Reclaiming our humanity, may be the single most important task for our species in these times. As we adults re discover this, then it can be kindled in our children and consciously lived again.    Darryl Pokea, Psy.D.

The Holidays & the Barrage of Intense Thoughts & Emotions

Dr. Darryl Pokea   ©All Rights Reserved

Every thought and feeling has energy effects upon the body. Understanding these relationships between mind and body is the heart of relaxed consciousness so we may live in a comfortable state of being. When we awaken to embracing these energies, we realize that we do not have to live in an endless barrage of negative thoughts and emotions.

Accompanying all the holiday expressions there is much sadness, fear and intense feelings of being alone. The many advertising paradigms appeal to these frequently silent lacks in our experience that interfere with further understanding who we really are. They promise the fulfillment of the body and mind through their products to fill the void in the profound experience of emptiness. As we recognize that fulfillment never arrives through the purchase of the advertised holiday merchandise, our thoughts and emotions enter even deeper emptiness, confusion and congestion. Luminous Consciousness dissipates all these unhealthy mind-sets by shining Light through all the clouds presented that hide our darkest perceptions and sense of lack within ourselves. All these processes are experienced proportionally both from within and without.

Our conscious attention in being attuned with ourselves is ever-changing and exchanging with the world without. To some extent, as we experience our inner world, we also realize that our feelings of loneliness parallel those same feelings in the outer world. We discover that feeling sadness, fear and loneliness are like waves running through both the ethers and ourselves. Many of our fellow human beings have lost their focus on humanity and the fundamental understanding that we human beings, and the many diverse life forms of being, are continually interacting in this existence together. The fear, sadness and loneliness are more than the sum of what we think are our own parts. These intensely interwoven experiences never need split us apart when we participate in Illuminated Consciousness.

We may always acknowledge our full range of feelings as all human beings must face them in solitude at One time or an Other. As we enter our sadness with our mind in a state of fully letting go, we begin to observe and watch our sadness. We realize that we are not our sadness, though we may now feel it intensely with the Light of understanding. With that Consciousness, we may more fully embrace the sadness, whether it originates inside us, outside us, or from both sources. As we more fully embrace the sadness in our self-discovery process, it will always eventually be balanced by proportional perceptions of joy. If we are in touch with our sadness, only in the most superficial ways, we will only be superficially in touch with its compliment, joy. Likewise as we embrace our sadness fully, we will experience the balance that also arrives in the fullness of joy.

These processes apply to all of our fears and all of our many constellations of thoughts and emotions that vibrate our very human being. If we embrace them all at once, it is quite challenging. We may be overwhelmed and thrown off balance as the fear, sadness and sense of aloneness seems to consume us. The merchants who present predatory advertisements are glad to consume what is left of us as they keep themselves in the black while furthering the darkness in our consciousness. Even if we lose our balance momentarily, we may still fully embrace each fear, each sadness, each sense of aloneness with a state of mind that fully lets go and opens again to Luminous Flow. Courage, joy, and understanding Oneness will eventually emerge as these complimentary formations are given from Illuminated Consciousness. They dissipate each of our fears, our melancholy, and our sense of isolation.

As we take one step at a time, and fully embrace each of our experiences of fear, sadness, and loneliness, we may truly know that the most intense of these feelings do pass. They are replaced by spaces in the mind and places in our lives for proportionally deeper joy, deeper courage, as well as deeper unity. These naturally emerge in the healing balance.

The planet Earth, who hosts us, also cycles in many states of being, that include all forms of life being, as well as human beings. We are never alone, as the Earth and all of its many living beings also experience the cycles of sadness and joy, fear and courage, division and unity. Being mindful of Being and understanding its many expressions, heals our minds and bodies. Together we merge with the many planetary minds and bodies, all of which are cycling just as our selves. Everyone suffers at times from denying or avoiding the cycles. Likewise, all of us eventually learn in solitude to embrace the sadness and fears that every human being also has.

In the Light of Understanding, we are never completely alone, though we have moments of potentially illuminating consciousness that we experience in being alone with all our sadness and fears. The clouding of consciousness occurs for everyone. The feelings accompanying this darkness, are passed around to all human beings as they rush about. However, we are never alone as we expand in the quiet gentle understanding that comes through relaxation consciousness. As we deeply calm ourselves within the whole process, we have less fright as we may more lucidly observe once again, that we were never really alone.

When we recognize how limited our perceptions, thoughts and feelings are amidst all our fears, we realize, that though we think and feel we are alone, we are not. Our state of mind shifts towards understanding what every human being must come to understand. We are interconnected with everyone, every life being, and the planet who hosts us. As we understand that the cycles of sadness, fear, joy and courage, emerge within our temporary illusions of loneliness, we lighten and relax again with our Truly Loving Being. These processes are the heart of Luminous Consciousness that infinitely offers us our learning through each of our very human experiences.

