To live an authentic life means that we are aware of the artificiality that our modern world is. We recognize that activities are routine and uncreative, and that an insensitive life is devoid of wisdom. It is through this realization process that we “first” become aware of the need to grow beyond our present structures – the edifices we have incorporated our lives into.

Awareness is first associated with frustration, restlessness and the accentuation of restrictions that block our evolution. At one point, our limitations felt protective, but now we feel restricted by this edifice. While familiarity breeds a false sense of security and many prefer to hang on to their restrictions rather than venturing into the unknown.  Instead, they live with their frustration rather than grow beyond it and become weaker, dependent and victim to forces. It is only by summing up the courage to pass through a period of vulnerability that we can break out of our protective shells and restrictive structure to progress into a more suitable environment. As we step forward to reassess our situation – to review the facts to yield further information, options, and understanding, we define inhibitors to our evolutionary cycle so that we move toward resolution and continued growth.

When we truly observe, we discover that we are all born into a world at a particular era in time with its indoctrination and conditioning filters that become patterns of our thinking in a certain way. That we conform to those societal value patterns and are duty bound according to what we are told to do in our jobs, by colleagues, our parents, man-made laws, the media, and so on, if we are to be part of the group. We enter realization that we are entirely dependent on a set of rules and values that we have accepted freely as our own, but have never questioned their integrity. That our knowledge is mostly transgenerational, passed down from other people’s knowing and nothing is direct from our own revelation of thought. And we stay in bondage to those beliefs and get caught up in the “me and mine” of divisive thinking. When we finally see that we have confined our realities to a very small sphere of existence with its greed and fear, wishing and wanting, always attached to some vested interest, we come to the necessary conclusion that we are dependent – that we have created our own victimhood by our attachments and limited scope of being. This is humanities limitation throughout the ages. It keeps the mind separated from reality and purpose that is to dissolve dark forces and bring the light of awareness upon falsehoods, so that we may live an effulgent life.

 These are only some of the appalling discoveries we have to make to wake up to a state that is not deceived. They are clearly issues of irresponsibility for failure to govern the law of one’s own being. Thus, it is important that we see fatigue, anxiety, insecurity, and unfulfillment for what it is – escapism via attachment. With responsibility for our lives, our ethics, and our virtue, there is no conformity. As we discover our own potential and relate with forces higher than manmade laws, we move out of limitation. The responsibility is ours to aspire higher.

Holding this in mind, we come to some kind of receptivity knowing that reactions arise from beliefs held, while awareness is never contaminated since it comes from the Soul. The awakened mind never deviates into abstract thought. The awakened state dissolves into attention, while thought does not have this capacity because thought is always a point of view and thus, of the ego-mind.

Alisa Battaglia, Florida, 2012