, not blaming the others. i.e simply developing the practice of ‘Acceptance’ then as you follow this path, developing your practice along the way you are slowly changing your relationship to the experience.

This must affect your tomorrow, for following the concept that your past creates your future, by consciously changing your present the future must also change.

So, it seems to me as though this Bardo, for those of us who can see it, provides an opportunity to free ourselves from a self created / perpetuated prison.

Who knows that the next Bardo will have in store for us?

Guess we will just have to wait and see, meanwhile Accept as you can, without blame or judgment, without taking that which presents too seriously.

Acceptance is a part of the path we set out on when beginning to understand ‘Clearing.’

Simplified, it is not a part of the path, it is the path. Everything else we do on this journey of ours revolves around our ability to accept.

This may, or may not, be easy, it really depends upon what we are asked to accept — what we ‘meet’ along the way. Additionally we need to consider how safe we feel with certain information. Assume that safety arises with conscious awareness and acceptance of old conditioning.

Old conditioning is what makes the ‘shadow’ in Jung’s terms, the backpack in mine, possible. Information that we have buried deep, for whatever reason, that remains hidden in the sub-conscious. All the time this information remains hidden we are victims to it with no awareness that this is the case.

We cannot possibly be safe all the while we are driven by this subconscious conditioning.

So, many factors are involved in our ability to accept. Personal feelings of safety are at the top of the list.

The goal is to become fully conscious, no longer carrying around all sorts of memories / information in the back pack. Again, this can be a slow or a quick process, many factors again influence this.

Acceptance of ‘what is’ will be seen by many as a surrender to that which we oppose. This ‘point-of-view’ can only arise from a judgemental place, if we extend this understanding and see how our fundamental, judgemental, state has been very much responsible for creating our personal reality, then of course it would seem as though acceptance would be a capitulation.

Yet, as we continue to develop our ability to accept — and Space Clearing is an excellent tool to access greater acceptance — then slowly we reduce the amount of energy we give to any judgmental point of view. This has the effect of changing that which presents, or shows up, on our path. With less judgement being expressed, less judgmental situations appear on the path.

As we practice this way of being, the need to judge slowly collapses and a much smoother, easier path opens up before us.

Many people have issues with accepting what shows up though. If we are dealing with a lifetime of giving energy to a preferential point of view, then that becomes established in our perceptions of reality. This perception, or point of view appears to be so well established in our world view that we cannot possibly consider any options as being valid.

Yet adhering to these old perceptions are what cause personal conflict to arise in our lives, personal conflict that is so uncomfortable that we have to ‘do’ something about it.

The moment we feel we have to do something is the moment we are saying to ourselves this is real, what can I do to alleviate or avoid these symptoms. Then, the act of doing requires energy, choices, decisions, which only exasperate or amplify the symptoms that we are trying to ‘do’ something about. This is not acceptance! This is battling with symptoms that have arisen, due in great part to the previously, subconsciously, held judgments.

One way to begin to overcome these more intense feelings that lead us into ‘doing’ something can be to dip our toe into the water. Meaning, before we are triggered into an old pattern, we recall what the dominant feeling was. Just briefly, we experience the memory as it changes our physiology, before the feeling becomes intense enough that we have to ‘do’ something about it, we acknowledge the feeling, we accept it (easy because it is only a very small part of what we experience when lost in that feeling) and then, we ask ourselves, “What’s next?” Thus changing our focus away from the problem thereby not giving it any energy to grow.

It is no good waiting for the feeling to manifest in all its power and then trying to let it go, that is too late.

We should practice this at least twice a day, gradually stepping up the time our toe is in the water until the feeling lessens to such a degree that it no longer grows into the monster that we have been battling for much, if not all, of our lives.

This is the practice of acceptance.

Try it for yourself.

We are all a little different in our understanding and approach to life but we are all connected by the simple fact we are alive, in a human body having a human experience.

It is only when we start to diverge from main stream ’thinking’ that any difference appears to become an issue.

As an example, for those following this path of Clearing, the more you follow it and develop your understanding of clearing the more it changes you. At first, minor, subtle changes, nothing obvious. Depending upon the frequency of your practice you may go through significant jumps, from one way of being to another. Just new levels of understanding really.

