Because our past and our future play such an
important role at the instant of death, the Medicine Wheel is the ideal
platform for isolating these important influences. But I'm not sure how to get
into the topic of death unless I talk about Time, and how it influences our
consciousness. We need to remember that consciousness is only an eye of
Awareness. It came into existence as a
result of Time.
At the heart of Creation time as we know it does not exist. The heart of
Creation exists in a state of timelessness. It is eternal because it is related
to infinity. Time has to be understood
as an illusion, before the meaning of death and “eternal life” can become
clear. The only way to do so is to step outside the boundaries of time - If
time is nothing but a series of intermittent nows, yesterday's nows, and
tomorrow's now, must exist side by side at the heart of Creation. The Past must
still be around, and the Future must be accessible.
When time came into existence, the past and the future became aspects of
the ‘now’ moment (because the heart of Creation remains in a state of
timelessness). Both the Passed and the Future however, can reach us through the
dream world (as well as our left sided intuitive awareness). The past is
accessible to us through our ancestors, and the state of our future depends on
how willing we are to listen to the voices of the Passed - our intuition. Some people like to equate this to the Voice of God.
If the past and the future exist simultaneously in the ‘now’ moment,
perhaps there is a state of mind which can overcome time? I thought about awareness and consciousness.
Awareness and consciousness are two different things. I described how awareness
came about "In the Beginning", but I didn't describe how those first
'specks' of awareness became fully conscious.
We'll have to go back to the Beginning:
At one time we were all one, all part of the Creator, who exists at the
heart of creation. (We're still All One, we’re just not aware of it). But when
He started to create, His eternal Light started to spread throughout His
creation. This is when the individual specks of awareness came into being. Any
part that breaks away from the Original contains all the attributes of the
original - The individual specks remain Eternal.
When the Crystalline exploded, ‘sparks’ of Eternal Light spread through
the darkness, and since they were confined to the same Medium (the “turtle
soup”), they developed a kind of group awareness. They were able to sense each
other because they shared the same Medium. I believe this was the beginning of
group awareness in the Universe, the beginning of
the Spirit World.
But once things started to move, the individual “I”s got disoriented
because their field of reference was suddenly disrupted. They lost touch with their connecting
medium, and as a result, a primitive sort of consciousness came into
being. Here's why . . .
Because the experience of separation was so dramatic for them, an 'eye'
or outlet of awareness came into being, in order that their feeling of
disorientation could be stabilized. It sounds bizarre, but I believe that's the
case. 
Consciousness is nothing more than an outlet of inner awareness, having
three components, past, present and future, which were incorporated into our Larger Being as aspects of
consciousness. It's because of confusion that consciousness came into being.
The past and the future got incorporated into our minds as aspects of
consciousness - The past is still accessible through our memory, and we
anticipate the future, we have hope.
Although the past (memory) and the future (hope) are not here now, they
are in fact an important influence in our lives. Believe it or not, they can pack just as much power as if they
are real, as if they are now.
Past ‘nows’ and future ‘nows’ can influence us, because the center of our
awareness exists in all three states simultaneously. The center of our
awareness exists in a state of timelessness. Hence the eye of awareness is
really only an individual attribute.
What does that say about our makeup?
There are two types of awareness’ within each of us, the unmoving all
knowing subconscious mind, and the intermittent conscious mind. The phases of
intermittent ‘now’s (consciousness) that we experience as days get incorporated
into our subconscious mind as phases of awareness having three components -
past, present and future.
In the Larger Being of the
world the same relationship exists. We are the past, present and future of the
Creator. We are the same 'specks' of
eternal Light that came into being with the Creator - The Creator is our past,
present and our future.
Since the Creator is connected to everyone at the same time, the passed
are able to come through to us, through our subconscious mind - our ancestors,
our memory. Our future potential on the other hand, comes to us through hope -
potential life scripts. Dreams are the hidden messengers of those two
influences.
While in the physical body we are in a state of ‘illusion’, because we
are separated from the One Awareness. Our inner awareness provides us with an
external form of awareness known as consciousness, but it is not an all-knowing
awareness. Our inner awareness is doing all the things necessary to keep us
alive, but we’re not always aware of ‘it’, because we are conscious beings -
conscious for the time being. I believe that my inner awareness is
smarter than I.
Our inner awareness is not accessible to us except in a moment of
timelessness. Timelessness can only be reached by extending our awareness
beyond the boundaries of consciousness. Some people have managed to do this
through meditation, others are managing to stay in the now moment, by keeping
their lives immediate.
