I exist in multiple dimensions of multiple dimensions of multiple dimensions – each as fractals of the others!
HOW do I do that? To really cook the noodle, though, I might ask a more essential question – “WHY?”
Let’s Start with HOW.
Each organism (circle A, B or C) lives within its own dimension of multiple dimensions – i.e., a self-directed intellect and a body of interrelated, inter-dimensional, interconnected and interdependent components that function as one.
For example, although my body consists of trillions of individual cells, I consider it as one being – my body or “me” – rather than as a bunch of separate beings. I could say the same for my thoughts. Although I experience many thoughts, those thoughts appear to emanate from a single source – “me.” The question of how I do that has generated substantial debate and spawned countless scientific studies.
Let’s consider answers to my four basic questions: What, How, Why, and Who, as dimensions – A, B, C, D – like the Venn diagram above. Each of these dimensions overlaps and interacts with the others in a thought matrix I experience as one individual – me – interacting with an environment.
Okay – So WHY?
Let’s assume that everything I DO falls into the HOW dimension. This is how I live, interact, relate, think, feel, and etc. Yet, there is an overlap of WHY into that dimension. I usually experience it as a justification – “I did this because…” and “Why did I do that?”
In the dimension of HOW, everything that I pay attention to MUST have a WHY attached to it. I must have a reason for doing whatever it is that I do – including paying attention. “Why am I paying attention to THAT (instead of something else)?”
Attention, the currency of consciousness, is precious to me due to its rarity and usefulness. There is a high price to pay for it as I can attend to so few things at a time yet require it to consciously accomplish anything useful. I seek it from others while paying it out as sparingly as I can. By focusing it, I can achieve my desires, dreams, and intentions. By not paying it, I might die.
Attention is the essential element of gratitude.
Through attention – noticing – I initiate the universe’s gratitude program, the Law of Abundance – in which the universe tends to provide more of that to which I pay attention. That which you feed (provide nourishment, pay for, notice/attend to) grows!
How and Why may come together through the agency of attention. By asking pertinent How and Why questions, might I bring attention to those aspects of my consciousness that slumber? Might I awaken to WHO I AM?
About Awakening
Must I awaken in EACH and EVERY dimension in order to fully awaken? For example, must I know how I am dreaming in order to appreciate that I am?
Consider the metaphor of the Venn diagram above:
When I insist upon separating symbolic meaning from literal experience, the result is certitude, “I know what is right!” – which tends to engender defense.
When I accept my symbolic metaphor as literal truth, I’ll desire to seek to apply that truth to my experiences through expectation – horse before the cart. Mind closed.
Result: suffering.
When I overlap metaphoric meaning with literal experience, the result is quite different, “How does this experience express WHO I AM?” – which questioning tends to engender further inquiry and openness.
When I challenge a metaphor through inquiry, I open it to another interpretation, another meaning, perhaps resulting in a clearer picture of who I am. Mind open.
Result: freedom.
Who Am I, I Might Ask
To get the awakening train rolling, I might observe something in my life – say an interaction I might have with someone. Then ask myself,
“How does this observation [literal experience] express who I am?”
Listening with intent to understand, I might get a new metaphor – an “answer” from some aspect of me that is NOT as literal as the experience about which I’m inquiring. For example, I might feel some emotion about it or hear some inner talk.
Considering the metaphoric “answer” as a literal experience, I then might ask, “How does this new metaphor express who I am?” Again, listening with intent to understand…
I might continue to ask, “…and how does this new metaphor express who I am?” – continue asking… and never stop asking!
I might keep asking the same question to each dimension of awareness as I go along – considering each answer as metaphoric to the level about which I’m asking – fractals, equivalences, metaphors, ME!!!
Perhaps as I continue to ask the HOW questions, I’ll awaken to WHY my experience expresses who I am… đ
