The Door to the Kingdom

A Psycho-spiritual assessment of human experience - using subjective science (or put another way - a whole lengthy post to point out the most simple thing - too simple - let me entertain you.)

Everything is a process - one major process - being the evolution of consciousness.
This evolution is unfolding in the eternal now.

Quite literally and emphatically - there is no time - only the process.
When we observe a clock - we are watching a process, nothing else.


Photo courtesy slipperybrick.com

Time is purely and entirely a perception.

The human brain has evolved, as part of the evolution of consciousness - we have evidence of its past stages.
It has evolved to support the being, surviving in its environment, being shaped by the gradual understanding of this environment, in terms of sensory cues, spatial awareness, gradual development of subconscious instincts etc - obviously an enormously complex process, a miracle of nature, but nonetheless - a part of the one process.
Important to this discourse is the fact that the brain (and mind) have evolved entirely in response to environmental cues and as such are finely tuned for this purpose - observation and survival in our perceived surroundings.
The brain has evolved, incorporating this understanding within its very design - as such, if you like it is "forward facing" "outward facing" - a finely tuned partner in conjuction with the physical sense organs.

Quite naturally, born into a human body, we adapt ourselves entirely around the sense of reality inherently projected into the mind - a sense of reality that is 100% the result of interaction with the environment.
The structure of our logic, our rationale, our understanding of space, our conceptualisation - prismatically refracting one whole experience into a myriad of compartmentalised moments, events, objects, ideas, theories etc. - the whole gamut of life, of experience - as interpreted by the mind.

As a rule - we learn to live with this CPU of the brain interpreting everything for us - the experience we are given is entirely, lock stock and barrel - the consequence of the mind.
It is important to fully realise that our entire sense of reality is entirely projected into our awareness by the mind.
Reality, as we know it, as we are so comfortable inhabiting, that we take so much for granted - is only a perception.
Therefore our very own reality is only conditional - it is a condition of the mind - and that is the process of the mind, taking place every second, minute - every hour of our lives.


Photo courtesy blogs.discovermagazine.com

However - that very time itself is a projection of the mind - it is purely a perception.
The mind, as it were - smudges the "now" - it draws the experience of the "now" imperceptably into subtle memory, creating a sense of continuity. We could not possibly survive very efficiently without that process - it is where all the cues for continuity exist - in the process of "now" becoming progressively replaced by more experiences of the now.
The process that is happening is continuity of consciousness - from within that "now" - there is no other time.
Our memory is our previous "nows" - stored as memory, perceived as "nows" gone by - it is the process of memory that is all - and it is that process which creates the perception of time.
Time is only that perception - the future exists as a projection of memory - into a presumption of there being a future - simply because we have presumed a past. The whole concept of time as passing, or being linear - is entirely only a perception - a process of the mind.
However - it is an enormously strong perception - one that is entirely believable - is not our whole life ordered by this "imaginary" time?
Are we not convinced we have a tomorrow - when the process continues evolving - the earth in its orbital process around the sun - time is a product of awareness and the process of the mind.

The problem we have in even imagining around this state of "no time" - is that "time" - being a perception - contains the implication of observation - even in our imagination - abstract thought.
Observation implies awareness.
We cannot conceive of unconsciousness - we cannot possibly imagine it - because the very act of imagining can only occur through consciousness.
As conscious beings - it is utterly impossible.


Photo courtesy mi2g.com

Why is all this necessary as an explanation before the Door to the Kingdom?

OK - I firmly believe that our lives are influenced by the fundamental substance of our being.
We form values involving love, liberty, the value of human life - because these represent some of the attributes of our fundamental being.
We strive for that liberty, for that love and joy that our fundamental being knows for itself - and these are manifest into our physical existence - intertwined with time and space.

As a result of the process of the mind - our firm and established belief in time - we are often separated from the awareness of being - by absorption in the consequences of the mind. We will often miss the subtle experience for the less subtle.
The subtle experience is that of awareness itself - easily obliterated by the colourful & busy world of the mind.

