Joyful Life, Part Two: Judgments vs Preferences

Joyful Life, Part Two: Judgments vs Preferences

Rev. Alia Zara Aurami-Sou, Ph.D., Head Minister

Sometimes I hear New Age people say there is no basis for having preferences, if we let go of all judgments. I disagree, and here are my thoughts. By being stimulated to agree or disagree, you can discover more about your own truth on this important subject.


In my reality everything has a particular nature. Even the All has a nature, which is Self-exploration, Self-discovery, and Self-appreciation. Even a Group Soul has a particular nature. For everything smaller than the All, having a particular nature means some aspects of the All are included in this Being/Identity/Nature and other aspects are not.


When a portion or part of the All such as a living Being has a nature, then some possible experiences will resonate with that nature, enhance it, expand and increase it, be compatible with it, “ring its chimes,” and other experiences will not resonate, or will tend to diminish, slow down, or inhibit its self-discovery, self-exploration and self-expression. Preferences are those resonating, compatible, enhancing experiences we tend to gravitate toward, even in the absence of judgments.


I believe that preferences are part of the “way it is” for any portion of
the All which is individuated, and thus which has an identity or nature. Experiences that resonate are experienced as preferences, and all other experiences are experienced as either aversions (if they are detrimental to one¹s particular life-form¹s continued life) or as neutral (if one¹s identity is not a conditional life-form.) Nojudgments are involved, just a matter of resonating or not.


The human embodiment portion of the All I Am has a particular nature. In fact, it has several natures, on different levels or dimensions. These lead to a whole raft of preferences. For me, a preference is indicated when some experience comes into my awareness as a possibility or an actuality, and I feel a YES in my whole Being. This YES is not packaged with a NO, in other words, it is not based on avoiding any experience. 

Also it is not based on a limited identity, a fear-based identity and reality. It is simply like white light being passed through a red filter and coming out red on the other side: it is in the nature of a red filter to resonate with the red in the white light, and to not resonate with the other colors. (At least, not resonate in the same way. Harmony and synergy do occur.)


Or when a particular bell is struck, it makes a unique sound because of its particular unique combination of metal, design, and construction, and evenhistory: a few nicks will change its sound. That bell will turn every hit into itsparticular sound. It has a distinct nature, and it “prefers” its own sound.


Or if a violin string is vibrating at a particular frequency it will resonate with various other frequencies, like harmonics, and it its own vibration will not be enhanced by various other frequencies which would tend to dampen or cancel its own vibration. I believe that if it could talk, it would express a "preference" for those frequencies it is in harmonic with.In some sense, the term “preference” is redundant, and simply means that something does have a nature, which means some aspects of creation will resonate with or be compatible with that nature, and other aspects of creation will not. That what "having a nature" means.


I don't think having preferences is incompatible with being guided, or flowing consciously with Divine Will. It seems to me that humans (have the illusory) experience "choosing," all the time, and these choices can express preferences, rather than being based on separation/fear/judgment. 

I think the having of preferences is built into our nature simply because we do have a nature. We can easily be Guided through our preferences. An internal Guidance/choosing system could operate in our awareness by generating preferences for certain experiences and activities for us.


My consciously-experienced nature is expanding until it includes not only this embodiment but all my other multi-dimensional Selves in other realities,and even including being the All, the Creator-Self, so my preferences are tending tobe more explicitly and directly toward Self-exploration, Self-discovery, and Self-appreciation. Ultimately, of course, preferences do dissolve because there are no experiences of the All which are NOT Self-exploration, Self-discovery, and Self-appreciation.



However, as long as this embodiment lives on this planet, there will be plenty of specificity in my nature, generating lots of preferences. In this embodiment, by the time all these preferences get to operating, this embodiment is full of preferences, lots of preferences. Enough to keep me quite happily busy choosing my experiences, and all without any judgments at all.


The term “preference” is cumbersome, so in my own thinking I have renamed them “joys:” the joys of aliveness, of Life Purpose, of my life-form, of my Seed Vision, the joys of this planet, the joys of the All. I regard these joys as "built-in," part of the nature of Who I Am.


