The Pursuit of Clarity: Levels of Awareness and the Evolution of Consciousness on the Path of Mastery

Copyright © 2013 Jeremy Albertsen.

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The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

ISBN: 978-1-4525-1196-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-1197-9 (e)

Balboa Press rev. date: 11/04/2013

Contents

Acknowledgments

The Invitation

Introduction

Chapter 1       The First Level—Me

Chapter 2       The Outside World

Chapter 3       A Higher Power

Chapter 4       Reincarnation

Chapter 5       Beings of Light

Chapter 6       Oneness

Chapter 7       We Share This Universe

Chapter 8       Our Full Potential

Chapter 9       Perfection

Chapter 10       Mastery

Chapter 11       The Circle

Afterword

A Prayer for Light-Bearers

This book is dedicated to the people who have carried this knowledge as their truth through the passage of time. A few people in many cultures all around the world put themselves at great risk to pass this wisdom down the generations. I dedicate this book to them and pass this wisdom on that their efforts are not in vain.

I also dedicate this book to those yet to come, to those who will benefit from the work we do now in this time.

And to my son, Ochre.

Acknowledgments

Firstly, I must give my thanks and gratitude to the divine creator for my existence with all that is. Not a moment goes by that I am not filled with joy to be in the universe.

I also extend gratitude to all those who looked into my eyes and saw something we both liked. You all contributed to this work.

I recognise two kinds of teachers in my life—those who guide me and those who irritate me. Although I have my preference, I acknowledge and thank you all for the learning experiences.

On a more personal note, I give my thanks and gratitude to my close friends who contributed by sharing the road with me in life. Thank you Ross, jazmin, Thom, Rosanne (for encouraging me to do drawings), Amber, Noelle, Robert and Margaret; thank you all for the years of growth and conversation. To John B (wherever you are) for carrying the burden of knowing too much and shining a light on the stepping stones all those years ago. And to Carey for the guidance, even now from the other side of the veil.

And lastly to Mum for showing me how to be committed to a path that is of a higher spiritual and moral nature than most.

We must be silent before we can listen.

We must listen before we can learn.

We must learn before we can prepare.

We must prepare before we can serve.

We must serve before we can lead.

—William Arthur Ward

We must lead before we can teach.

We must teach in order to master.

We must master in order to know stillness.

We must know stillness before we can be silent.

The Invitation

There is a structure within our society that is like a box that contains all of the known parts of our world. We use this structure to work our way through life and put everything we encounter into order. It is a belief system. What you put into your box is what you allow to be true. What doesn’t fit into your box is either put in the too hard basket or rejected altogether. Sometimes when we get stuck, we are advised to think outside the box, which refers to lateral thinking or thinking outside the system.

Our academic and orthodox systems provide the structure for many people to feel that they are authorities on their chosen fields of knowledge. Being an authority appears to give one the right to tell other people what is real, as if theirs is the only truth. When people get stuck, the think outside the box option provides the next step. This means drawing on wisdom, experience, and intuition where knowledge became limited.

The wisdom, experience, and intuition that exist outside of the system that society made are where my interests lie. I gained my wisdom and experience in the traditional way, through reading books, talking to elders, and working alongside experienced others. I also somehow discovered a field of truth that comes through meditation. It is like tapping into the universal intelligence and receiving intuitive knowing when meditating on something. It baffles me that people dwell entirely within the limits of the system as much as it must baffle them that I dwell outside of it. I make neither place wrong, just different. After all, it is the richness of joy in one’s life that matters in the end.

So wherever you stand, I invite you to be open to the wisdom of the elders, to put aside your want for scientific proof accepted by scholarly circles, and be open to the words of intuition. This was the way of it long before our scientific and religious approach to life. Right from the beginning, it was common for people to sit with respected elders to hear the perspectives of those who had many decades of experience. Back before we locked them up in old folks’ homes, before we poisoned the earth, before we polluted the air and water, some of those who possessed knowledge also had access to the wisdom of how to use it.

