Integral Awareness

01/11/2022

Okay - next step: giving up the next level of delusion. Maybe even cutting through delusion altogether - who knows, it's a possibility.
This is where covid becomes a gateway; once we start to look at covid as a symptom instead of a disease. A symptom of the larger affliction of having pretty much disconnected from reality; where we believe we can shape nature to what we want it to be and fix any unwanted results - creating the next level of problems (which will of course at the same time be another opportunity to cut through delusion/change our ways).
What keeps us from actually seeing this and acting on what we can now recognize as insanity? It's always the same aswer: FEAR. It's what keeps us stuck, and has been keeping us stuck ever since we gained self-awareness. The total irony is that the most fearful are those who need the illusion of control the most - and they create the institutions that control the masses: religion, scientism (I group at least 95% of todays "scientists" here - Faucci, Tam, The Experts), political ideologies (Trump as much as Trudeau as much as Merkel as much as Macron as much as ....). And much closer to home: a family member or a trusted friend who all of a sudden turns on you because of fear (I've had a friend become extremely hostile because he is so fearful that his past lifestyle of smoking way too much dope leaves him vulnerable and completely in the grip of fear).
The thing to remember is that blame never works; the only meaningful thing you can do is change your own perspective and then let go. The outcome isn't up to you, ever! This is where you cut through delusion altogether...Good luck and have fun!

01/07/2022

Albert Einstein; arguably the greatest scientist...his words: "no problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it".

The Covid 19 crisis was created at/from a level of consciousness that disregards the well-being of our planet and all living organisms on that planet, other than how they serve our immediate needs/wants.
The solution to this crisis - vaccines - are being developed and tested, using animals as test subjects, to be infected, studied, killed and dissected.

I choose, very consciously, not to be a part of this level of consciousness/awareness, but instead will try to move to a higher level.

I can say a lot more about this, but that covers it all. For those of you who are uncomfortable with the current narrative, maybe this is a reason why? For those of you tauting science as the overall reason for your beliefs - listen to the greatest scientist of all times, and question those who are determined to stay on this, current level of awareness, where only profits, money and control serve their purposes.

What does it take in order to move to a higher level of awareness? Giving up another layer of delusion, that's all. Now, in these highly polarized times you may be seen as a heretic - comes with the territory I'm afraid. It would be good to connect with those who are ready..

09/17/2021

Covid-19; a wake up call? If you're willing to look at a challenge and see the opportunity hiding in plain sight, then yes - you better believe it!
Where to begin this waking up process? Right here, right now - all those who want to wake up can do so by looking inside themselves.
This pandemic has made it abundantly clear that there is one overriding factor to everything we do: FEAR. We're being manipulated and we're manipulating others through fear; everyone is convinced their belief system is correct and blame is being put on "the other".
Look inside yourself, study your belief systems, question where their validity would come from if they weren't being fed by fear. Not just your belief system around covid, but every belief system you have.
The opportunity, the first step to waking up, is to take a mental step back, to recognize first of all the fear that lives in you and to acknowledge that your identity, your ego, is formed around that fear.
The second step is to realize just how much of your time and energy goes into convincing others that you really are the person(a) you want them to see - and this goes down through all the layers of identity - and how you don't really believe in that persona yourself, deep down.
The third step is to realize you are - obviously - insane...just like pretty much everybody else.
Once you're there, and it's a very big ask for most people to go there, you can initiate change; now, you can start doing what you know is right in that moment, without needing a certain outcome to validate you through the eyes of others. Complicated? Actually, no - it takes all the complications away, it's the simplest thing ever. It's also the hardest thing ever, since it goes against everything we've ever done and it requires a willingness to question your complete sense of self.
That's the opportunity hiding in any challenge - maybe the collective magnitude of the covid challenge can be your stepping off moment.

04/28/2021

Depression...many people suffer from it, many more won't qualify it as such while suffering from it. Therapy and antidepressants are the two "cures".

What about a totally different take on depression, one that sets all belief systems about depression on fire?

Sounds intriguing, doesn't it? Try to wrap your brain around this: what if depression is simply a necessary step out of what we call "normality" but what really is delusion?

If you're on a path to increased awareness and you've become increasingly aware that pretty much all of your belief systems, emotions and thoughts are false, the overriding emotion is despair - and then we can choose from there: therapy and antidepressants, running away from our demons into victimhood or different, more palatable identities or we can decide to step off the cliff into the unknown and face our demons. Small wonder that therapy and antidepressants are as popular as they are. Unfortunately, that path only leads to the next opportunity to get the same choice again, and again, and again...
The only way to ever be free is to go through door number two.

