LIVING IN VISION

What do you want?


What is it about this question that so daunts us? In my counseling, no other question ever halts the flow of woes so dramatically and abruptly as this one. I can almost guarantee a stunned silence long enough to go out and brew a cup of tea, and even then there is unlikely to be a cohesive response. It's almost as if the caller is waiting for permission to phone a friend.

How is it that we do not know what we want? How is it that we seem reluctant to even ask? Why on earth do we openly and (sometimes) aggressively resist an invitation to look into it? What is that all about?

Is it because we believe that putting out for what we want is somehow wrong or inappropriate? Is the sky going to fall in, or are we suddenly vulnerable if we divulge what we want, even to ourselves? Do we believe we don't deserve it? Do we believe we have to forcefully take what we want? Why is the possibility of unconditionally being given and receiving what we want so difficult to embrace? Do we suffer from an underlying obsession with beliefs  about Scarcity, Lack and Undeserving? What is it about NOT knowing what we want that we have to be so right about?

Or is it because we are so focussed on what we DON"T want, in the mistaken belief that planting what we resist will somehow get us a harvest of sugar and spice and everything nice? Where on earth did that idea come from? The universe is not so contrary: but we are!

What happened? When we were children at play we had no problems whatever in imagineering what we wanted from moment to moment. As children, we lived in a state of being called Vision. We played Cops and Robbers and Cowboys and Indians, spacemen and pirates, all with a commitment and surrender to imagination that would have made Brando blanch!

Vision is a heightened form of reality, unbounded by considerations of "impossibility". In Vision we choose to take personal response-ability for the differences between What-Is and what is envisaged. We create a multi-sensory image of what could be, we catalyse it into becoming, we create a fertile space for it to show up, we drop any addictive demands about how or when it should show up, we commit ourself to learning the lessons and doing the work that must be done to bring it about, and we personally authorise and empower it to become our reality.

Now re-read that last paragraph from a Negative-conscious point of view. Isn't this essentially the same process we use to manifest what we DON"T want? When we are caught in catastrophising and creating a life of misery for ourselves,  do we not sow multi-sensory images of what we don't want, cover them despairingly with resentments about the gap between what we've got and what we want, manure the ground with negative beliefs, ideas and opinions about how-things-should-be-but-aren't, water it with tears of woe, blanch it with the artificial sunlight of our addictive expectations, and nurture the weeds? We have not so much lost the way the process works, just its purpose. We have become engaged in a weird compulsion to throw a spanner into the works. It has become more important to us to have things be a certain way than to have our life working joyfully. We've got ourselves snagged on the rocks of Individualistic Me-ness. We have allowed our selves to slip into ways of being that are health hazards -- victimness and selfishness. We just need to make some different choices.

The first choice is to live in a state of Conscious Vision. Once be get divinely dissatisfied with the results of the passive Unconsciousness in which we presently find ourselves, the switch should not be too hard. Vision is, after all, the natural state of who and what we are -- we were born this way. Vision is our natural state of self-expression, and it is the First Expression of our be-ing.

It is easy to spot a person with Vision. Despite all their challenges, they exhibit  marked traits of inspiration, natural potency and quiet enthusiasm. They have no quarrel with the rest of creation. Quite the contrary, they see their place in all of it, and all of it mirrored in them. They are firstly satisfied with their life as it is, a state which seems to connect them with the power to make a difference. They exude an aura of life-working. Most revealing of all, they have no unfinished business with anything from the past, and no dissatisfaction with the present, because they have decided long ago that it was - and is - perfect just as it is. Any urge to change anything comes not from a dissatisfaction with it, but from a confidence and an urge to join in with the natural process of evolution. They have learned that, rather than trying to make change happen (the human way), it is far more preferable and effective to envision something new and allow it to evolve -- the way God does it.

VISION IS SIMPLE


So much of our waking moments we spend longing and fossicking around -- for what, we do not know.

A ground being of Vision is the answer to the $64,000 question --

Given who you are, what do you want?

OK, there are some observations I'd like to add around this question that may shed some light on where we get derailed.....