Here are some of the aspects of my nature which generate preferences. There are probably other preference-generating principles or aspects I haven't thought of yet.


* Preferences based on the nature of the All: anything which promotes Self-exploration, Self-discovery, and Self-appreciation, which is in fact all experiences, but some are experienced by the embodiment as satisfying these preferences more directly.


* Preferences based on the planet on which this embodiment resides: this includes the joy of fresh air, clouds, sunsets, growing plants, all formsof interaction with water and the other elements, etc. On a different planet,the preference for the sight of a moon, or blue sky would be replaced by the preference for perhaps dust and desert, or rock formations, or purple sky, or whateverelse characterized that planet. 

It is highly beneficial for a life-form to have built into it, joy about its surroundings. Definitely helps, and if humanity evolved over millennia, that definitely was a characteristic which would be selected for by natural selection.


* Preferences based on the nature of this life-form and its senses: these would include the joys of movement, of touch, of taste, the other senses, etc. It is very beneficial to the continuation of that life-form for it to have experiences unique to that life-form. 

Thus humans would prefer dancing and slugs would prefer crawling! Thus we enjoy bathing and adorning our bodies, and birds enjoy grooming their feathers. A lot of joy of various art forms is located here, and some of the joy of various art forms is located in the following preference, aliveness.


* Preferences based on being alive: these include preferences for movement, activity, exploration, curiosity, learning, and whatever promotes the continued and expanded life of that alive life-form. The preference for health is located here.


* Preferences based on my Purpose in this particular embodiment: So for me, preferences for writing, being efficient, sharing my insights, etc. These preferences in turn generate a whole lot of other preferences, such as preferring (for most purposes) writing on a computer rather than by hand! Someone whose life purpose involved being a mechanic would adore tools and techniques that I don't care a whit about.


* Preferences based on my own unique Seed-Vision Life. My concept of Seed Vision is that it is the blueprint Ideal Life our Spirit has designed and implanted into our present embodiment, which is unfolding and being manifested and realized as part of the evolution of the planet. 

My Seed Vision encompasses every overt and subtle aspect of life, on every level of my Being. It is a reality, an identity, a purpose, a feeling-tone, everything. Bringing it into manifestation is the deepestor highest aspect of my Life Purpose, and it unfolds according to Divine Will. I have strong preferences for every aspect of experience which resonates with the living and manifesting of my Seed Vision.


* Preferences based on my multi-dimensional nature as an entity: These include preferences for meditating, for experiencing energies and Beings which are not primarily from the physical plane, for "miracles," for "synchronicities," etc. These also include preferences generated by the nature of my Self in other dimensions which have directly created this embodiment. 

Thus, for example, one of my natures is that of a professor of psycho-anthropology at a university on some planet which exists in the Fifth Density or dimension. That Being is probably the primary creator of this Earth embodiment (and a bunch of others as well) and that Being has its more mental, scientific bent, which is in contrast to a more “heart-centered” bent, though both are operating. So that generates a bunch of preferences among activities and experiences for this particular Earth embodiment.


* Then there are the preferences just unique to me and my personal history, just associations based on past lives and past experience in this life. I have always loved, for example, poetry, word play, the color teal, the sight of sparkling lights, the smell of oranges, the sounds of birdsongs, and flowers. I like Cape Cod just because I spent childhood summers there. I like the smell of new tires,just because I do. I prefer classical music to jazz. Redheads. English-type countryside. Anything Polynesian. White, shaggy fur. Unset large, sparkling, clear gemstones. And other such things whose relationship to either my Life Purpose or my Seed Vision is not obvious, but I sure do prefer them!


If you would like to explore the nature and function of preferences in a spiritually-oriented life, may we suggest further reading: the Church's articles on "Discovering Your Cosmic Essence" (look for that blog entry here) and on "Selfishness and Joyfulness Part One" (look for that blog entry here.)

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