In our species past, most frequently, people would murder others whose beliefs they disagreed with. Now in this era, in which we consider ourselves more civilized, we acknowledge how ignorant that was. Yet, in these modern times, it has become quite fashionable to deny and project, as we twist and turn all the modern media images, written and spoken words we have with one an other. This leads us backwards once again, in that people whose beliefs we disagree with, are left feeling hopeless and helpless. These human beings, as ourselves, are often forced into developing poor mental and physical health, as they are slowly tortured to death. They may even be so frustrated by all the ignorance, insanity and pain commonly passed around, that they are quickly driven to murder themselves. We all must ask ourselves: Are any of these newer formations of ignorance more civilized? Are we really learning to love ourselves when we ignore learning to love anyone of us as an other?     Dr. Darryl Pokea

© Dr. Darryl Pokea   (All Rights Reserved)

© Dr. Darryl Pokea   (All Rights Reserved)

Our own support of Luminous Consciousness given within, impacts the leaders of our society and our entire world as does education and a free electoral process. For all those abusing power, it is imperative that they listen to the urges from the Light of all lights that approaches them through any remnants of their own light within so they may cease their abuse by embracing their own hidden fears. This is particularly imperative for any of our world leaders who are abusing power, and additionally they may also feel the nudge from the many lights of all human beings around them. All these reminders are for them to learn to step aside and let others of Lighted vision lead. Since they cannot curb their abuse of others, their next contribution to their health and the health of our species is to take this tiny step towards Higher Consciousness by stepping out of any role of leadership

Anyone who is abusing power has all of his/her actions called to task by the Light. The disharmony they have within is also expressed affecting everyone without. Likewise, all of our combined lights, in harmonious union with Higher Consciousness, offer each of us the reminder that we are responsible to better our own personal and collective evolution. Everyone is to be a participant in the lighted visionary process even when they are a perpetrator of harm or victim of it. These processes are dynamic and inseparable in the responsibilities we each have for our own and everyone's healthy development that furthers everyone in our species in the spirit of all for one and one for all.

We may recall that the Wright Brothers were commonly mocked for their notion that human flight was possible. The Light of Higher Consciousness in their vision remained persistent and consistent. Many who could not envision their vision, stepped aside. In this manner, the Wright Brother's vision, eventually was illuminated by many others also participating in Luminous Consciousness. As more people witnessed and acknowledged the possibilities of flight, eventually the vision of the Light shining on human flight was more dynamic than the pervasive dark ignorance dominating so many in those times. The Wright Brothers, as many others among us, demonstrate for us that the Light of Higher Consciousness may facilitate our potentials in any one affecting all of us collectively, as we open our eyes and begin letting go of our closed "I's"

What began as an expanded vision in a few over a Century ago, eventually reached a critical mass in our species' eye-opening collective consciousness. Many in the beginning, including some in positions of poorly illuminated power, attempted to squelch expanding consciousness, but the Light always illuminates our many potentials even when clouded minds attempt to mask its radiance. Sixty-Seven years after the Wright Brothers first flight, many of us witnessed human flight to the Moon and our entire perspective of who we are and the planet Earth who hosts us expanded and changed.

The seemingly overwhelming problems upon our Earth World now, reflect our distance from the Light, though the Light always remains within and with us. A Critical Mass of Lighted and Unified Consciousness, is the Gift offered for us to participate in during all of our lessons individually and collectively. This Gift propels our species beyond all the narrow thoughts, hampered possibilities and poor vision that temporarily seem so pervasive for us now. We do not have to continue racing suicidal towards our own extinction.

As we each open our eyes, it is very easy to recognize and awaken to the Light as it clearly contrasts to the darkness of these times. Each of our lights urge us to bring illumination to the steps that we take forward in all our own lessons within, that also manifest in all the solutions we may enact without. We have only to let the many among us already connected with truly lighted vision, facilitate and outwardly lead, as each of us learn to strengthen our own light filled participation within. These processes will assist us in reaching a Critical Mass of Illuminated Higher Consciousness to do what is necessary now for the harmonious survival of our entire species, all the diverse forms of life, and the living planet who host us.

Our humanity rests upon a series of learned behaviors, woven together into patterns that are infinitely fragile and never directly inherited.

When we ruthlessly consume and abuse each other, nature and the planet earth who host us, we forcefully impose dead zones upon these living gifts of matter and energy. We may witness these dead zones form in the diverse ecological systems of our planet as they also form among and within ourselves. Whenever we do not deal with our own dead zones within, as we ourselves have felt abused and consumed, we perpetrate the abuse in the spaces within ourselves and in the places outside ourselves. We are all interconnected. What we do on the inside, we do on the outside.

Learning to forgive is a primary lesson in our journey in expanding awareness of our interconnected consciousness. In mindful and visceral forgiveness, 70 x 7, we break the habit of consumption, abuse, ill will and imbalance, particularly in learning to forgive ourselves. This is the manner within all matters that allows genuine healing for our wounds to be flushed as that healing energy may freely circulate again within and without. It is each of our own chosen response, in letting go of all ill will, whether victim or victimizer, that we become fuller participants in balanced energy and matter, the quantum flow. The glowing waves of this whole quantum symphony, within and throughout each of our tonal balanced and rhythmic notes, permeates all visible, invisible, and indivisible energy forms.

Jossie Ries ©2005 All Rights Reserved

A child who grows with hatred can't grow without wondering what love is. The two mix and mingle, intertwine and become one without recognizing that they are intoxicating one another. The essence of hate is so strong it can't be erased completely from memory. When we experience being hated, we hate in return whether we realize it or not. But something inside tells us that there is room to forgive, room to expand, room to love.

