Class 3 The path of the heart
The Force (the journey of consciousness)
In the Star Wars movies there is the Force.
The Force has a dark side and evil forces personified by Darth Vader, and the Emperor of Darkness inhabit it. On the dark side there is a lot of anger, aggression, hate and human ego.
Thankfully there is also a light side of the Force with a Jedi master, Yoda, Obi-Wan Kanobi and other ‘Jedi’ knights who embody peace, love and truth.
This Force is an interesting way to explain states of mind or consciousness. The thoughts we allow into our consciousness will decide where our state of mind is located.
Our low or high consciousness will determine the way we view the world. We all live on the same planet but according to our state of mind we can view the world in as diametrical a manner as heaven or hell.
Simply put, if we allow ourselves to be thinking negatively, to be caught up in hate or anger or restlessness and worry, then we are going to view the world through that state of mind. It is as if we are wearing a pair of glasses that warps our vision in a negative way. Our average state of mind might be -50, our range of thoughts and experiences are limited to say -80 thru to -20. That is, in some moments we are mildly unhappy, whilst in others we might be suicidal. For us in that state of mind it is very difficult to even imagine what love is and if we do touch it would only be with great effort and for a very short time we might glimpse a low love. Reflect also that negative people find themselves attracting negative events, other negative people and negative futures.
Conversely if we are able to live in a positive state of mind, then the range of our thoughts and experiences are elevated. In our bad times we might be a little unhappy but most of the time we would feel the more 'heavenly' qualities of love, wisdom and joy.
From here we can also begin to understand how our states of mind affect each other. Have you ever walked into a room where people had been fighting and immediately felt a certain uneasiness in the air? Or conversely have you ever met a person you immediately felt happy being with or you noticed that person made everyone feel better, just by his or her presence. Think about this; imagine that if you are in state of mind that is, for example, +20, what it would be like to meet someone in a +200 state of mind. Obviously, your consciousness would be raised just being with that person. Imagine, for a moment, what it would be like to meet a real spiritual master, perhaps his or her consciousness might be +20,000, you might find that you would be immediately feeling more peaceful, happier, more loving without perhaps, really understanding why.
The really interesting thing about this process, is how light attracts light. Have you noticed that when you are in +50 state of mind you attract other +50 people and +50 situations. The ways we perceive the events of our life are reflections of our state of mind. It is exciting to note how the more conscious we are of each moment, the more each moment has the capacity to guide and inspire us.
The more significance we give the moment, the more the moment becomes significant.
You might also have already discovered that people with higher states of mind inspire and elevate you. Obviously it is important for us in pursuing higher levels of consciousness that we choose life situations that enhance our state of mind.
In summary, it becomes evident as we notice the effect of our levels of consciousness that;
Firstly – we view the world through our states of mind.
Secondly – we affect each other.
Finally – we profoundly affect our future.
Significantly it is simple arithmetic to contemplate how the negatives in our lives can be turned into positives.
While we cling to darkness we cannot release ourselves to the light.
Most of us would be aware that we cannot conquer hate by repressing it – we must transform it, illumine it with light. For example, if we hate someone, then it is very difficult to raise our consciousness to any significant level because our state of mind is being dragged by this very strong negative in our consciousness. We cannot just repress it, for it is still a part of our nature – for us to proceed we have to let go of our attachment to that hate and illumine it with light (in this case, love). Very simply, we must try and move along the Force – perhaps imagine that we only ‘don’t like’ that person, then perhaps we can work towards being just ‘indifferent’. It is often said that we must learn to forgive our enemies. By forgiving we are letting go of our negatives.
Finally, though we might see that all people are inherently loving, peaceful, wise and happy souls, some people’s states of minds are so far from the light that their outer actions are often negative. We should identify with their real natures, rather than their outer actions and we will find that we can then ‘like’ or even ‘love’ those that previously we had hated and our liberation from that negative is complete.
The light side of the Force is nothing other than your own heart. How conscious you are of your heart reflects the height of your consciousness.
This is important: the light side is nothing other than a heightened awareness of your heart, whilst the dark side is ignorance of your heart. This is what is meant by consciousness from a spiritual perspective, it is simply how 'conscious' we are of our heart.
Notice one last thing.
That on the dark side there is an increased rate of thinking, often with an even more decreased degree of control. When we are angry there are so many thoughts whirling around and so little control - whilst we are angry, we cant listen, we cant stop and breathe, it is out of control. Come to the light side and you will see that in love there is no thought, there is just the 'Aah' moment. As we travel to the light side, our rate of thoughts decreases, our control over our thoughts increases and finally we enter into the intuitive experiences of the heart when we are fully on the light side.
Next page: The Path of the heart and our free Guided Meditation exercise