THE UNCHARTED TERRITORY OF OUR MIND
Whenever we want our life to be other than how it is for us right now – in each moving moment – we have a problem. It’s that simple!
Identifying problems is easy. We all do that.
Identifying the cause and solution is another matter. Few do that.
And that’s because we don’t understand the underlying cause of all matters we experience as problems.
And if we don’t understand the cause, it’s axiomatic that we can’t understand the solution.
The previous four statements hold true for all problems – ranging from a spat between couples to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza to the issues of a failing economy or climate change.
So:
- What if we were to understand the cause and the solution to all the problems we experience?
- What if the cause and solution turned out to be the same thing?
- What if this piece answers what ails our relationship with anyone or anything?
- What if it points to the cause and solution behind the wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and the other 30 global conflicts taking place right now?
- What if the following answers the cause and solution to every problem – ours and humanities?
As a friend says, If only!
UNDERSTANDING THE UNCHARTED TERRITORY OF OUR MIND
Whenever we want our life to be other than how it is for us right now – in each moving moment – we have a problem.
It’s that simple!
And it is challenging for us to transcend that state of unconsciousness.
Whether it’s our spouse saying or doing something we don’t like or not saying or not doing something we want them to – we have a problem.
Wanting our children to be other than how they are, we have a problem. We have a problem with ‘our world’ not being how we want it to be.
Whether it’s a small thing (our spouse not putting ‘things’ back after using them) or a more significant thing (our spouse ‘having an affair’), we have a problem.
And it doesn’t matter how small or big something we don’t like might be – a slight irritation (how someone sneezes) to a major upset (someone being violent towards us).
It doesn’t matter how trivial (it’s raining when we want to go on a picnic) or how monumental the problem may be (us or a family member having a terminal illness); our life is not how we want it to be.
On a cataclysmic scale, President Putin is waging war on Ukraine because he has a problem with wanting things to be different from how they are. And many in Russia have the same or an opposing problem.
President Zelensky’s need for the situation to be other than how President Putin wants it to be is a problem for him and the majority in Ukraine.
On that horrendous scale, the same is true for Hamas, the Palestinians and Israelis, wanting things to be different to how the other wants them to be.
And we determine any problem’s scale and relevance by its perceived and thus experienced importance to us.
The problem’s impact may be infinitesimal or catastrophic.
This piece points to a level of consciousness from which to see our life, the lives of others, and life in general in a kind, understanding, wiser way imbued with common sense.
At that level of self-awareness, we navigate the ‘uncharted territory of our mind’ and see how we create our experience – making and experiencing problems or seeing and experiencing solutions.
FIRST STEP: WHAT CREATES A PROBLEM?
From birth (and many claim intergenerationally via our DNA), we condition our minds from contact with others, nature, and the human-developed, religious, political, philosophical, industrial and technological world surrounding us.
Everything since birth (and evidence suggests while in the womb), what we see, hear, taste, smell and feel conditions us – the good, bad, neutral, and yes, the amazingly wonderful and the very ugly.
From the most joyous to the most horrendous, our life experiences (minor and major) become the prism through which we see the world. We don’t see what is, but recreate in the moving moment all those memories – the accumulation of those continuous moment-to-moment experiences – at a conscious or unconscious level.
Summing up, we see life through the illusion of our conditioned mind and miss seeing life afresh.
We see and experience our life through our accumulated beliefs, opinions, judgments and knowledge – our personally created reality, which includes the good, bad and all shades in between.
SECOND STEP: EXPOSING PROBLEMS
We may experience a partner returning something to a designated place as being ‘considerate’ or using ‘common sense’, so we have no problem.
However, if a partner doesn’t return something, we may see them as ‘thoughtless’ or ‘uncaring’, and so we have a problem.
Some consider sneezing without covering our mouths bad manners and experience that as a problem when others don’t.
Countless actions like these are among the myriad matters we condition ourselves into thinking are problems for us and experience them as such.
And you may agree that those trivial matters mentioned, nor the many other inconsequential things we get upset about, need not (and we are more peaceful if they do not) trouble us.
And that previous statement holds unless we experience the person committing those actions as not complying with our conditioning: how we think life should be, must be, ought to be, has to be – in accord with our beliefs, opinions, judgements, and knowledge.
THE UNCHARTED TERRITORY OF OUR SO-CALLED PROBLEMS
The solution to our problems, of humanity’s problems, lies in understanding how we humans get stuck in them.
Let’s further examine the examples used above.
Most will agree that putting something back in its place makes sense after using it. Why? We know where to find it the next time we need to use it. It keeps our home tidy. These, and others, are common-sense reasons.
But is the transgression of not putting something back worth the upset experienced between partners, parent and child, grandparent and grandchild, children, friends, neighbours or colleagues?
But what about a monumental, destructive happening – waging war?
Other than those who believe the wars in Ukraine and Gaza are justified, worthwhile, and will accomplish something of lasting value, they will recognise that will not be the case.
The massive loss of human life, the physical and psychological injury, the devastation of the people’s homes, the country’s infrastructure, and the economy are undoubtedly a price beyond reason.
