Images are consciousness mechanisms that we used to navigate and manage the state of both our consciousness and our lives. We're so used to the word image, that we've come to take it as nothing special. Images are representations of things, so what? But in every image is implied a whole system of representation. A system that manages the connection/s between meaning and the material that houses it. Back when I was in New Zealand I borrowed the Dao De Jing from the library. And one part that I've mulled over repeatedly since then was the concept that there's no division between the sacred and the mundane. At the time I was searching for more sacredness in my life, and while the promise of divinity in everything was something I wanted to adopt as a principle, I was too absorbed in my struggles and fixations to experience it. But the point I want to get across is that the images (/tools) CURRENTLY operating in our respective life spaces, situations, narratives, hold all the potency and potential we're seeking from the future or from outside sources. It's precisely those functions with all their power that hold the structure of our lives in place. In practice and in life it's so easy to fall back into the rut of our old habits (mechanisms) often as soon as we feel like we've taken a step forward. How can we practice observing the progress, and new situations and experiences, without immediately trapping them in old images? One thought to play with is that images and meanings don't need to be hard and fast. Whether it's looking at a traffic jam or a chair or listening to jazz or a politician's speech, we can observe the meanings and structures at play without necessarily trying to contain them. This paradoxically give us access to more of the tools ad functions operating in our life system. Because what we're really trying to engage with is the sacred that we house in images and devices, not the props themselves.

Spaces fascinate me. A huge foundational element of my Life Craft is developing spaces or atmospheres --- to create experiences for people. This has led me to view a lot of things as spaces --- the body, music, feelings, interests, relationships --- that are created in the resonance or interaction between your field and another. Viewing things like an energetic venn diagram wherein spaces and experiences are created in this interference between self and world, has really unlocked a sense of creativity in my perspective on life. Because it means that the spaces I experience in/as my life are not neutral or random, but co-created by and within my field. I.e. everything is immediately imbued with a sense of meaning. Challenges and strife then also hold useful and crucial life meaning. Not only any meaning but life meaning specific to me. The world then takes on a role as an energetic mechanism that works on us --- cultivating qualities in us that we need in order to fulfill our goals and purposes in life. Or even ascend to higher levels of life and consciousness. One thing that can connect us with the deeper resonances of the pools of our life is simply stillness. Wu wei, or non action, meditation, pausing, as opposed to reacting, interrogating, fight or flight. Stay tuned for some simple internal exercising for cultivating awareness, energy, and internal mechanisms!!!!

I started knitting properly maybe a month or so ago. My mum taught me how to knit when I was a small child but my skills only ever were in starting and not finishing scarves. A few weeks ago I really wanted to use up the scrap wool from a blanket my mum knitted me so I found a pattern and started knitting. I've been finding the difficulty of a new skill sooooooo fun! It's hard! I've been really craving good challenges lately and knitting has really provided me with that. I also can't believe that there was a bunch of sheep and then they had their hair cut and then the wool was processed and then turned into a blanket and the leftovers are now a jumper ! That's crazy!

The shapes of the things we see in day to day life are the ripples moving across and interacting with each other in your life space. The shapes that appear are like sonar echoes of the overall shape of the space, and of the arrangement of things in it. Even the things we see as negative or boring, are unique resonances that hold unique combinations of information that only you can access. Like in video games how you open chests or look under rocks to get treasure. I'm not into this idea of the world being a coded 'matrix', but as a metaphor it overlaps with ancient concepts of karma and dharma, and the universe responding to the qualities of consciousness we maintain through our day and week. Why is this important? Gaining insight into the internal qualities that are being expressed in your external life is what brings meaning and motivation to your daily practice, whatever it is. It takes effort and energy to juggle meanings externally, but we gain energy by engaging with and cultivating meaning internally.

If you read the last post or 3, we can take blockages as something like the opposite of the tools and props we set our lives up with in order to be able to see beyond the mundane and everyday. Blindspots in our sphere of vision in that broader field of our lives. This is closely interconnected with the idea of 'shadows' (Jung etc.) --- the 'dark' area of our lives where we don't want to look, and that we avoid by focusing on the parts of ourselves and our lives we can accept. Here we can borrow Richard Rudd/Gene Keys' axiom: every shadow contains a gift. The road blocks we run up against aren't just in the way, they're containers for the very material (we think) we're searching for in the more visible areas of our lives. The missing parts of the puzzle we hide from ourselves because they're associated with suffering. These are not only things (patterns) that block certain areas of life from view, but patterns that stop us from viewing life as whole and interconnected, or as a broader space. E.g. worries about money. The worry itself is caused by a pattern that blocks a broader view that would show us a more interconnected complexity of life. Hence the boxes we unlock not only contain treasure, but they unlock layers that carry across the whole life space.