On my home page this week I have posted the following quote from Jack Kornfield. It has given rise to some comments on LinkedIn and I am following this up on this blog.
Your comments can be added at the end of the blog should you wish to participate. I welcome contributions!

Quote of the week - Jack Kornfield
For most people, meditation practice doesn't "do it all." At best, it's one important piece of a complex path of opening and awakening. I used to believe that meditation led to higher, more universal truths, and that psychology, personality, and our own "little dramas" were a separate, lower realm. I wish it worked that way, but experience and the nondual nature of reality don't bear it out. If we are to end suffering and find freedom, we can't keep these two levels of our lives separate.

I have added the following as a personal commentary -
Jack's approach here seems to be based in the Buddhist teachings of different levels of consciousness/awareness. He seems to be saying that when we are caught up in our mundane everyday events and buy into the drama going on around us we get locked into emotional responses which are often painful. This is known as the astral realm. He says that meditating teaches us that we can rise above the mundane but he has not found that to be the case. The mundane and the higher states of being are all one interconnected form of existence and cannot be separated on any level - when we realise that existence is nondual in its purest form. Here on earth however we experience duality i.e night/day, good/bad, male/female etc.

I believe there are different 'levels' or aspects of consciousness as experienced in human form. When we can learn to be an observer in our lives - accepting that emotions are energies flowing through us - we can step aside from much of the 'suffering' or upset we may feel. However, that does not mean that we do not feel as that is integral to the human experience. This is the only planet where we can really experience emotional involvement on a deep and profound level. It is why we are here. Getting stuck or held by a particular emotion can however limit our growth and experience.
Accepting all levels of being (whether emotional, mental, physical, spiritual) enables us to integrate them and be more comfortable - or perhaps find 'freedom' from the 'illusion' that we call 'reality', allowing us to exist in a more convenient truth?

  The western world wakes up today on the 2nd of January to find that things are back to 'normal'. The holidays and celebrations are over and reality hits again.
  There are however, many things hanging over from 2012, and not just the result of an overdose of alcohol and food. It is not as if the whole world changes as the clock ticks from 23.59 - 00.00. Time as I often say is arbitrary and is purely an agreed measurement that enables us all to synchronise work timetables or indeed arrange to socialise together. Life goes on regardless.
If we wish to see changes and hold to our resolutions then action is required!
  Some of us are woken in the mornings by alarm clocks. These are literally wake up calls but there is no need to be alarmed. Our calling goes beyond the mundane and requires us to look at what is working in our life and what is dragging us down. This is the true wake up call of 2013. Many of us have already been forced by circumstance to reassess our lives and carve out new unexpected routes to our future. Many are pioneering alternative values and expectations which they would not have considered only a short time ago. The call to do so is becoming louder and clearer as we move into an age of cooperation and community focused living.
  So when your alarm goes off in the morning ask yourself "What am I personally doing to enhance not only my life but that of others too?" Now is the time to step up to the mark and really start getting on with it...

As I write, the New Year of 2013 is about to start in New Zealand and Australia, my family in Hong Kong will follow 4 hours after and we here in the UK have another 12 hours to wait. My friends in America meanwhile are between 5 and 8 hours behind us.
Einstein is credited with saying "Time is a man-made invention to prevent everything happening at once". Time is indeed an arbitrary device and it is only in the last 150 years or so that individuals have had watches and have been ruled by collective work times that demand schedules and total compliance. Beyond this is an underlying reality based on the shape of the earth and her position in the solar system. Our only clock used to be the presence of the sun in the sky to denote day time and season whilst the position of the stars and planets also gave rise to navigation.
And so it is ...  the question I ask here is what will you do with your time in 2013 and how will you navigate your world in the next 12 months? Will you comply to the rules of time which your culture and society impose upon you or will you bend them to your own needs? Will you remain in the same position or travel to new realms, perhaps of employment, at least in your mind and imagination?
We all have choices no matter how compromising a situation may be. Often we wait until fate has cornered us and our only apparent move is to either implode and breakdown or explode and break out. Don't leave it to fate to decide this year. Use your insight and discretion and become the master of your destiny.
We are all co-creators of our reality, it starts with our thoughts. Make sure they are positive and help your fellow travellers to do the same.
Now 2013 is upon us we have a chance to get up and get on with renewed hope! And so it is ...
                                  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

