The Sixth Sense, The Spiritual Center
The Sixth Sense
a painting description
As always you are free to interpret this piece however you choose or are led to understand it.
These are simply my own thoughts which I feel inspired to share.
My own interpretations change as I revisit with pieces as time goes on, but these are my initial thoughts at the time of creation.
This is where the sensations collide, where it’s all happening! When all the “mined diamonds of the mind” come together to form the big picture of what was once beyond our understanding. The foundation of incomprehensible existence, The I Am of Being, this is the mysterious question mark hidden throughout the cosmos!
Perhaps this image displays the moment of death where we expand and finally understand. Yet even now while our consciousness is connected to our body, we have at hand the exact same access to the wisdom and knowledge of the universe. The sixth sense is beyond our physical senses, yet at the same time deeply interwoven. Our human body gives access to the sixth sense in a way that we may never experience again.
Could the sixth sense be intuition? Knowledge and guidance that comes from a source much larger than ourselves alone, and yet must be found within ourselves alone?
The sixth sense can be anything you want it to be, and indeed it is. In fact, it is all things. It is the connection point to everything, perhaps if I may be so bold to say, Divinity itself. This whole series has been an arrow pointing me towards the deepest truth: that within me resides all things, and indeed The One Thing, The Unnamable! As the artist of this body of work, I am also a listener, an interpreter, and I have been interpreting these pieces after I have created them according to inner guidance. You may have a different interpretation yourself, but regardless of what you find, we come to the conclusion according to the same Guide. The revelations are drawn up from within. Inside of us both resides “The Unexplainable One who explains all things!”
At first I thought, surely the sixth sense is intuition, then I came to realize that for me personally it is Emotion and there is no denying that. For even intuition can be broken down further and I find it is rooted in emotion. Our heart is the center of the sixth sense and the center of feeling! Guidance is found most profoundly within how something feels. We feel into things to decide if it is the direction we desire to go and we turn around if things don’t feel right. Furthermore, when we feel doubt or fear we can be sure that we are not living from the true self, either we must push past the fear and see we are stronger than we believed, or we may question why the fear is coming up in the first place and find the lie it is rooted in.
Negative emotions point out that a lie is at work. Whenever I have felt down on myself with no grace and compassion, the pain and discomfort of those lies digs in deeper. The pain is an indicator that I am feeding a fear. Perhaps the lie of, “I am not good enough” only ever felt so painful to think because it was not true.
In times when I had been so sad that the emotions threatened to drown the life right out of me, I found comfort in the truth that I am one with the I AM. The further I am from my True Self, the further I am from The I AM, and the further into pain I go. I found comfort because I came to the awareness that I am not defined by my emotions. The True me was not in pain and I was only living in a false state of mind. Although at the time it seemed out of grasp, I knew there was a me who did desire to continue enjoying this gift of life. I knew that beyond the way I currently saw myself, there was also a me who was strong and empowered, able to get up and live resiliently. It’s important to honor the lessons that guide us, but that does require a lot of strength.
Negative emotions are only proof that the opposite is true. Everyone has worth, and so everyone feels the disconnect when they view themselves as worthless. We don’t feel bad about who we truly are. If we feel discomfort when we are being ourselves it is most likely due to self consciousness, therefore to be our true self we must also be accepting of ourselves.
If Love had eyes, it would be like looking at ourselves through its eyes and seeing beyond the shadows, knowing they are only shadows, to see the true Self, the Light within. When we do not see ourselves the way The All-In-All does then we feel pain, but when we see ourselves as we truly are, then we are seeing ourselves through the eyes of Source!
This guidance through our emotions can help us to know ourselves, to know who I Am. As well as who we are not so that we may disidentify with such projections of self and rise above those imposed limitations.
Anything that is not true or worthy of your thought attention will grieve your inner spirit. It is you alone who feels those messages and so you alone must listen.
Negative emotions are red flags, they catch our attention through deep feelings that cut to the heart. While the opposite is true with emotions of elation and gratitude, these are green lights guiding the way. Moments where we know we are being true to ourselves and true to who we were created and called to be, they keep our attention and strengthen our identity with such states of mind.
Knowing that negative emotions are indicators, we can use them to propel and motivate a U-Turn. As well as when we feel positive emotions we can be reassured that we are following The Flow of Life. This is why our calling and passions feel so wonderful to engage in! There is something to be said about following our innate desires and the skills we have cultivated purely through enjoyment of the activity. Oftentimes we think that if it comes so easy it must not be of value, if it is so natural it must be natural for everyone else too, “my gifts are nothing special.” Hold up! Wait a minute! There is a calling on your unique skill set that cannot be fulfilled by anyone else. There is a spot that only you can fill and hearts that only you can touch!
Some may try to suppress their emotions and in so doing suppress their greatest ally and guide. Perhaps people have good reasons, maybe they have grown to distrust their emotions, or maybe they do not feel strong enough to handle them. But if we never face the challenge, then of course our strength will not grow. We owe it to ourselves and the people in our life to process our emotions no matter how heavy, without this we will be left in the dark. But remove the limitations of fear and the light of revelation shines!
Whether we realize it or not, we all tune into our emotions to make decisions. The marketing world is well aware of this and uses it to their advantage, tapping into humanities psychological tendencies to sell more products and make us feel less than, like we need what they are offering. We act and make decisions from our feelings over fact. This is why contemplation should be encouraged when it comes to consumerism, perhaps if we temporarily deprived ourselves before making a purchase we would make more necessary purchases and less impulse buys. Using the concept of inner-inspired purchasing only.
