Jesus is ...

Today, people seem to believe that all opinions are equally valid or true, equating conceit with wisdom, and losing sight of a greater Truth. They are trained to serve the "god" of ego, and believe selfishness is a virtue. The extreme focus on "me, me, me," is egotism; it is not true awareness. In fact ego is entirely opposed to truth and awareness; it is based in lies, illusions, unawareness, and a self-declared superiority over others.

Awareness means little if it is not awareness of the Truth. How can anyone know the truth if they are not aware or awake inside? Think of the difference between being very tired (such as when you go to sleep) versus being wide awake (after you arise). When you are less conscious your thinking is very limited, narrow in scope, ineffective. You may rely upon habit, fall into traps, and lose your way. When you are more conscious it is as if you can see everything more clearly, as if there were more Light. Your "vision" and your awareness expands. Awareness is consciousness, and it comes from within you, not outside you.

To be more aware, now, let go of any investment in old ideas, old thoughts, old ways of looking at things. Do not mistakenly refer ideas to your programming, to evaluate whether they are "right" or "true" or not. Agreement with social conditioning and programming is just "conformity."

The world prefers you to be asleep, to mindlessly conform, to accept the way things are as the way they must be. Nearly everything in this world limits or blocks your true perception of reality. Everything and everyone that builds up, caters to, or comforts you in your illusions reduces your awareness. For many people, their awareness, depth, and interest in life barely extend beyond what they wear, what they look like, what they own, or what social group they belong to. They do not care to know the truth.

Wake up

There are people who make it their mission in life to reduce our awareness, to lower the level of our thinking, our hopes, our expectations. For example, we know that 90% of Americans believe there is a heaven, that life goes on, to a much better place than this world. But skeptical scientists have spent decades trying to refute this, and now declare that there is no such thing, that people who have reported seeing heaven or the Light or Christ have all been hallucinating when they were near death; their brains were starved of oxygen, and so they all fabricated this illusion. Nonsense.

Nothing the skeptics say can make the Reality of a higher spiritual dimension — or God or Christ — untrue. These closed-minded, unaware, and self-appointed "authorities" declare that if you know or believe something to be true, it isn't true unless and until you prove it to them. They have a mission to "prove" to us all, in our modern society, that nothing exists — especially not spirit, not heaven, not God — beyond what they decide is real. Over time, the ones who are relentless in their desire to close our minds, reduce our awareness, and get us to accept what we see as all there is to life, breed short-sightedness, hedonistic and materialistic values, and greater suffering.

At the very least, we need something to look forward to, a sense that our actions matter, a Way to live a better life, with hope, caring, purpose, and responsible action. The more aware we are of the larger picture, the more we are able to have perspective on our lives, and make better choices. But, that is a challenge.

Look around you, what do you see?

Be aware. Look carefully at your politicians, your leaders, lawyers, doctors, religious leaders, business leaders, media celebrities, and so on. Their power, wealth, and privilege come from a system which they exploit to their advantage, which depends upon others remaining unaware, uninformed or misinformed, and unempowered.

Nearly everyone, rich or poor, is caught up in the compelling force of individual, social, or universal programming and illusions. Who is truly aware? Who is aware of what is wrong in themselves, in their own lives? Who is aware of the true cause of their problems? Most people live in a dream world of their own and others' illusions, asleep, dreaming they are awake and aware.

Awareness is not a product of the media, no matter how informed you think you may be. Information is a commodity, with profit potential, in proportion to how unaware you are.

Awareness is a quality of being mentally, emotionally, and spiritually free from limiting influences that dominate your thinking. Do not believe your feelings, your desires, or your thoughts, just because you have them. As painful as it might be to be aware of the truth — the often unpleasant truth — the alternative is believing a lie, which eventually leads to much greater suffering.

Discernment is thinking for your self, not pronouncing judgment based upon ego, emotion, bias, prejudice, or ignorance. Step back, break the connection with past reactions, and see what is right, now. Being conscious of your own reactions helps free you from the same old thoughts, choices, and actions that you may accept out of habit. Then you can make better choices.

The way you learn to discern clearly is by observing your thoughts, feelings, and desires, as if from a distance — not believing the thoughts, feelings, or desires you have just because you have them, and not acting on them out of habit. Rather, be aware of them, or look at them, first. Separate substance from shadow. Awareness is ultimately a choice you make. You can stumble along in the dark or you can find your way in the Light. The true Light which clarifies what you perceive is Christ.

"Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness." — James Thurber

Emotion is not awareness or true perception

Beware of emotion; it bypasses reason, cuts connection to the truth inside, and delivers you up to those who know how to manipulate or excite your passions. This is why those in the media, politics, and government emotionalize all issues. They know that ego and emotion are the most effective means of controlling you, your thinking, your choices, and your actions. So, they play upon your fears, doubts, and ignorance in their arguments, propaganda, disinformation, and lies, all of which take the place of true awareness.

Simply be aware. And you will not be misled or deluded by external events, situations, people, or erroneous feelings, desires, or thoughts. What you perceive must be weighed and balanced against what you realize to be right, good, and true, within you. Fear is not awareness; anger is not awareness; worry is not awareness; guilt is not awareness.

You have to be conscious — present — to make choices that go beyond your programming and conditioned behavior. True awareness is like "waking up" or seeing things clearly for perhaps the first time. There are generally two levels of awakening: the first is just coming out of the "sleep" state; and the other is beginning to act in a way that is right, after you are awake. The first stage is a matter of just becoming more aware and more clear in your perceptions, or "rubbing the sleep out of your eyes." You might see how ego, emotion, selfishness, mindlessness, greed, indifference, deception, and delusions motivate the behavior of so many people — including, perhaps, yourself. And, once you see it, you just cannot go back to sleep. You must remain awake and aware, and do something about it. This second level of awakening is where many people would prefer to fall back asleep, or dream another dream (the illusion that everything is all right). Waking up is a process of letting go of useless illusions and attachments, which have kept you hypnotically trapped, asleep, and unaware.

Your job in being conscious isn’t accomplished simply by waking up and rolling out of bed. You aren’t conscious just because you had your multiple cups of coffee or energy drinks, or took a handful of supplements or drugs, or had your bacon. You aren’t conscious simply because you reported to work, and people saw your warm body. You aren’t conscious just because you checked in with everyone on Facebook, Instagram or other social media, and they can see you are still alive and functioning. You aren’t conscious simply because you have developed strong opinions, whether political, religious, scientific, or otherwise. There is more to being conscious and aware than any of that. And, there is far more to life if you actually want to live in the Light, rather than stumble around in the Darkness.

No one has ever told you this, but you actually have to fight to be conscious. You have to make a real effort, otherwise you stumble through life as if you were in a dark room, banging into things, breaking things, hurting yourself or others. People are already living in the dark, unless they have found and and learned to be guided by the Light, Christ. Unless you are willing to see, realize, examine, challenge or confront what is wrong, you only suffer more. The Light helps you see in the darkness — and overcome it.