So, we have survived the End Times and are now traversing the Between Times. It's between Christmas and New Year, where the hype and commercialism of celebration are followed by the manic stampede to the sales and then the sudden realisation that life is not made happier by things and possessions. As a bolt out of the blue it hits us - a new year is upon us and what have we done? What have we really achieved? What is yet to be done and achieved in the year ahead?
Reviews are not a bad thing although too much rumination on the past can be unhealthy, particularly if the path is strewn with regret and unresolved issues. Alternatively the Between Times can be put to good advantage by listing what it is that produces zest in one's life. Who has added in a positive way to your experience? What has given you joy and a feeling of contentment and satisfaction? Following the doom and gloom of the prophesies of the End Times we have been given a second chance since we are all still here and the world goes on around us.
Dates are totally arbitrary, based on calendars which have superimposed a system of time measurement upon the turning of the clock. The Gregorian calendar of the Western cultures does not comply to those followed by Islamist or Judaic year cycles. So why celebrate Christmas and New Year in the deep mid-winter? The traditions go far back in time. The celebration of the winter solstice as the shortest day in the yearly cycle gave great encouragement in times of darkness as the return of the sun promised lengthening days and an imminent increase of light and warmth. The return of the sun / son is of course what Christmas is all about.
In post modern times the return of the sun / son has taken on new meaning. We have electricity which powers light and sources of warmth for our own personal use as well as for growing foods throughout the year whilst the emergence of a saviour is now considered to be a joint effort. We all have the choice and chance to raise our conscious awareness of what is happening around us and to stand up for what we believe in. 2012 has seen revolution spread across the globe alongside an exponential rise in organised community projects on both local and global scales. I believe 2013 will further anchor this energy into a positive zeal for cooperation and mutual understanding. That is my wish and what I shall strive towards.

The journey of faith,
Though not long in time or space,
Took us through the caverns
Of light and dark.
And all along
A connection, as strong
Yet as ethereal as a spider's web at dawn,
Was woven
Through us and our surrounds
As we intuitively created
Our pathway home -
Beaming.

  As the fanfare blares - "The End Times are upon us!"
Well, so be it. I am prepared. It is not the end of the world but the end of an era, one which has seen suffering and greed permeate every possible nook and cranny of existence in a palpable and sadly insidious way resulting in brutal and totally unnecessary internecine conflict. I am more than ready to move on from this. Perhaps I do live in a cocoon in La-La Land but I am happy!!
  In another way it is indeed the End Times. Today, tomorrow and the following day mark the three days of darkness which occur with the transition of the winter solstice. As we face the shortest day of the year so we also have the promise of the return of the light ahead of us. The question is "how do we wish to embody this?" By letting go of old patterns, habits and beliefs in a state of gratitude for what we have learnt from them, we can free ourselves to fully embrace the new vibrant energies. For many reasons this is the time to be making our new year resolutions and seeking new solutions and behaviours that are better adjusted to how we wish to play out our own individual role here on planet earth. It is also a time to consider how we wish to share our inner light with those around us. 
  It is not always easy to do this work and having a best friend to talk it through with is always a good idea. Someone who is empathetic and non-judgemental and will support your vision. It is through such sharing that we feel heard and validated and find the strength to become a safe pair of hands for others too.
  In light of that thought I offer this poem written some years ago but pertinent here...

My Love is as a bird
Yearning to fly,
To soar and explore the infinite sky,
Master of the undercurrents,
On a wing and a prayer.

But my fear is as a prison
Locking me within
My solar plexus
Flutters with each wing beat,
Flapping inept -

So afraid of being too powerful,
Overbearing or evoking wrath.
Such are the labyrinths of my mind.

Lost amongst past experiences
The prospect is to loose all.
And so the time has come
To discard this weight, burden of belief,
Be free!

Thus I take the gilded cage
Thrust it unto the abyss.
Knowing I shall be held
I spread my wings and take
That leap of faith.

The warm air lifts me
Higher and higher,
The Love enfolds me,
Lighter and lighter.
No beginning, no end,
Absorbed, enthralled.
All is One.

Yet one thing remains incomplete - 
I wish to return
To find
If you too
Can accept as much.