We love without being taught; it comes naturally to the heart, strengthening the love and encouraging us to do so. Hating, as opposed to disliking, must be taught. Torturing the mind, it leaves permanent scars on individuality, because of the horror it unleashes inside. Once it gets inside, to get it out, isn't part of the question; its no longer an option. It spreads creating a rage unlike any other. It lives in the veins and increases in strength when taunted.

Love, on the other hand, can be beautiful, but not if you fall in love with something evil, such as hate. Then beauty diminishes immensely and causes an obsession. Obsessions can be deadly, especially if the effects aren't reversible. Some effects can change a person's life and thoughts forever, transforming them into a totally different person. That person may crush feelings, betray trust, and dismiss friendships. All this may occur because the taint of hate discovered a passage into their unsuspecting heart.

So the next time someone is being taught the depths of hatred and sucked into the vortex of insane wrongfulness, turn them in the right direction. If they can't find their way out, help them. It they can refuse to see the light, they are only refusing themselves a chance to see the world through greater eyes; eyes that can love. These eyes don't shoot heated glares across rooms towards people who aren't the perfect image of whom the person thinks they should be. Loving eyes shine with a superior knowledge; the knowledge that they are loved.

The events and images of what we have named, Hurricane Katrina and Rita, reawaken our consciousness. The catastrophe, casualties, and survivors rattle the collective status quo of so many "earning a living without living." There are many human beings, and many forms of life on our Planet Earth, that are challenged daily in their basic survival. Our narrow range of perceptions of their suffering is maintained because we do not fully realize that we are collectively doing to ourselves what ignorance and indifference does whenever we neglect any one of us. We falsely begin to think that the unbearable pain we carry within, will go away if we quickly force consciousness of those suffering to go away within ourselves. Loosing vision of our interconnected consciousness is common and it does not alleviate the suffering within or the suffering witnessed without. The real pressures we feel are never release by "getting on with our lives." More consciousness raising events will be upon us, as our collective indifference and ignorance have not yet been fully dealt with.

Our desires to separate ourselves from all of our primal fears and pain parallels separating our selves from one an other. Both of these create mind body dissonance. Our minds run from what we intensely see in the flesh as we witness the survivors of disasters. We too are suffering survivors when ignorance and indifference are maintained as the escapes from real learning. Precious awakening moments follow the initial shock of such consciousness raising disasters. The primal fears and deep pain, we all have within does not go away, but they are eased and transformed when we consistently devote all of our living being towards Loving Consciousness. This is an Awakened State of Mind with what is already life sustaining Spirit in our flesh. Active attention and acceptance of the Guidance from our Spirit within and direct avenues of service to one an Other, are the antidotes for effects of the indifference and ignorance that are now so much upon us. Each moment we participate in Loving consciousness we break the cycles that our species has been caught in for so long. Our participation in Loving Consciousness redirects the energy of our primal fears through learning to Love One An Other, in all our fundamental needs and bodily forms as our primary ongoing survival task.    Dr. Darryl Pokea

There is no greater sickness in the world today than the lack of love.

Dictatorships, Oppression and Condemnation

When we witness a dictator in our human history, or any one of us in the present that is abusing power, we must be careful in our perceptions about what will really change these matters. Too often, upon realizing the abuse, we have a response of hatred mixed with condemnation. We may even have the desire for that person to be assassinated, commit suicide, be severely punished, or feel that a new election will best solve the problem. We too easily forget that the collective ignorance and indifference together, allows such a person to rise into such a position. The ignorance and indifference must be dealt with first before the matter changes. This may give us insight about why Thomas Jefferson emphasized education to be the priority of every healthy nation. Education liberates people as it dissipates indifference and ignorance.

Carl Jung stated: Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses. If we are upset about any leader in power who is oppressing any of us anywhere in the world, we the people of planet earth, must be careful to avoid condemnation of that leader. If we condemn, we diminish our energy and clarity necessary for reflection and the new lesson in our education coming from within that is for everyone in our collective consciousness. We must keep in mind both Thomas Jefferson's and Carl Jung's insights and practical wisdom. Otherwise, the oppression, from any leader we are objecting to, though they may be ousted from power, will remain. Someone else who is oppressive will rise again from among us, as the ignorance and indifference has not yet been fully addressed within each of us.

If any part of our identity is based on external world events, positive or negative, we will find ourselves in some way unhappy. In both favorable and darker times, we each must simply "be". Be with our "Self", each "Other" and with all the many forms of "Being." All this is "Being" fully alive as "Light" Being with each other.    Dr. Darryl Pokea

"Seek and do not find" is the precept of the material world. In this purely mechanical view of the universe, linear and compartmentalized thinking dominate and those who participate, view everyone and themselves as automatons. Those who partake in these group mind-sets, focus on endless delusions of grandiosity, useless vanities in making others subservient, and the practice of endless consumption and greed. These precepts, commonly indoctrinated, guarantee perpetual commotion, disconnection and lack of spiritual development. Those who have clear mind from their connection to Spirit, know such paths lead no where. The more the focus on material, the less Light there is to perceive the multi-dimensional experiences of the Universe. In Light, our minds may be illuminated to understand why so many "seek and do not find."   Without Light in perception we do not realize what we do. Is it any wonder that Dracula could not see his own reflection in a mirror?

