Perception is Everything.

If the whole world is made by our perceptions of it – can we get closer to that part of us that is making those perceptions? Is it a learnable skill to be able to change the world within ourselves?

Most of us have had those moments – the one fleeting minute where we felt that everything was going to be alright. No matter what happened, or how it went, we just knew we'd be ok. And many of us have also expereinced those mysterious times when we've had to scratch ourselves to believe what was happening was real. Whether it was in a good or bad way, we just thought to ourselves 'how the hell did I arrive at this point'? We had a moment that was the culmination of many of the unconscious moments leading up to where we found ourselves - we arrived at a place that really surprised us. How did we not see this coming? Or, by what miracle did I get to be where I am now?

And the reality is all anyone ever wants is those moments. Those moments when we feel ok with what’s happened, and what’s happening. We all long for that fleeting sense that we just know it will all work out. Even if it doesn’t feel like it sometimes – a piece of that moment we went through still lives within us and brings us back to peace. We want that moment where it feels like we are fully experiencing life. where situations are temporarily sent to the background because what's happening is just too good. And in that moment we just know in our hearts that it will all turn out ok in the end. That feeling seems to wash over everything that comes after. Of course there are lots of moments of joy in our lives, but can we truly get to our perceptions of it all? All anyone ever wants is that single tiny moment that every sole is chasing and searching for, but it isn’t running from us and it isn’t hiding. It’s that moment when we are at peace with who we are and our place in the world, because that moment can last a lifetime.

That moment truly can be ours at any point along the timeline of our life, when we are present enough in our own minds to touch our inner void. The part that makes it all the way it seems. There is something within us that holds a wisdom that transcends the judgement of good and evil. Isn’t that when humankind truly fell into separation? When we tasted from the tree of knowing what good and evil was – so we stood in judgement. And we failed to see the long game of how the seemingly unwanted stuff was preparing us for what we had asked for. Making sure that we were on the shortest route possible towards the life we thought we could only dream of. What lies beyond the judgement of good and evil is beauty – the element that came to life when we were first given light and the ability to see. When we experience the world as polarities of good and evil we miss the beauty that is contained within both. We miss our opportunity to see things the way they are as if it was a choice.

Under the illusion of good and evil we only experience perspective as a choice and perceptions are a product of the automatic, or subconscious mind. When we become present enough in our own minds our perceptions will become a choice and perspective will become automatic. We don’t have to wait for that moment when it will all be ok, and there is something far greater than even peace on offer in acceptance of our situation. In acceptance we give ourselves over to that higher part of us that knows – that sees the long game. When we surrender our power over to 'what is' (or the way things are) we are siding with the very part of our minds that made it as it is. We are entering the void of our creator and understand the part we play in how things seem. When we are one with this aspect of mind we are in our creative element. We are not only ok with however we find the world - we can twist what’s happening to see how it might actually suit us to be this way.

It is what the stoics referred to as Amore Fati – or the love of fate. When we love what happens and get to that perspective of how everything that happens is somehow woven into our destinies, we take a seat right beside that creative force that makes the whole world turn. When the world turns because of us and for us, then we can better see how it just might all be turning in our favour. Even if we can’t see it yet in that moment, we will certainly get to the desired outcome sooner if we are to bless every moment we go through.

So, is all we want that moment? That moment when it feels like it's all going to be OK. That fleeting moment of peace that will stand as a reminder when our faith is most challenged. It is not something that anyone has to wait for, and it was always advised to us by the mystics and profits that these moments are learnable and repeatable. That we can systematically orchestrate these moments and in so doing expand almost every moment we live through. For so many it just does not seem logical that something so profound as a mystical experience could have such an easy doorknob to open. But all of the wisest minds in our history were in agreement. And indeed for us to apporach what gives us a greater presence of mind, logic becomes the first soldier that must be sacrificed. Logic must be placed to the side. We are not dealing with the intellectual, or the deductive mind. We are dealing with the all-knowing and intuitive mind. The senses that go beyond what makes sense.

To get to these moments as if they are an everyday occurrence does not require positive thinking, or to seemingly force ourselves to see the best in every situation. Our creator would never ask something so patronising of us. In getting to that aspect of mind that does the creating of the world as we know it, we need to temporarily bypass the logical and go directly to that quiet space within. Be quiet enough so that we can sense who’s doing the talking. And for us to know that the one who is doing the talking and creating speaks in the same tongue and tone as we do. It is the same as us and the parts of us we know. We are communicating with a world creator with every one of our thoughts and feelings. It speaks in the exact same voice that we use.

What it takes to get to this moment of peace and sit as one with our creator is mindfulness. The oldest and most profound practice of all is simple but definitely not easy. It is not easy because in the conscious mind (who likes to assume absolute control over what’s happening and how we feel.) what could possibly come from this state of mindfulness. Mindfulness is not going to make me richer or more recognised? Is it? It's not going to buy me those new pair of shoes. Mindfulness puts us in a state receptive of beauty. The light we cannot see because of the state of judgement we are almost eternally poised in. We can never 'know' just how it is that all of this is true through mindfulness, but its truth has never lied, changed, or been hidden from us.

Mindfulness heals, because it fixes ambiguities within our minds and facilitates a return to peace. It helps us to know our purpose, and that our direction is sound because it brings us closer to our heart and knowing ourselves. It helps remind us that we are on the right path, and that everything that happens is intricately woven into that destiny. It rekindles the love of self no matter who we are and where we find ourselves. It wakes us up to who we are by virtue of having a life. Mindfulness is the healer and the saviour that takes us beyond conditioning and into an innocence of situations that is the basis of all true feelings of freedom. A freedom from judgement. There is no perceived pressure when we are free from all external expectations. and it is not as if we then decide to all of a sudden shirk our responsibilities. We understand our responsibilites with a renewed sense of sacredness - we know from the bottom of our heart what we must do. And we do it with it struggle or gripe.

Mindfulness? What like doing nothing is going to cure me, and take me closer to my own heart? Is going to help me know myself, my purpose and improve my temperament? Is going to help me connect on a more profound level with the people in my life? Mindfulness is going to take me to abundance and allow me to perceive a world that I was blind to before? Mindfulness is going to make me feel like I am growing and on the right path – that I have more than enough so that I can share so much more than I used to. Yes – mindfulness can do all of that. How it does it must remain with the mysteries of mind, but there is no denying that it does all of this. There is a reason mindfulness has persisted for thousands of years, and lies at the heart of every great spiritual tradition.

Have we wandered so far into separation that we can no longer see the slither of light coming through our doorway home?

There are no accidents – and what we expereince is a profoundly manufactured life. When you consider the millions of moments we have lived through, and the billions of lives those moments are meshed with, we start to sense just how miraculous the place we have arrived at is. Where we find ourselves is no accident – it is the place from which we can now manufacture our own experience no matter what it seems the outside world is doing. Because from within presence of mind we can choose our perceptions.

And perceptions, as it is said, are everything.