The Circle Path

"Oh look, Jimmy is juggling oranges."

We watch his dexterity in juggling oranges, but later, may not remember what he was wearing. If a doctor were to help Jimmy with hand pain, he would view Jimmy's hand as tendons, nerves and the carpal tunnel. A psychologist might explore Jimmy's motivation for seeking attention by juggling, while his mother would feel proud that her baby boy is so talented! We all see different things.

Life is Relative

Beyond these different ranges of focus that make up what we experience, all that remains is the idea of Jimmy juggling oranges. We call this a memory, but the memory can be altered by time, personal interpretation and forgetfulness.

When we observed Jimmy juggling that day, it took time for the event to register in our mind. How much time must elapse before this 'thought event' gets re-classified from an event that we call reality into the pure energy of memory? Both happen solely in the mind.

Although perception and memory are two different processes, they are intrinsically related because the perception of something requires that we contrast sensory information with stored memory. In our infancy, we would have only detected strange colors and a kaleidoscope image as Jimmy juggled. It takes time for the brain to begin classifying experience through associations.

These small judgments solidify over time to become the layers that influence what we see.

Life is Circular

Nature's spiral design maximizes space. Its circular cycles and the peeling away of circular layers observed in dreams also present life in a circular quality, different from the linear way we understand time. Our dreams use memories and re-arrange time and sequence to tell a different story. All that is left of any experience is a memory and these images become associations, and the fodder for our dreams. Whatever growth is impeded by day, is achieved while we sleep.

In exploring perception and dreams, we call one event tangible and real, while the other is labeled as fantasy. You may say: "Well, I walked up to Jimmy and touched him. I could feel that he was real and he was not an illusion!" Yet, in a dream, you would walk up and touch Jimmy and say he is just as real. The only difference between life and dreams is the level of ego awareness.

Nature endowed us with perception, memory and the ability to dream to initiate a type of circular balance. The same natural processes that endowed us with survival mechanisms to protect us, designed a way to undo them through the dreaming process. Growth requires that we release ourselves from the hold events have over us.

When we dream, life re-connects us to its boundless fabric of possibilities.

Life is Change

You can't stop how nature is leading you toward change any more than you can stop death. The longer you hold to the idea that life can be defined as a static condition, the more life will lead you back to the beginning. Perhaps being forced to re-build from square one allows you to appreciate the intangible nature of existence. When you appreciate life's intangible nature - you become boundless again. When the mind is boundless, anything is possible.

You hold the idea of life in your mind as if the inner and outer world have no correlation. At some level, you may sense that your attitude affects the outcome. We are either committed to failure or success and the outcome reveals which one it is.

Our understanding of space time shows how speed and movement affect time, therefore space must be relative too. Space is not empty and full of air, physics describes it as a fabric where everything is interwoven within it. Gravitational redshift shows how large bodies 'pull' on the fabric of space.

Whether your eyes are opened or closed, you are a part of something bigger than you.

Life is a Verb, and Not a Noun

Nouns describe things, while a verb describes action and movement. We attempt to describe life as if a fingernail on the left ring finger can be described in any other way than something that is growing over time. There is not one aspect of our body that is stagnant in time or independent from the environment in which we live.

Survival is so deeply ingrained in our nature that events are observed in relation to the threat they pose. A red, round object appears to our senses. Memory interprets it is a ball. Memory also determines how a ball might hit us in the face. We observe its trajectory, and dismiss it. We move on to the next threat.

Our defense mechanisms organize patterns of thought meant to measure which situation requires our attention. Because of this, we are focused on negative and not positive outcomes. We become trapped in judgment and classify life as "the other" or "that thing" that is working against our success. We start to interpret life as a noun, and nouns are "not us."

But life is more like a verb, and expresses endless movement. When we change how we classify life, it changes how life feels to us. Do you accept, admire, flow and play, or do you admonish, defend, plead and suffer? Thinking about the meaning of life is like attempting to find a purpose for your fingernail. You can come up with something, but it will only be part of the story.

When you stroke the fabric of life with your beliefs, it responds with a distinct resonance.

Life is Digested

We have perceptive faculties that take in new information. We develop a type of common sense that protects us from environmental threats. When there are no threats, the mind can retreat into the imagination to ponder bigger ideas. What ideas do you ponder? Do you ponder the possibility of new threats, or are you imagining ways to be nourished by life?

Dreaming is similar to digestion. The stomach is the space between eating and food digestion. The stomach allows the intestines to sort out nutritious input from waste. While it is doing this work, the intestines are detached from what we are putting in the mouth. When we dream, ego and it's fears are diminished while we imaginatively explore possibilities for growth.

Imagine walking down the street and attempting to disseminate perception from memory, common sense, or reverie, while ignoring the neighbor and the sound of his lawnmower. Thinking about what we are thinking presents enormous challenges. Yet, while we sleep, there is no external input. The mind is able to process ideas that support our well being, while eliminating those that inhibit growth.

Like the immune system, nature gave us mechanisms to achieve wellness without conscious input.

Life is Boundless

We are part of one giant fabric of interconnectivity. God is the word we use when attempting to hold the idea of infinity within the mind. If we could glimpse the entire fabric, we would see 'action at a distance' or how the smallest of changes ripple out to affect everything else. Just as we cannot say definitively what orchestrates life, we cannot separate it into tiny 'word symbols' that only acknowledge the human portion of this interconnectivity.

Consciousness develops with language, and both break the world into symbols in a way that is not an accurate description of what life is. People don't agree on how events play out because they can only see experience in terms of what they know.

The dreaming mind will take the fodder of experience, but it will never replay it exactly. Rather than sensory input, the dreaming mind pulls from the formative patterns swirling in the collective unconscious too. The dreaming mind is inspired by the consciousness of something larger.

Life's circle of growth and decline are observable everywhere. Judging the collapse as being anything other than the preparation for new growth is the folly of the human mind.

No matter where you are on a circle, everything is on an upward trajectory.

Take a breath and feel your connection to everything around you.

The Circle Path has only one center: you.