There are so many dark sludgy undercurrents of negative thought in the ethers. Any participation in them, even for a moment, can slip us into their murky waters and start to drown us. The seemingly endless choking emotional congestion and dark clouding of consciousness are given power by the poorly illuminated attention of our mind. It is most imperative that each moment that these unresolved traps present themselves, whether through informational news or intuition, that we turn the mind away from every despair, every distrust, every anxiety, every worry and every fear, giving them at light speed, to the Light.

In fear we may be conditioned to use force and go against the flow. Forcing matters, temporarily and proportionally, disconnects us with Love that permeates all matters. As we reflect and accept again the inner currents of Love, we are washed and rejuvenated by the Loving Flow that ripples outwardly again in all matters as well. We all may re-awaken to the peace of mind and generosity of heart expressed in the many streams, rivers and oceans of Loving Manners and Matters there always in all ways.

Repeated exposure to staccato programming sound bytes, begin to take bites out of our mind. We can become occupied with so much quick chattering talk, that it affects all our body's pulses and rhythms. We may even start to spasm and jerk in what used to be our own natural spontaneous walk. The remedy is as easy as the ease it produces: Let all your mind, body and heart return to the harmonious rhythms and pulses that come from your spirit.  Dr. Darryl Pokea

To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must cultivate our personal life; and to cultivate our personal life, we must first set our hearts right.   A Chinese Proverb

Energy and Learning in These Our Times

No human being can apply their own disharmonious energy and time pressures against the Infinite Healing Flow of Love in the Universe. When they attempt this futile action, they are quickly worn down. In irresponsible responses, some attempt to control their energy depletion by controlling others. They may even pilfer the peace and harmony in others by creating disturbances outside themselves, which originate from inside themselves. In awakening consciousness, we may watch those parading about, as they appear to march perfectly in time with steps that beat down on everyone and themselves. Their confusion and energy depletion does not have to pass into anyone else. As we watch the parade, we may practice forgiveness 70 X 7, even before the confused perpetrators realize what they do. As we learn to forgive them and ourselves with the speed of Light, there will be no permanent contamination. Timelessly, we may each continue to develop and know the Spirit and Love that continue unabated without all the disharmonious rhythms and beats. We may always attend to the full pulse of Love deeply inside and recognize its genuine presence everywhere about, as we learn to participate in Infinite Being with each other.                              Dr. Darryl Pokea

To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence. Frenzy destroys our inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of our work because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.                                    Thomas Merton

Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked ... he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.

One thing that comes out in myths is that at the bottom of the abyss comes the voice of salvation. The black moment is the moment when the real message of transformation is going to come. At the darkest moment comes the light.                                 Joseph Campbell

We cannot escape Infinite Being. Our spirit consistently, couragously. and lovingly is part of Infinite Being and is always within our being. Our spirit offers an understanding of everything we do not understand in each moment of our lessons in this very human visceral form of being. We each continually decide how conscious and attuned we are to our spirit. Perhaps both the experience and lessons in being human are more intense with deep learning in this physical form. Our spirit helps us let go of the density and intensity while it invites us to receive all the many Light Lessons in each our journeys towards Enlightenment. We can be attuned to our spirit here is this dense form of being, evolving in our lessons and higher consciousness, or we can postpone what we have infinity to learn. From our spirit within we know that we will continue to receive all our remaining lessons after death and there again make the choice of attunement to spirit without our bodily form. In either form as a human being, or spirit being after the death of the body, the invitations to receive our lessons continue. Our choice and conscience is omnipresent in all these matters of being, whether we receive those lessons here or as we continue on the other side.

All Rights Reserved

In these times it is very easy to make the mistake of being a participant in cynicism. Those who have this very contagious "dis ease" are consumed by its tentacles as they present variations of its many strains to strangle others. The common symptom is that cynicism attempts to consume every light that shines to maintain the narrowests of thoughts and to choke the healthy expression of emotions in every challenge.

It is important to remember that all cynical thoughts, and the consuming behaviors that accompanying them, are created when those who call themselves "cynics" allow themselves to join with the limited point of view of other cynics that have already been harmed. When anyone internalizes that harm, they unknowingly catch the sickness and the habit transfers as their own. This type of thought illness alters natural objective perceptions. Perspectlves begin to narrow as cynicism dominates. The entire process produces even more cynical thoughts and disparaging emotions.

To maintain consistency in the illusions of control, participants in cynicism require everyone and themselves to think, feel and perceive only the negativity in the world. These redundant, misperceptions from past unprocessed life experience become habitual and trap us. They are illusions that we all have participated in from time to time. Frequently and often unknowingly, they are easily passed around in our words, actions and relationships.

When cynicism occupies all our thoughts and emotions, it consumes the breadth of our minds and eventually even narrows the health in our bodies. slowly making us ill, When we participate in cynicism, everyone is perceived to be participating in it too. Then all the participants no longer realize that all of their views are originating from distorted self-reflecting mirrors.

There is still plenty of hope for the process. These mirrors provide the necessary shadow reflections, with their contrasting dark views, to open us again to the light within. On the cloudiest of days, the sun still shines even when our own misperceptions illude us into thinking that this bright illumination has disappeared.

