If there’s one thing we know beyond any doubt, it’s that all of life is an evolutionary process. Everything, from the smallest particle in existence to the universe as a whole is in the process of evolution. Immutability is the only truth. Expansion is the point. The only question is whether or not it’s happening consciously or unconsciously. As is the case with any pursuit — whether athletic, intellectual, or spiritual — certain signs will begin to show up after a particular amount of practice has been put in, and they will come out, as they should, in your behaviour. If they don’t, then you haven’t condensed the full understanding yet– the concept has not made its way fully to the level of action.

While there is, in reality, no actual ‘higher’ level of consciousness (this is an egoic idea based on comparison) there are, undoubtedly, different modes of seeing the world, resulting, of course, in different modes of being in the world– modes of being that open us up to more relaxation, harmony and balance, even as the external world continues on in the manner it always has. There has been an inner shift.

Timothy Leary is best known for his role as the poster boy of the 1960’s counterculture revolution. It was Leary who advised the world to “turn on, tune in, drop out”. Most people don’t know the side of Leary that was a writer, psychologist, futurist, and pioneer. Interestingly enough, he is also the first person to have their remains sent to outer space, where he is probably more comfortable than he ever was on earth. Leary was one of the most revolutionary minds of his time, and his insights carry just as much wisdom today, some 20 years after his death. One of my favorite things I’ve ever read was when Leary wrote:

“Admit it. You aren’t like them. You’re not even close. You may occasionally dress yourself up as one of them, watch the same mindless television shows as they do, maybe even eat the same fast food sometimes. But it seems that the more you try to fit in, the more you feel like an outsider, watching the “normal people” as they go about their automatic existences. For every time you say club passwords like “Have a nice day” and “Weather’s awful today, eh?”, you yearn inside to say forbidden things like “Tell me something that makes you cry” or “What do you think deja vu is for?”. Face it, you even want to talk to that girl in the elevator. But what if that girl in the elevator (and the balding man who walks past your cubicle at work) are thinking the same thing? Who knows what you might learn from taking a chance on conversation with a stranger? Everyone carries a piece of the puzzle. Nobody comes into your life by mere coincidence. Trust your instincts. Do the unexpected. Find the others…”

God said:

It may seem to you that I let you pass Go, or I do not let you pass Go. It may seem to you that just when you are crossing the draw bridge, it raises up, or some kind of axe does fall. You get skittery with life. You jump around here and there, and can’t seem to get past something and find your direction.

Life seems to delay you. People delay. Everything seems to conspire to make you wait for life to begin or, at least, for life to get up off the couch. It may seem to you that you are waiting interminably in the Waiting Room of Life.

How does one individual of billions on Earth jump-start his or her life? It takes great courage for you. It is not easy for you to feel that you are the Captain of Your Ship. You feel more like you are caught in the doldrums or in a swirling eddy, neither of which leads you where you want to be and who you wish to be.

You are sure that life was meant to be different. You hustle and bustle. You stay still. It doesn’t seem to matter, for your life seems to wait in line. It is like you have been caught at the starting gate all your life long.

You might like to light a fire under your life and get momentum.

You have been idling in a sailboat, and now you want a speedboat.

You feel that you and your life are staying still in a lagoon. Oh, how you want to get somewhere.

You may feel that you sit out your life in a rocking-chair on your front porch.