Our Saturday night dinner at the Selkirk was an enjoyable event sitting on the patio as was our intention. Michelle discovered Elk on the menu and that became our choice for the evening along with two appetisers and two drinks, which were my treat on account of the Dutch football (soccer) victory over Costa Rica.

Once at home I showed Michelle my new tablet computer and the foldable keyboard, which she searched right away for her smart phone in order to help her send mails. Later on she was off to an Ishmaily Ramadan breakfast at 10pm on account of the fasting rules for that community.

And I should not forget the vacuuming that I did do in the morning for about 90 minutes, which was followed by my watching the football match between Holland and Costa Rica. It started of quite slow, boring almost, but became a real nail biter towards the end of the extended time, turning into straight penalty kicks. On the fourth goal the Dutch took the slow, but very strategically played match.

On Sunday I met with my friends at the Palliser and later joined Sarah, BJ, Alec and Laddie for dinner at their cosy North East of Center home. The intended barbeque rained and hailed out just at eating time forcing us inside, but that did not diminish the mood or our enjoyment of the lovely dinner. Home at around eight pm I read some more in the weekend Globe and Mail and checked in at ten thirty pm.

The short definition of my belief that I mentioned last Friday stayed with me all weekend, but clearly needing some elaboration in order to make it more meaningful.
I’ll start of by repeating the statement:
“To bring conscious expression of Existence Divine into my life, is my aim.”

To bring conscious expression of Existence Divine into my life, is my aim.

I spent time this weekend mentally elaborating the various aspects and concepts of this very compact statement and found that it would make a good foundation from which to elaborate. So, now is the time to put some of these thoughts into ‘conscious expression’ by means of writing.

I start will with the end of the statement, ‘is my aim’, this to my own surprise. Yet, by giving ‘is my aim’ this prominence the emphasis is on knowing where you are going, so to speak. Over time many good thoughts have passed through my mind and impressed my eyes and ears, but knowing the aim of your intentions and actions is defining of my and your motivation and action.

In short it defines the outcome we aim for, but it also makes clear that we are engaged in a process that is not yet complete and may not even have a known end or completion state. All that remains to be discovered and points to the beginning of the statement.

‘To bring’ implies something that is not yet here, indicating process and activity. It also implies that I am taking part in all this as a creative contributor to wards the outcome. I am not an observing bystander, but a contributing participant to the process and its outcome, the Aim!

In summary we can say that ‘aim’ and ‘bring’, the end and the beginning frame the content of the statement, making clear that we are talking about a process in which I, as an individual, am engaged.

From this beginning phrase ‘to bring’ we will now follow the words and ideas of this sentence in its natural order, which makes ‘conscious’ the next word to consider. I am thinking here of ‘being conscious of’ my actions, my intentions, a being aware of and informed about the world of our daily life at home, but also on this planet.

When I act from unconscious motivations and believes, unintended outcomes of my behaviour may come as a surprise to me. People may steal in an unguarded moment and come to regretted that later, but you can also be motivated to help out in certain cases without really knowing why.

Social movements that change the established order are often driven by vaguely formulated aims, which only later become available for conscious formulation. For example history records many violent actions, while their origins, motivations and outcomes are the subject of much historical analysis after the fact.

For the individual to act in a conscious manner, it is important to be aware of ones feelings, emotions and values as well as one’s objectives. Unconscious behaviour may be harmful or beneficial and can even be contrary to one’s stated intentions, but that is not the case for conscious actions and thoughts. In the latter case we know what we are doing, while in the former we are ignorant; not that conscious awareness guarantees ethical behaviour.
<ca. 11:00am~