Along with these changes in your understanding, one of the first things you notice is that others find it difficult to follow your conversations. With any new changes to the way you relate and understand your developing nature, while you are still, to some degree or other lost in the illusion of separation and judgment, you compare yourself to others.

It is common to judge others as being less than you, just because you have made some shifts win consciousness. Others, in turn tend to judge you as being a little strange, or just ‘different.’

While you are still integrating this new level of awareness it is hard, if not impossible to explain yourself to others and you, in turn, no longer have the same interest in their conversational topics. This can be a slow process, to the point that you do not even notice it at first, but change, for all things, is inevitable.

People appear to you to be stuck in the past, same conversations, same patterns of behaviour, you quickly forget that just a short time ago, you too were stuck in the past, same conversations, same patterns of behaviour. I have met people who believed they were superior to others as a result of the changes they went through.

This is just the ego, the attachment and identification with the body, thoughts and feelings speaking.

It can be hard for the traveller on the path of clearing, I limit myself to clearing in this article because that is what I know, surely there are many other paths that appear to lead into isolation. For, as we change ‘inside’ our reality seems to shift as well. Things that were once important become insignificant. Likes and dislikes lose some of their intensity. Those who were once friends fall away, often to make room for new friends to appear.

Interest change, not because we have sought out new interests, simply put, we see through our earlier interests and no longer find them, well, interesting. Almost as though we are in a department store, we become comfortable, familiar with the products on the first floor. This appears to be our reality. Yet, as a result of our actions thoughts and words we are drawn to the elevator and change floors. The new level contains many new possibilities, the layout is different, the products new and exciting.

It takes us time to become familiar with this new environment, at first we compare it to the lower level, this is better, this is worse, this is different, this is nice, etc.

But, with this, this new level becomes comfortable, familiar, we forget about the other level all all appears to go well, until we are. Inevitably drawn back to the elevator and step out onto yet another floor, and the process of familiarisation starts again.

Comparing, judging, accepting, denying, the usual process of familiarisation.

Until this level too becomes comfortable, familiar.

As will often happen, when we see how our life’s journey has brought us to this place, we spend a few moments in reflection, thinking back to when we were at a different level. We may wonder what happened to all those people on the other level, are they still there, going through the same motions? Living the same lives? We may judge them for their state of being, we may feel the need to help elevate them to our level so that they too may enjoy the benefits that appear to come with this change of level.

But, again on reflection, we see that we cannot ‘do’ anything, each of us, including this self, have their own path, many are happy with their path, or at least accepting their lot in life. If we are honest when we look back, we will see our lives were in that same groove that we now judge.

While we were happy, or at least content, in that groove we fitted in with everyone else who was in the same groove, We did not give much thought to the possibility of different grooves, that was out of the bounds of our imagination, content as we were in that groove.

But then, through same quirk of fate, or was it the inevitability of time passing or a product of how we managed life that we discovered, the elevator.

Riding the elevator we must, at some point, leave the past behind, the new level requires that you leave some of your past behind, the alternative is to go a little crazy. Leaving the past behind has incredible consequences, not just leaving old friends, old environments behind but letting go of aspect of the self that you. Had long associated with, that is were the real benefits of the elevator become obvious.

Yet, without the elevator this new understanding would not have been possible.

As you reflect on your journey and see that at some point you fitted in with past acquaintances then you can no longer judge them for who they are, were they are, what they do, what they say because you realise that was once you.

And then you become to wonder how high does the elevator go.

Ein Frage, die wir uns normalerweise nicht stellen. Und doch stellt sie eine interessante Situation dar.

Wenn wir am Leben sind, in einem Körper auf diesem schönen Planeten, haben wir einen unterscheidenden Verstand, oder das, was als Verstand durchgeht. Ich habe schon oft erwähnt, dass ich nicht glaube, dass wir einen Verstand an sich haben. Vielmehr haben wir ein Nervensystem, das auf den Geist zugreift.