Of even greater magnitude and long-lasting impact on the future is the conditioning of the minds of the survivors, which is especially true of the young – their learning to hate, despise and loathe the enemy. This conditioning will fuel and likely sustain the cycle of hatred, and for some, morphing into terrorism and killing until the next full-scale war breaks out.
So, do you think the wars in Ukraine and Gaza will ever create sustainable peace?
Did World Wars 1 and 2 achieve sustainable peace?
At the micro-scale, do you think getting upset about anything will create peace of mind and support your relationship with the other?
THE SOLUTION – EXPLORING THE UNCHARTED TERRITORY OF OUR MIND
Seeing that there is nothing but Thought creating our experience (how we think, feel, and act) enables us to be problem-free to the precise degree we are consciously aware in each moving moment that there is nothing but Thought creating our reality.
Seeing it is not them, those, that, or it, whatever it is, creating our reality (our problems) sets us free.
Easy said!
But is seeing the inside-out nature of how we create our experience – not them, those, that or it – easily done?
Well, yes and no.
Although put in different words by many throughout human history, this piece points to how we humans can and have woken up and become aware of how we create our reality:
- A reality that is at peace and in service to ourselves and others;
- Or a reality that isn’t: starting (among many worthwhile things we may achieve) a lifetime of never-ending problems.
Next, breaking the nexus.
THE CAUSE AND THE SOLUTION TO ALL OUR PROBLEMS
Thought (with a capital T) – is the Life-giving energy that enables us to think (with a small t), feel, and act similarly to other animals and in much more complex ways.
We use that gift of Life to think, feel, and behave according to our level of consciousness –our degree of awareness that we are the creator of our uniquely personal reality.
No two humans are born with the same level of consciousness. Why that is, is one of Life’s mysteries. But it is why we, even from a very tender age, experience life differently from one another.
Adding to that initial difference, as we grow, we become increasingly conditioned and see and experience the world from our ever-developing idiosyncratic perspective, for better or worse.
We can’t think the same as one another because we are all conditioned differently – in minor and significant ways – even twins growing up in the same family, culture and education.
Therefore, we each live in our separate reality.
It is also a fact that we do, to a degree, become conditioned with others in a general sense.
We take on customary beliefs, opinions, judgments, and knowledge and thus create a related mindset with our family, friends, and the broader community of race, religion, political, philosophical, or national identity to whatever degree we do.
But as you will have experienced, there are always differences – some small, some large, some causing a split – within families, friends, religions, political parties, etc.
And we will always see the world from our specific, uniquely conditioned, personal reality.
One exclusive to us!
Is that not, in large part, the basis of the problem many Muslims have with Jews – and many Jews have with Muslims?
And is it not the case that Muslims have problems with each other and Jews, Christians, et al. have with each other?
Why is that?
Is it not that we believe in many things that others do not, which may cause our problems?
Is it not that others believe in many things that we do not, which is why they may have a problem with us?
Is it not that each of us, using our gift of Thought differently to others – living from our unique beliefs, opinions, judgements and knowledge – the cause of any problem we have with another?
Or if not with another – with Life?
Therefore, is our misunderstanding and misuse of Thought and its product, our thinking, feelings and actions, at the heart of all our problems?
UNDERSTANDING THE UNCHARTED TERRITORY OF OUR MIND
Waking up to the fact that:
- We all create our reality in problematic ways that may damage us and others.
- We live a peaceful life when we see what is – free of any attribution of meaning: free of our beliefs, opinions, judgements, and knowledge (our accumulation).
- Our lifelong accumulation is still available to us but no longer controls how we relate to the world – it is on tap, no longer on top – driving us to kill, for example.
- The degree to which we are aware of how we create our reality is to the precise degree we are awake to our inner world of kindness, understanding, wisdom, and common sense.
THE DESIRED STATE FOR HUMANITY
No matter if we experience a problem in:
- our relationships
- our health
- our home
- our work
- our political system
- our spiritual or
- recreational life; our awareness of our inner world of Thought and our thinking, feelings and actions – are at cause in us using those gifts for or against ourselves and others and determine our capacity to navigate that previously uncharted territory of our mind with fewer problems.
In waking up and seeing that we think into existence our reality, and through our use or misuse of Thought, we create our personal life experience and navigate that previously uncharted territory so much better.
Thus, our awareness comes from releasing ourselves from all-knowing (our beliefs, opinions, judgements and knowledge).
Our awareness is the degree to which we see beyond our accumulation and awaken to our inner world of kindness, understanding, wisdom and common sense – The Realm of Possibility.
PEACE FOR US AND PEACE FOR HUMANITY
Our ownership of the cause and solution to any problem comes when we see that we are the creators of both.
So, what would your world be like if you saw that you, and you alone, were both the cause and the solution to any problem you experienced?
If enough of us saw that, what would the world be like?
But let’s start with you and me, seeing to the heart of each problem and thus to the heart of each solution. Seeing how we use the gift of Life – and our awareness that our thinking creates our feelings and drives our actions – is seeing the cause and solution of all problems.
Yes, nothing but our misuse of Thought creates anything we experience as a problem, and seeing that is the solution.
If we humans could see that, the world would be at peace.
If only.
Warmly … John