Consciousness is all there is, was, and ever will be. In essence, it is God or Spirit.

Consciousness/God/Spirit does not have a beginning or end, but it chose to come into expression as you. Your body to Consciousness is like you putting on your clothes in the morning and going out into the world, if your clothes were integrated with your body - like the suits in the movie Fantastic Four.

Some people do “remember”, some of us don’t. Different people remember to different degrees. Some people have a vivid memory of being pure Consciousness, some don’t. We are always pure Consciousness in expression, it is who we are. The degree to which we are aware of this determines whether we “remember”.

The word remember connotes a past, but there is no past. You are here now. Always in existence. I haven’t figured out how to explain this yet, but it makes sense in my being.

Consciousness and Intentions

Consciousness from this perspective does not intend. If we were referring to it as you, conscious and subconscious mind, that would be true. However, it is not your Consciousness that intends say peace, it is you (or lowercase c-consciousness). Consciousness/God/Spirit is peace. What you are intending is to align yourself (your beliefs, your mind) with what already is. How much peace you manifest or experience is determined by how much you allow pure consciousness to express through you. Add to that, you have a unique blend of experiences, skills, and talents that allow you to express and experience peace uniquely (the how). You are the filter, so to speak.

The same with love. Consciousness/God/Spirit is love. People are loving because they express Consciousness. Some people let it flow freely, some people block it. Some people are aware of letting it flow or blocking it and some people aren’t.

Consciousness and Growth

God/Spirit/Consciousness is all knowledge. Hence the saying, “there is nothing new under the sun.”

You are here to express and experience Spirit. Growth the way we see it might be the progression of expressing more and more of it like Hawkins’ Power vs. Force scale.

I’m not sure that we have to progress in awareness, expression, and experience at all. It seems to me that babies express more of Spirit than adults. Some of us might realize that’s what we want to do and how we want to do it, then start trusting, becoming aware, expressing, and experiencing gradually. But I don’t think there’s any rule that says that that’s the way it has to be.

Your level of awareness, expression, and experience is determined by how much you trust or are open to It. Try as you might to be completely open, there are still parts of you that insist that it just can’t be that way.

As a practical example, take money. I believe intellectually that Consciousness is infinite supply. However, I also harbor another belief, and I believe this viscerally because to me it is reinforced by my experiences. I believe viscerally that I have to put in a certain amount of work to get money.

I could have an epiphany and suddenly believe in my core that I don’t have to do any amount of work for money (I’ve done that a couple times in my life and it appeared from the ethers), or I could “grow” into the idea that there is indeed infinite supply.

It’s not Consciousness that will be growing, it will be my capacity to express and experience it.

Nothing is outside of consciousness.

In Spirit,
Nneka

I recently applied to a job at Lulu Publishing. They sent me a polite email saying that there were other more qualified candidates for the position. Have you ever gotten that letter? Did you think you were qualified for the job?

What makes a person qualified anyway? Companies usually base the answer to that question on an assessment of talent, training, and time - or experience, but they miss a key factor.

Talent

Talent is like the rock in the mines that have not undergone pressure or polish. It’s raw materials. You may have analytical talents like programming or figuring out complex math problems. You may have creative talents like singing, or painting. You may have athletic talent. Most of us have some quirky combination.

Talent alone won’t get you very far though. Untrained talent remains in its infancy stage. Compared to honed talent, it seems amateurish. You need to add some training to the mix.

Training

In a study of musicians in their 20’s, K. Anders Ericsson, a professor of psychology, found that talented musicians identified as great practiced an average 10,000 hours in their lifetime, those identified as good practiced an average of 8,000, and those identified as mediocre practiced an average of 5,000 hours.

Continued training creates ruts in our brain that allows us to do a task by rote. We no longer think about doing the task. It becomes effortless. Training can be gained formally through education and apprenticeship, or it can be gained informally through trial and error.

Time (Experience)

Time, or experience, differs from training in that this is the period where you show off what you have. Experience is measured by the time put in to produce value from the combination of your talent and training. It may happen at the same time as gaining training or it may happen linearly. Experience sets you apart as a professional in your field. It gives you the springboard to become an expert.

Heart, the Missing Factor

Talent, training, and experience will give you what you need to become an expert. Heart, however, gives you the passion and fuel to become an attractor in your field.

I’m not talking here about the drive to succeed. You know those people, you might be one. You’re good at everything you set your mind to because you must succeed. You are so good that you’ve forgotten what you really love. You’ve forgotten where your passion lies. You mistake success for heart.

Heart is the measure missing from most career matrices and evaluations. In fact, it is the oft ignored, key ingredient of assessing qualification.

Heart is a passion that comes from within. It’s what drives you to do something regardless of the outcome. You spend hours at the sewing machine ensuring that the hem of a dress is just so. Rather than step away exhausted and spent, you feel refreshed and energized. Heart fuels you. Drive drains you.

Heart, also known as le cœur in French, is the root of courage. When we are engaged with heart, we have the willingness and courage to press forward. We take risks that the talented, trained, and experienced are not willing to take.

Heart also provides an ease and enduring harmony to our undertakings. It is like a silk cloth that both contains and covers our talent, training, and time to give our work a polished feel.

In the movie Center Stage, Maureen, one of the lead characters is the top dancer of her class. She’s assured a space in the prestigious, fictitious American Ballet Company. She has the feet or the talent and has spent here life in training and gaining experience for this position. Near the end of the movie, Maureen gives up the lead role in the audition ballet to a friend. Upon seeing the lead ballerina, her mother is perplexed and rushes out of the theater. In the lobby, Maureen and her mother meet. Her mother is going on about her missing the opportunity of a lifetime. Maureen begs her mother to listen, explaining to her that this is not her dream. Her mother argues that she just wants her to be happy. She doesn’t want Maureen to live a life of regret. Finally Maureen says, “That’s what this will be. You didn’t have the feet Mom. I don’t have the heart.”

In Spirit,
Nneka