There are four qualities you need to bring with you when you're ready to create an empowering Vision --- 

R.S.V.P.

• Responsibility
• Serenity
• Veracity
• Power for All

These are the essential aspects of your self that are required for a life of effective, empowering Vision. Where can you find them? Within. You already have them deep within you. You'll find them where you left them last, when you opted to give up playing creatively with your dreams in order to "grow up"and start manipulating the "real" world

What do you want?  This is more than a grab for quick information. Regard it instead as an invitation to step into a context that will trigger and engage you in an ongoing journey of discovery. Ideally, the answers that matter will come to you couched in challenges and experiences from which you learn. 


What do you really want? -- Not what you think you should want, or what someone else may want for you. And if what you want is something concrete, you might like to dig deeper and find the quality of life that you suspect might be available in what you say you want. Go for that, and give up any fixed ideas you might have about how to get it. Life often has better ideas, because it knows you better than you do.


Who do you want it for? If it is only for yourself, your group, or your family, you may be digging into very infertile ground. True Vision is inclusive and requires and involves the co-operation of the whole of creation.


Even after you have found your answers to to what you want, stay in the question. There is real experience waiting to be had from that enquiry. You don't even have to go looking for it. The appropriate experiences will present themselves to you at exactly the right time, and some of them will surprise you. Whatever comes, keep asking "What do I want in this situation?" Like an eternal onion, there are always more layers to be peeled away.

How will you know you've got it? If you have any idea of what will constitute proof that you've got what you put out for, you are bound to miss it. What we're looking for rarely comes as we expect. Our perceptions are too limited. Our ideas about how what we want will look and feel will blind us from seeing the reality when it comes. There is more work and more surrendering to be done. 


How will you know when you've got it? There is no pat answer, but here are two possibilities that I have experienced -- a) When a sublime peace -- a sense of Completion -- descends upon you; or b) When you experience Nothing. A profound silence falls. In both cases, separation disappears. There is no line dividing between desire and fulfillment, or between Vision and Completion. In both cases, the euphoria won't last; don't try and hang on to it. Let go. Allow the next phase of your journey to present itself. Let the process begin anew.

Given who you are....   OK, but who are you? Do you know? 


Well, you are not defined by:-

• the circumstances of your life
• the world as you perceive it
• your doubts
• your fears
• your problems
• your values, beliefs, concepts or opinions

These are things we all have, but they are not who we are. I have depression, diabetes and house keys, and I carry them around with me, but they are not who I am. I am, and you are much, much more than our stuff.

But our stuff is the reality that we ordinarily live in, and from which confined space we usually pose and answer the question "What do I want?" We come from a limited definition of the word "I". That is why our Wish Lists rarely get to be much more than just that. Every question delivers answers at the level of consciousness from which the question arose. When our visions produce negative results, it's a fair bet that our visions are limited by the low-level consciousness in which they were created..

You are, of course, all of the above ..... and also much, much more. You need to get to work and discover the rest of it -- your positive and negative self-image would be a good starting point. There is a process for discovering Positive and Negative self-image, but it's a little outside the scope of this article. What you can do in the meantime is start listening to your self-talk -- that incessant commentary going on  inside your head. Note what it says about you, about others you admire, and those you don't like. Jot down all the negative and positive things you catch yourself saying about yourself and others. Why others? The judgments and critical assessments you lay on others are the same as ones you bring to bear on yourself. You're just more open about your crits of others than you are about what you really think of yourself. They're more easily accessible. Put them all together, and you will start to build up an idea of how you really see yourself. Prepare for a nasty surprise. You would not tolerate other people talking about you the way YOU talk about you!

And there is more. Complete the picture. Go through each of the evaluative words on your list and add its polar opposite. For example, in my negative self-image are words like "irresponsible", "selfish", and "callous". The opposites of those for me are "responsible", "allowing", and "caring". Add the opposites. We live in a universe of duality -- one cannot exist without the other. This is where you begin to discover some things you don't know that you know about yourself.