The antidote for all the poisons of cynicism is to go deeply within and rediscover our natural very human essence in the lights of faith, hope and love. Then no matter how hidden those virtues may be within clouded mind sets, you may begin to "re-cognize" them again for yourself within yourself. As these virtues echo and resonate in our mind and body, we naturally speak with their voice again that is clearer in thought and tone than the raspy masking noises of cynicism. These lights of virtue are always brighter when there is contrasting darkness. As we we rediscover what we thought was lost, we realize these gifts always remain as light within everyone of us.

St. Theresa's Prayer

It is very important to proceed gently and lovingly in the whole process of understanding who we truly are. After all, force is what did the damage in the matter of understanding ourselves, so we cannot let go of force's damage with any manner that is forceful. A great Master Teacher two Millenium ago, taught us that loving yourself and loving one an "other" is the manner and matter we create with our spirit's energy to move us forward in all our emotions and motions. This process unites us again through the words we share with each other as they rhyme with the resonance of love. They also manifest through the rhythms of love in our service to one another in all our actions and interactions. We are all here to learn, as best we can, about each other's path in truly loving being with one another.            Dr. Darryl Pokea

But always, deep within, we each know that our common sense will one day awaken and propel us toward those common values which are the hallmarks of authentic spirituality. This may well mean the end of our grasping, almost loveless society as we know it - but it will surely also mean the beginning of a new era of unparalleled opportunity for all of us to express our beauty, our passion, our lovingness and our worth.And then we'll find that's truly common to all.     Much love,  Les Dyer   www.Inspirationalweekly.com.

As we each evolve following our path in our return to home, "Om", our consciousness changes. If our self-discovery is particularly intense, it is possible for our perceptual barriers to dissolve and allow for the deepest experiences of compassion towards others and ourselves. With no barriers in thoughts and perceptions, all the pseudo-monsters and angels inside each of us must be faced. They are both different manifestations of the same wide range of human experience possible in our longing for the Divine. With any process of expanding consciousness, we can choose to accept the multitude of ways that courage and compassion are offered to us in the true nature of Creation. Regarding this process, Rollo May commented that creativity unexpressed can turn inward destructively. We can never squash our evolution or consciousness in our longing for the Divine without destroying all that we are.

In the movie, "Jacob's Ladder", the profound words of Meister Eckart, a 15th. Century alchemist, are recalled to soothe the main character as he wrestles with his own monsters:

"The only thing that burns in hell is the part of you that won't let go of your life. your memories,...your attachments. They (devils) burn them all away. But they're not punishing you; he (Eckart) said they (devils) will free your soul. So the way he sees it.... if you're frightened of dying and you're holding on.... you'll see devils tearing your life away...if you've made your peace...then the devils are really angels, freeing you, from the earth...it's just a matter of how you look at it.... that's all."

The psuedo-monsters and angels are inside all of us. Embracing them both is part of the process in our longing for the Divine. We can remain conscious through all events and experiences in daily life, through prayer, meditation, and living in courage and compassion.

Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible. Saint Francis of Assisi

Thomas Jefferson understood that all authentic education is liberating not stifling. Patrick Henry voiced his own depth of commitment to freely receiving his life lessons when he said, "Give me liberty or give me death." Is it any wonder why nearly all of our students feel frustrated and stifled in their education when so much of teacher education emphasizes "control of students in the classroom?" It is imperative that we return now to the process of exchanging life lessons through shared liberating thoughts and genuine dialogue with one another. Dr. Darryl Pokea, 2005

For more on these thoughts about learning and teaching you may view Dr. Pokea's Presentation:   Learning

Attention! Attunement! Attention!

Are You a Participant in Massive Attention Disorder? MAD

WARNING; This article excerpt is a prelude for Dr. Pokea's presentation on Attention. It is not recommended for those who do not wish to deal with their attention deficit disorder (ADD) or their anger, as they may first become MAD and more defensively insane in reading this! These insights are highly recommended for those who wish to be fully attuned to their mind, body, and spirit and with the Divine Spirit guiding all of us. It is for those who wish to lighten with the light of humor. It is suggested that you read these words slowly and contemplatively.

© Dr. Darryl Pokea, All Rights Reserved

Is it any wonder why we all suffer, to some degree, from massive attention deficit disorders? (MADD) If we are careful in our observation, we can witness each other becoming MAD (Massive Attention Deficit) with anger and then MAD in the insanity that follows. Can we attend to our own question concerning why "other matters" keep distracting us and dividing us? Can we see that so many are competing for our eye balls and our undivided attention? We may now have the technological tools of communication as never before in our known history, but they may not help us to be careful and full of care in all that we attend to. They do not help us to selectively attend to what is now most necessary in our survival.

As we attend to all this, we may realize that no technology can help us deal with our deepest fears, our anger, our mental and emotional body, and our spirit. These are processes that are deep within us, as all of our attention is being competed for everywhere without, in the outside world. All of these insights, particularly in regards to the predatory effects of fear, may assist us to more fully understand why there are so many MADD (Massive Attention Deficit Disorders). Then we may begin to understand all the anger intensely acted out that is so frequently accompanied by the MAD insanity that is spreading.