One result of this is that we have substituted a limited, relative perception of reality for an awareness of the infinite - within our own being.
This awareness is born from the eternal now - and constantly floods into our being - potential experience becoming actual experience.
That potential itself - as explained - is not a consequence of the process of the mind - therefore there is no time for this potential - only process.
Potential without time is infinite, eternal.
Process without time is infinite.
I cannot stress enough - time does not exist other than as a perception - a process of the mind.

Please pause at this point to realise how even our language refers to our total belief in the presumption of time.
The very words I use here - "constantly" "becoming" - even "now" itself. "Now" is perceived to be no more than a window, a moment of passing time - as if it were sandwiched somehow between the "past" and the "future."

A part of the reality that we experience as a result of the process of the mind - is relativity - where objects appear to exist in separation - a consequence also of the process of individuation - being born as individuals.
A part of that reality is that we strongly identify with that individuality.
As far as we can instinctively perceive (through the process of the mind in its normal mode of operation) we are indeed separate - why should we not identify ourselves as this individual?
Why not indeed - perfectly natural - individuality is our vehicle for experience.

Part of the relativity is our system of values, judgements, discriminations, polarities, affiliations, likes, dislikes - the mind has prismatically refracted one whole experience into many - many opportunities for choice.
Another part is our conceptualisation of reality into ideas of things, separate things, applying labels, names - further segregation that has been useful in the evolution of our understanding.
These processes are those of logic, language, rational, intellect etc. all themselves attributes of the one potential - but shaped and primed from our "forward facing" attitude towards life. Forward facing and completely intertwined with the minds own projection of time. These are all essential processes of our evolution, but we have now come to a turning point.


Photo courtesy allposters.co.uk

To see beyond the mind.

We should start to consider, that perhaps this door (a metaphor, obviously - for we have very few words to use as signposts in the realm of the unknown) - perhaps this "door" is one that we already have stepped through, on our journey from childhood.
When we stepped out of the kingdom and learned to live more and more identifying only with the conceptual world of the mind.
As our physical stature grew - our kingdom started to shrink.
When our infinite world started to feel the pinch of definition.
We should think of this as the front door to the mind - the back door is the one facing outwards and forwards - through the senses.

Instinctively, and completely naturally - something that we entirely accept as intrinsic to our reality - is conditionality.
The way we perceive ourselves - our self awareness of ourselves - is conditioned by the process of the mind itself.
There is great wisdom in Judge not, lest ye be judged - it is the same value system that we apply to our environment that we apply to ourselves - our value system that has been moulded entirely by our perception of the physical world.
This gives us a very restricted vision of who we actually are - remember - our perception is our reality all the time we are interfacing with the CPU.
How can we observe ourselves without intercepting these limits, these conditions?

We import into our subtle but influential perception of ourselves, the "memory" of our physicality, endorsed by our sensory perception of our fellow human beings.
Our perception of ourselves is that we are restricted to the confines of a physical body.

Just to show you how crazy this can get - your perception of the top of your head - exists for you inside your head - where your awareness interfaces with the CPU.
Your perception of the soles of your feet exists inside your head.
Critically - your perception of inside your head - exists only as a perception - inside your head.
So - where is it really?

This awareness - this mind?

Observe - it can only be inside your head - if you remember your head - and presume.
It can only be inside your body - if you remember your body - and presume.
In fact - you cannot say "where it is" - you cannot confine yourself to a space at all.
Sense your being - feel it - become familiar with the dimensions.
How big - how small?
Unanswerable.
Where?
It is all over you - you are all over it - the same - we cannot relate our being to anything we have taught ourselves from merely observing the "physical world."
It is in a different realm - the kingdom.

When we close our eyes, all of a sudden - we project the perception that we are now "inside our head" somewhere - but all we have done is close our eyes.
We remember the perception of our head, or body - and presume the rest - based on the process of the mind.

