Observation / perception, perspective, acceptance, expansion.
Understanding the world around us, interacting as we go throughout our day, is the continuing experience of observation. Observation or perceptions are the first steps in interacting with what we are experiencing. Much is taken for granted, as we know or think we know the world around us – the people, the places, the events that we encounter.
This “thinking we know” state of awareness, has generated our personal perspective. There is a recognition of what is taking place based on, among other things, prior experiences. These of course help us to navigate our interactions. They permit us to get from A to B more efficiently. It represents the culmination of a learning process. The mind has established particular ways and expectations of what we may encounter. We know when it is safe to cross the street.
But as helpful as they are, in the majority of cases they can be seen as a created filtering system that has the potential to obscure what may be happening in front of us. For all its benefits, it can still turn into a limiting factor for our life experiences. A child interacting with the world has the joy and openness of discovery. The filters and expectations have not yet been established. Whereas older adults, having formulated a personal perspective, or their own observation point, have a degree of rigidity. As with all things, there can be positive aspects, and what we might term as negative implications.
These can become restrictive. Preconceived notions that were developed in the past can dominate. Opinions may have been incorporated from other people’s belief systems. And with age can come a rigidity around those perspectives. The childlike openness to the world can be lost.
Acceptance. Accepting what is taking place before you, without judgment, without the preconceived notions of what should be happening according to the mind, is a transformative state of being. Fundamentally, acceptance is a process of expansion. You expand the mind. And more importantly, the heart opens as a direct result of this acceptance / expansion shift. The joy of a child experiencing a situation for the first time, is the heart interacting directly, unfiltered. The purity we perceive in a child is a nonjudgmental acceptance of each encounter. ( Aside from the times of tantrums and tears, of not yet being able to verbally express their needs, the me stage,)
Expansion opens you to a transformation of your observation / perception abilities. For that is the nature of the heart interacting with life. Your perspective becomes one of joy and the loving nature of the heart. The true significance of what you encounter may open before you. The “me” stage is transformed by a more encompassing perspective. I becomes we, unity, compassion and love.
This does not have to be a difficult process to activate. Source creation would never have made such a fundamental gift a difficult experience to discover. It comes down to recognition – recognizing this mindset is available at all times. With awareness, with remembrance of who and what you truly are, you automatically express that love and acceptance in each moment. Jeshua spoke of the need to become like little children in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. The aspects of joy, wonder, acceptance and an open heart create that state of being. Think of the joy of a child expanding and learning as they experience each new moment. It becomes a heaven on earth.
A.S. 7/14/23
