Illustration by David Camp

There are Two Vases at the Portal of our Conscious Awareness. They are full of our deepest Dreams, Wishes and Unexpressed Feelings. Every day, each moment, and often unknowingly, we sip a dram from one of these Vases. Every moment of every day we dip our cup in one of them, and sip on the dreams and whispers we extract.

These dreams are everything. They arrive as secret, silent advice on how to act or behave in any given moment. What we receive from the Vase we selected determines how we will act and feel for the next cycle.

In both Vases, the messages are not so much written on paper, as distilled to a sweet or sour wine. Each drop of this wine carries the flavor of a thousand secret promises. One is bitter to taste, yet, like coffee it can be addictive. The other may be too sweet and unrealistic for the reasoning mind, and yet we may have a sweet tooth that desperately needs this nectar.

One Vase is marked "Whispers" and the other Vase is marked "Aspirations". And the question for us is this:  Do we choose to take from our Vase of Whispers, or our Vase of Aspiration?

The Vase of Whispers contains all the hidden secrets of our fears, all the covert messages of those who have told we are no good, and all the combined dramas that have caused us to develop the fears we hold dear. This Vase hides the dark angry places inside us. 

• The Vase of Whispers contains the sum total of our thoughts of control and domination over others, and it is the place we go when we believe we are in opposition to the world about us. Your Whispers will always encourage you to TAKE and DOMINATE.
• The Vase of Inspiration is where we have stored all our finest thoughts. The hopes, dreams and wishes for a greater future which we put there (Or were placed there) in our childhood... This is where Superman is you, and the hero always wins. It holds messages that tell us how we can grow and develop, and become great. Inspiration seeks to make ourselves and the world a better place. Your Inspiration always encourages you to GIVE and SERVE

When we feel free and independent within ourselves, we are supping from the Vase of Inspiration. When we are insecure, and needing, we are supping from the Vase of Whispers..

Every day in a thousand ways we choose which Vase we will draw from, and so often we are pulled in two trying to decide... Do we need the Sour Taste of Hard Experience or the Sweet Aroma of Dreams in this moment?

Many are pulled in Two, and leave double lives as a result. One face to society, one face within. A passive kind person without, a hungry panther within. Everywhere you go there will be a friendly smile that is looking to get a dollar from your pocket ... And when you see it, know that this person is locked in their inner battle.

It is not that feeling pity will help. That is arrogance. But being aware of the reality all people experience will help you gain a greater grasp on your OWN reality. And in truth, we need BOTH Vases if we are to survive in this world ... they are BOTH a gift and it is how we USE these gifts that will either help or hinder our spiritual and emotional growth.

The greatest secret of all is found when we learn to match the Sweet with the Sour, the high with the low, the small with the grand. These Vases represent the polarities within our own being. We have in our hearts a map that guides the left hand to the darkness, and the right to the light. Or it may be vice versa for you. What is of importance is that the CHOICE is there.

Our CHOICE has usually been cast like dice at an early age. We have seen the number of our fate written, and we are playing out it's chance. We are choosing through REFLEX to sup on the negatives or positive in any given situation. And until we have a change of heart, or a breaking through to a greater love, we will simply follow the set course that the inertia of our upbringing has chosen for us.

The Question remains: What are you CHOOSING right now? EG: Are we listening and deciding, or deciding then listening? Think about this in particular, if you will. Most DECIDE with secret prejudice, then pretend to listen. The Basic Choice is a selfish one. These and other basic, fundamental choices are things we make every day. The subtle choices, the ones that lie beneath the external choices ... THESE are the choices that tell our hand to select from the Vase of Whispers, or the Vase of Aspirations.

It's a Matter of Balance

Everyone has a Positive and a Negative potential, and depending on the nature of our being, we draw a little from both aspects. When we discover inner Balance, and the Neutral State, we learn to refine and take what we need from each moment in order to match the situation we face. This is your only true "Response Ability"

As we find balance in ourselves we learn to resolve and COMPLETE each moment  in our outer world. How do we complete a moment? Just look at any young child, and re-learn the Art of Immersion. You will soon re-discover what it is like to complete your given moment.

