SEEING POSSIBILITY – A BLUEPRINT FOR LIVING

There is an old phrase that goes like this: ‘The map is not the territory’.

It’s often used when trying to distinguish between belief and reality.

In other words, a map is not the actual terrain we traverse; at best, it’s only a detailed picture (or a representation) of it.

Likewise, this article cannot convey the true experience of seeing Possibility.

Therefore, this piece is not a story about Possibility.

Instead, this article explains how life – seen through the lens of Possibility – can be much better for all of us!

To set the context for the story that follows, one or more of the following quotes might be familiar to you.

I’ll be happy when I:

  • go to kindergarten
  • move to primary school
  • start high school
  • leave school
  • leave home
  • get a job
  • get a car
  • travel
  • go to university
  • get a degree
  • get my PhD
  • find my special job
  • start my own business
  • find my special girl/boyfriend
  • fall in love
  • find a better job
  • earn more money
  • get married
  • get my own home
  • have my first child
  • that child sleeps through the night
  • I/we can afford a better, bigger house in a better suburb
  • have the kids off our hands
  • have paid off the mortgage
  • have grandkids
  • downsize
  • get divorced
  • lose 10 kgs
  • buy a sports car
  • retire
  • find a hobby
  • find a new girl/boyfriend
  • get a part-time job
  • get married – again
  • travel some more
  • get divorced – once more
  • relocate to live in the hills
  • live near the beach,
  • live where it’s hotter
  • live where it’s cooler
  • live near more people
  • move away from people
  • have more land
  • have less land
  • have no land

Finally, for some, the ultimate ‘I’ll be happy when I …’ is: ‘I’ll be happy when I die and go to heaven. Then I’ll be satisfied.

A FEW QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

Are you sure as to the cause of your disquiet, unhappiness, or worse – depression?

Do you remain gripped by extreme thoughts – feeling traumatised years after that specific event or series of terrible events? The sexual abuse, violence, injustice; the car crash, the war experiences. Do you still believe, ‘I just can’t move on’?

Do you believe that if you pray devoutly enough – or meditate more deeply, more often and for longer – you will find the peace you seek?

Or you may believe that if you find the right counsellor, psychologist, psychiatrist, coach or guru, read the right book, or join the right group, you will find the peace of mind and happiness you crave?

And, guess what? Doing so may very well work for you.

But one thing is certain: it will not be the external things – them, those, that, or it – that provide your peace of mind.

At best, those external things will act as a signpost.  They can only point to the one door through which each of us must step to find the peace and satisfaction we seek.

Instead, I propose a more specific, direct, and less expensive way of experiencing peace of mind. Not only for you, but for all humanity.

HAVE YOU EVER SERIOUSLY LOOKED IN THIS DIRECTION?

No matter who the individual may be – their age, education, race, religion or circumstance – the doorway to peace is common to all.

It’s so simple that it’s often met with scepticism, or worse.

Yet, the evidence is strong. Except in cases of physical damage to the neural cortex, or chemical imbalances in the brain, what I assert in this article works.

The results are equally clear. The understanding that comes from our personal experience of Possibility provides powerful support in the healing of those who may need medical intervention.

WHAT IS MEANT BY THE TERM ‘POSSIBILITY’?

Possibility:

  • is an unrecognised, seldom-discussed state of our mind. Of your mind and my mind – and exists within the minds of all humans.
  • exists a priori to anything and everything we believe to be the truth of the matter. Everything.
  • precedes our imagined, self-created, rock-solid reality.
  • is a state beyond every skerrick of our knowing, facilitating our transcendence of what we had believed to be possible, reasonable or at times even rational.
  • lies in waiting beyond what is currently irrefutable scientific facts and evidence-based truths.
  • is ever available whether we see it or not, and it exists (seemingly) independent of us.
  • allows us to see new creations and opportunities from a state of awareness that benefits the common good and not just the seer.
  • is seeing life unshackled from our accumulated, memory-based and therefore habitual thinking.
  • is birthed by fresh Thought, never by recycling our old beliefs, no matter how wonderful, powerful, educated and informed they may be.
  • is a state of intense mental, psychological, philosophical and spiritual freedom.
  • is the realm of creativity, innovation, transformation and renewal.
  • has profound depth and unlimited scope, available to be discovered and rediscovered at any time in any place at any age.

Above all else, seeing Possibility holds the solutions to what ails humanity.

