Filters and Frames

 

I’m back!  And I know many of you wonder where I have been, and what I have been doing, and why I have put off making these videos for a while.  And I probably do owe you an explanation, and so, in short, this is it:  As I go about this experience I call my life, I am sensitive to it’s flow, it’s continuity, and I effortlessly drift about in that, living in what I have come to call a “green light” existence – where all systems are ‘go’, and effortless, and I am theoretically aware of all that I can manage to be aware of at that particular juncture of my awareness.  But sometime, SOMETIMES, something suddenly changes, and I suddenly get what I call ‘a red light’.  I usually do not know the ‘why’ behind it showing up, but I am acutely aware of it being there.  And it is a time, I have learned, when I am to be quiet, to stop, to be reflective, and attentive because there is something I need to see.  And so, that’s where I’ve been -I have been in the midst of this red light, waiting to see.

 

Quite often, what I am to see during this time is a collection of things, or a broadened viewpoint that I can then sometimes share with others.  Or other times, it may be a tiny detail, one teeny spot, but a pivotal spot that must be defined clearly so what I am trying to express can be seen more clearly seen.  And that was the case here. Before we can discuss any of these things that we want to discuss and that so capture our attention and our imaginations, there is something very, very important that we must do.  Now, if we wish to tread these deeper waters that enchant us and draw us to their shores, we must now consciously always do this new thing.  In fact, from here on out, this should be the first thing you note, before any ideas begin to form, or unfortunately everything else that comes out of my mouth will seem confusing and conflicted and  I will seem to contradict myself and be pointing only to paradoxes.

 

So, here is what we must do.  Are you listening?  Have I lost you?  Well, tune back in, because here it is:

 

We must become consciously aware of whatever perspective we choose to observe something from.  We must stop ourselves and note this, because whatever it is you are observing will appear differently from different perspectives, even when it is actually all the exact same thing.  At first, this may sound simple, insignificant even, but…. poo-poo this and you are certain to find yourself all twisted up in conflicting thoughts and not be able to see your way out of them easily, because from here on out, there is only the One Truth in all it’s manifestations, all it’s different perspectives.  But it is always the same thing.  You have to move your mind, your awareness, like tuning from one radio station to another.  If You are only set on the country station, you will only hear country music and think heavy metal and classical are just someone else’s delusion.  And your awareness is your tuner – you have to move your mind to be able to experience these other variations.  Before today, you may not have realized that genuinely sliding from one perspective to another was possible, much less something that we should be doing.  We didn’t realize the dial turned, much less we would hear something different when it did. Do you see?

 

And this is why noting what perspective you are observing from, what channel you are tuned to, is paramount to a clear understanding - PARAMOUNT, but it is largely overlooked in our ordinary thought processes.  We’ve become accustomed to just tuning into our perspective of choice, whatever we are accustomed to,  and then naively go on to assume that this is THE perspective, THE channel…..but its not.  There are countless perspectives, all summing one single thing, one Truth, but even so, manifesting a million answers.  Our singular focus is a byproduct of our individuality that we have done this our whole lives.  Well, up until today. Today, we begin to regain our innate flexibility that will enable us to begin to see these things we long to see more clearly, because it’s these different perspectives that determine how we view whatever we are observing, what we see, how we relate to it.  And if you are unaware that “whatever  perspective you are currently holding WILL determine your opinion of what you are observing”, then you will be lost and you won’t see what you’ve come here to see.  Because it’s a matter of seeing the bigger picture and THAT depends upon not being wed only to the perspective that supports the theory of our individuality.  Because there is more,  and we must see there is more if we wish to go on to discuss all these wonderful things that are dawning in our awareness, and tugging at our thoughts, begging to be answered.  And I want to answer their call.  Don’t you? 

 

Because otherwise, we will go on seeming to choose sides when no choosing is necessary.  It might only be a matter of perspective that causes something to seem different or have different outcomes or purposes.  But we won’t see this if we do not realize how dependent ‘what seems to be’ is upon the perspective through which it is viewed.   DO you see this?  Perspective and how we relate to whatever we perceive is wed to one another like two sides of a coin.  When we broaden our perspective, we broaden how we can potentially interact with whatever it is that we are perceiving.  Do you see?  This is what I would like you to consider and begin to integrate into your world. 

