NON-PHILOSOPHY

Please read our “Beliefs” section before this one as we have defined certain ideas that are foundations in this next set of words:

While a philosophy or explanation of our way is necessary for communication, we must admit that we prefer de-programming over programming, and we consider our philosophy, pedagogy and other mental structures and explanations as temporary tools. E l f h o o d offers many ideas, courses, classes and yes, programs, however, one of the main intents of our programming is to show the individual how to de-program one’s self, how to remove the layers that cloud the eternally present, untouched authentic self within. Every human has been programmed to some degree by our collective systems including banking, government, military, religious, educational, food production, energy, transportation and commerce. Being in contact with these systems ensures that every human has received mental “programs” that they have internalized, solidified as beliefs, and sustained through repeated patterns and actions. Many beliefs make up one’s personal reality, and the cultural beliefs contribute to creating collective reality.

Beliefs are mental structures and belong to the realm of Mind. Currently, most humans do not understand how the realm of Mind is a prison, programming them to believe and thus act in certain ways that are most often suppressive of self and others. Beliefs and the collective reality that most humans are engaged in accepting are part of the suppression of the Sovereign Integral and actively work to dis-empower us on many levels. In this sense, the mind and its programs are the prison. As our purpose is to foster the expansion of consciousness towards the realization of one’s Sovereignty, we tend to see beliefs as structures of the mind that one must “let go” of in order to attain liberation.

Most humans do not realize they are in a “prison” or a “matrix” or a “program”. They do not see that reality has been programmed, structured and shaped for them (and that they are involved in the maintenance of this program) through the endless fractalled movement of the mind and the solidity of its chosen beliefs. Seeing one’s personal and social programming is like a fish noticing water. Usually one does not see the programs running in the mind, one simply runs them and accepts their reality without question. And, even if one begins to question them, often one is still trapped in yet another mental (albeit “higher” or more expansive) program. This is a subtle point: there are layers of mental programming, and often as we let go of old limiting beliefs, we create new ones that we become attached to. It is important to remember that these new beliefs, while more expansive than one’s last ones, are just a rung on the ladder, and there are more expansive beliefs beyond them.

In the Project Camelot Interview James describes this condition with the metaphor of a prison or labyrinth: there are many walls limiting our freedom, and even when one knocks down one wall and feels a relative rush of freedom, one is still within the prison, albeit slightly closer to getting out. Every wall coming down represents an expansion of the self and a de-activation of something that suppresses the self. Every wall coming down represents one less layer between the ego-personality and the Integral Self. Every wall coming down represents another manipulation of the mind that has been defused or deprogrammed.

However as most humans are oblivious to their programming, most are not trying to de-program themselves ; rather they are seeking to escape from “boredom, poverty, pain, bad relationships, illness, depression and hopelessness” as James has explained in The Project Camelot Interview. The suppression of their True Selves and awareness of the programs that are in place to control this suppression are not a factor in their search or daily lives.

Much of our work at E l f h o o d is thus centered on helping the individual become aware of and de-activating their programming, habitual patterns, negative frameworks, mental ruts and limitations. Once we begin to see the programs through which we view the world, (i.e. once we become aware of what the “mind” is doing) we realize that everybody sees the world through a unique perspective or frame: we are all looking through a particular window, and we each have a particular view. Most people see only the view and think that the view IS what is, that they are “right” in what they see. We want to help others realize that the view they see is because they are looking through a particular window – it is not true or false, but it is a particular window on viewing reality. We want to assist others to look not only at reality, but at the window through which they are observing reality, be that window-frame cultural, educational, religious, or any other mental lens. Becoming aware of what frame one is looking out of assists the individual to freedom, as they begin to realize that they are not seeing reality, but a representation of it based on their particular viewing context.

 

Becoming aware of this fact catalyzes the transformation of the individual through the key of silence and the ability and desire to look through “programs” and “windows” that promote the expansion of consciousness instead of suppressing the mind and heart. It is as if one is living in an enormous Palace with millions of unique windows, and that with awareness, one can choose what window through which to look. In this unattached state one can also construct new windows that are liberating to the self and others, as well as frameworks that encompass wider and wider perspectives until there is no palace left, only pure perception. One may choose to look through the window of awareness, forgiveness, gratitude, presence, neutrality, creation, compassion, humility, and so forth. There are windows or perspectives that are the perspectives of the Quantum Presence (such as observation, presence, appreciation) ; these are the perspectives we strive to sustain, as they are catalyzing, liberating, and beneficial to all beings.

Seeing without any bias is of course the ultimate goal; with no mind (ie. no frame) to refract reality, one can exist in unity, and one’s perception becomes unlimited. In this way, one may live in the Palace of Windows freely; without being stuck looking out of only one view, one is free to understand and honour the views of all and ultimately, one gains the key to this metaphoric palace and can both come and go, use this window or that one, without attachment, and dissolve the entire structure to perceive with the purity of buddha-mind. Allowance, presence, and acceptance are crucial to this practice; letting go of attachment to the mind’s machinations is key to this process.

Looking through the window of science, one might see that we have 23 pairs of chromosomes in our dna.

Looking through the window of poetry, one might say that our dna is “a spiral of codes, a twisting of possibility, an ascending staircase to realize infinite potential.”

Looking through the window of resentment, one might blame the neighbor because his dog barked constantly and kept one up all night.

Looking through the window of understanding, one might realize that the neighbor might also have been kept up all night because of his dog, that the dog himself longed for space to run and explore trees and hills and ponds, and that if one applies compassion in this situation, one would be involved in the transmutation of a limitation, the widening of one’s window, the dismantling of one’s walls.

 

We heard a story once to illustrate this point:

  A man and woman sat down to breakfast every morning and the man would watch out the window as his neighbor would hang out dirty washing on the line to dry. The man could never understand why his neighbor would hang out dirty clothes, and every day he complained and ruminated about this to his partner. Every day it was so. One day everything was different when he looked out the window. He smiled. He was surprised.

He said to his partner, “Look! Everything has changed this morning; our neighbor has hung out laundry that is clean!”

She grinned. “Darling,” she said, “the only thing different this morning is that I washed our window.”