Happy Independence Day!

I have always been fascinated by those optical illusion games such as this one with the young woman and the old lady. Have you noticed how obvious something is once you see it?

A good example of the way we can miss the obvious, is the information about whether an exit will be to your left or to your right. You can tell that by noticing which side of the sign the exit number is on.

I recently attended a workshop on higher consciousness. At the workshop, we worked with 8 stages and states from Barbara Brodsky's book Cosmic Healing, condensed from Ken Wilber's work. 

Another way to think about that is to notice the availability of expanded states of awareness. One message the teacher shared over and over was that we are able to become aware of things being simultaneous. At the same moment, you can see when someone speaks rudely or in a condescending way to you, and also realize that he or she is in great pain and the action has nothing to do with you. In fact, this might be what Don Miguel Ruiz was addressing when he gave the wise advice to take nothing personally (The Four Agreements).  

For sure, it may well be worth thinking about how much other awareness is available to us at each moment. Perhaps that is the greatest freedom human beings can enjoy. 

Happy Independence Day!