To Lose urself is 2 find Life ( Jose Artega y Gasset)

"...life is at the start a chaos in which one is lost. The individual suspects this, but he is frightened at finding himself face to face with this terrible reality, and tries to cover it over with a curtain of fantasy, where everything is clear. It does not worry him that his 'ideas' are not true, he uses them as trenches for the defence of his existence, as scarecrows to frighten away reality.

"The man with the clear head is the man who frees himself from those fantastic 'ideas' and looks life in the face, realizes that everything in it is problematic, and feels himself lost. As this is the simple truth -- that to live is to feel oneself lost -- he who accepts it has already begun to find himself, to be on firm ground.

Instinctively, as do the shipwrecked, he will look round for something to which to cling, and that tragic, ruthless glance, absolutely sincere, because it is a question of his salvation, will cause him to bring order into the chaos of his life.

These are the only genuine ideas; the ideas of the shipwrecked . All the rest is rhetoric, posturing, farce. He who does not really feel himself lost, is lost without remission; that is to say, he never finds himself, never comes up against his own reality."

--- Jose Ortega y Gasset, The Revolt of the Masses

(beingthere5) seeking truth whereever u find it

Part 5: Seeking Your Truth
Wherever You Can Find It
by
Stephen BE

There is a framed Calvin & Hobbes cartoon in the BEing There office, circa 1985, that speaks as only Calvin can, to the value of seeing things in reality.

It starts with C&H preparing for a ride in their red wagon, when Calvin theorizes to Hobbes, "It's true, Hobbes. Ignorance is bliss! ... Once you know things, you start seeing problems everywhere ... And once you see problems, you feel like you ought to try to fix them ... And fixing problems always seems to require personal change ... And change means doing things that aren't fun! I say phooey to that!"

Then their wagon starts to roll out-of-control down a hill, and Calvin yells back to Hobbes, "But if you are willfully stupid, you don't know any better, so you can keep doing whatever you like! The secret to happiness is short-term, stupid self-interest!"

Hobbes exclaims in anticipation, "We're heading for that cliff!"

To which Calvin enacts his theory, "I don't want to know about it."

C&H are lying in a pile of wreckage after having flown off the cliff in their red wagon. Hobbes concludes, "I'm not sure I can stand so much bliss."

Still maintaining his theory, Calvin warns, "Careful! We don't want to learn anything from this."
Ignorance is not bliss! The secret to happiness is NOT short-term, stupid self-interest! And denial only br
ings about more pain and suffering! Powerful lessons are everywhere! Even in the Sunday comics. Even right in front of you!

Seeking is just one of the many lessons of Higher Consciousness. Yet it is one that affects so much of the journey, that it is a lesson well-learned early. You can learn about seeking, along with many of the other skills involved in the pursuit of Higher Consciousness,

(beingthere4) Skills of seeking

Part 4: The Skill of Seeking
by
Stephen BE

Seeking is a skill. It is a skill that can be continuously improved. It is a proactive skill, rather than a reactive skill. As you become more and more responsible for yourself, you learn to start seeking your truth before it is required. The continuity of your search increases. As your seeking skills increase, you seek your truth in every experience, even those experiences that belong to someone else, but due to their proximity are part of your awareness.

When first learning how to seek your truth, you learn to notice your own behaviors, become aware of your emotions, and follow the Path of Emotion*. The more you practice the skills involved in each of these steps, the easier it becomes to see your patterns. Seeking your truth requires wondering about your patterns, wondering if these dynamics or behaviors are healthy or effective in creating what you truly want.

When you go in search of your truth, you want to avoid the futility of searching only where it is convenient to search. You sometimes must be willing to fumble around in the dark, feeling discouraged, dealing with the inevitable difficulties this presents, in order to find what it is you are looking for.

Seeking truth requires the courage to find things you may not like about yourself, like your pattern of alcohol use, your tendency to see the world in terms of black and white, your sense of entitlement, or your fear of being alone. You must look for what is, what stands up to the test of truth, not just what you want to find.

Reclaiming your childhood is necessary because you are affected every moment of every day of your life by the imprinting that occurred during that period of your life. You may have had an ideal childhood, or you may have had a horror of a childhood, or anything in-between. Regardless of the quality of your childhood, you are now the custodian of all the imprinting in your unconscious. You are responsible for all that is your unconscious, notwithstanding how it got there. If you have misperceptions, issues that have not been integrated, or ignorance about your imprints, you must learn to seek the truth of your childhood if you are to claim your Personal Truth.

Truthful seeking means you will find things that, once you can see, you will feel the need to deal with. "Dealing with it" means nothing more than making it truthful in your life. If you are committed to your truth, this is not a problem. It is only if you are ambivalent about BEing in truth, that finding things that need to be dealt with is a problem.

When you are seeking you want to find every nuance of every issue, for it is in these issues that your lessons for Higher Consciousness emerge . When you feel disharmony from issues, you go seeking. When you are with your loved ones, you are seeking. When you are in nature, you look for your lessons. When you are distracted by the demands of daily life, you seek your lessons. Always and everywhere, you are seeking.
It is a way of life.

