Seeing

Seeing. Today is the 29th of December, 1985. We're at that in-between point in the year. We're between two years. The dawn of one year, the twilight of another. We're between two places. Neither here nor there. Almost not in one year or the other. In America, it's that week between Christmas and New Year's, the time when no one seems to be quite sure what they're doing-a good time to see, to practice seeing.

Naturally, anytime is a good time to practice seeing, but sometimes are better than others. Some places are better than others to practice seeing, to see. Some people are better at seeing than others. In the old days, of course, we'd call them, strangely enough, "seers," people who had that special second sight, that ability to look where most people are simply afraid to look-on the other side of the universe, beyond the realm of the senses.

What is seeing? Well, seeing is a direct, immediate knowledge of something. It does not imply any kind of judgment or moral system or philosophical outlook or religious viewpoint. Seeing is seeing. Right now I'm looking out a window as I'm talking, and I'm here in Massachusetts. There's a lovely big tree and a small forest and there's snow on the ground. The sky is a very pale blue with wisps of white clouds. It's early afternoon. I see these things, because they're there and I'm here. Now, I could decide that I don't like snow, or I could decide that it's the most wonderful thing there is. That's not seeing, that's reaction and interpretation: emotion based upon conditioning-maybe I've had pleasant experiences with the snow, maybe unpleasant experiences with the snow, it has nothing to do with seeing.

I could decide that the woods back there would be great to knock down and build a nice housing development. I could think that, from a conservationist point of view, that's the worst thing you could do, but that's not seeing. Now, if I saw that they were going to knock the woods down and build a development, that would be seeing, but being concerned about it one way or the other has nothing to do with seeing. Seeing is just direct vision-not, of course, physical vision.

What is there to see? Well, to begin with, when you can see, you can see, of course, inside yourself, and you will see that you are not just one self, or one person, but you are kind of a conglomerate. You are composed of many different selves. We like to think of ourselves as one continuous being, that we're just one, but actually, we're many. Many aggregate selves are within you-many different feelings, many different voices, many different personalities. If you could see more deeply than that, of course, you'd see that there's something beyond those selves, and that is light, energy, power, nirvana, endless eternity, and that part of you is really networked with all things and all beings. It's not separate. The only separation exists within your own mind, when you categorically, through thoughts, think, "I'm separate from everything out there, or everything in there." That's just an idea. If you can see, then, of course, there's no idea. You're part of all things and all things are a part of you.

When you can see, then you can see inside others. Obviously, you can see their thoughts, their ideas, see their plans. This is useful! (Rama laughs), because their plans might be to injure you-their designs. Their plans might be to help you, and you don't really need the help. You can see those designs. Their plans might be to-who knows what they might be?

You might be able to help them with their plans, because you can see. Not that you can carry out their plans for them, but sometimes people don't even know what it is they want, and when you can see, of course, it's very apparent. They're trying to figure something out, and you can just stand there and say, "Hey, wait a second, I see what it is you're having difficulty with." They'll still have to do it, but you can lend clarity to someone's state of mind. That's why people of course used to go to seers. They realized that we lived in a world that has a lot of confusion in it. It's hard to see in this particular plane. It's a relative plane that we live in, meaning that it's a place where everything changes all the time. Conditions are in a state of perpetual flux.

It's getting harder and harder to see on our planet. Much harder than it was, say, a thousand years ago, let alone several million. In the days of brave Atlantis it was much easier to see. In the days of the ancient Egyptian civilization, or even a thousand years ago, it was easier to see. Why? Well, primarily because there were less people on the earth, for one thing. If you think of each person as a radio transmitter-and there were only a few million on the earth not that long ago-each sending out a signal, a vibratory pattern. Oh, animals, plants, rocks, everything sends out a vibratory pattern-non-physical beings, but the ones that we are the most affected by are the ones within our own cycle: human beings. Now there are billions, like McDonald's hamburgers-billions of people on the earth, and so there are billions of frequencies on this tiny little planet, and they project the population of the earth will double again in about twenty years and then double again.

So, it's getting harder and harder to see. It's also getting harder to see because the earth is in a changing cycle. We're moving into a new age. We're moving into a mental age and leaving the physical age. Today, what determines personal power in the world is not how strong you are physically, as it was maybe 400 years ago-how many people you could beat, you would be the toughest guy or the strongest woman-but today it depends upon how smart you are. The mind is the strength of this era, so therefore we're moving from a very physical age, an age of physical consciousness and brute strength and survival, to an age of the mind. Now, an age of the mind is a complicated thing. On the one hand, we'll applaud it and say, "Hey, this is great! Boy, our time has finally come." You're interested in psychic development, meditation, consciousness, so obviously your strength is the mind, so this is your time. What a great time for you. It's not as good a time, perhaps in a certain way, for the person who just relies on their physical strength. So this is a great time for someone who is psychic. But, of course, the mind is a complicated thing.

(Rama playfully imitates an Irish brogue.) "Aye, it be true, ya know, the mind is complicated. It is not only filled with the good and happy and cheerful thoughts, aye, but the mind is where all the doubts reside. They hang out there, they get together and have small parties. Aye! It's true. In the mind is confusion, in the mind is illumination. So in the age of the mind, we get a little bit of everything. Aye! That be the problem." (Rama switches back to his normal voice.)

The mind brings about all things. Everything is part of your mind. The mind contains all hopes, joys and fears. Of course, when I say mind, I don't simply mean the physical mind that thinks. Mind-you know what I mean. Perception, awareness is mind. There are different levels of mind. How many of those levels do you see?