We immediately must address our need for more concentration and less constipation. Our deepest fears keep us stuck. We all, to some degree, are getting trapped without improving our attention. I truly intend these words to express my own power of intention with humor, that may assist in bettering attention. We all must be careful and full of care. In your own careful reading and closely paying attention, please humbly note that I did say humor not humus. There are already too many out there who are marketing fertilizer, that they are falsely calling "spirituality, prayer and meditation." We already have enough of that being spread around. When we have mistakenly allowed ourselves to be filled with theirs and become so full of ourselves, it clogs up our minds and bodies. In all this hubris we simply do not realize what we do to ourselves, to one another and all life, including the living Earth. Without humility, in turning our mind again towards our spirit, we cease discerning as everything and everyone seems to be competing for all of our attention.

In truly letting go of so much of that, all of our attention must return to the Creator who attends fully to each of us through our spirits. We can learn to turn our mind back to the Divine. We may have picked up too much fertilizer from the outside world, but we can still use it to help us grow gardens in the world outside us as we release it from our minds and bodies. Carefully and with humility, we may mix humus and place it most humbly with the soil. Once it is there, the Earth, our loving companion, wisely recycles and transforms. Even our plants know how to use some of it too for healthier use. Then we may answer our own question about why there are so many ads (ADS, an anachronism for Attention Deficit Systems) for spirituality, prayer and meditation now being advertised. All this advertisement and enticement can weaken our necessary attention to authentic spiritual development. Ads may distract us or stop us from supporting each other in real growth and evolution. With all this competition for our eye balls, we can easily fall prey to those who wish us to think they are teaching us how to pray. Many of us in the collective consciousness are required to abandon these many anachronisms (outdated false teachings) and keep attending to the Divine and the immediate and important matters of our world.

Genuine and humble, prayer and meditation from inside the body (heart) mind and spirit always better attention and concentration, not the other. The mind and body can always carefully become finely tuned instruments that express authentic love, service and right livelihood when guided by our spirit. Our spirit and Divine Spirit are omni-present as they both keep nudging our consciousness and invite rather than prey for our attention. The One Spirit of the Divine is always in all ways, fully available to assist us through our spirit. We can discern carefully and be full of care as we watch and observe the many forms of spiritual ADS (Attention Deficit Systems) that try to compete for our attention. We may begin to clearly see that many, who offer genuine understandings of the process of prayer and meditation, are being blocked from clear sight, by so many who do all of the talk and none of walk. They may attempt to impose on you their power that leads only to more constipation. Those of us who are guided by our truly loving spirit, and accept the invitation from the One Universal Loving Divine Spirit, will more lucidly see with our eyes, by letting go of all those "I's" that can close our eyes. We will not get stuck as we are fully guided to step around all the muck and return to the healthy flow of liberating thoughts and emotions in our spirit-guided, mind and body. As we pass one another, we may always acknowledge silently:

May Fully Lighted Attention Be With You Always, In All Ways with Ever-Loving Intention.

Your may view Dr. Pokea's Presentation Page that include pragmatic implementation of his insights at:  Presentations

So long as you can find someone else to blame for anything you are doing, you cannot be held accountable or responsible for your growth or the lack of it.   Sun Bear, father of activist Winona LaDuke

Consciousness, Attunement, Breathing and Circulation

Dr. Darryl Pokea, © 2005

Just as consciousness breathes as we lesson stress in our body through full deep breathing, so too consciousness bleeds and weakens, when we allow our nervous sytem energy to be bled off by distracting thoughts. All our thoughts that are habitual, particularly when we are unaware of them, may drain this neuronal pulse energy in our brain and may influence and inhibit what we can be aware of through our minds. All forms of energy must circulate freely like our thoughts, for full creativity, discovery and liberation within our minds. When we really look deeply at everything inside us and outside us, we can see that we really are beings made of the stuff of earth and stars. We can witness all their processes of motion in our breathing rhythms and the multitude of pulsations in all clusters of our cells.

These cells gather in constellations that make up our organs which in turn vibrate and gyrate with all our thoughts, much like the earth, stars, galaxies and nebula. As we expand comprehensive healthy attention to our body microcosmically, our consciousness also expands throughout the cosmos. This same process occurs in becoming aware of our breathing, neural impulses, and heart beats. As we are aware and attuned to them, all become more rhythmically relaxed in their every-changing expansions, relaxations and contractions.

In this same manner, genuine compassion and authentic gratitude towards ourselves and others geometrically enhances everyone's well-being, all minds, all bodies. What may begin in each of us as a microcosmic, attunement to our bodies, quickly expands and resonates with the cosmic harmonies all around and within us. In all the many rapid changes we are experiencing in our lives, it is vital to our mental, emotional and physical well being, that we consciously understanding these mind and body interactions. As they affect all of us within, they also affect others without. This allows us to understand the power in the words of an infinitely wise and kind spiritual Master when He said, Love One Another as You Love Yourself.

You know of the disease in Central Africa called sleeping sickness...There also exists a sleeping sickness of the soul. Its most dangerous aspect is that one is unaware of its coming. That is why you have to be careful. As soon as you notice the slightest sign of indifference, the moment you become aware of the loss of a certain seriousness, of longing, of enthusiasm and zest, take it as a warning. You should realize your soul suffers if you live superficially.                         Albert Schweitzer

The path leads nowhere whether an individual's prevarications are leading the way for one or for all.    Darryl Pokea, Psy.D.

