It appears that it was all a misunderstanding.
What was only a trial run was taken seriously.
The rivers will return to their beginnings.
The wind will cease in its turning about.
Trees instead of budding will tend to their roots.
Old men will chase a ball, a glance in the mirror—
They are children again.
The dead will wake up, not comprehending.
Till everything that happened has unhappened.
What a relief! Breathe freely, you who suffered much.

~Czeslaw Milosz~
New and Collected Poems 1931-2001

We’ve all had them – challenges and circumstances that leave their unforgettable impact and change us forever.  Abraham aptly terms it: the contrast.

I would like to believe that we have chosen the contrast on some level before we ever fully emerged into these bodies.  I don’t believe we chose the specifics of it so much as the generalities.  I do believe we chose it before we were capable of feeling fear and before we formed individual ideas of what’s good and what’s bad or even what’s right and what’s wrong.

The beautiful thing about making peace with having chose it all on some level is that I don’t have to understand why – just know that whatever it is, I chose it. This is a far more empowering feeling than the victim stance of this happened to me and I have no control over it and it sucks.  And I feel it’s even more empowering than searching for positive aspects in certain situations where I just can’t come by it honestly.

I actually dreamed one night about someone very close to me who is a heroin addict.  I dreamed we were in non-physical and talking about how we were going to come down to earth in these bodies and have this relationship with each other.  We spoke eagerly about this adventure we were going to have and there was this sense that this undertaking meant lots of challenges with thrilling twists and turns.  But there was no fear, no judgement at all about it, the only feeling was one of enthusiastic anticipation.

The dream scene then changed and we were in physical bodies here on earth.  We were in a small boat on a river and we were still happily awaiting the contrast we were about to experience.  Then the water became choppy, darkness descended and one of us was thrown overboard into the water.  At that moment, the drama began to unfold and we were both lost in the dream.  We forgot the initial agreement we made in non-physical.  We become immersed and lost both literally and metaphorically in the water, in the dream I was dreaming, in the drama.

The dream ends but leaves behind its message: this was all a choice and from your non-local vantage point, you were not afraid, nor did you say this is a good pile of things to experience and this is a bad pile of things to experience.  You wanted it all.  You didn’t just come to paint with the color yellow, you didn’t just come to ride the smooth train from point A to point B.  You did want it all.  And remembering this, I step out of immersion and I make peace with where I am and what I have lived and will live.  Making peace, I pass from moving against the current of life to moving with the current of life.

What we take to be real is that which we believe is true in our world.  It’s the paint that we apply on our canvas, the clay we mold with, what we identify with.  Often they are identity, I am, statements.  I’m not good at that.  I am tired.  Say it often and you lend agreement to it, you give your consent to it.  State it enough times and you own it.  You effectively marry that version of you.

It’s a good reminder to keep handy, any time you find yourself feeling out of sorts about something to ask yourself – what am I taking to be real right now?  It’s a little way of snapping ourselves out of the story of our own making.  Once you see what you are taking to be real, you can then ask: do I really know this to be true?   Nearly always the answer to that question is – no, I don’t absolutely know this to be true.

With two simple questions you begin to wake up to the dream you are dreaming, the script you are writing, the picture you are painting and from this vantage point you get to choose differently.

Isn’t that such a relief to know?  It’s so simple that it’s easy to forget yet practice it long enough and it will become a welcome habit.

Fans of QM/QP, Seth, What the Bleep, Field Center and more will like this video clip which contains several of the WTB scientisits, a few that were only seen in the extended version.  Do you all remember the bumper sticker that read: Question Authority?  If I could summarize this video in two words it would be: Question Reality.  The moment you question it, you cease to be captivated and fascinated by it.  It loses its spell over you.  Now from this questioning, uncertain stance suddenly what seemed so real is now fluid and malleable.  This is the place where anything can change in an instant.  That’s my new t-shirt: Question Reality.