Enjoy the ride...

06/30/2020

Racism, sexism, nationalism, extremism, terrorism...all symptoms of the same underlying condition: fear. I'm going to take this one step further and include the following: altruism, activism, patriotism, speciesism...all symptoms of the same underlying condition: fear.
Think about it - all these "isms" serve one purpose only: to give you an identity; to make you right and others wrong, to make you more and others less. Fighting symptoms (all of the above) will push the underlying condition deeper; it will give you an identity that seems to be "right" and "more" but in reality it only adds another layer to the ego.
Think about it a bit more: racism and anti-racism are flip sides of the same coin, grounded in the same underlying condition: fear.
Why not address the underlying condition instead? Change/deepen the level of awareness, address your demons instead of those of "the other"?
At a deeper level of awareness, all "isms" will be seen for what they are: figments of our imagination, and only at that deeper level of awareness can we see that there is something else than fear...it's when we no longer need to hang on to the emotions to determine our identity, when we can start to flow with life instead of in opposition to life. It's called freedom.

03/31/2020

Nice article in the Banff paper!

https://www.thecragandcanyon.ca/entertainment/local-arts/art-for-arts-sake-frans-baars-dog-trainer-and-counselor

Frans Baars is a dog trainer with On The Trail Dog Sports and he also offers human counseling through his company Integral Awareness.Baars is originally from Waalwijk in The Netherlands. He moved t…

03/25/2020

A bit more perspective from Germany: 35,000 cases of Covid19 and 159 deaths. That's 0.5% over the total population. Why so relatively few deaths in Germany? Very simple: Germany has been running 160,000 tests/week for months - so their numbers are far more accurate than other countries that don't have the tests available.
Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying at all that this Covid19 disease isn't terrible for those who get seriously ill but it's not the killer pandemic that's now being feared all over the world...
At the same time this has the potential to be a real eye-opener if we look at what's happening because of our greatly decreased activity - the earth is breathing much more easily and the estimated number of people not dying because of decreased pollution this year alone is 75,000. Maybe, when this passes, we as individuals can look at how our insatiable consumerism (including all the traveling - yes that's you I'm talking to) has impacted our planet and realize that something much more fundamental has to change.
Until then - keep your physical distance while this virus is out there, but please don't give in to the fear mongering and enjoy going outdoors and exercising:)

03/19/2020

Take a deep breath in...hold...now let go...and let go some more. Anything we resist will become stronger; anything we open up to will become an opportunity. The opportunity here? To change our perspective from fear to openness (aka love). Yes there's a virus out there that kills people; mostly elderly and sickly people. Yes it exposes the amount of fear we live in on a daily basis, manifesting as paranoia and panic and the ever present fear of death. Just imagine if this virus was anything like the plague, killing huge portions of the population - any thin veneer of civilization would disappear overnight and most would be at each other's throats...
Now we're forced to look more inside, to look at how we've been relying on rampant consumerism and so-called spirituality for our sense of self, our sense of being worthy.
The opportunity here is to start opening up to and accepting what is, to move forward with an open heart/mind, to allow an internal inquiry into the fear and maybe to start realizing there's nothing to fear, that this virus is simply a part of life and some much greater intelligence is at work here (everywhere and always) and to finally start the process of giving up the need to control...

03/03/2020

May 23 and 24, 2020: Choice - a two day workshop in Canmore. The entire workshop will be in nature; overnight will be camping, discussion around a roaring campfire, cooking on camp stoves and sleeping in a tent. I'll post a description of the workshop below. Disclaimer: not for the faint of heart - this workshop has nothing to do with yoga, meditation or any New Age concept (other than dispelling them).

Description:

What if we’re here by choice? What if that original choice was the last free choice we ever made – until…

Imagine that – before Universe, before God, before Life, before Why, Where and When – I, you, we didn’t exist other than as pure consciousness, which chose to have this experience…

Then – BANG! I, you, we happened.

Something in me, some subconscious but vital aspect of me, resonates with this. There’s a recognition of Truth, something I can almost touch. When I allow this sensation to just be, without trying to understand or grasp it (I tried – doesn’t work) my awareness expands and an innate joy of not-needing-to-understand is present. I feel vibrant, much more alive, aware that nothing of what seems so important in daily life has any actual reality to it.

In what is unfortunately our ‘normal’ way of being, fear and delusion are the motivator. We are ruled by ego, our idea of identity, our idea of wrong and right, judgement and of how things should be. We have beautiful words and concepts – altruism, compassion, empathy, non attachment but that’s all they are: words and concepts, firmly rooted in righteousness.