Careful with Care

Regardless of their service or profession, if a person presents an image of themselves to the outside world which is deceptive, misleading or luring in anyway, this process itself, contaminates their interactions and integrity of service with everyone else and deepens the habit within themselves. This is particularly pertinent to healthcare, healing and teaching. When the pain deep within a person, that perpetrates such misrepresentations and deceptions, is habitually expressed and not consciously attended to within, it will inexorably be passed into patients, clients and students. Many with their own internal attention deficits, follow this new habitual norm as artificial appearance, haste and carelessness has replaced genuine service and care. The antidote for such hidden contaminations towards mind and body, is simple and the same for both the perpetrator and the receiver:
Always be Careful and in All Ways be Filled with Care. Darryl Pokea

Recommend to your children virtue; that alone can make them happy, not gold.  Ludwig van Beethoven

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.      Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826, Third President of the USA

Spiritual life is full-time work, twenty-four hours a day. This is why most people don't want to do it.    Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

Impart as much as you can of your spiritual being to those who are on the road with you, and accept as something precious what comes back to you from them.    Albert Schweitzer

Some spiritual traditions view the moment of birth as a passage from a state of wholeness and knowledge to a state of forgetting. In this view of the world, we spend the rest of our lives searching for wholeness and knowledge, wellness and health-the balance and harmony we lost when we were born. If our wholeness is interrupted, then our health suffers, and we need to find a way to restore our sense of meaning. When we move in the direction of that meaning, we're healing.                           Bernie Siegel

Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom.              Victor Frankl

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.                           Mohandhas K. Ghandi

If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the Kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the Kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living Father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty.     Jesus of Nazareth

Attention... Attunement... Attention

The deepest love is attuned and expressed through conscious attention. Attending to the deepest emptiness and human need in ourselves and one another is love expressed as loving attention. We are each here in our lessons to learn to love ourselves, others, and God, all one and the same process. Some spiritual beliefs have been careful not to even say the word, "God", so they may live their life fully filled with Light Loving, Conscious Attention and Fully Lighted Intention. Conscious Attention precedes all words. When attuned with loving intentions, the words spoken come alive with both visceral and spirited meaning. Conscious Loving Attention and Intention are the Alpha and Omega of all that matters in the universe as our words attempt to be expressions of the "Uni-verse". The words have real substance and living purpose only as quiet attention precedes the walk which precedes the talk. Attention is in the essence of All within our being and all forms of beings.

Each cell of our body is connected to and attends to our thoughts and all the moments in which we lack attending thought towards our body. Every cell, in its attention, resonates with our mind's attention. Each cell has its own actions as it attends to all matters we perceive as being inside us and outside us through our mind's perception and reactions. These perceptions and reactions of the mind are not limited to our body cells, but carry to the bodies of others human beings, other life, and all physical and invisible energies and matter that we attend to. For the deepest health and well-being, as we participate in all life matters, we need to do one simple act of consciousness; pay attention with attuned loving intention. Our being, the being of each other, all life, all physical and invisible matter and energy, they are all the same. They are, as ineffable, as is God.

Paying attention to the well being of others is paying attention to our own well being. All of us are interrelated and made of the same stuff. Paying attention to the well being of yourself and the well-being of others is paying attention to God, who ineffably attends in full consciousness to the loss of even one sparrow. Our perception, under the guidance of our truly loving Spirit becomes unlimited when we allow it to be fully opened by Spirit. This process nudges our perceptual field as part of our attentional processes, to resonate with all energies and matter, even those perceived as being outside of perception and previously unattended to. We can remember that as soon as we say, "I cannot attend, I cannot perceive, I cannot process," all these I's closes our "eyes" and the doors of perception begin to close. Likewise, ignoring each other and the simplest human needs, leads to the deeper forms of attention deficit. Even here in these contrasting spaces of darkness, can the lessons of illumination be most profound when we open to and recall our lessons that our Spirit always presents.

Attention opens us to full consciousness already present in our being, the Infinite Abundance and Creativity of the Creator within the infinite permutations of love present throughout all of life's lessons and perceptions. This Love is present in all the pulses of life in each of the cells of our being, all the forms of being, visible, invisible and indivisible. Whenever we shift our focus of attention away from noisy mind words of chatter, polarity, division, separation and disconnection, the illusions of duality begin to fade. We can again attend and be attuned to the quiet wordless Oneness, that in the quieted mind, precedes all thoughts, all words, and all actions.   Darryl Pokea

At times, our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.   Albert Schweitzer

Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life. Ludwig Van Beethoven

We search not only for the meaning of life, but the purpose of our individual and collective experience as we have created it - and we look earnestly for ways in which we might recreate ourselves anew as a human species.

The hour has come for us to demonstrate at the highest level our most extraordinary thought about Who We Really Are. If we want the beauty of the world that we have co-created to be experienced by our children and our children's children, we will have to become Spiritual Activists right here, right now, and cause that to happen. We must choose to be a cause in the matter.                           The Dalai Lama

Lizard Brain Peace

We all have a lizard brain at the bottom of our thinking and feeling brain. It too longs to develop in harmony with all that it means to be fully human. As part of us, it wants to participate in full human development. Its survival contribution cannot be ignored by our minds and excluded from our consciousness. When our mind mistakedly tries to ignore it by judging it as too crass, uncivilized and crude in our very human experience, it begins thrashing about like a lizard in pain and starts us unconsciously lashing out at everyone to prove its importance. For harmonious acceptance and taming of this deep part of our makeup as human beings, we must always remain conscious of and value our lizard brain's contribution in all its many urges in our survival. Then we may begin to understand and live all of what it means to be human without the destructive behaviors we so commonly witness in these times.