As very young children, we were as yet relatively unhindered by positive and negative self assessments, and we had no barriers to bringing our whole being to the process of playing. It was safe to be all and envision all. We were naturally aligned with the world and there was no need then to negotiate or compromise our dreams. But we learned very early that we should be careful who we shared it with. Other kids made fun of us when it suited them, and grown-ups either poured iced water over our enthusiasm, or hedged us in with dark comments like "Wait until you grow up". Their disillusionment was palpable and infectious. They weren't trying to sabotage us; they were trying to spare us their dis-appointment. We caught the disease. For most of us, growing up meant compromising our Self and finally giving up our high-flying visions and replacing them with poor, low-level substitutes. That was my experience. If yours was similar, do not despair. That's just the way your journey was taking you then. Now is the time when you can turn back and come home.

You can do that now...... E.T., it's time to phone home. Here's one way to do it.

Back before we sold out on playing with life is the time where we created the Vision for our life. There was an innocent knowing then of what we wanted our life to be all about. You may find it very healing to gently knock on the door of your early childhood and ask yourself  "What did I want?" "What were my dreams?"  If you have a photo or a memory image of yourself at an early age, even as a baby, look into the face of the child you once were for a few moments. Connect emotionally with that person. When you have established contact, ask "What do you want?" Putting the question in the present tense is important. Take any images, sounds, feelings and words that come and simply let them lie alongside your present reality, without further comment or evaluation. Continue the dialogue for as long as you can. Come back to it as often as you want.

As I grew older, I made the mistake of rejecting gifts that life handed  me, labelling them as "misfit". If I had thought to called them "genius", I could have saved myself a lot of struggle. I'll bet the same is true for you. Everything that has happened in our past story led to the formation of our Now realisations. They were gifts. In the moments we are out of our Vision, our past no longer appears to co-operate with our present; it appears to dominate and restrict it. The ride gets bumpy. The domination is, however, an illusion that does not serve us well. Our past is a place to walk out of.

Don't lose heart. Keep zeroing in on The Question -- "What do I want?" As you persevere with the enquiry, your daily answers will broaden and become more universal in their appeal. Answers will become less about   parts of you, less about your relationships, less about your social groups, your family and your country; they will broaden to embrace ALL of it.

There may be the inertia of years of negative programming to overcome. Stand in the possibility that Life asks your permission to help you become the kind of person who will attract what you want. When the question "Given what I am, what do I want?" is asked authentically for yourself, the answers will naturally be relevant  for the whole world.

If quality of Vision is all that great, and there does seem to be a very real hunger for it, why isn't there more of it around?

