Cellphone Calls to Your Higher Self

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3 Ways To Use Your Cellphone To Call Your Higher Self

Co-authored by Fran Shaw and Murphy

Navigating a busy New York sidewalk these days requires constant vigilance lest we get trampled by people with heads bowed and eyes on their phones. It’s hypnotic, this marvelous content-provider in our hands, and some of us can’t help but constantly check it. The phrase “Put Down The Phone” headlines a recent New York Times article announcing a $200 app that allows you to put away your cell and still have peace of mind that you won’t miss anything “important.” But what important things are we missing when we are glued to the phone, to the exclusion of everything else? As my friend Murphy puts it, “Is that the sun blazing gold across the horizon? I hadn’t noticed because my world has shrunk to the size of a kumquat.”

Must we give up our cellphones to wake up and smell the roses? Golden opportunity here! Especially when we consider that transformation may not be about giving up anything, but may be about opening to a consciousness that embraces all of it, limited by none of it. Doing so allows us to live in both streams simultaneously-the everyday and the “higher.” “Can I walk and talk and chew gum at the same time?” (Murphy ponders). That’s the challenge.

To bring higher consciousness to life, Murphy advocates “getting on the bus running,” that is, becoming aware of oneself right in the midst of an activity. At any moment, there’s a choice to be made between two dispositions of mind: (1) passivity and identification (mind busy coming up with answers; attention moving around all on its own, and hooked into whatever attracts it) and (2) awareness and presence (mind quiet; attention not moving around, but focused on impressions from the senses now, and joining with the subtle energy animating the body).

When one is “identified,” it’s on automatic-pilot mode: thoughts take over and there is no focusing on presence. The question is: do we have to stop what we’re doing or behave a different way to wake up? As Murphy says, “It’s wonderful to sit still for a moment, relaxed and quiet, so subtler impressions impress. But this is not getting on the bus running. This is getting on the bus as it waits for you at the curb. By the monastery.” Indeed to “get on the bus running, nothing about me needs to change except where the attention is.” In theory at least, we should be able to be on the phone-totally enjoying it-and be present at the same time. We just need some practice in “multidimensional living”-and something to remind us that we can “vibrate higher.”

OM Times is a leading voice of the Conscious Community with articles covering the full spectrum of Conscious Living. Click here to see all we share.