With full acceptance of our lizard brain qualities as part of us, all of its appetites and urges, the paeleological (primitive) expressions deep in our DNA, can be tamed and integrated into full living as mind, body, and Spirit beings. No matter how primitive these urges, our lizard brain quiets as we attend to its contributions in being a human being. When it is appreciated as an ally rather than enemy. it provides the calmer energy for thought and balancing life support for the body in its deepest contributions in our survival. As all these paleological energies and urges are tamed and fully resonate with our Spirit, the highest discovery and creative endeavors are brought to our minds. The learning and creative depth in knowing human experience both virtuously and viscerally, would not be possible without our lizard brain resource.

Herein is where each of us learns from our lizard brain to contribute not only to our own survival, but to the survival of all in our species. They are one and the same. Just as unification of all processes within the brain includes our lizard brain and the unity allows for whole brain learning, creativity emerges through more comprehensive visceral and experiential knowing, that propels us forward on the path of real peace with one another the same. Recognizing the avenues of full peaceful alliance with our our lizard brain is the same pathway of human compassion that leads to the discover of peace and survival with our fellow human beings. Our deepest inner lizard brain processes are the same for all of us. We may attempt to engage our highest brain functions through words, concepts and complex matrices of plans for peace, but without the full understanding and integration of our lizard brain processes, we have lots of talk that only exploits the lizard brain's walk. In its strongest survival protests it will lash out to show us our ignorance by our attempting to ignore its contributions in keeping us protected and alive.

Though we may like to appear as masters of our lizard brain, our lizard brain leads each of us back to our own healing mastery within. It is here, in these paleological depths, that we begin again to participate in the deepest compassion and understanding of what it means to be fully human. When we no longer freight, flight, fight within, we will cease lashing about and carrying it without. Then our lizard brain will truly be our ally in what it means to be human as our very human being calms without thrashing ourselves and everyone else all about.                                        Darryl Pokea

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.

Charles Darwin

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

The final paragraph from Abraham Lincoln's Inaugural address two weeks before Jefferson Davis became leader of the confederacy in 1861.

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.                              Mother Teresa

Peace of mind is clearly an internal matter. It must begin with your own thoughts, and then, extend outward. It is from your peace of mind that a peaceful perception of the world arises.

A Course in Miracles

Heart Beats, Being and Beyond

Regardless of whatever rationalizations and defenses we have in our mind, our body perceives and matters every thought, intention, and action. Each heart-beat is pinched ever so slightly by any constricting ego-centric thoughts and narrow greedy intentions even before they are expressed as actions. The heart of our body is particularly sensitive to our gratitude, generosity and genuineness, as well as the tiniest thoughts, intentions, and actions of stinginess and dishonesty. Our heart beats over 100,000 beats per day, over 40 million beats per year, and at least 3 trillion times in a 75 year life span. Is it any wonder how all of our thoughts and intentions, as much as our actions, accumulate over a life-time and matter in heart ease or disease?

Darryl Pokea

Motion, Commotion and Emotion

Everything in the Universe is in motion. It is futile to attempt to inhibit motion and the different perspectives that come through our very human emotions. The delusions of an over-controlling mind, are the antithesis of Ever-Changing Divine Flow. The illusion that we can have complete control consumes and curtails awareness, creativity and life lessons. This desire for so much control pushes everyone and everything into "loco"motion (crazy motion). The mind driven solely by fear and control poses as an impostor of the Divine. It imposes its own will on everything, including the body that carries out its misguided notions. The mind in such a state looses its participation in the flow of Creation's motions. It attempts to push the body like a locomotive as it pushes the bodies of everyone and the process of life itself.

A healthy body is expressed through infinite flexibility and adaptability in its cells. A healthy mind is inseparable from this ever-changing feature of the healthy body. The healthy mind is expressed through liberating thoughts and infinite learning set in motion through the full range of human emotion. Our chance of good fortune, well being, and creative inspiration are diminished whenever fear and its control companion prompt the mind to separate us from the body and everybody. This stops the flow of other emotions, narrows and limits thought, and leads to mind/body commotion that may quickly disrupt every body and every healthy motion. The mind, trapped by such an attention deficit brought on by fear and control, does not even recognize that there are infinite permutation possibilities in daily life. For full sensory perception, consciousness, creativity and peak learning, we only have to let go of all the commotions created by fear and control. As we do so, we awaken, attend to, and are attuned to the many motions and our own energy that comes through the full range of human "e"motions.    Darryl Pokea

Dr. Pokea values your feedback as it guides him to be attuned to, contemplate, write and share more of his insights that directly touch the minds and hearts of his readers. As any of his Winter Thoughts 2005 have have assisted your personal understanding, well being, and perhaps healing choices in life, he would like to hear from you. Your mail or e-mail will not be given to anyone else as he holds the highest reverence for each person's privacy in their own personal journey. As time is available, he will write back in appreciation:  

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