I hope you are following this - it's all very practical - please try it.

In other words - eliminate the subtle but influential presumptions based on our "physical logic" - and we are in a completely unknown dimension.
Where is your mind?
All around you?
Can you hear it telling you who you are, who you think you are?
That is all presumption - perception - it is not as real as you may believe.


Something else that we import into our perception of ourselves is our projection of time, interpreting the process of life, of growing, physical change - as being "time based."
Convinced that we have a limited "time" - happiness becomes our treasure - reinforced by the pleasure principal itself - reinforced by our fundamental substance being attracted to joyful experiences - reinforced by nature's tendency for balance and harmony - happiness, contentment become permanent goals in our lives.
Some may balk at that idea, in denial - believing that some conceptualisation of altruistic value actually transcends this fact. That is probably a concept that is muddled by old fashioned moralistic dogma. It is a myth.
Human beings seek happiness - a basic tendency - which we recognise in others - and gives us our basis of morality.

Because of the process of the mind - our happiness is sought linearly, intertwined with our projection of time.
This allows us to ignore happiness, temporarily - believing as we do that it exists in our "projected future."
From long term projections, to really subtle projections, we defer our happiness from the "now" - into a mythical future - because we are speeding along inside the hamster wheel - our mind - the imaginary scenery being scrolled past - like in the old movies.
What Carlos Castaneda wrote about "stopping the world" - is exactly this - stopping that hamster wheel - even for a moment - to glimpse the reality - the reality of our own being.


Photo courtesy essence-of-reality.blogspot.com

To know that we are indeed, truly infinite beings - in fact - that we are all the one infinite being - the whole, the all - separation is not the reality - nor indeed is our limited perception of ourselves, who we truly are.
This is the eternal truth - hard to believe - but that just goes to show how pervasive our perceived sense of reality is - it's utterly convincing isn't it?
Yes - until you see beyond that projection.

To know that in the "now" - the only place that exists - lies the ability to observe the temptations of the hamster wheel - the lures of future happiness - the discontent that awaits a future resolution that will never come - all the colours of the rainbow, refracted from the one whole experience of that "now" - that allow us the projection of "choice" - but also separation, segregation, likes, dislikes.
All that becomes united in the "now" - as one experience - in which one has real choice - to obey the dictates of the mind or not - to be dragged by the mind back onto its hamster wheel - or not - if you can only stay in the "now" - where your awareness of infinity affords you such an amazing experience of abundance, of true cosmic mystery - to know - beyond any doubt (which only exists in the mind) of your being - your home - the universe in its awesome majesty - is all there - for this short journey on earth.
Such a sense of peace and fulfillment - to feel that abundance - to feel that unity with everything - it is there in that "now."

There are no negatives in that world, there is nothing lacking - nothing that cannot be.
Only fullness, continuance of completion.
There is only the gift of this awesome reality.

Where is the door?

Acceptance - deep, willfull acceptance.
Acceptance beyond effort, beyond the struggle to be - because your being already is.
Accept this gift.
Your being is calling out to become whole with itself - listen to its cries.
Accept - relax - gradually stop the hamster wheel - sink back into the "now" - sink back into awareness - it's always there - that awareness isn't going anywhere - ever - there is no place for it to go - there is no "time" for it to go - it always is - it is you - me - everything - your eternal home - your infinite being.
It can only be forgotten while believing in the fairytale of "time."
Open yourself up with gratitude - to the abundance of life - of existence - the complete and utter unknown - that is the reality of this experience on earth.
Forget the explanations - the excuses - don't put it off - it is "now."
Forget the theories - you are not a theory - you are a human being - this is your birthright - this experience.

Gratitude - humility - awareness - being.

The mystery of stillness - is utterly profound.

Try it.

Peace and love to all.

Exposure

I want to use the metaphor of a movie camera (the old type) - containing a reel of film to explain, in conceptual terms (because how else can something be explained?) the mechanics of experience.