Wenn der Verstand tatsächlich nicht ortsgebunden ist, wie ich es zum ersten Mal in dem Buch “Recovering the Soul” von Dr. Larry Dossey gelesen habe, dann kann er nicht auf Zeit und Raum beschränkt sein. Unsere Wahrnehmungen sind normalerweise sehr auf Zeit und Raum beschränkt, ein Produkt unserer Konditionierung. Der Geist ist also immer und überall, es gibt keine Vergangenheit, keine Gegenwart und keine Zukunft. Doch die Verbindung, die wir mit unserem Körper haben, begrenzt uns in Zeit und Raum.

Wir nehmen die Welt durch unser einzigartiges Nervensystem wahr, aber erschaffen wir die Realität, in der wir zu leben scheinen? Oder ist hier eine andere Kraft am Werk?

Ich glaube fest daran, dass die “andere Kraft”, die zu unserer wahrgenommenen Realität beiträgt, das Unterbewusstsein ist. Die ganze Zeit, in der das Unterbewusstsein existiert und eine Rolle in unserer sich entfaltenden Realität spielt, werden wir Opfer unsichtbarer Kräfte bleiben. Wir sind viel zu schnell bereit, äußere Kräfte zu beschuldigen für die Welt, in der wir leben, oder wir machen diese dafür verantwortlich, aber solange wir das tun, bleiben wir Opfer dieser unsichtbaren, unbekannten Kräfte.

Um Carl Jung zu zitieren: “Man wird nicht erleuchtet, indem man sich Lichtgestalten vorstellt, sondern indem man sich das Dunkle bewusst macht”, d.h. indem man die Schattenaspekte des Selbst, also die unbewussten Aspekte unseres Wesens, ins Licht des bewussten Wissens bringt.

Ich weiß es nicht, aber ich vermute, dass Jung stark von den Lehren des Buddha beeinflusst wurde (im Zweifelsfall lies seine Einleitung zum Tibetischen Totenbuch). Die Buddhisten behaupten, dass es unser Karma und unsere Verdunkelungen sind, die uns daran hindern, die wahre Natur des Geistes zu erkennen. Karma und kann auch als Jungs Schatten verstanden werden. Verdunkelungen sind die Anhaftung und Identifikation mit dem Körper, den Gedanken und Gefühlen.

Wenn wir uns diesem Thema aus der Sicht von Jung nähern, werden wir allmählich anfangen, die Schattenaspekte zu verstehen und zu akzeptieren (Clearing kann dabei helfen).

Wenn wir uns dem Thema aus buddhistischer Sicht nähern, reduzieren wir langsam unsere Identifikation mit dem Körperbewusstsein.

Das Ergebnis wäre in beiden Fällen dasselbe. Das eine kann ohne das andere nicht existieren.

Zum Beispiel kann der Schatten nicht existieren, wenn es keine Identifikation mit dem Körperbewusstsein gibt. Und ohne einen Schatten kann es keine Identifikation mit dem Körperbewusstsein geben.

Auch Karma gibt es nicht mehr, denn jetzt gibt es keinen “Einen” mehr, auf den Karma angewendet werden kann.

Auch Besessenheiten fallen weg, denn nur solange es noch eine Verbindung zum Körperbewusstsein gibt, wird es immer einen Schatten geben, immer eine karmische Belastung.

Wenn der Körper eines Tages stirbt, und falls dieser Zustand des Seins/Bewusstseins erreicht ist, gibt es keine Anhaftung mehr an die Form, die Gefühle oder die Emotionen. Dadurch wird die “Seele” im Wesentlichen befreit, so dass sie zur wahren Natur des Geistes zurückkehrt und nicht mehr von dem Geist getrennt ist, der sie geboren hat.

Das ist der Zustand ohne Tod, auf den der Buddhismus verweist. Nibbana, oder Nirvana. Die Erkenntnis der wahren Natur des Geistes, die nicht verwirklicht werden kann, solange es noch eine Verbindung zum Körperbewusstsein gibt. Diese “Verbindung” impliziert naturgemäß einen Zustand des Schlafs. Du bist immer noch in dem Traum versunken, dass du der Körper bist, anstatt den Körper als ein vorübergehendes Kleidungsstück zu sehen, bewohnt von der Seele um dieses tiefe Gefühl der Trennung zu erfahren.