In time we all will learn to draw from each moment what we need, and create the future we truly know and understand to be the best for all. How well we do this is based on both where we place our Attention and how pure is our Intention. These two things of themselves are the cornerstones of our truest Belief and Faith.

In truth, we dip the cup of our present awareness a little into both Vases, mixing them up and seeking to find the right balance with which we can deal with our environment ... But we tend to do so unknowingly.

Fact One: The hand compulsively reaches for the Vase that our habits have trained us to reach for. Like any habit, it must be broken before we can rise above it.

We need to get past our Censor and our habits to find the natural path that leads us  to an increase in  freedom and harmony.

The Study of Truth, wherever you may find it, and whatever it is to you, is one way to help break the "reflex" habits we have collected in our upbringing, and as you go through this process of self growth and inner understanding, you will find more and more that you are moving into a position of INNER CHOICE with how you deal with external situations.

Fact Two: In the end, we must learn to Master ourselves to the degree where we CHOOSE our action or reaction to any given moment. At this time, we learn to  choose not so much from our fearful Whispers or Aspirations, but from the well of our true inner being.

In time, we go past ALL of that which is the past within us. We break the back of the karma that has entrained us to act like the mouse on a wheel and finally we establish a fountain of new awareness within ourselves. This is the only true Initiation. Only then in this "reborn" state do all the aspects of the past and the potential futures become less important to us than the process of our present.

For the Spiritual Student, this "fountain" comes as an awareness of a never ending stream of Light and Sound... This is the Fountain of Youth ... An ever present flow of Tone and Inner Truth that gives a clear message of the way to go in every moment of every day. What is more, it is already there, inside your heart. You just have to rediscover it.

How do we re-discover this eternal stream of life? We need but take the time to listen to life, and decide. Sadly, most will continue to decide, then listen.

Pythagoras taught that we must listen to the Inner Music, the Music of the Spheres, every day. This IS the fountain of Youth. He also taught that we needed to discipline the mind, in order that the choices we make do not hinder our connection with Spirit. His greatest disciplines were in training the mind with Science, and the heart with Music.

We all have an Inner Song that our Heart wants to sing. We need to tune into it, to listen to its Aspirations AND its whispers. Between the two, the path will be made clear. Keep the simple spiritual discipline of just listening for the Music Of the Spheres, and looking for the Light of Understanding. Spend time each day, stopping the mind, and looking within to find this harmony. With patience we will grow past the confines of our past, and arrive at the reality of our present.

Fact Three: We must EXERCISE our right to Choose if our ability to choose is to grow strong. The question is: How best to do this?

The simple message of this narrative is this: Spend 20 to 30 minutes every day in contemplation. Look for the Light, which can come as a Blue of White star or moon... and listen for the sound, which often comes as a high pitched tone in or around our ears.

In a short space of time, you may find yourself drawn deeply into this simple gift of the Divinities. If this is so, you will find your conscious awareness lifted out of the Physical Body, and you will (in the words of Socrates) "Be lifted unto the high places, whereupon thyself shall be as the Gods"

You, as Soul, are the mirror of God. Your choices either polish, or distort, the reflection. Yoiur job is' like Alice, to fall through the looking glass and make sense of the new world you encounter.

Right now you are at the doorway. This is the place which IS the new horizon, the new experience, the greater state of BEING. Walk through this very moment, and you will find yourself waiting for you ... Explore RIGHT NOW. When you do, the new paths, the new choices will open to you. Like a flower opening to the sun, so too will your heart open to the new day as it dawns.

How do we allow in the Sun, how do we find this new dawn? By letting go of our hold on our dark night, where all the whispers and fears come to haunt us. Then slowly, naturally we will transfer our trust to the Vase of Aspiration, yet at the same time, paying heed to the doubts and warnings of our whispers. We need them both. Fulfillment and Aspiration are waiting for you to drink your fill, but without the Whispers, you will too soon be drunk upon your own divinity, and fall like Iccarus.

And through it all... through all the dark nights, the lonely afternoons, the ups and downs, through all the clouds and rain and sunshine the letter from the divine that has our name on it will always arrive on our doorstep as a paradox:

The paradox is ever this: Without the night, we cannot recognize the day. Until the Day is Night and the Night is Day, we know nothing of either, and we will remain chained to the skeletons of the past.