Photo courtesy filmgeek

The point at which the unexposed film becomes exposed to the data from the lense is our now.
This now is a constant point - the unexposed film is continuously passing that point of exposure - changing from unexposed to exposed - changing from the unknown into the known.
Our awareness of now is created at that moment - at the threshold of change - it exists, if you like, as a realisation of the contrast between the unknown and the known.

By reviewing the exposed footage (our experiences - in memory) we conceptualise time. We presume that this footage represents the past - only because of this conceptualisation - and we deduce a future from this - unaware that our concept of time is purely a deduction, a presumption.
Whereas in reality - there is only the now - the point of exposure - where the unknown changes into the known.
That unknown is pure potential - potential experience - consciousness.
It is possible for the mind (the lense) to look into that unknown - by focusing the point of experience on itself - by observing experience as it changes from potential to actuality.

However - for most of the time, life has a quality of "double-exposure" to it.
Not quite the new experience it should be.
That is because we literally are looking at all of the new experiences through the reference of the old - we experience the present - the unknown, veiled with a filter of conceptual thought - the known.

How can any evaluation deduced from experience (conceptualisation) be in any way valid in trying to put the unknown in any context whatsoever?
We cannot measure the unknown by the known - it cannot have a context that we could possibly understand from the perspective of the known. Therefore it cannot have a context - other than its own, known only to itself.

We can make guesses as to the context - desire for experience, for life, for love - for lessons - but, still - they are all subject to our own perspective.

Now - having explained the mechanics of this process - in a totally conceptual, metaphorical way - let's look a bit closer at the reality - our being.

We constantly refer to the known - it is our library of experience - we identify with that known - but it is quite clear that the root of our identity is in the unknown.
Without the potential experience - there would be no experience.


Photo courtesy abgoodwin

Rather than being "film" - potential experience, consciousness is flooding into us, like light from an inner sun, it again experiences the known, the only just known, the long known, by experiencing our conceptual mind. However the experience itself is happening in the only place it can happen - the now - where potential experience is becoming actual.

Like flowing water and ice - it is all essentially water - but the fresh water, constantly bubbles up from a distant, eternal spring and the mind turns it into a progressively expanding glacier - that we experience slowly sliding away from us - into what we imagine is our past.


Photo courtesy geography-site

However that is the only place a past exists - in that glacier of the known - likewise its presumptive projection - the future.
Our real "future" - exists as pure potential.

Why is it so critical that we establish, for ourselves, individually - the root of our identity?

Let me make a critical distinction here - hopefully readers will see that this is all practical, not theoretical - and can be experienced, observed for themselves with suitable attention.
What we commonly mistake for "the experience" - is really "the experienced."
We confuse the subject (the experiencer - true identity of awareness itself) with the object (the detail of the experience) - although both are simultaneous and co-dependent.

To realise, unequivocally, beyond doubt - that true identity is the experience of awareness itself - fundamentally the potential for experience - will allow us to become progressively detached from identifying - ie. putting extravagent value, on the completely diverse range of "experienced" (objects of experience) - that make our individual journeys so distinctive and uniquely colourful.

When we look at the "experienced" - we find that there lies the cause for all separation - starting with the fact that all of the "experienced" involves an individual and completely autonomous "physical" body - and that is just the start.
All of our values (including the base value of identity) all of our beliefs, concepts, paradigms - everything - in toto - exist in the "experienced" - the known.
Many values we will find in common - we can share - but so many others, divide us - because we have attached our identity to them, and not where it belongs.

This is not belittling the experience of individuality at all - in fact it puts it in higher relief than ever before - as we begin to understand how bizarre, how intricate, how cosmically humorous, the nature of this reality actually is.
It does not belittle the experience at all - it magnifies it to its true proportion - it allows us a true sense of perspective - at last - a common perspective - shared, experienced at the base level of human life.
Simply by observing and understanding the significance of the observation.
Observing the unknown become the known.
By complete acceptance of our own being - we can allow the glacier to softly slide aside for a while.
Obviously the unknown is beyond categories of thought - and applies equally to the believer, the non-believer (I didn't say what the belief or non-belief was - there are potentially an infinite amount) - the milkman, the millionaire, princes, paupers - across the whole spectrum.