Since our inner awareness is directly connected to our past and our
future, it's easy to get absorbed by it, especially if we have an undesirable
past. It is possible to overcome this obsession, but it requires a certain
state of mind, a certain exercise of the will. I believe the essence of that
exercise is portrayed in the Byzantine mosaic on p. 170. Timelessness can be
attained, if we know how to capture and maintain the ‘now’ moment.
So it may be true, we probably can influence the state of our being, by
maintaining a healthy balance between all aspects of our character. If our past
is preventing us from moving on, now is the time to change. Our understanding
of all the influences surrounding us is what's going to determine how we pass
through the dying tunnel. If our slate
isn't clean, we're going to be in trouble.
The present moment (Now) can't possibly develop full potential, unless
the other two components of our time are pure.
I said that our past as well as our future is accessible, however, since
they are not here now, they can only reach us as components (influences) in our
lives. I said that they can pack just as much power as the present because now
is now no matter what. (If we haven’t dealt with our past, those unresolved
issues will continue to affect us). This is why the drug experience is so
popular. The influences that surround us can become apparent - Presences of
mind.
The Judgment automatically happens when all
three components (past, present, and future) suddenly come into the forefront
(death). Judgment is not something we
can avoid. When we are passing through the dying tunnel, all our components
come up for review.
The past works through the Shadow, and the future comes to us through inspiration. One is the grim reminder, and the other, our
Future Potential. The voice of the Shadow becomes apparent to the degree we are
denying our life renewal. It's always
there, but those who are on the brink of doing themselves the greatest harm, are
aware of their Shadow to a larger degree.
I don't know why that is, perhaps the Passed are trying to help.
Our Future Potential can also become more apparent, if we respond to the
moments of inspiration in our lives.
Sometimes it's just a matter of listening to our hunches. Both the past and the future are accessible
as Presences of mind. They are two very powerful influences in our lives,
because they determine the direction we move in.
Together they provide us with a code of possibilities, which are stored
in the dream world - a set of personal guides, which exist in our Larger Being, and which can offer us a
series of choices - life choices. Such choices or possibilities are often
brought to our attention through our subconscious minds. Our subconscious mind
is linked to the Larger Being of our
world, who in turn, is linked to the Center of Creation - all Time, or
Eternity.
The reason our Ancestors are able to reach us, at critical times in our
life, is because they are also linked to Eternity. Even though they may be
living lives elsewhere now, their inner awareness is timeless, just like ours.
When our bodily functions shut down at night we drift into a timeless zone,
where a lot of inter-mingling takes place.
Life is really
like a piece of pie. When we place our life into the context of the whole pie,
our life is but a stage in the development of our spiritual maturity. You could slip through a number of pie
sections in one life, or you could do nothing.
I
dreamt I was coming down a mountain pass. There were beautiful meadows below
me, and in the distance a little village. Everything was crystal clear. A life
sized Eagle suddenly appeared, and stretched its wing out for me to see. I saw myself as a stick figure, superimposed
on the Eagle’s wing. I was moving from one section of the wing, to another. The
sections increased in clarity from the bottom up.
Later when I tried to analyze this dream, I realized that
I was probably stuck between one level of maturity and another. I thought the dream
might also represent passing from one life to another, because of the village
and the meadow.
I
think death is something like a new Meadow.
We arrive in a meadow and we have clarity, because our awareness is no
longer confined to the body, but I think there may be a price to pay for some
of us:
I dreamt I was in a large meadow
beside a dirt road. An East Indian
lady, in a large flowing dress, was standing in the wind, beside the road. I could see a Village below me, and in the
distance, the Ocean. I knew it was not Lytton. "Where is Lytton?" I asked her, all disoriented. I was getting quite frantic, despite the
beautiful scenery, and my extreme clarity of mind.
She tried to console me, took me by
the hand, and led me towards the Village.
She pointed to a building where the officials were, and said that I had
to go through there. I could see people
walking through, holding something out to the officials. When I came closer, I suddenly realized I
was going to get the strap, and woke up.
The Judgment is something like that. If you have to pay (harmed a lot of
people on your way) you have no one to meet you (no one familiar) and you have
to come before the officials. That's
why the phrase "Do onto others as you would have them do onto you" is
so important; no one comes out to meet a scoundrel.
I believe our global history falls under the influence of those same
components of time. The past and the
future pack power in relation to the present.
History has a way of coming back on us, if we don't deal with our
historical injustices.