Part 5 of "Seeking ..." will remind us that seeking can be practiced everywhere and at all times.

(beingthere3) Seeking builds Faith

" Seeking Builds Faith "
by
Stephen BE

This stage of willingness moves you to new levels of faith, the core skill of the spiritual aspect of BEing. If you always choose your behavior because it is truthful, then you would act on faith that the consequences that follow are the "right" ones for you, the divine ones. Faith would tell you that whatever follows from truthful behavior is what was destined to follow. You would allow the consequences of your truthful behavior to naturally emerge.

In seeking your experiences that lead you to claim more of your Personal Truth, you increase the speed of your growth into Higher Consciousness. In seeking, you value all experience as a necessary step in your growth. In seeking, you would not shy away from certain experiences because they are unpleasant. In seeking, you would not avoid any experience that might follow from truthful behavior.

In seeking, you commit to your Personal Truth with 100% self-responsibility. In seeking, you would not merely be willing to feel all that you feel and deal with it, you would pursue the treasure of your Personal Truth at every opportunity. In seeking, you would extract every possible lesson with every relationship, every turn of events, every situation and every new environment. In seeking, you would truly become an adventurer in pursuit of your truth. You would have discovered your true purpose in life, to find and learn the lessons you need to learn in order to grow, through ever-awakening levels of consciousness, into your birthright, Enlightenment. You would BE a seeker!

>Everything else in life becomes measured against this purpose. When you have encountered all of the lessons of any given environment, and have mastered those lessons, then it is no longer necessary to remain there. Your Personal Truth will resonate to the harmony or disharmony of any environment. Your commitment to your Personal Truth will forever guide you on your path toward Enlightenment. You will know what you need to do, where you need to be, what you need to learn there, and when the lessons are learned.

Being a seeker means you are on a perpetual journey toward higher levels of consciousness. Others around you may or may not understand your pursuit, but you will know with certainty why you continue to seek. Being a seeker has intrinsic value that you will conclude is invaluable, over and above anything else imaginable in life. Being a seeker means discovering your true purpose, which once known offers a sense of clarity and an experience of faith that can not be imagined or duplicated.

Everything else in life becomes measured against this purpose. When you have encountered all of the lessons of any given environment, and have mastered those lessons, then it is no longer necessary to remain there. Your Personal Truth will resonate to the harmony or disharmony of any environment. Your commitment to your Personal Truth will forever guide you on your path toward Enlightenment. You will know what you need to do, where you need to be, what you need to learn there, and when the lessons are learned.

Being a seeker means you are on a perpetual journey toward higher levels of consciousness. Others around you may or may not understand your pursuit, but you will know with certainty why you continue to seek. Being a seeker has intrinsic value that you will conclude is invaluable, over and above anything else imaginable in life. Being a seeker means discovering your true purpose, which once known offers a sense of clarity and an experience of faith that can not be imagined or duplicated.

Next you will learn about The Skill of Seeking, Part 4 in "Seeking ...".

©2005 BEing There Enlightenment Systems, Inc.

(being there) Every Emotion Leads You to Your Truth

Imagine you are going about your normal daily activities: walking down the street; working in your yard; sitting on your porch; shopping; perhaps you are at your place of work, or a social or an entertainment event. A stranger approaches you and engages you in conversation. It may be a man or a woman.

The stranger, while quietly powerful, does not feel threatening. By her speech you can tell she speaks with understanding of your experience and of matters that you do not often hear in your day-to-day life. She tells you of a great treasure to be had for the taking. She explains that it is too great a treasure for any one person to claim, for it replenishes itself magically. She invites you to come with her, she can only show you where it is. The choice is yours: come with her now to claim your share of this great treasure for yourself, or continue to go about your current activities.

Perhaps you will see her again, perhaps not. There can be no guarantee of this. What would you do?

Would you decline her invitation to gather the treasure? Or would you accept it and go with her, then and there? Are there additional questions you would need to ask first? What concerns would you need addressed to be able to make a choice? What issues of yours would arise and need work? Are you available to receive the great treasure? Or would you feel duty-bound to previous obligations? How attached are you to your present environment and conditions? What tests would a gift-giver need to pass before you made yourself available?

In many ways, this scenario plays itself out every day, many times each day. Each time you have an emotional experience you have an invitation to discover and claim a great treasure, your Personal Truth. Every emotion, no matter how strong or how weak, subtle or obvious, is an opportunity for you to get a treasure; a treasure which is there merely for the claiming, and which can not be diminished by any amount you take.

With each additional claim you have greater understanding of your life, your relationships, your purpose, and the reality you create. You are able to make more conscious choices about every circumstance, and feel more and more as the creator of your life.

This treasure is more valuable than any other thing you can imagine: it allows you freedom in every situation; it gives you the personal power to pursue and create anything you truly want; no situation seems overwhelming or too big to handle; fear no longer drives you; you know the perfection of every experience; and it brings you closer to the experience of unity with all things. Nothing imaginable can offer such wealth as knowing your Personal Truth, and then choosing to live by it.

Part 2 of "Seeking ..." will explain how seeking is an advanced form of willingness, which is the first choice of consciousness.

©2005 BEing There Enlightenment Systems, Inc.