WHAT ENABLES ACCESS TO OUR INNATE STATE OF POSSIBILITY?

We access The Realm of Possibility when:

  • seeing each of our beliefs, opinions, judgements and knowledge as figments of our imagination, no longer seeing them as ‘the truth’. That includes every word written here.
  • recognising that all our conditioning represents our mental accumulation from the time we leave the womb (some postulate before) till this precise, ever-moving moment. Including any time we have experienced Possibility.
  • we see that our conditioned mind (our accumulation) is our personal reality – not an ‘ultimate reality’ – and is the way we experience and navigate our world till the moment we see another and then another.
  • (said another way:) we, with humility and clear intention, surrender to genuinely not knowing. Yes! Surrender to not knowing the truth of anything. Including every word in this article.
  • we are open and receptive to the idea that a priori to our accumulation exists, The Realm of Possibility.
  • having experienced Possibility, we continue to remain free of believing we have now found ‘the true reality’.
  • we continue looking with humility and intention in the direction of ‘not knowing’ and the opportunity to access that state of mind, time and again.

Accessing Possibility is challenging – until it isn’t.

WHAT TELLS US WHEN WE ARE OPEN OR CLOSED TO SEEING POSSIBILITY?

Our feelings tell us when we are open to Possibility.

A nice feeling lets us know we are open. Feeling warm towards another, toward our fellow sentient beings, toward ourselves, toward life in general, is the vital clue.

Equally, our feelings inform us if we are in a state of impossibility. Feeling angry, critical, judgemental, self-righteous, blaming our fellow sentient beings, or ourselves, or believing we know the truth of anything, is the clear and vital clue that we are closed at that moment to experiencing Possibility.

The good news is that we are only ever one thought away from a nice feeling and Possibility.

It is that simple.

It follows that, conversely, we are only ever one thought away from feeling upset and in a state of impossibility.

Yes – it is that simple.

THE REALM OF POSSIBILITY AS A BLUEPRINT FOR LIVING

Accessing our innate state of Possibility transforms us and transforms the world we see.

That experience transmutes us from being an innocent victim of our conditioned mind and moves us along the path to our true self. This process is evermore the case each time we enter that realm.

In that state, we discover our peace, our liberation, and become a contributor, a receiver – never a taker, rapist, exploiter or destroyer.

The following four words sum up what happens to us upon seeing deeply enough into The Realm of Possibility. We become increasingly kind, more understanding, wiser and heightened in our common sense.

Those four words are familiar, bandied around and mean different things to each of us. Below is how they relate to experiencing Possibility:

  • Kindness (also referred to as ‘love’) is the feeling of – and an expression of – warmth, unconditional respect, goodwill and regard for all others. Love/kindness is our instinctive experience when we see beyond our need to be correct and make others wrong.
  • Understanding is our innate (and mostly under-utilised) capacity to explore any subject, question, concern, problem or dispute, liberated from our beliefs, opinions, beliefs and judgements, no longer bound by our specific knowledge or expertise.
  • Wisdom is our capacity to act from a coalescing of insight/s from The Realm of Possibility, with an increasing perceptiveness and discernment.
  • Common sense (like wisdom) is a coalescing of our inherent natural intelligence, accumulated knowledge and life experience in general. We hone all within The Realm of Possibility. (If that sounds counter to what I’ve expressed elsewhere in the piece, it will make sense in practice if not here on paper.)

These words and their definitions resonate more strongly with the individual as time passes, and our awareness develops.

OUR INNER WORLD OF POSSIBILITY IS EXPRESSED IN OUR SERVICE TO THE COMMON GOOD

The common good: Can anyone foresee the consequences, intended or otherwise, of one’s actions – whether our efforts will work for or against the common good, or whether they will even matter one way or the other?

When used here, this term refers to actions that will, on balance, do no harm but are likely to contribute to the wellbeing of our fellow humans, other sentient beings and the natural environment.

They will be actions that foster environmental, social, economic and societal sustainability. Above all, they will be actions taken neither from an ideological, religious or socio-political stance, but from a state of kindness, understanding, wisdom and common sense. They will merge in us doing what works with doing what matters.

FINALLY

The world and our environment can only – will only – be healed one person at a time.

Are you one who has healed? Or one who wants to heal?

Or are you, like me, still a work in progress?

No matter where you are on your journey, please join us in exploring The Realm of Possibility. Possibility – the essence of who we really are!

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