Jegliche Anhaftung im Moment des Todes führt nach der buddhistischen Lehre dazu, dass die Seele oder das, was vom Bewusstsein übrig bleibt, in einen Bardo (einen Zustand des Werdens) gerät und so die Einheit, ein bewusster, aber nicht getrennter Teil des Geistes zu sein, umgeht.

Das Leben kann also als Übungsplatz gesehen werden, aber auch als jede andere Bedeutung, die du ihm geben möchtest. Das Leben in einem physischen, menschlichen Körper, der in seinem eigenen, einzigartigen Bardo verloren ist, ist ein Opfer dessen, was als Schicksal oder Zufall erscheint, aber in Wirklichkeit das Ergebnis vergangener Gedanken, Worte und Handlungen ist.

Jede Identifikation mit dem Körperbewusstsein wird die Erfahrungen verlängern, immer auf der Suche nach mehr, was wiederum die unvermeidliche Rückkehr nach Hause verzögert.

Das Leben – was würdest du ohne es tun? Wer weiß, aber die Möglichkeiten sind endlos, wenn du nicht mehr im Gefängnis des physischen Körpers gefangen bist.

For many of us, whether we realise / understand it or not, we are affected by the environment, physical, social and environmental where we were born and grew up.

This early ‘conditioning’ sets up internal standards, likes, dislikes, personality traits that we carry through our life.

Many people never break free from these patterns, all the time remaining in the environment where they grew up. This has the effect of continually reinforcing those early patterns making it almost impossible to see a world beyond this conditioned perception.

Some, like me, because of that early conditioning feel the need to ‘escape’ to move away from this continual reinforcement to discover who they are beneath the layers of conditioning. Why does this happen to some and not others? I suspect, following my limited understanding of the teachings of the Buddha, that our past creates our present, and the present creates our future.

So, if, at some point on our journey, and here I would include the ‘soul’ though I am not really sure what this means, other than to say it could be an aspect of ‘us’ that survives death and continues its journey, being born into a body once more when the ‘charge’ is sufficiently strong to allow that to happen. This is way more involved than I can go into in this short article so just try to accept the possibility for now.

Now, along our journey, a situation may have arisen that caused us to reflect and question our reality. Alternatively, nothing arose in our awareness to make us question the manifesting reality and we remain content within the dream like state that we currently energise.

Either way, and these are the two extremes of the example I want to share, decisions made in the past affect the future. You can see that if you remain in the small village where you were born, surrounded by the same people with the same attitudes and opinions all your life, you would be a part of that reality and, hopefully, content within it. If, in your past a little seed was planted, a nagging though or feeling that there was more to life than the small village then there would have been an almost sub-conscious desire to explore possibilities. Incidentally I suspect this is what happened to Gautama Siddhartha, later to become the Buddha.

If this seed was planted and then encouraged to grow because of significant challenges in the home life, again, any challenges in early years must have been a product of past decisions ‘choices.’

When we follow this desire to see more, understand and experience more, then this ‘choices’ lead us into many adventures beyond our previously limited understandings. Subsequently, this opening up to the many and varied possibilities this world has to offer, creates, within itself, a significant shift in our awareness and understanding.

If we follow the earlier reasoning then this must have a significant effect upon our future, so what may have appeared to be an established destiny in the small village a very new perception of the world unfolds for us.

Then, like dominoes falling, each ‘decision’ creates a different reality, and the dominoes continue to fall instead of remaining static, or falling glacially slowly.
In earlier times, pre internet, radio, TV, newspapers etc, story telling was how people got their news. Obviously this would depend upon the person telling the story, were they just repeating stories, adding to them, changing them to fit their dialogue or?

If a story teller happened to show up in your small village and inspired you, by their stories, to look outside for adventure, this would be the seed.

According to Buddhist teachings, 3 life times on this path, diligent, devoted etc, then enlightenment, or freedom from the cycle of birth, death and rebirth is almost guaranteed.

So choices or decisions you make today are going to impact and create your tomorrow. While we blindly follow the conditioned dictates of our childhood, nothing can change, tomorrow becomes a repeat of today. Start slowly, stop, give pause for a moment in your life and ask yourself, “Is there a different way I could deal with this situation?”

