…awakening to unseen dimensions
As the dharma wanderer read once again his post Memories of Amy, he reflected on the uncertainty that each being faces as their life journey unfolds. There is such vast learning available for gleaning from the direct experience of life. There are new AI bots that use large language models gulping electrons of power beyond imagination. These offer synthesized answers to multiple sequential queries. And beyond the standard ones from all the tech biggies, another has arisen. One with remarkable utility and credibility. Perplexity.ai and its professional version provide research-based links to virtually any query. Recent queries for friends troubled by a variety of diseases listed almost twenty links to a single question.
These research-based “facts” provide a rational basis for adjusting to an ever-changing body exposed to toxins in the food, air and water. Beyond such apparent facts, though, might there be other dimensions of guidance, of knowing, of glimpses into the unknown?
This experiential domain has been worthy of investigation by the dharma wanderer for a half century or more. Explorations of consciousness can yield guidance that is testable by direct experience. Sensing and intuiting can be refined through trial and error. This enables a life-long learning process that goes beyond the digital realm into an ineffable space, indescribable, but worthy nonetheless.
There are mystics from all traditions who claim this is the reason we are here. To learn, to give and sometimes to receive. It is possible that our consciousness dives into the union of sperm and egg as our stem cells guide our exponential growth process. Then we are pushed into the light, clueless to that which surrounds us. That persists for much of our respective life journeys as hurdles, barriers, pain and suffering accumulate.
Those who are fortunate enough to awaken beyond a rational materialistic world view can discover a path toward decreased suffering, increased awareness and unexpected guidance. This can bring reassurance we are not alone, but are instead connected to a source of comfort and guidance. A safe place to be, even to thrive and then to give back so that all might join in the unitary space of wholeness.
For thousands of years multiple masters, shamans and mystics have explored such mystery and returned. It is a perennial truth that meditation and concentrated absorption facilitate such awakening, but this is not a requirement. There are many paths to an apparent final destination.
What arises after that apparent finality can be a beckoning mystery. Beliefs provide an answer, as does faith, but there may also arise something else. A series of deepening experiences that go beyond conceptual thought, stated belief, professed faith. These direct experiences can become teachable moments when they are reconsidered through reflection.
Chills, the warmth of an open heart, tingles up the spine, hairs on edge. All can be messages from the great beyond that penetrate an evolving consciousness. They are reminders of another dimension, a source of grace, of wisdom and loving kindness. Even more. This is the multidimensional nature of an expanding human journey.
Non human beings can also be our teachers. We can feel blessed by the grace of their open hearts. We can discover the nuances of their nonverbal communication. We can delight in their playfulness. We can remember the depth of our relationship when their physical presence has passed. We can honor that relationship in our memories.
May it be ever so.
ib
🙏💕🌎