Simply by honestly observing the nature of experience - in oneself.

Inside - Outside?

This is the key question - are we "innies" or "outies" - and the answer will only arrive through contemplation of one's navel.

Seriously though - I have been thinking about this.


Photo courtesy vindon.co.uk

We are born into the constraints of our reality (our human body) - our reality is delineated by those constraints - and we cannot see outside those constraints.

Understanding what those constraints are however - can illuminate the answer to this question.

Because our equipment (senses - brain) is so seamlessly efficient and works so incredibly well - and importantly we have learned to exist and co-operate with them, we have never had cause or reason to question or to actually explore the nature of our inner environment.
We take it completely for granted and just carry on with our lives - believing that we have a direct interface with a solid, physical reality - out there in front of us, below us, around us.

Now all of this can be confirmed subjectively - by anyone.

Our identity is rooted in awareness.
It exists inside a panorama of thought.


Photo courtesy dailygalaxy

Despite learning that in fact we have a brain - we do not subjectively experience our brain - I have never seen my brain.
We experience within a panorama of understanding presented in the mind - we conceptualise from within this panorama.
Usually, when we are conscious of it - thought implies a conceptual "identity" thinking - inside this panorama - a sort of "avatar" - I suppose - but nevertheless, our entire sense of reality is created by the mind - in conjunction with awareness.
This is the holistic experience - relevent to a human being - much more so than any pretence at objectivity.

The panorama of thought is a representation of the consequences of the brain. For our awareness - in terms of the conclusions and assumptions made by the brain - interpreted into an understanding, this is our entire sense of reality. The world we live in. The brain provides the meaning to the data it receives through the sensory organs - which the mind knows as thought.
We are so convinved that we are dealing with "reality" - out there - but we are actually living in a world of thought - because of course - that is our reality.
That is the nature of our reality.
A world which from birth to death, we are so convinced exists "out there" - does not in fact exist out there as far as our actual awareness is concerned.
It exists inside the mind - it is a panorama of thought - incorporating everything that we know or have known.
Our entire existence has been unfolding for us at this point of interface between awareness and thought.
However - because the integration is so seamless - and because it is the only reality we have ever known - it is our normality - we totally accept it - no questions asked.

It is the brain and the ear which transform the consequences of air pressure into sound for our awareness - which in turn gets transformed into the separate conceptualisation of sound - in our conceptual thoughts.
It is as a consequence of light hitting the eye - inverted by the brain - that we see - that we have a picture in our mind - comprised of understanding relative to our environment.

With a different brain, with different eyes or ears - our world would be different - yet to us, it would be our normality - hence our reality.
Similarly - if the same data were input into our brain, representing any given sensory data, an experience could be totally replicated - yet different from the actuality of the physical environment.

Although this is a model of our reality - we can easily see the similarities between this model and what we know as "virtual reality."


Photo courtesy futureupdate

Why is this pertinent?

It is so pertinent because the presences in our reality are manifold - they are not limited to representations of just our physical environment - but of every single aspect of our lives. Wall to wall.
We perceive objects as thoughts.
We perceive other people as thoughts.
Our feelings, our reactions are all conceptualised into this inner environment - so critically interactions in our environment affect our emotions - our environment contains desire and fear, likes and dislikes.
It exists completely as conceptual thought - as a result, everything will have an opposite - presenting us with choice - with preferences. Our inner environment is entirely created from thought and concepts - so our conceptualised emotions impact on our reality as well.

