It is in mastering our thoughts that we master the universe. Thoughts are the masculine, electrical component of the universe and, combined with feelings, which are the magnetic, feminine component, create reality. In other words, thoughts fall into the reservoir of the heart and act upon the substance of things hoped for.

Thoughts arise as a reaction against life. They rise like waves as we swim against the current of the river of life that flows like a series of events through our day. Fools react. Masters respond with impeccability to each moment. As we realize that the only thing we can control is our response, moment by moment, to that which we masterfully manifest in accordance with the divine blueprint for our specific destiny we have agreed to fulfill - the "I am that I am" covenant - we cease to strive. We cease trying to live in the future, but let the future come to us, realizing that a planned future is a closed future. If we live each moment anticipating the future, but the future is shaped by the moment, where will the future come from?

Bringing our thoughts into stillness brings our life into a state of grace where all things effortlessly fall into place. When our thoughts dart like hares across the field of our mind, our clarity of perception is disturbed and we haphazardly create our reality. Thoughts pull us out of the moment into the immediate future or past. Time travels like the spiral of a flat, horizontal figure eight. The future lies in a clockwise spiral before us; the past in a counterclockwise spiral behind us. The place where we've been on this loop we shall be again and where we're going, we've already been, except that each time we spiral at a higher level of experience. Envision the central crossing point of the infinity loop of time as being behind the navel where your life-force centre is located. When you live in the now, you're living in your life-force; in your place of power where masters live.

There are many tools available to still the clamour of thoughts and bring us into the place of pure experience. This is one of the functions of ritual (ritual also accesses a larger group-soul bound by a similar purpose to enhance the power behind intent and serves as a bridge between kingdoms, such as the human and nature kingdoms). Meditation is also used to acquaint us with this place of stillness and surrender. Unfortunately, with the usual human proclivity to complicate things to the point of getting lost in a web of intricacies, that which was meant to show the way, instead became the way. Meditation became the end goal instead of living in meditation through directed attention and focus on the present moment.

The left brain in particular has usurped its position. It was meant as an organ, to organize information, but instead became the tyrannical master of our life. It was meant to tell us what actual forces were at work behind the occurrences of our life, so that we would not become distracted by our experiences but see beyond them to what they symbolize. Instead of seeing behind the appearances to that which is real, Newtonian physics has distorted the view of the magic behind life until we've come to believe that only that which can be experienced by our senses is real. Due to the peculiarities of our perception, the universe appears to be an unalterable and fixed maze through which we have to find our way without a guidebook; hence we spend our lives searching for truth. If different peculiarities of perception come into play, however, we see that the universe responds to our thoughts and feelings; that truth is what a person of knowledge brings to every moment. The goal is not to chase truth, but to create it.

The answer to setting us free from our fishbowl of limited perspective is to discard the belief systems which imprison us. There is a knowing that occurs when the mind's activities cease, which is generated by the god-mind, which is lodged in the cells. People are addicted to the need to know, whereas acknowledging that we don't know moves us into the present moment, the only door to reality. One of our greatest human myths is that there is a particular set of truths, whereas reality is only an interpretation we make. Although our beliefs sometimes help us make some sense of experiences in the physical world, they come at too great a cost: when we think we already know, we are unavailable to the new. It requires vigilance to keep the mind free from the illusory comfort of beliefs, and courage to experience fully all that the moment may bring, free from judgement and unencumbered by the weight of self-reflection. The rewards for such impeccability of thought is the emergence of the true instrument of knowing; the heart. We can only know that which we can feel. Our consciousness is determined by how many levels we can feel at once. When thoughts of fear arising from distorted belief systems are stilled (fears are in fact thoughts, though they masquerade as feelings), the true feelings of the heart will lead you on your highest path. As you relinquish your belief systems, you will step through the iron doors before you into the aliveness of life, into the unexpected and the new, into the unknown where all true wisdom is found.

Almine Barton, Spiritual Journeys, 130 NW 19th, Suite A-137, Newport, OR 97365. Phone: (541) 574-6805, FAX: (541) 574-0125. E-mail: theangels@spiritualjourneys.com Web Site: www.spiritualjourneys.com