Harry Palmer - The Avatar® Path: The Way We Came

Like most journeys, self-evolvement has a starting point. That starting point is the recognition that some (or even most) of your guiding values and beliefs are based on imitation of parents, teachers, peers, satisfied customers, celebrities, authorities, the successful, or even the worlds failures.

The life you are living is a copy of someone elses. It is a patchwork quilt of borrowings and unconscious influences. When you recognize this, really see it, something independent of any mental embellishment awakensa new self. You can call this new self, I am. This ineffable spiritauthentic YOUwakes up with a desire to explore its potential.

The articles and stories in the pages that follow are intended to illuminate archetypes in consciousness that will assist your growth. As you read, several things will happen: the expectations and opinions of others will be recognized and re-considered; personal values will be re-examined; and patterns of behaviors will change. And most importantly, YOU, that ineffable explorer, will begin awakening as a Source Being. This is a heroic journey.

The only provisions you need are courage, honesty, and perseverance. If people or circumstances have conspired to convince you that you lack these supplies, caches have been left along the way for you to find.

Right up front, Ill tell you a secret. As secrets go, this one is in the top ten. If it doesnt ring true for you right now, thats okay. Part of this journey is recovering the viewpoint that recognizes the truth of this powerful secret. The secret is nothing can harm a Source Being.

This isnt an easy truth to accept. The universes position is that it can roll over you, grind your flesh up, or incinerate your consciousness any time it pleases. It can visit pain and suffering, or pleasure and happiness at its whim. It can snuff out your life unexpectedly. At any moment it can humble you into insignificance by its awesome magnificence. And always it demands that you follow certain of its rules or perish.

But what perishes? You are not a meat body. You are not thoughts. No thought or word can describe you. Thoughts and words are concepts and you are not a concept. You are not anything that can be named. What are you?

The universe can be broadly described in terms of matter, energy, space, and time, but you are not any of these. All definitions and descriptions are part of the universe. You are part of well thats the question, isnt it?

__________

ineffable: incapable of being expressed in words.

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The story of The Avatar Materials

Eastern techniques of meditation describe four stages of mental engagements:

The first is forcible engagement. This mounts the mind or directs the mind at some object.

The second is interrupted mental engagement. This is the process of noticing, stop noticing, and then noticing again in greater detail.

The third is uninterrupted engagement of the mind, which is concentration.

The fourth is a spontaneous engagement of the mind on a connection that just appeared. Ah ha!

Realizations (or insights) are spontaneous engagements of the mind.

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One of the abilities that you can profitably improve is directing your attention. If you have not done the Basic Attention Management Mini-Course, it is recommended. It will increase the amount of free attention that is available to you by recovering attention that you have misplaced or abandoned.

Visit www.TheAvatarCourse.com/attention for a free download of this mini-course.

Realization is the experience of moving from a fixed viewpoint on a subject or event into a broader more understanding viewpoint. It is the moment in which something perplexing is worked out; it is a pleasant shock, a light penetrating the darkness, a discovery, the revelation of a solution. Its a moment of epiphany, an insight. I just realized I was dreaming, or I just realized that it wasnt my mothers fault. Realizations are the building blocks of self-evolvement, each one you have is a step toward greater wisdom and freedom.

Realizations may arrive gradually like the morning dawn, or suddenly like flashes of lightening; some take years of study to fully reveal themselves, others are instantly gobsmacking (shocking, surprising). Realizations are unique experiencesworld lessons. They are the keys and combinations that specifically unlock the reasons behind your thinking and being.

Someone elses realization may be interesting or educational, but they will not sort out or tame the mental territory that is uniquely yours. Your own realizations are more than insights, more than words; they are a release of transforming and restorative energy, a sigh of relief.

Stories can trigger realizationsnot so much by the data conveyed in the story as by the personal connection that you make with the story. The classic Indian story of blind men describing an elephant illustrates this personal connection: the blind man who feels a leg says the elephant is like a pillar; the one who feels the tail says the elephant is like a rope; the one who feels the trunk says the elephant is like a tree branch; the one who feels the ear says the elephant is like a hand fan; the one who feels the belly says the elephant is like a wall; and the one who feels the tusk says the elephant is like a solid pipe. Realizations only occur within the framework of your own reality.

Preconceptions and assertions prevent realizations. Sometimes the action of pursuing other peoples attention or admiration conflicts with the vulnerability required for facing something unknown. Posturing and striving for recognition have stunted the personal growth of more than a fewrealizing for the applause of an audience creates stress rather than relief. It can be frightening to examine something without a prepared answer, to look without already knowing, but the rewards are priceless realizations.

Realizations result in beneficial changes in your health, your relationships, and your perspectives of life. Realizations give rise to qualities like responsibility, maturity, compassion, tolerance, patience, discernment, and confidence.

Your progress toward higher awareness can be measured by the number of honest realizations you have. Things begin (or cease) to make sense, horizons expand, and there is a pattern to events. The possibility of steering your own life and living deliberately becomes real. Hidden influences are dissolved into light.

So OK, realizations are good things. Where do they come from and how do you find them?