Charles T. Tart’s book, Waking Up, has been on my bookshelf for a while now. It caught my attention this morning because I’ve been thinking about which habits of being, thinking, perceiving, and feeling I want to break or change.
cultivating personal well-being and compassion
makes our efforts to create a more just world much more sustainable and joyful. When we lead from a place of wholeness instead of anger or ego, we inspire rather than divide. And in uplifting others, our own spirits soar ever higher!
Peace and justice work hand-in-hand; each makes the other possible over the long haul. As we build understanding between groups and dismantle systems of oppression, we also heal centuries-old wounds in the human family. With patience and care for all, a new legacy unfolds—one of cooperation over competition.
But we all get tired and overwhelmed sometimes! It’s important to check in with yourself and reconnect with your vision. Seek support from loved ones, and take time to renew your spirit. Do what feeds your soul, then return to inspire positive change once again. We’re in this together for the long haul, and with compassion as our fuel, anything is possible.
we tend to sleepwalk through life
We get caught up in familiar routines and habits without really thinking much about it. It’s like we’re wandering around in a bit of a daze, seeing the world through foggy glasses.
Deep down inside us there’s this other awareness that’s wanting to wake up and see things as they really are. Some part of ourselves that knows our usual perception of things is limited or distorted in certain ways.
Our experience of the world is always filtered through who we are as individuals. Our perspective gets shaped by our background, our interests, and our biases—the whole puzzle of fragments that makes up our identity.
we each see things
in our own way, but it’s often
not the full picture.
Waking up means seeing through the veil and confronting reality more directly. But it’s not just an intellectual thing; it’s about having the blinkers come off and really feeling that revelation vividly. It’s those “Ah ha!” moments when things suddenly make more sense and we see connections we missed before.
Part of waking up is recognising those filters we didn’t even know we had, whether from our culture, family background, or just habits of thinking, believing, seeing, perceiving, and feeling.
Seeing the filters for what they are opens up new possibilities. It’s like a whole new landscape emerges once we step outside of our narrow tunnels of perception.
And just like with creativity or personal growth, waking up is an ongoing journey, not a single destination. There are always deeper layers to explore and understand. Especially now with AI and all these new technologies offering us new lenses to see both the world and ourselves through.
As we wake up, we also have to think about how we want to shape reality collectively. Our own awakening is intertwined with that of others, and we each have a responsibility to contribute to humanity’s story moving forward. That includes considering ethical implications as technology blurs the boundaries between virtual and real.
Waking up is not just about seeing clearly, but about reimagining what could be possible without the old limits we took for granted. It means moving from passive observation to consciously participating in creation.
So how can we best put our awakened awareness into action? How do we want to steer this ship we’re all on into the future unfolding before us?
YOU CAN LOOK WITHIN TO SEEK THE LIGHT.
altered perception
The untamed wilderness called to me, away from the high-tech urban clutter. A refuge where I could wander, question everything I thought I knew about myself and my world. Society warned that ruin awaited me out there where order and conformity reigned supreme. Still I had to go.
I gaze inward, seeking to illuminate the contours of my psyche. My steps along this personal path seem singular, yet I suspect countless others traverse similar inner terrain. Each journey mirrors the traveller; where one may encounter quiet meadows, another finds turbulent seas.
As I walk on, the familiar gives way. Before me, the landscape of society frays into unknowns—here be dragons, warns the inner cartographer. And yet I venture forth, drawn by the call of self-knowledge. My guide? That inner flame sparks transformation.
This barren country has its nourishments, difficult though they may be to uncover. Within its starkness, I find freedom to question norms that bind identities to single stories. My steps echo those discordant myth-breakers who shatter tyrannies of assumed truth.
In the wastelands, strange visions arise unbidden. I ponder realities beyond the tangible, straying into metaphysical pastures. What lies beneath everyday existence? I trace the outlines of consciousness—that golden key that promises to unlock the doors of perception. If I could but grasp its essence, would I comprehend my own?
I wonder why the herd shrinks from these inward trails. Too easily, they refigure our selves, threaten the known. And what we know, we think we can control, while these inward selves obey no master. They emerge transformed from the chrysalis of introspection, demand change, and resist the security of certainty.
No map charts the path I take. Without a compass or company, each step carves its own direction. My soul, cloaked in silence, bears the cost of isolation. And yet, epiphanies blossom even here. Inwards courses understanding, not just of myself but that greater mystery: what it means to walk in human form.
My inward journeys recall cyberpunk’s nocturnal realm, where neon dreams and concrete nightmares entwine. Rebels against dystopia’s regimes, cyberpunk’s characters blaze trails of defiance, seeking sovereignty of identity and selfhood. Their journeys parallel mine—flights from enforced normality into risky realms of self-redefinition.
Sometimes the quest seems vain folly. What profit is in this turning away from mankind’s bustling, built-up thoroughfares? Those highways promise progress—or so goes the siren song. Yet I find myself rejecting that clarion call to participate, preferring the unaccompanied path.
For where the highway leads, I no longer care to follow. I have glimpsed the contours of my soul and, thereby, the fresh possibilities of my world. To choose conformity over self-knowledge? Craven to my mind. No, I press onward, inward, outward, and onward.
I realise now why the prospect of those inward journeys provoked such suspicion in people. Too disruptive, too dangerous in what they revealed. But I thirsted for danger, for tearing off the veils that blurred my vision.
awareness is
a shape-shifting spirit that dwells within us, casting its mystic glow across the landscape of our minds. At times, it takes on the voice of a wise oracle, revealing truths we have long forgotten. In other moments, it is a playful sprite, reflecting our experiences back to us through a fantastic kaleidoscope that fragments and transforms our very sense of reality.
We each carry unique portals within us—thresholds between the real world and the imaginary one awareness conjures. As we cross these portals, the spirit casts its magic, awakening dormant thoughts, unlocking hidden emotions, and illuminating the shadows where our biases lurk. Awareness has the power to bend the very fabric of our perspective, reshaping our outlook through its wizardry. The more we allow it to work its magic, the more of ourselves and the world around us we can see by its illuminating gaze.
In this modern age where technology and media weave their own spells around us, awareness enables us to peer behind the curtain and recognise the allure they dangle before us. Wielding its fantastical light, we can disentangle ourselves from false enchantments and step back into the realm of conscious clarity.
Awareness also lets us connect to others like sorcerers tapping into a collective dream. As we share our experiences, we create mystical bonds that unite our individual quests for meaning into a shared vision that can ripple outward, shifting perspective in others. In doing so, we can spark incredible transformations, as if our interwoven awareness itself is a magical wand changing not just ourselves, but the very essence of society.
The spirit beckons us forward to unleash its magic—to see through its eyes, transform with its power, and reconnect with truths long forgotten but ever waiting to be found again. Heed its call, unlock the portal within, and discover just how deep the rabbit hole goes. What fantastical adventures might we find through the magical spirit of awareness?
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