Monthly Archives: April 2010

Mystic Perception Actual Seeing

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Perception has as much to do with choice and disposition as it has to do with the actual perception of what actually is. Disposition and choice serve to cloud our mind or clear it. The discernment of our environment is always inclusive. We do see it. Mystic perception, for me, involves the realm of our environment that is image. Observable structure and relationships, the texture of place that is image. In considering such things as image perception, a neutral mind-set is indispensable. Our inclination to see things as we want them to be can only be defeated by our will to accept things as they are. I must accept that what I observe that is image, is just that. It is not owned by my opinion or interpretation.

Perception is usually distant from its aspect that is image. We are too busy to concern ourselves or otherwise occupied. For me this realm is what occupies me and keeps me busy. My perception is such that I am always sensitive to it. It is largely disposition that determines the images I see. Neutrality nurtures clarity of perception. Allowing my disposition to be charged with destructive qualifiers, anger resentment blame etc, draws to me that which clouds perception. All image is actual. The images seen are determined by where I choose to be.

The work I am doing as the Mystic Tourist is clearing my mind. It is a project I have been angeling for, for some time. With mysticism one is confident in the path, that wherever I am, I am where I need to be to get to where I am going. Providence assures the constant presence of the components of success. I might have chosen some other thing but what I fell into is this. It is acting to calm and clear my mind. My desired perception is being restored.

The Mystic Tourist

Exodus / Spiritual Life Beyond Religion

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Have we arrived at a new Exodus? Have we found the honesty to abandon our faith and restore our confidence directly in God, in what is true? I think many of us have. We have reached an understanding. The fear mongering, hell and damnation, and the shallow promise of Gods favor bestowed on the few, has left us disenchanted, empty-handed. We are looking for something different but not something new. The honest truth. Ordinariness has value. The secular community whose quest is truth understands that you do not have to be born into, or join a special club, to know God. Truth. There is no sacred ceremony that makes one worthy. God is not held accountable to us by our good deeds, by a contrived rite or a ritual.

What is true affects us all in equal measure and none escape it.

Gods word is not fixed to a page by the hand of man and then administered by a special court. Nothing could be more obvious and we all know this truth. People do deny truth and pretend things are different then they are. That can not and does not change what is true or our knowledge of it. If I have not already done so, in some prior post, let me set the record straight. Being a member of a church does not preclude a person from knowing the truth embracing it and bringing that embrace to bear in ones community. People of truth are needed everywhere and that is where you find them.

Let us each decide for ourself where and how the truth is best served and bring that to bear where we are. The truth requires no proof or convincing, as no one can escape it, it represents itself. We only need to nurture it within ourself for its value to gain notice. Truth is not captured by the valueless purchase of right and wrong. It is omnipotent and omnipresent. It suffers no injury and knows no harm. It is its own proof.

The Mystic Tourist

Temporal Urgency Durable Being

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Against the background of  eternity and known existence what is a single lifetime? Does it even have a measurable value; is it enough to be measured? Purpose and value. How do we know or measure such things? I like to think that it all alludes to an underling value. That our experience has the durability of existence. We have a temporal experience that imparts urgency and importance due to its brevity and its appointment, our lifetime, creates a point of focus by which what is, might be appreciated. We have been organized into what we are by what actually is. There is nothing missing from what does add up to, what we are, and we add nothing to what is. We are as important as we are unimportant and there is a value whose durability sustains us. Can we understand such things? The fact of our existence proves that we do. Without understanding there is no capacity to organize oneself into existence.

We have no option to change who we are. In other words what actually is, is not different due to what we think about it and the aspect of our person that is who, is fixed. How we are is as a separate reality, and, we have the creative authority to do as we will. It has been my observation that we can direct how to represent who. It is the concentration of person that is considered enlightenment or a divine state. It is a condition that is grossly overstated and misunderstood. I think there is a value to bringing this divine state into the human community as a statement of ordinariness. There is nothing extraordinary about it as it is only unusual for people to do such things.

Let us get ordinary and simply be who we are. To hell with how unless it is who. It is the who of our how that actually exists. Who is not dependent on our temporarily. It is what actually does exist.

The Mystic Tourist

Secular Mysticism Integrity and Credibility

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The wealth and resources of community is primarily what religion has to offer. That is my opinion. Religions do support the community that is their membership. The success of  one member is shared with the group and credit is then assigned to God. People like to wear religious symbols. These symbols fashion a bond between like-minded people who then network into a community of broader support. Credit is given to God. We see this in politics, business and social networks. Religions form powerful communities and then share their resources with their members. This is but a slice. There is a great diversity within religion and true generously and compassionate outreach are often part of the mission.