What if we choose a radically different way of being, a total departure from Why, Where, When we are now? Not a free choice by any means, but one that leads to freedom. A way of being ruled by love instead of fear, openness instead of resistance, living now instead of then. It goes against everything we know, and the price of making this choice is everything we hold as being real.

This workshop won’t get you there, but it can be the first step towards actual freedom, towards a way of being where fear and ego lose all the power we’ve given them.

09/13/2019

Saturday October 12 - half day workshop in Canmore. This will be a fairly informal gathering, encouraging discussion and inquiry into the issues that matter to you - and start there on a journey that goes beyond the story. We will be outside in the wilderness, in a location that's intimate but not confining, that has been guarded by ancient native ritual and where I've held workshops for the past 15 years. $40 minimum contribution.

09/12/2019

Intimate relationship - potential, challenge, promise, betrayal, trust, growth...
A friend of mine asked me for my personal opinion on this issue: why give up my life-as-I-know it, content to live on my own with lots of friends and a few special friends, and engage in a dedicated and monogamous intimate relationship. She's been there, done that and has experienced the highs and lows that inevitably come with that arrangement. Heartbreak and divorce, single parenting - all of it.
My question to her was simple: what part of you is being pulled towards this scenario? Why, with all the experiences you've had, go there at all? Her answer: I don't know, but there's something pulling me...

Here's where the deep stuff comes in 😱 - hang onto your seats. We are drawn to intimate relationship because it gives us the opportunity to look at ourselves. For almost all of us this happens unconsciously, where we project our insecurities onto our partner, while they do the same to us. Usually this leads to a cycle of anger, resentment, making up, feeling great, hanging in - and it starts all over again. The opportunity and the challenge here is to step out of the cycle and to look at our own reactions - to take the projection and to realize that it's a mirror; to look at our own conditioned reaction and to internalize instead of externalize. Do we need a dedicated intimate relationship for that? Nope - but will we do the necessary work without one..? That's a question we can only answer for ourselves, one to which my friend said: no, I'd be too comfortable, too lazy...so true 😳😉

07/05/2019

What happens when we do wake up and find that now we really don't fit in anymore? This will happen; in our intimate relationship, our professional relationships...what to do when everyone around us is is clearly still asleep?

This is where ego will try to get yet another foothold, and we tell ourselves we're definitely better (or better off) than the other. When that happens our level of being asleep has taken the disguise of being awake - and that's all that has happened. Nobody awake here...

Seeing this, the choice is there to remain awake and to act awake in everything we do; to act with this new level of awareness that's been accessed. There's going to be temptation to hide this new awareness, because there's going to be real (ha!) consequences to being openly awake. Every single relationship you have will shift. Some of them will end. All of them will change big time in that they will become real - at least from your perspective. By staying open and awake you will offer the same to the other in the relationship - whether or not they go there isn't up to you. Your actions and reactions are yours; as soon as you've acted/reacted they no longer belong to you. This is the opening into true discussion, into truly being alive. The fear that will show up is simply an invitation to go deeper again; to ask yourself why you believe there's any truth to it...

Nobody ever said it was easy (and if they did they were lying 😉)

03/05/2019

One of the oldest questions: what is the meaning of life? Why are we here, is there a greater purpose than the making of a story that we all get tangled up in?

Sometimes you have to throw everything you have away - your family, your home, your possessions and your beliefs - only to find out that...you had nothing to begin with; zero, nothing but a story, created by the underlying fear that's at the basis of all we do. Sure, you may call it love, you may call it anything you like; you can stay on the surface of life without ever wanting to go deeper - but one day we are all faced with this one question.

I recently threw everything away, and immediately started creating a new story - a potentially happier story maybe - so I wouldn't have to go deeper. I've done this before and guess what? Doesn't work - ever...So what's the point of posting this? This time I had an awakening; the pain of losing my parents first, then throwing everything else away and realizing that no matter how nice the new story is the pain doesn't go away. The emotional pain, combined with exhaustion of working stupid hours and not sleeping much caused a shift in me; I literally woke up with clarity and an awareness that all this is, is a story - and we can wake up from that story and be real. We all will anyways once we're dead but why wait? We can die today to our fictional self and become real. Now I find myself strangely free - I don't need anything of my old life back and because I don't need any of it, I can actually have it...irony taken to the extreme.

Is this clarity and awareness going to stick this time (I've had a few awakening episodes before in my life)? The fact that it doesn't feel special at all makes me think so. What am I going to do with it? Not sure, but if you're curious ask me.