Our judgements, our thoughts, our emotions - all perceived as conceptual thought will impact directly and immediately on our total paradigm of reality - just as our reality is created immediately and directly (as far as we can perceive) in our thoughts - it is a two way street - but a street that doesn't lead anywhere "out there" - it is all at the interface between awareness and thought.

So the answer to the question as to which effects which - inner or outer.
The truth is that as far as our experience goes (which is our reality as human beings) - there is no outer.
It is only a perception - a perception that exists in thought alone - and an emotional perception that is changed by thought alone.

We are aware that data is streaming through our sensory organs - but we construe that data as the concepts and "reality" presented by the mind - and that is the world we live in.
The concepts in turn - lead us to believe in duality, in opposites - there is no duality in the data itself.

That is the nature of our reality - our life is awareness - our identity is awareness - and that is how we interface with our environment, by bringing the environment inside and letting us re-create it according to choice.


Photo courtesy kreations.net

It is only our conceptualisation itself that creates the divisions inner and outer - therefore using them as terms of reference is misleading.

Nobody who doesn't understand this nature of reality can have a conscious choice to change their inner environment, although the same rules operate - when they think they are happy, their world temporarily changes - as their reality is fixed for them by accepting the environment and conditions as real - which, therefore they are. Real is only permanent if no change is possible. This acceptance over-rides any conscious contributions they may from time to time just wish for themselves. So you can see - to a great extent our "reality" is formed and transfixed by our environment - but it exists only as our inner awareness of it inside our world of thought.

What is transformed is the perception of reality - as an inner environment existing entirely in conceptual thought.
As such, and very really, our perception represents the totality of our reality.
This is not the same as being able to manipulate "matter" - but that our world is only our conceptual interpretation and understanding of it - and it does not exist anywhere else - as far as we are concerned.
We cannot take a short cut to our environment which circumnavigates the mind and the sense organs.

Relaxing In The Paradigm

Whatever "sense" we make out of our take on reality, I feel that somehow we have to arrive at a balance that allows us to continue with some degree of acceptance.


Photo courtesy fineartamerica

Possibly, by being partial in our observations our paradigm is being constantly created from a selective source of information.
The constraints already imposed on us by the equipment of our "physical" body already act as a filter on our perception, combined with the restraining, limiting perspectives we cause ourselves by viewing reality through a selective range of conceptualisations and frames of reference.

For some of us, our paradigm, the residual effect of our worldview, may be more or less influenced by politics, by religion, by scientific study, by psychology, by philosophy and also profoundly by our interaction with our fellow beings and by our observations of ourselves.

Perhaps the summation of these influences leads us to adopt one of two basic stances - that we see the world as a hostile place, requiring defensiveness, suspicion, security - a conclusion of fear.
Or that we see the world as a friendly place, inviting openness, trust and liberty - a conclusion of love.


Photo courtesy gilbertmaui

I feel that these run so deep within us that although we assimilate and compensate in order to create that balance within our being - they nevertheless influence our entire perspective - even as we relax within the arms of our paradigm.

So strong is the influence of this basic stance that it puts a bias upon all new information absorbed - because we have to assimilate that information somehow into an already established balance.
In other words, we subjectively distort information, shaping it to fit within a context already allowed for, by our own paradigm.

All this takes place in the realms of emotion and thought.
We are obsessed by a compulsion to balance - to create equilibrium.
In most cases I think we acheive this - we are able to continue with our lives - carrying around this sense of emotional and psychological balance.


Photo courtesy creativecow.net

Where does the compulsion for this balance originate?
Not from the paradigm itself, but from the emotional needs of our being.
Those emotional needs, although influenced by the paradigm itself, are shaped by their own requirement of balance and equilibrium.
In fact they are almost exclusively the motivating force for anything we do - and are themselves responsible for how our paradigm has been shaped.

We cannot therefore hope to reshape our world view, our paradigm and the basic emotional attitude we adopt unless we can somehow input into those emotions themselves.
Aptly demonstrated by what happens when we "fall in love" - the world becomes a different place.