  We have been through a concentrated period of tumultuous astrological events and it's not over yet! Not only are we seeing world events apparently tearing nations and peoples apart but also as individuals it is difficult to hold it all together. There is a constant stream of challenges facing each and everyone of us in each and every moment.
  I am not one to preach pessimism and doom and that would be completely contradictory to how I feel about the present situation anyway. The challenges that each of us face are an opportunity to grow and develop new ways of approaching life and its vagaries. I myself have found my old world fall apart this year and whilst the initial feeling is one of freefall, it offers so many opportunities to reassess and make decisions on who I want to be and what is truly important to me. I do not feel that I am falling apart but that I have broken through many barriers and the parts of me that are no longer valid have been released. The other parts of me are regrouping and forming a new me living a very different life. It feels like I am falling together.
  I therefore believe this is a time to celebrate as all of us as a group or collective are also not falling apart but are falling together. It is becoming more and more obvious that we are all linked together. What happens in one nation has effects in all others. What happens to one peoples has repercussions on us all. We share this planet and there is no where to run to other than here.
  It takes a lot of trust in the process. As things appear to get worse so the need for us all to unite gets stronger and this is indeed happening. If only the media would report and reflect the underlying reality, showing how more and more groups of people are coming together to assist each other and our planet in ways that would have been unimaginable not so long ago. There is a sea change taking place and it is up to each one of us to make the choice whether to drown in the chaos or ride the wave and participate in a new way of being which celebrates humanity and its true nature - one of loving compassion and cooperation.
  For too long (and I mean thousands of years) we have been taught that it's a dog eat dog world where only those willing to aggresively compete get by. This false paradigm has driven our economy, our politics, our philosophy and our fundamental belief about ourselves. It is wrong and always has been wrong. Now we are opening our eyes and for once really questioning this way of doing things. This is happening on a very large scale with thousands of people waking up to the fact that the false reality is now crumbling around us. We only need to look at the media which is a propaganda machine for violence and disorder and political suppression. It feeds us a tainted and warped view of reality. Each time you switch on the TV news or buy a newspaper you are celebrating this negative message. Don't!
   It is far more productive and instructive to invest time and energy into supporting something you feel passionate about, preferably something that brings joy, something that benefits not just you alone. By doing this you add your enthusiasm to the building of a new way of life for all, one in which no one falls apart because everyone really is falling together.

In 1637 Descartes published part IV of 'Discourse on the Method' in which he claimed "cogito ergo sum" - "I think therefore I am". Descartes was not talking about a purely physical presence here but a philosophical approach to the understanding of what really constitues 'I'. His musings led him to fervently believe that a mind could exist without a body. In fact a body only produces sensory experiences which are generally deceiving. This idea became a foundation stone for scientific and philosphical thinking for centuries. His premise suggested that the only certain way to ascertain one's existence was through the 'fact' that the only thing 'I' can define as being intrinsic to my own self are my thoughts. Everything else about myself is transitory, even my individual thoughts per se are transitory. However, thinking, being aware that 'I' am thinking, being conscious of my thoughts and being able to reflect upon my thought process, according to Descartes, is the only definitive proof that 'I' exist. Since 'I' am experiencing my thoughts, 'I' must exist. From this point in time, self awareness or self consciousness became the key element in determining an individual and gave further credence to the elevation of man above animal.
Conscious thought, or consciousness in particular, is a very slippery customer and as I started to convey in my previous blog
http://www.sharongalliford.com/1/post/2012/11/am-i-conscious-and-if-so-of-what.html
it is suggested to be multi-faceted and present itself on many levels. This complexity creates uncertainty and a dissolution of who 'I' am. In fact it makes a certainty of the fact that 'I' shall never truly know who 'I' am, since 'I' cannot access all the levels of consciousness directly. 'I' am a disparate collection of experiences and emotions all bound up in an allegedly unitary physical being which calls itself 'me'.
It is understood that we are only consciously aware of a maximum of 6-10% of what is going on both internally and externally. Most of our functions are reactive programmes which enable us to live and survive. This causes problems as we act like automatons under most circumstances as old patterns are triggered from previous experiences. Most of what we see and hear is a composite of what we believe in conjunction with a few external stimuli being vaguely processed in our minds to fit the preconceived picture. Our memories are also unreliable and again produce 'stories' we tell ourselves to suit the situation rather than explicit detailed 'reality'.
So who is this 'I' that needs to believe 'I' exist in the first place? Well, philosophers have struggled over this forever and no clearly defined answer has yet been arrived at. It's enough to drive you bats! And as the philospher Thomas Nagel (1974 essay "What Is It Like To Be A Bat?") suggests we can perhaps imagine what it would be like to be a bat but we could never experience the actuality of existence as a bat. Likewise consciousness is not something that can be understood by describing the brain and it's neuronal connections. Despite the advances of neuroscience and having brains ourselves, we can still only imagine how consciousness comes about and how it really operates. In a similar manner it is impossible for me to really explain the 'I' that is thinking right now even though 'I' believe it is me who is having this experience and doing this thinking.
Personally, 'I' am of the mind that 'I' exist prior to thought, thus turning Descartes on his head "sum ergo cogito" -  'I' am therefore 'I'  think. This literally revolutionary (revolve or re-evolve) paradigm is a central key in comprehending our next step in the evolution of humanity where our understanding is that we both form part of and are constituted by a collective consciousness of humanity (super consciousness) and also a universal creative consciousness of greater proportions present in the multi-verse of space-time (supra-consciousness). This matrix of consciousness theory explains many anomalies we see in our empirical sciences and has rapidly emerged as a fundamental building block in quantum physics. When we embrace this level of consciousness we become 'all one' and the 'I' is not only of less importance but certainly not worth arguing and fighting about. 