• Living a life of Vision presents challenges and responsibilities that visionless mortals do not have to contend with. Humans are often given to taking the softer options. Every one of us is aware of a disparity between life as we see it, and life as we'd like it to be. Every one of us is challenged at some level or another to transform life as we see it now into life as we envisage it could be. But there is a softer option on offer -- to reduce our vision to fit inside our current reality of "how it is". We are allowed to do that, too. Fortunately, the consequences of the less challenging option are a long way short of satisfying, so there is always the possibility that we might later decide we've made a poor choice and change our mind.
• People with vision often speak a language that flies in the face of "common sense". From a Victim consciousness, for example, much of what they say may sound like non-sense. The truly dis-illusioned may even think they're barmy.
• We may confuse Charisma with Vision. The two qualities are not mutually exclusive, but they do differ in nature, quality and effectiveness. Charisma can inspire; Vision empowers. Problems arise when we expect visionary people to be charismatic (some are; some are not), or when we expect results from charismatic people that charisma alone cannot deliver.
• A lot of people simply do not know they are permitted to have a vision. The admonishments and jibes of their parents, relatives and teachers still echo eerily down the years. They explain the existence of the occasional visionaries by comforting themselves that these people are somehow "special". That, too, is a lie. There is no test of "worthiness" for Vision; it is freely available to everyone, even the brain-damaged. This ignorance of possibility would explain why so many look for "visionary leaders", surrogates and saviours to have visions for them. I counter with the possibility that, by the very fact of being human, each of us has a responsibility to align himself with creation and, willingly and consciously.create a vision and a life on purpose. A life of passivity is a waste of opportunity. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's no great virtue either.
• There is very little space given, either "in here" or "out there", to Vision. At times it is mistaken for something else, or actively discouraged. If that has been your experience, the space might have to be re-created. We might also have to be aware of the workings of Vision in ourselves before we can re-cognise them in anyone or anything else.
• Very few people actually exist in the possibility that life, at least in part, can be about what we want. It is my contention that life is very much about what we focus on. When we focus on what we want, we tend to get it. When we focus on what we DON'T want, we tend to get that instead.
• With Vision comes a Responsibility to do something with it. Perhaps people baulk at what they see as the domination of an onerous commitment. In a desperate bid  for Freedom, they reject, or fail to recognise the Escape Hatch of Responsibility through which freedom is actually accessed.
• There is also a responsibility to share Vision around. Vision always involves alignment with the rest of creation. There is no vision in individualistic Me-ness. Vision turned inwards sours the soul and turns to poison. That is not the fault of Vision itself.
• When we see the disparity between our Vision and current reality, that disparity creates a tension that might be uncomfortable to tolerate. It sometimes takes boldness and trust to nurture a vision. It helps to remember that Vision itself offers enough motivation, inspiration and energy required to overcome a timid mind  and dissolve the disparity.
• The blessing of Vision is bestowed. By its very nature, the vision is greater than the ego of the visualiser. But even good and well-meaning people mistakenly introject their vision (ie. let their egos "own" it) and thus dis-empower it.

Life is no less challenging for someone living in a Vision. But the nature of the challenges could hardly be more different. In vision, they are invigorating. On the other hand, the challenges of living without something larger to grow into are depressing and depleting.

Vision, as a quality of energy, is pretty much the same the world over. We give individual Visions different labels -- eg. Clean Up Australia, The World Hunger Project, Band Aid, Lifeline, The War on Terror, Holy Jihad etc. Outside of individual ego, no one example of Vision is any more or less important or valid than another. But the labels give focus to the activity and to the kind of people, values, principles and practices that will be drawn together by it. Participating in The World Hunger Project is a very different experience to participating in The War on Terror, and so are the type of people you are likely to meet and the events you're likely to experience.. How you judge the relative values of each depends entirely on your individual conditioning, values and perspective. But Vision is Vision. [You may feel very challenged at this moment to avoid getting sucked into snap judgments of what I've just said and feel an irresistible urge to play the "Right/Wrong"Game. If so, note it with interest as part of your journey of self-discovery]

Any problems that arise are due, at least in part, to the fact that many people who crawl under someone else's vision for cover have not bothered to create their own vision, or at the very least, to commit to a shared vision. They have, instead, adopted someone else's vision and turned it into a protective Position that they can feel good and right about. Well, Position creates Opposition, and will ultimately neuter and destroy itself. Meanwhile, the original vision is in danger of contracting and becoming tainted and polluted. Creative Vision feels neither right nor wrong: it allows ego, and is above ego, and too grand to succumb to the tyranny of petty notions.

Vision is vision -- a state of being in the world unbounded by considerations of impossibility, lack, undeservingness or IOU  Everything outside of Vision is just a  point of view, a bunch of opinions and beliefs that cloud, contract and obscure the purity of the process. When we recognise, acknowledge and share our own Visions, our lives automatically become about creating. Visions arising from our divine nature are naturally expansive and evolutionary.

Make a Declaration of Common, Aligned Vision that answers the question --

Without consideration, what do I truly want?

When you are in your Vision, you are not on a Position. You are both right and wrong; and neither right nor wrong. You live your Vision because it is the best expression of both your divine and your secular natures. When you are in Vision, you speak out of a commonly shared experience for the whole of mankind.

When you feel righteous, you are on a Position, and have lost touch with Vision.

In Vision. everything that enters that space expands it. In vision, differences contribute to create a greater reality.

When we recognise and acknowledge our Vision of some aspect of the human experience as it could be, we operate in a context that encapsulates and hallows the work we do within it.