 

I know this may seem a little foggy and that I am making a big deal over a small point, so let’s use a common everyday newspaper to illustrate the dramatic differences I am trying to point to.  From your current perspective as you, you can read a newspaper, and it tells you of things that are happening all over the world.  There are articles, pictures, advertisements, and, as YOU, as the individual you see yourself as, you can tell exactly what each of these mean.  But what if you changed your perspective?  What if you zoomed in closely?  Picked up a magnifying glass and looked at your newspaper?  Suddenly, the messages and stories and pictures in the paper lose their meaning and all you see is a series of dots, or pixels.  There are no more stories, no more pictures, no more half-priced sales, no more birth announcements, no more obituaries,  no more wars, no more good news, no more bad news…only innocent dots, pixels, here and there upon a white background.  The stories and pictures and news have allll leaked out through the cracks, haven’t they?  When you zoom in, they are gone. Well, not gone truly, but their meaning as interpreted when you where reading your paper normally is indeed gone, and all that remains are these dots, duly noted, but dots that carry no such message.  Instead, you are seeing the vehicles and building blocks that lie behind the presentations of these messages – you  see those instead and in changing to this focus, you extricate yourself from the emotional or thinking reaction the stories and pictures were orchestrated to give.  And you see the innocent source of these stories, you see the vehicle in which they were presented, which is only a collection of dots, neither good nor bad. 

 

And if we change perspectives again and relate to this newspaper from the perspective of a lady bug, we’re making our way across a stiff, unending desert-like landscape to god-knows-where, and the newspaper is an entirely different thing again.  Both the stories and the dots go largely unnoticed, and the paper has become a sort of a Journey, this world that you as this ladybug are traveling, and it’s a completely different thing, seemingly, yet nothing has changed – except our perspective.  It’s the same newspaper.

 

And if we change perspectives again and look down at the newspaper from the top of a tower, all we see is a small piece of what appears to be paper.  MIGHT be a newspaper.  Who knows what it is exactly, and oh well, nevermind – it already blew away in the wind, the stories it contained never influencing us, the landscape as it was to the ladybug never considered, and the dots or pixels never noticed.  But they were all there, weren’t there?  Just because you didn’t see it, just because your perspective did not allow you to relate to it in a way that these things could be noticed, that doesn’t mean they weren’t there.

 

But even so, in each of these cases, we are still talking about the exact same newspaper, aren’t we?  Only our perspectives have changed.  Only our perspective.  And this is why this is so very very important to those of you who wish to see further, it’s why you DON’T see these things - because with this change in perspective, what you are looking at will seem to change, and in a very real way.  But we cling to only one perspective, the one that reinforces us as individuals.  And so, we don’t see the dots and pixels, we can only focus on the news, good and bad, the ups the downs, the horrors and hallelujahs.  We don’t see the stillness of the dots and pixels and how they are what these things are made of, they are the means of it’s expression.  We are gripped by our one perspective, and so that is all that we see.  But these things you want to see are seeable with this shift, because what you are looking for is just another face, a different facet of this same newspaper, just as there is always the One truth, just experienced or observed from different perspectives.

 

If we look more closely, our perspectives is made up of two variables - what I have come to call our ‘filters’ and ‘frames’. These filters and frames make up our world as we see it.  Our Frames act as our paradigms, what we consider to be reality – into these frames is where we place whatever we allow in to our world, our reality.  And our Frame holds it relatively steady and collected for us, and presents us with this version of the world whenever we open our eyes and greet our day.  Like a coral or a fence, our frames hold the pieces that we view as our world.

 

Our Filters are a little different  - they are how we choose to color and arrange whatever we place within our  Frames. Do you see?  We taint it and tweak it and scooch it over from here to there with our filters.  And our Filters and Frames are born of our individuality, of who we see ourselves as, and so the variation is not only endless, but it is also not fixed.  It depends upon us.  We can change this. And we MUST if we wish to see these things that seem to elude us. And this is what is happening as we go round and round in search of this thing called enlightenment.  Because we are never truly without it – only our perspective at the moment is somewhat fixed, and it is set to a perspective that doesn’t allow us to relate to it consciously in the way we long to.  But even though you could not relate to it as you would, you have never, ever without it.   Do you see?  It’s all there, and it’s all One.

