I was born with less than perfect eyesight. As a kid, I wore very thick glasses to correct my football-shaped eyeballs, otherwise known as myopia or nearsightedness.
Over the years I’ve managed by wearing contact lenses as they work well for near-sighted people. But lately I’ve been having issues with my eyes.
Because of extreme myopia the retinas get stretched to the point where my vision becomes severely distorted.
Imagine stretching a ladies nylon stocking until it breaks apart or tears. That’s what happened to the retina in my right eye. It has stretched to the extent where I can no longer use it. I’m legally blind in that eye.
I woke up the other day and noticed my good eye starting to distort and fade. Alarmed at losing my eyesight I called my retinal specialist. There’s not much they can do because my condition is essentially anatomical.
Looking Within
Losing your eyesight is probably one of the scariest things one can face in a lifetime.
My future flashed before me and many questions arose in my mind. After a depressing hour that seemed like three hours, my vision suddenly returned almost back to normal.
For many years I’ve used prayer and mindfulness meditation as part of my personal daily self-care routine. It has become my “go-to” when times get tough so I closed my eyes and began to meditate.
After a while, I realized that I had two options: I could choose to be the victim or I could choose to accept and make the best of my situation. I choose the latter.
Looking out from my not-so-perfect eyeballs I see a world of form. But other worlds also come into view. Other than a heightened sense of smell, touch and hearing, new realities also appear.
Life is But a Dream
My 87 year old Dad says, “Life is just a dream.” I’m really starting to see things his way. I don’t think anything exists at all except in how we observe it into existence.
When I think of yesterday it seems like a dream. If I didn’t have photographs to remind me of the past I might end up forgetting a lot of what happened. Sometimes I’ll stop and scratch my head and ask myself, “Did that really happen?”
The future also seems like a dream. It doesn’t exist. It is a complete mystery.
As I get older, time seems to pick up speed. Sometimes it feels like I just woke up and then it’s time to go to bed. And by the way, where do you go during those eight hours you spend sleeping every night and how much of it do you spend dreaming?
Exploring Inner Space
I watched a documentary the other night and they talked about the number of galaxies in the Universe. The most current estimates guess that there are 100 to 200 billion galaxies in the Universe each of which has hundreds of billions of stars.
Wow! Try and wrap that reality around your mind!
We trust the Universe is “out there” because we can observe it through our eyes but it is more like a distant dream to me.
I find it interesting that we call whatever is “out there” outer space. Most of us will never travel to outer space and we rarely take time to explore the inner space of our own hearts and minds.
Energy Soup
When I think about the Universe I think of a big bowl of energy soup suspended in a state of infinite possibilities.
That’s also how I think of my mind, just one big bowl of infinite possibilities. I get to consciously choose any thought from that big bowl of possibilities.
In order to get something converted into physical reality I first have to dream, think, reflect or ponder. Depending on the strength and focus of my intention I can then choose to turn it into something real by taking action.
It Comes From Me
- It is ME who creates ALL my realities.
- It is ME who chooses between ALL possibilities.
- It is ME who brings my dreams into reality.
That means that I am solely responsible for everything that happened or will happen.
That means I am solely responsible for my failure, success, having a great or bad life, friends, a wife, talent and bad eyesight.
It’s a bit more complicated than that because karma also has something to say about the path your life will take.
This inspired me to write a song called, “It Comes From Me.”
One Reality: YOU
It’s important to remember that our lives are not only defined by what happens on the outside but also what happens on the inside.
In short, EVERYTHING exists in a state of pure potential, in a state of infinite possibilities. What becomes real is dependent on YOU the observer or YOU as consciousness.
All this may sound “woo-woo” but in actuality this is the more “real” of any discussion we could ever have.
I like this quote by Max Plank.
“As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force … We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.” Max Planck, Father of Quantum Physics, at speech at Florence, Italy, 1944
YOU ARE YOUR ATTENTION
Prayers are your powerful intentions and creations of reality. Whatever you put your attention on grows and what you take away from diminishes.
When you pray for someone, meditate first to clear your awareness. Get your mind out of the way, then trust and let go. See them in the highest of lights, whole and complete. I been doing this for years for my family, friends and the planet.
Whatever you choose to dream, think or pray about becomes your reality.
You are the creator of your dream life, you have choices. Choose as if your life depends on it.
Will I go blind?
Awareness is a funny thing. Mystics say that awareness is all there is. You are awareness.
Awareness can only exist in the present moment.
Awareness is becoming aware of itself, by itself, to itself.
I find that really funny.
It’s a cosmic joke.
Maybe my loss in vision reveals a depth in seeing that I wouldn’t be able to perceive otherwise.
It’s a serious thing to wake up and face our world consciously and effectively.
And yet I awaken each day in joy and laughter.