While we believe that we have to work harder, longer, put in more effort to reach goals, then that will be the reality that unfolds for you, seemingly confirming that this is what must happen for change to occur.

Simply because this might be your current belief is it really the case.

Only by slowly collapsing our focus on this way of being can a different way arise. We do this slowly, taking a moment, whenever we think of it, to ask ourselves:

“Is there a different way I could deal with this situation”?

Your choices are going to be limited by those thoughts and actions you made yesterday, this is a slow road, requiring patience and perseverance but the rewards are beyond your imaginings.

It seems too easy to feel that clearing is just a tool that we can use to help others reach a more peaceful, settled state.

What becomes obvious, over time and practice, is that clearing helps the clearer just as much, if not more, than the clearee.

We rarely take the time to step back and take a constructive look at our personal journey, so lost are we in the ‘game’ that it is hard to be objective about the part that we play. So it becomes difficult to notice exactly what is happening to us and why. We are so accustomed to the busy-ness of life that we fail to notice the effects that our way of life is having upon us, often with long term adverse results.

One of the many benefits to the clearing practitioner is that, slowly, over time we begin to notice more and more the state of the body. One of the important aspects of change is the ability to notice what is happening in the body, before we are able to notice we remain victims to our past conditioning.

Why do people get such relief from symptoms when they connect with me (or others) I could say that it is because I have been practicing and developing my own ability to notice and let go for over 35 years, but that doesn’t explain what is happening, or why?

I have come to believe that the reason people find relief is that the stillness I am able to hold within myself. There is a peace within, meaning that chaotic energy, no matter where it comes from just collapses, as a direct result of the peace that I have found (as a result of the years of practice).

This inner peace affects all those it comes into contact with, without my having to ‘do’ anything.

This was really obvious on our recent 10 day retreat in Sri Lanka. Now I suspect that any impact my energy had on the staff, and other Sri Lankans we met was due in great part to them being brought up in a Buddhist culture. Having said that, their ability to recognise this peace in me was clear.

Along with greater inner peace comes greater comfortability with people and an expanding openness. I have always had an ability to smile in fact it was a ‘nickname’ many years ago in Australia, now that smile is opening doors in many ways.

Trying to get people to understand, in the late and lovely Ram Dass’s words, “You will always find what you are looking for.” Not a conscious search but a projection often from the sub-conscious, or Jung’s Shadow.

Or, to use the words of poet Constantin Cavafy, “The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops, the fierce Poseidon, you will never encounter if you do not carry them within your soul…”

I have met many, hopefully all, of my personal demons on this journey and through understanding and awareness have been able to collapse the energy of those ‘demons’ to the point where I no longer meet them on my way. They do not show up because the energy ( Frequency) of which they were ‘made’ has already been collapsed in my ‘heart.’

It is hard to reconcile yourself to this understanding if you are still lost in the drama of life, if you still feed the energies of greed, fear and ignorance. For what you feed, knowingly or otherwise, is going to be what shows up on your path. Best collapse it before it shows up, so much easier.

There are many stories about individuals dealing with their demons, a classic – St. George and the Dragon. Was the dragon real or was it symbolic of St. George fighting his personal demons? The story to Gautama Siddhartha, the evening before his enlightenment when Mara, the god of illusion sent all sorts of phenomena to try to seduce Gautama back into the world of illusion.

For me, it has not really been a journey slaying dragons but of understanding the nature of the world we appear to live in. This understanding has arisen as a result of the clearing, or as it is sometimes know, the Practice of Acceptance. This ‘Practice’ has been a round-about way of dealing with the demons without confronting them. For with an understanding what ‘they’ are comes the acceptance and embracing of the various frequencies that we give often, very emotive, names to. So, the energies of the demons collapses well before they show up on the path.

How do we know we have collapsed them? They no longer present themselves along our path.

This realisation comes about as a result of practice, I am sure there are many paths that lead to the same place, stick with it and discover for yourself that inner peace, that radiance that comes with a true understanding of the nature of Greed, Fear and Ignorance.