Inner inspiration can be used in all areas of life. It is the ideal to be led from one task to the next with a flow and harmonious ease! With practice and trust we are inspired into who we truly are! Into the right actions at the right time through Divine Inspiration.
This Inner guidance is fueled by trust. We trust the guidance now and the next time it will be that much clearer, each time it gets easier and easier to act on the inspiration because each time the trust of self and our ability to make decisions is strengthened.
It often does require a lot of blind trust to follow through with the promptings. We have no idea what the outcome will be. In fact, the kind of inspiration we want to follow is the kind that we could care less about the outcome. It’s something that feels so right we couldn’t not do it! We can’t help ourselves! We just take action or say the words so naturally, it’s as if it’s not even us doing it but something greater moving through us! We leave desires alone until we are so stirred up and urged to move forward that we cannot hold ourselves back. This is very different than wearing ourselves out by trying to force things to happen. Even worse, listening to the ideas of a million others until we have taken every action in the book only to be somewhere we didn’t want to be, tired and frustrated. Sometimes we get too distracted by the endless “to do list” that we miss the promptings that would have moved everything forward in our lives.
We are always given the exact right and perfect next step and when we follow it we find it has led us to the outcome of our dreams, perhaps even beyond what we knew we wanted. But this does require a stillness. Slowing down long enough to listen. More than silence, a surrender. The surrender of our time, being able to be still in the midst of uncertainty and not rushing from one thing to the next. As well as surrendered action, not being attached to the outcome but enjoying the action in and of itself, a present moment awareness.
This surrender is key, it is a super-boost for the sixth sense! Because the sixth sense has power in and of itself, it is our way of connecting to infinite power! If we use our physical senses to interpret and guide us, then yes we will get places and accomplish things, but we may miss the whole point of life. The sixth sense is an expression, just as emotions are expressions. We could express the fearful self or we could step out of our own way and allow a Divine expression to be poured out as a blessing on the world through us.
When we listen to our intuition, the analytical mind falls away. We tune into a flow of Divine ideas and tune out the fear from over thinking. Indeed it is a practice worth pursuing, to live from such an automatic flow that it overrides the analytical fear-based way of thinking. Perhaps moving away from the usual way of making decisions will open up a whole new world of possibilities. Just imagine if fear were not in the way! Living from the sixth sense is a safe place, fear has no hold here, they cannot exist with each other.
At the same time if we have fed the fear and it dominates our thoughts and actions then we can be sure it is getting in the way of hearing our intuition’s promptings. As one grows the other lessens, and vice versa. May we spend time trusting and obeying the promptings of our own Inner Spirit so that it may grow stronger and push fear out.
When we are still it is as if we are making space and just as outer space wants to be filled with infinite possibilities, so will we be filled up with the vastness of imagination!
There are certain instances where the senses are no longer needed, the only sense active is the sixth sense, where we move inward, focusing our attention on our inner life through contemplation. The physical forms dissolve, the borders and boxes that held us captive dissipate. We have moved beyond them, fear has no hold here and we become something new, reborn into The Self that is higher, vaster, more powerful, and connected to the entirety of eternity.
This is a journey for the meek, for the humble, for those who live life with pure satisfaction, contentment, and gratitude. The gurus sacrifice their entire life, detaching from the physical senses so that they may more easily tune into their sixth sense. We may not need to be so drastic, for even the simplest of man can find peace where he is now. In the end, disconnecting from sensations only goes so far.
This woman made up of stars, holds the earth in her heart, a loving place, a body full of love, and encompassed by love! The persona is gone. She is made new, into a vessel of power and light. Larger than life, larger than what a body could hold, and yet she still has form. She practices embracing her form, her light, embracing her true being beneath the form that now dissolves.
Just like her, we allow the old self to fall away. True guidance is a flow, a flow through us, a connection. We do not force, control, or hold on to certain outcomes. Instead we surrender so that all we say and do comes from a Divine center beyond what we could have come up with all on our own. We choose a path and let it unfold, we don’t plan everything out into eternity, one step leads to the next with ease and harmony. All we need is the first doorway and the rest will take care of itself.
It’s an ongoing journey, one that is cultivated with practice. The more we listen and trust, the more we are guided. What was once invisible comes into view. We cannot look too far ahead, for just as we cannot see past the horizon line, so we cannot see all of the path. We must first move with obedience into the current place and be present with where we are now.
What action is laid out for us currently? Will we follow through? Surely living in the moment is what the sixth sense is all about, being aware and grateful for this present moment as it expands towards our dreams. Feeling into the now, letting our heart rest here.
There is great peace in trust and trust is a knowing feeling. It’s not a guess. We know I Am That I Am. We know we are guided, we know we are in the right place at this right time, doing exactly what we are meant to be doing. The rest will take care of itself. Intuition is all about Knowing and Knowing has been a theme throughout this whole art series. Knowing really starts to take shape in intuition, sometimes we need a shape to comprehend. Knowing is within the imagination, a feeling; things don’t have solid lines here but yet we still can grasp it.
Do you grasp this?
All you need is to experience a glimpse and then you will forever be on the journey because it is endlessly satisfying!