 

And so, we have to get slippery here, ladies and gentlemen, and not be stuck in one place.  We have to regain our perspective flexibility and become comfortable switching hats and toggling between, because a lady bug will never be able take within it’s consciousness the stories written about in the newspaper it walks upon.  So close, but so far.    And without the magnifying lens, we can never see the innocent blocks, these pixels and dots that relay these stories that impact our consciousness from another perspective.  Because here, they have no such impact.  Without changing our perspective, we will never get past the story of the bombing, or the half priced sale to see that underneath it all, they both incredibly arise from the exact same thing - a platform that knows no good or bad, no morality judgment or reward system.  It just is, and within this perspective of silence, these stories and whatnot that move us so from our common different perspective are actually tiny details, one of countless ways it could have manifested.  Are you beginning to see?

 

So, as we begin to discuss and point to some of these things that intrigue us so, we must begin to see that HOW we see, from what perspective we see, will determine WHAT we see.  No matter how you impress these moving stories the newspaper contain upon the ladybug, she won’t have the foggiest idea what you are talking about or how you came up with it.  And it’s not that she is separate or detached from it – it is the very thing that is supporting her Journey.  But she can’t see it and she won’t know where on earth you could have gotten such notions.  And in the same way, if you try to discuss all the different categories of the newspaper with the man who is only viewing it extremely close up with a magnifying glass, without laying his magnifying glass aside, he won’t know what you are talking about - he’ll not be able to see these categories at all.  To him, there is no Sports section, no Sales flyers, just a great many dots of various colors upon a sea of quiet white.  And so it is with us, in our current perspective.  We read all the various stories in the newspaper, and think it quite mad that someone taking a closer view only sees the One in all it’s beauty.  Neither can we see from the ladybugs view that all these stories are just a landscape to be crossed, rather than caught up in.  Without moving our minds, without changing and broadening perspectives, everyone’s perspective sounds delusional to another.  And so far, these other perspectives have mostly eluded us.  We look only through our everyday eyes.  But all these perspectives are there, and not employing them is likely a large part of that wall you keep crashing into as you try to go further.

 

And so, when we begin to move between these perspectives, we gain wisdom and peace.  If it doesn’t make sense with one perspective, try another, and another, until you find the correct one.  And that correct one will innately give you the clues as to how it relates to the other perspectives that at first seemed at odds.  And what we might have imagined at first as something to worry about, a splitting apart or division, (fetus hand) correctly viewed, might just be the manifestation of the most delightful dexterity, different angles coming upon the same focus and if used in cooperation, rather than opposition, give us the ability to grasp that which before we could not.  How wonderful is that? 

So, is something breaking apart and facing destruction and weakening, or is it coming together and bringing with it new dexterity and abilities?  It’s all a matter of perspective.  Find the right one and you find your peaceful answer.  But we make judgments quickly, and these judgments are largely born of fear and our limited experiences.  There is a Taoist story in one of my daughters favorite bedtime books that illustrates this point wonderfully, and it goes something like this:  There once was a poor farmer who’s horse ran away.  Upon hearing the news, his neighbors consoled him, “Such bad luck!” they said.  “Maybe” said the wise farmer.  The next morning the horse returned, bringing two wild horses with it.  Such good luck congratulated the neighbors.  Maybe, said the farmer.  The farmers son tried to ride one of the wild horses and was thrown and broke his leg.  Such bad luck consoled his neighbors.  Maybe said the farmer.  The next day military officials came to the village to draft young boys to fight in the war.  Seeing his son’s broken leg, they passed him by.  Such good luck! Cried the neighbors.  Maybe, said the farmer.

 

So this is what I would like to lay before you to consider today.  As we continue to go deeper into this rabbit hole that is us, I hope you will make it a priority of become more and more adept at shifting your perspective, at not only seeing with your everyday one eyes, the one you are used to and use without even knowing it, but begin to see with the other perspectives that you also possess and are only sleeping within you, ready to awaken.  And if you do, you will find that you will begin to be able to see things where you once couldn’t.  You will begin to see these things as you unlock the door, and these mysteries will be mysteries no longer.

 

"Recognize what is in your sight, and that which is hidden from you will become plain to you . For there is nothing hidden which will not become manifest."
-Jesus, The Gospel of Thomas

 

 

 

I offer you these thoughts for your consideration.