The good works and community support of religion complicate departure from it. For me these human networks that facilitate the prosperity and success of the network members is the incentive to leave. It seems disingenuous to form powerful organizations able to lend support and facilitate opportunity and then credit God as the benefactor. The concept, that if you believe certain things, usually unquestionably, and join the group, the ensuing benefits are then proof of Gods favor due to your religious commitments, has a certain vacancy. A vacancy of credibility. Of course God is not absent from religion. It is the character and definition of God presented religiously where Gods absence is noticed. It is God, self-definitive, self-expressive, that dominates my life. I believe that whatever is true has a durability, a strength, that is omnipotent.

This why I am a secularist. I relish the integrity and credibility of confidence in God absent the institutions of human design. I am confident only in God.

I believe there is a greater value in pursuing this than the personal value to myself. Otherwise I would not bother. I prefer to be without notice, to keep my experience private and hidden from view. That however compromises any hope of satisfaction and fulfillment. It is a choice on my path that leads nowhere. I am sure there are others who want this discussion and so I am here endeavoring to bring it about.

The Mystic Tourist

Mystic Apprehension and Enthusiasm

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I enjoy my mystic life. Just like being born a boy or girl, I am born mystic. My embrace of mysticism is in many ways self-serving. When I choose to ignore who I am my life begins to deconstruct. When I was younger I channeled that energy into rebellion and willfully acted against myself. I felt I could hide, what I have, from view, because the society in which I find myself did not deserve it. I felt it was completely unreasonable to have the sensibilities I do, and be here, in this world. Even though I am striving to be more honest I remain conflicted.

That brings me back to one of my themes, The Habits of Mind. The habits of my person, that are behavior, are rooted in decisions I made long ago. They form a structure, framework, archetype on which my person is fastened. The mind takes direction, the choices we make, decision, from our being, and structures a habit of permanence. Habits simply repeat themselves and it is easy to ignore our creative authority. The habits of personality are subtle and they create a representation that is how we are. If I choose to amend these habits so that, how I am, presents, who I am, it is a subtle endeavor. It seems easier to allow the habits of mind to continue to replicate what has already been established, after all that is what they do.

I am enthusiastic to present who I am and at the same time, apprehensive. I really enjoy expressing myself openly and honestly. It feels great. My apprehension remains a mystery. I am sure I put good work into establishing it but I would just as soon it was not there. Good habits bad habits, they are all strong and my determination to hide is tenacious. I have thought to discover the choices I have made, that are this apprehension, and undo them. It may not be necessary. Perhaps creating a new habit will dissolve the old. I have a long-standing habit of dismantling old habits and that may not be necessary. It may well be that I simply create a new habit, that dissolves the old and I am not really dismantling anything.

I do expect to resolve this issue. It feels as if that is just part of the dance and bringing this redress into the open has some underling value.

The Mystic Tourist

Phantoms and Useless Agendas

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Much of my mystic experience is visual. I have an awareness that includes the recognition of image. When I was a young boy I would introduce people to images I could see and other people could not. The much maligned imaginary friend. Like most children who have this sensitivity I abandoned it. Typically in my culture there is little support for imaginary friends. Such beings are transparent. It is easy to ignore and deny their existence.

What are these images that have the apparent ability to present themselves? To seemingly walk right up and introduce themselves. In my experience there is an endless variety of image and not all images are created equal. Much of this image is caused by us. It is generated by the friction between personalities. Other images seem to have a sentiency, awareness and independence much like you or I.

I will refer to the images caused by interpersonal friction as Phantoms. As near as I can tell they are ignored, pretty much by everyone. That does complicate honest discussion and obscure what is true, but, it does not change truth. These phantoms have been an ongoing distraction for me for some time. They can be so annoying that it seems easier to ignore them. Apparently, everybody else does, and that is quite an incentive. As a person with mystic sensibilities I can not ignore this stuff. The cost is too great. For me it requires a willful determination to deny a fundamental part of my person. Subsequently my life begins to spiral in a direction that is unpleasant. The alternative to this negative spiral is to engage the phantoms.

In my post, Devil’s and Detail’s, I wrote about this. My transparency image and affirmation, has proven effective. I think and imagine transparency and allow these phantoms to pass. I have spent some time collecting these things and it is work to let them go. That is due to the habits of mind. Any habit seeks to replicate itself. It is nature.

For me these friction-based phantoms trigger an irritability and it is easy to feel as if the fault belongs to someone else. That mind-set strengthens the phantom and begins the collecting process by which darkness is achieved. To change these cycles one simply has to change their mind. It is necessary to create a new habit of mind and establish a new bearing. Habits are created by repetition and then they repeat themselves. The mind changing process initiated by, my transparency image and affirmation, creates transparency. A state of mind that facilitates compassion and understanding; instead of collecting what is, and does cause, darkness, it lets it go. It is a great way to be and I have known it well in my past.

For me ignorance of  these, images and such, is a useless agenda. It brings me no joy. It is in addressing and embracing what is so obvious to me that I find satisfaction. I have known satisfaction and fulfillment in my lifetime and expect to embrace it again.

The Mystic Tourist