This quote was posted up on my Facebook page today. It not only felt very pertinent to our times, symbolising what a great many people are feeling, myself included, but also reminded me of a poem I wrote some years ago (see below). We are all being tested right now. The planetary alignments are driving us into times of deep perseverant change which gives rise to uncertainty and thus anxiety.

The key is to remember that YOU still have choice. Maybe not choice about whether your job is made redundant, maybe not choice about whether you have the money to pay for Christmas this year but choice in how you tackle the challenges. It is a good time to review what motivates you and what makes you feel that smile well up from inside regardless of what is going on in the external world. Good friendships help considerably. Communicating with others about their fears and worries provides solace - you are not alone! Our attitude makes all the difference and whilst I would be the last to say "it's easy", it is however worth the effort of at least trying to stay positive whilst acknowledging all the other emotions which are flowing through you. Remember they are transitory, these things too shall pass. Looking for the good in others and appreciating what you do have is the best place to start. The greatest changes come from within, be prepared to do the work and eventually results will follow.

Bow... but not down!

Testing my metal
I have smelted,
Beaten, moulded,
Yet by mine own hand.
Precision sharp, acuteness,
An arrowhead glistening -
Not to meet but to
Pierce the target.

Like a catapult
The bow is bent.
Muscles, sinews,
Nerves indeed
Stretched to their limits - 
Taut.

I tremble as I am drawn
Back, across pre-travelled ground.
Time and again
Reviewing
Until the balance is achieved.

Then will come the moment.
Aiming high and true and straight,
The happy release,
A surge and rush of power -
Not to meet but to
Pierce the target.

~ Sharon ~

A recent conversation with a friend about seeing energies brought to mind a cognitive psychology theory that I learnt about some years ago. This involves a very small number of people who can no longer relate to the people they know. This is usually brought on by brain damage. They recognise their family and friends but have no emotional connection and therefore see them as imposters (Capgras delusion).
Basically it has been established that there are two pathways for sight to be processed in the brain and subsequently two types of acceptance and recognition in the mind.
1) The Ventral Visual-Limbic Pathway which is the neuronal firing system that underlies overt recognition i.e I see you and I am able to place the features I see as someone I know as a pure observation - a detached and unemotional viewpoint of purposeful determining.
2) The Dorsal Visual-Limbic Pathway which is the neuronal firing system that underlies covert recognition i.e. I see you and I am able to place the features as someone I know AND the familiar emotional sensations attached to seeing you are present, therefore you are definitely the person I think you are. I feel a connection to you that enables me to certify who you are and what you mean to me.

This theory came to mind as my friend was describing visually seeing energy and asking how I 'saw' energy. Whilst both of these pathways involve processing visual input I felt their different qualities help me to understand the differing qualities between 'sensing' and 'seeing' energy.
In my case it is not so much about visibly 'seeing'. I sense energy and know it is there and can also perceive how it is interacting between people or around an individual. I do not see auras for example but can sense a person's energetic field, rather like suddenly walking through mist. It is almost as if my dorsal visual limbic system alone is in operation i.e. I recognise the energy through the sensation and affective (emotional) response I have to it, rather than purely through an overt obvious visual stimulation.
Many of us who do see energy visually have to overcome their fear of 'seeing' things which bear no relation to 'real' life or to anything they have experienced before. This 'fear' is induced by a lack of previous experience which has no prior affective/emotional connection and therefore floats freely in our imaginative realms often creating havoc since our rational mind says "this cannot be happening!".
Our emotional response will interupt and interfere very quickly if we are not certain of what we are getting involved with. This is true for any experience in life. Our emotions are primed to react far more quickly, effectively and efficiently than our rational response as the limbic system is always activated prior to the prefrontal and frontal lobes of the brain wherein logic lies. The type of experiences we have stored away in our memory banks greatly affect our  reactions. Many of the old stories we have been told and been unconsciously indoctrinated with about magic and mystery need to be reexamined and often laughed at in order to release our fears.
Once an emotional connection has been made through our experiences of seeing or sensing energy as a safe and usually life enhancing phenomenon then we can use it effectively and efficiently for the benefit of all. By keeping your heart and thoughts pure, you will come to find great solace in both seeing and sensing energy.

**note: if you have had a head injury, trauma or suffered from severe headaches prior to 'seeing' energies then a check up by a medical professional is advised.
Hallucinations accompanied by radical changes in personality and impaired functioning in the real world scenario is a medical condition known as Psychosis - this bears no relation to the psychic effect of seeing energy.