Human Rights

Human Rights  » We've Been Living in a Dream World

We've Been Living in a Dream World

Dear Editor,

The following article by Jean-Claude Koven (byline follows

article) is submitted for publication.

If you would like to be removed from our article distribution

list, please reply with REMOVE in the subject line. If you want

to receive future articles at a different email address, kindly

let us know your preferred address.

Photo of author and additional articles, any of which may be

reprinted, are posted at: http:www.prismhouse.com/media

If you would like a complimentary review copy of Going Deeper -

How to Make Sense of Your Life When Your Life Makes No Sense, or

if you wish to arrange an interview, please feel free to contact

me by return e-mail or phone.

With warmest regards,

Jean-Claude Koven jck@prismhouse.com Cathedral City, CA

+1.760.324.3072

Please notify of intent to publish.

__________________________________

We've Been Living in a Dream World by Jean-Claude Koven

"Most people are other people," Oscar Wilde once remarked.

"Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a

mimicry, their passions a quotation." As he so wryly observed,

the vast majority of us are not who we've been pretending to be,

and the lives we've been living until now are molded according

to rules and values that are not our own. Most of humanity is

stuck in someone else's discarded chewing gum and has yet to

break free.

Unless you have been brave enough to forsake this trap, here is

your likely portrait: your religious convictions are those of

your parents or community; you root for your hometown sports

teams; your political allegiances conform to the party system

that society offers; you are an avid observer of the cultural

pageantry, like the Super Bowl and the Oscars; your holidays are

the standard ones, such as Christmas, New Year's Eve, and

Independence Day; you look to your political and religious

leaders for guidance and protection; you feel driven to

succeed--to make more money, to live a better life.

These are worthy and desirable choices that hold families and

societies together. They make you who you are, you might argue.

True, but only if you are content with admiring the wrapping and

never looking inside the box. If you dared to look, you'd

discover how these basic thoughts originate in a fundamental

belief formed during the first years of your life: that survival

depends on obeying the rules. Children typically bend their

perceptions and interpretations of reality to match those of

their parents and others who care for them. They find clever

ways to please in order to receive attention and belong. As they

grow up, the people and issues may change over time, but the

initial patterns of conformity remain deeply ingrained in the

subconscious.

The price for surrendering to consensus is steep. It is nothing

less than the loss of individuality and curiosity. Without these

two magnificent attributes, you disengage from the grandness of

the creation and implode into the holographic illusion humans

have come to call reality. You become one of Oscar Wilde's other

people, thinking someone else's opinions and assuming they are

your own.

We are trapped in the daily drama the culture and the media feed

us: mortgages, sporting events, tsunamis, sex offenders, AIDS,

terrorism, global warming, corrupt governments, and economic

inequities . . . all demanding our attention. The matrix plays

us like an instrument. A thirty-second news bite can push our

buttons. We get hooked and riled, liberally lacing our

collective guts with corrosive biochemicals unleashed by our

righteous indignation.

This condition is virtually universal. It is also the underlying

cause of the world as we know it. People cling so tightly to

their personal and social identities that they are blinded to

anything that does not validate them. The inevitable product is

a world of war, greed, and competition, driven by paranoia and

fear.

The way out is easier than anyone might imagine. However, very

few summon the courage, for it requires them to leave the

comfort of their known world and walk alone, unaided by the

crutch of belief and dogma, into the domain of pure

consciousness. Most people would rather get caught up in the

business of earning a living, raising a family, or helping their

community than deal with the unsettling immensity of All That

Is.

Yet it seems that all humans are meant to take this epic journey

of discovery at some point in their series of lives on this

planet. If you choose to walk this path, you will find yourself

gaining a new perspective--that of consciousness, where the

mind, with its judgments and emotions, ceases to dominate and

the heart is your only reliable guide. The great issues of your

daily life that once commanded your attention now seem

wondrously arbitrary and irrelevant--simply interesting

experiences that lasted far too long and became unnecessarily

weighty.

You now see the illusion for what it is: a game-board projection

designed so aspects of the Oneness can experience duality, fear,

and separation. It is no more real than a programmed matrix in a

computer game. You and I are merely units of awareness projected

into the matrix, defining ourselves by the points through which

we view and believing what we see to be reality. Who did the

projecting? You. Who is the projection? You. There is only you.

How do you get to this liberating place from which you can see

the larger picture?

The cosmic formula of creation is gloriously simple: Attention +

Intention = Manifestation. Nothing in the universe evades this

law. The reality you perceive is entirely a function of the only

two forces at your command: your attention and your intention.

Bring conscious awareness to this equation--consciously monitor

your attention and intention and what you are manifesting--and

Today's Popular Articles

• How Fast Will Your Cat Will Grow - The Important Stages In A

• Prostitution

everything changes.

Through this ongoing process of self-observation it will become

increasingly clear that the part of you that is projected into

the illusion is in trouble. This realization in fact marks the

beginning of your journey out of the illusion. Once you begin to

couple the law of Attention + Intention = Manifestation with the

concept of Oneness, you begin to see a completely different

picture. You are All That Is. There is nowhere for you to go,

nothing to attain, no lessons to learn.

If you buy into the reality that you are an earthbound human

stuck in the struggle of life, presto, there you are. If you

focus on the part of you that is watching you flounder in the

illusion, snap, you're free. It can't get much easier than that.

Yet why are so few of us awake?

The written or spoken word can do no more than point the way.

And trading one belief system for another accomplishes nothing.

The answer lies elsewhere. Waking up is a consequence of

induction. Just a few years ago you might have placed yourself

in the presence of a guru or master and, through devotion,

discipline, or some other practice, gradually assumed some of

his or her enlightenment. Now, using the law of A + I = M, you

become your own master. By focusing your attention on the part

of you that is watching the rest of you floundering in the

illusion, you are taking a giant step in restoring control over

how your attention is commanded. If you add the intention of

reclaiming your essence, you complete the formula that can only

result in the manifestation of whatever your curiosity seeks to

explore.

The payoff of having been so deeply mired in the illusion that

you nearly succumbed is compassion for those still stuck in the

matrix, coupled with a large dose of humility. You have learned

that the illusion is perfect exactly as it is. The only thing

that needs to change is the point from which we view it. Now all

that's left is for you to summon the courage to begin the

journey home.

- 30 - __________________________________ Jean-Claude Koven is a

writer and speaker based in Rancho Mirage, CA. He is the author

of Going Deeper: How to Make Sense of Your Life When Your Life

Makes No Sense, the Allbooks Reviews editor's choice for the

best metaphysical book of 2004. Recipient of USABookNews.com

best metaphysical book award. For more information, please visit

www.goingdeeper.org. __________________________________

©2005. Jean-Claude Koven / All Rights Reserved

__________________________________

About the author:

©2005. Jean-Claude Koven is a writer and speaker based in Rancho

Mirage, CA; Author of Going Deeper: How to Make Sense of Your

Life When Your Life Makes No Sense. Selected by both Allbooks

Reviews and USABookNews.com as the best metaphysical book of the

year. See: www.goingdeeper.org. This article may be forwarded,

distributed, posted, or published without limit, but please do

not alter the text in any way. Please notify if published.