Don't Believe Your Eyes, Until You Open Them by Lonny J. Brown Excerpted from his book Enlightenment In Our Time At this very moment, stuck onto a whirling little orb, hooked into an average-looking solar system on the outer spiral of the diaphanous cloud of dusty radiance we call the Milky Way, you are hurtling through space at an unimaginably enormous velocity. Yet you feel that you are stationary... that the world is always "under" you, the sky the very definition of "up." The ever-exploding heavens appear a motionless canopy. We call this non-sense "common sense.” You gaze out at the stars and assume that they are all "there" at once, namely "now." Yet each star/image streaming into your eyes comes from a different time, many from billions of years ago. Not only are you literally looking into the past, but you are actually beholding a multitude of pasts in one enormous starry vista. Many of the celestial bodies you believe to be "there" are "now" long dead and gone. Our beloved, ever-so-reliable night sky, by which we have navigated for thousands of years, is really an antique apparition. At the same time, since the light of billions of “newer” stars has yet to reach us, there is no way of knowing what is really out there, as long as we rely on mere human sight. Your Brain Filters Your Mind Common misperceptions are caused by the limitations and reality-filtering properties of your brain, which in effect allows you to be somewhere specific and get something done. You sense your body as solid, though you intellectually admit that it is in reality mostly fluid, held in trillions of gelatinous cells, all made of molecules, themselves clever arrangements of atoms which are primarily empty space encapsulated by energy clouds so ephemeral and transient that brilliant nuclear physicists can only say they have a tendency to exist! Even when the rational scientific intellect proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that ours is a body of light, we still feel like meat and bones, so persuasive is the testimony of the lying senses. Then too, I instinctively "know" I am someone specific, definable as distinct from all other instances of sentient awareness there are, or ever were or will exist. Indeed, the most fundamental assumption and basis for all my other beliefs is the unquestionable "fact" of my own individuality. So persuasive is this presumption of the primacy of my separate identity, that I actually (if secretly) experience myself as the center of the universe. What is the meaning of these perceptual hoaxes? Why do we persist in acting as if we are so special; that our beliefs are the most valuable; that my world is more consequential than all others? Could it be that we fear that the only alternative is to forever feel stupid and small in the face of the Infinite? Where does one turn between solipsism ("I'm IT") and the awful realization of our fleeting insignificance in a vast impersonal cosmos (“I’m no-one!”)? How can we find a satisfactory Truth behind the mistakes and mysteries of our lives? The answer may be closer than you think. Hint: it helps to meditate. Twelve Cosmic Secrets Here are some more clues about the nature of reality. This list can serve as little pointers to truth. One good way to use them is to contemplate one each day, until an awakening occurs in which you see beyond the visual to the Universal. * All Life Is ONE. Everything is connected and related to everything else. * All Time Is NOW. Infinity is HERE. Past, present and future are inseparable. * Consciousness is Omnipresent and Omniscient (everywhere and all-knowing). Mind creates the world. Matter is frozen light. * Energy Follows Thought. We are creating reality (and our destiny) every moment. * Creation Is Constantly Changing Pattern. Intelligence is absolute and all-pervasive. * You Are Already Perfect. The Universe is your home. You are never alone. * Love Is Everything. Beauty is everywhere. The mundane is Divine. * Your Body Is A Sacred Gift, which you gave yourself. By a trick of attention, you have come to believe that it contains you, but actually, you contain it. * Pleasure is No Sin. In fact, the very intensity and depth of enjoyment available to you in this body is a kind of brilliant shortcut to the spiritual, and the redeeming proof of the basic grandness of Existence. * Pain is the Greatest Teacher, yet much of your suffering is unnecessary. * There Is Nothing To Fear. Death is an Illusion. * It's ALL Right. Though you live within unforeseen change and upheaval, you're still OK. Life is worth the trouble. Happiness is not only possible, but practical. © Excerpt from “Enlightenment in Our Time” by Lonny J. Brown Lonny J. Brown is the author of Enlightenment In Our Time (www.BookLocker.com/LonnyBrown), Self-Actuated Healing (Naturegraph, Publ.), and the online column, The Holistic Mystic (TheMetaArts.com). His writings on holistic health have appeared on AOL’s Alternative Medicine Forum and in Alternative Health Practitioner, Yoga Journal, and many other progressive publications. Brown teaches holistic health, mind/body healing, yoga & meditation, and stress reduction courses at hospitals, schools and businesses throughout the US. See his website at LonnyBrown.com RETURN TO OMPLACE HOME