At this point we enter a closed circle - our emotions are conditioned by our paradigm - and our paradigm is in turn influenced by our emotions.
Neither are free to change.

We need to find a source of inspiration, that has not yet been consumed, rendered impotent - by being absorbed into our conceptually defined world view.
We need to find a source of inspiration outside of the limited emotions that are conditioned by that world view.

Without this constant source - to take us from wherever we are, emotionally, conceptually - to somewhere else - we will remain forever defined and therefore dead.


Photo courtesy angelinoview

We need to open a window to the unknown.
We need to plug ourselves in to that indefinable mystery, that constant source of awe and mind-numbing majesty - our being.
Realising that each moment is in fact new - that we enter the unknown every second - with each beat of the heart, with each breath - we are on a journey into the unknown. Everything we do is completely at the mercy of a totally uncomprehendable universal law - allowing existence. Everything we think is only possible because of that law - a whole law - of which we have observed the merest, tiniest fraction - and in our conceit - we call it knowledge.
What else is capable of inspiring our hearts and minds?
Filling our hearts?

We are all entering this unknown together - right here - right now.
By reflection on that, within oursleves - we can find a very real unity.

Part of our paradigm is an acute awareness of death.
More than anything else perhaps, death represents the unknown.
Life - we think we can handle - we think we've understood, we have created our securities while we are here, by transforming the unknown into the known, precisely to defend us from realities like death.


Photo courtesy deviantart.com


Our awareness of death creates a division in our being - like a scalpel cutting through reality - on one side, fear and negativity - on the other, love and positivity.
Our attitudes, our stance exist somewhere along the line stretching between those two conceptual poles - as positive acceptance or negative resistance - likes or dislikes - we draw our personalities with a matrix of these lines.

On closer examination however - we will find that although these poles exist (conceptually) they are unified by the actual concept itself.
We tend to ignore that unity.

For example - without death (which is really one end of the line - "physical life") - what we conceptually visualise as its opposite - life - could not exist. It would be absolutely devoid of meaning, of value. There would be no compulsion, no motivation, no recognition. In fact death defines life - birth and death being the two ends of that conceptual line. Without two ends - we could not know it as life - as anything.

The same applies to any other polarities we care to think about - they are born out of the polarity of life and death.

They are the relative attribute of existence that allows it to be known.

However it is crucial to understand that all polarities only exist in conceptual thought - in reality they are united as one attribute.
For example - black and white - the same attribute of reflectivity of light.
Loud and soft - the same attribute of pressure waves causing sound.
Pleasure and pain - the same attribute of physical/emotional sensation.

If we are honest with our awareness - we can experience this.
Total acceptance of our being implies being absolutely honest with ourselves - simply observing and letting be.

The polarised, conceptual nature of reality is essential for accumulating understanding.
By pulling separate conceptual threads from the weave - and viewing them from a limited perspective - it can give rise to an understanding - but only an understanding that is of value to that particular perspective.
It is a piecemeal understanding - arrived from observation - this we call "knowing."

However there is another form of understanding - another form of knowing - beyond the capacity of logic and reason.

Our conceptual "knowledge" although useful, is second-hand knowledge, piecemeal and from observation only - and is exclusively human in relevence and origin.


Photo courtesy uweb.ucsb.edu

There is another form of knowledge - whole - first-hand, and creational in its relevence and origin.

Our second-hand knowledge cannot create - only conceptually can it create - so really it can only re-create, re-fashion what is already there.
First-hand creational knowledge - well - it's obvious isn't it - is behind, within creation - and importantly it is whole - or reality would not exist.

By stepping aside from our conceptual view - we can enter into this wholeness - this newness every moment - as we are constantly being sustained by that whole law.
By simply being aware - here - now - without judgement - without conceptualisation - without trying to understand.

Total acceptance of our being - by accepting ourselves, completely, absolutely, individually - we are automatically accepting the entirety of existence - for it is one and the same.