It
has been a rewarding and challenging semester here at Cabrillo
College in the time of novel coronavirus, spring 2020. As my time
here draws to a close, I wanted to extend my best wishes to all of my
fellow students as they go forward, and to the instructors who
expanded my knowledge, vision, and perspective opening new ‘Doors
of Perception’ into the world of journalism.
The
Doors of Perception, a book by Aldous Huxley, published in 1954
elaborating on his psychedelic experience under the influence of
mescaline in the metaphor used to represent William Blake’s poetical
work, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell about mankind’s limited
perception of the reality around them. “If the doors of
perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is,
infinite; for man has closed himself up, till he sees all things
thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern.” The psychedelic music group
known as the Doors took their name from the title of Huxley’s book.
So,
in parting, I wanted to share some of my thoughts on perception with
you that I hope will be of some value going forward from my book:
Every Now and Zen …on the Nature of Being and Becoming in hopes
that you not be confused about who you are; as I remember that life
is a process of becoming.
Who
among sentient beings could not marvel at the wonder of being and the
majesty of life itself?
Cause
emanates from intention. Intention IS causation. Everything begins
with it. Within our interactional world, manifestation derives from
INTENTION.
We
are We, wholeness and duality; in and out, of and not.
Enlightenment
is experiential. Enlightenment is not a final destination. It is a
moment to moment experience without permanence. It is a moment to
moment journey.
There
is no evidence of pure experience. When you are experiencing your
experience inside your experience, you are not in your mind. You have
in fact ‘lost your mind’, and are in your experience. When you
leave your experience and come back into your mind, you recreate what
you think happened in your experience; interpreting your experience.
Your
mind is not the same as your experience. Experience is the teacher
that informs us. The mind tries to understand and parse the lesson
and perhaps the question. Insight is experiential.
Everything
is an illusion. Nothing is as it appears to be.
Inner
space is vast as outer space.
Consciousness
is faster than the speed of light.
There
is vastly more ‘dark matter’ than there is ‘light matter’.
Comparably, the unconscious is vaster than the conscious mind.
You
are not who you think you are. Who you are is NOT the voices inside
your head. Who you are is the ONE who is the one, who is listening to
the conversation in your head and observing without judging.
It’s
effortless to do what you choose to do.
Universe
is interactive. We create our own reality. Reality is what we believe
it is.
You
made up the entire story of who you THINK you are. And if you choose,
make up a new story.
You
chose your Life. Your life is your own. Your life is your choice.
Your life is what you choose it to be from this moment on.
When
you stop blaming the circumstances of your PAST (effect) and become
PRESENT (at cause), you become the author of your life going forward.
In
every question, an ANSWER. In every answer, a QUESTION.
In
the cycle of Create, Sustain, Destroy, the most difficult by far is
to sustain. Sustaining requires commitment.
Completion
requires follow-up and follow-through, freeing one from then,
creating momentum toward now. Completion frees up energy in the
Body/Mind naturally flowing toward next. Now-next, next-now.
Transformation
occurs in a moment of now…
Now
is here, waiting.