As one who works on the land, I know there are many things that are common practice to the older folk that others don’t understand and pass off as unnecessary or weird—for example, planting marigolds as borders, putting egg shells on top of stakes, planting multiple species together, putting containers of beer in the ground, placing an upturned empty bottle in a jar of water, etc. That’s all pretty kooky stuff at first glance, but my elders knew that marigolds repel pests, cabbage moths are territorial and mistake the eggshells for other moths and fly away, beans and squash provide nutrients and enrich the soil for hungry corn that provides a climbing frame for them to grow up, slugs and snails like yeast and drown in beer, and when the water rises into the bottle, it’s going to rain. They knew all these kinds of things—and they knew that you are only as healthy as the soil that grows the plants you eat, and using chemicals is the end of healthy soil.

I’ve found great value in all sources of information and learnt plenty from my peers and children, too. From all of the cups of herb tea I’ve had with people in their gardens to all the books I’ve read, it became evident that there are multiple levels of awareness employed among us that shape how we see the world and interact with it. They lead from states of downward spirals and suffering to freedom and enlightenment. And we can raise our levels of awareness only if we are open to hearing about them. The invitation here is to validate truth with your intuition—to feel what is true for you rather than think it to be true or not. It’s not important that you accept everything written here as truth. What’s important is that you allow it to be true for others. So when challenged, I invite you to ask yourself; What if this was true? Give yourself time to ponder an answer, and consider how this could change your perspective on the world. I guarantee you, it will be worth it.

Introduction

This book contains the teachings of the multiple levels of awareness that are all layered over our existence of reality. Should we open ourselves to them and learn of them, we can benefit from the virtues of each level. I have written them as they were revealed to me wrapped up in the story of my experience of receiving them.

There are two voices throughout this book. Rather than fill the book with quotation marks I’ve used two different fonts to distinguish who is talking; The author’s words are written like this, and the replies and wisdom from the masters are written like this. I’ve also endeavoured to use non-gender- specific language which the English language is not very supportive of so the words; them, their and they do not always mean more than one person.

My pursuit of clarity began towards the end of an ordeal I was struggling with. I needed to become clear about the situation and myself. I began making some big changes in my life to gain clarity. In around the space of a year, I quit alcohol and all drugs, including caffeine, pharmaceuticals, and naturopathic medicines—even vitamins and mineral supplements. I quit relationships, and I quit going to parties and social venues. I decided that all my nourishment was to come from the land. I ate until I was full from every fruit tree I came across, and I ate extensively from my large garden. I’d already given up meat years ago.

I gave up TV, radio, newspapers, was never into sports, and I very carefully selected the music and movies I listened to and watched. I quit gurus and leaders. I followed no faith or spiritual teachings—nothing but my inner guidance. I wanted to see if life by itself, with none of the distractions, intoxicants, and numbing habits Western culture uses addictively, was worth living. What was it actually like?

Ani DiFranco has a song lyric that I never forgot: What makes you so lavish that you can afford to spend every sober moment feeling angry and bored? I needed to know that this wasn’t me.

I lost all my drinking buddies real quick, but found friends with a true heart connection. I lost waking up hung over and smelling like other people’s cigarette smoke but gained invigorating sunrises and lungs filled with sweet morning mist. I lost all the commotion and drama of the news headlines but found stories of the world when talking with people. I lost the annoying latest hit single being stuck in my head and found the different bird calls on the wind in the trees. I also played my own musical instruments more than ever.

I lost knowledge of where this week’s big sales were but found the time to put my home in order. I lost the strong saltiness of foods and found the flavour of every leaf, fruit, and vegetable. I lost the neighbourhood and busy streets but gained kangaroos, possums, parrots, and blue wrens. I lost the rollercoaster and merry-go-round of life but found my path. I lost the metropolitan and found the ancient. I found men’s groups, sweat lodges, tipi meditations, and full moon drumming. Everything changed.

I started writing a journal that I called The Pursuit of