In our own human experience we can participate in the structure of Reality through thought.

Real thinking is the marriage of real thought with the Reality of Love that energizes the creation of anything worthwhile. Thinking a thought without love is as dry as autumn leaves. And love without the structure of Reality goes no place good.

I want to draw the distinction between having a thought and thinking. Everybody has thoughts. But not everybody is truly thinking. Not everybody is consciously aware of the structure of Reality.

The structure of Reality is unfolding. It looks as it is in any given moment, but it unfolds through time. Likewise, thinking is a process that unfolds through time. It’s a creative process. We have the opportunity in thinking to participate at a non-physical level in the unfolding structure of Reality. That’s what thinking is. We have the opportunity to tune in to Creation mentally. If that is happening, we are not just having a thought, or even just having a procession of thoughts. We are participating in the unfolding pattern of Creation, which has now entered our thoughts and is informing our thoughts with itself.

In the world in which we live, there are many people and media of all kinds telling us what to think. So we have pre-supplied thoughts. If you turn on the television or you go on Facebook, there are memes and images. Those pre-supplied thoughts may be wonderful, or they may be ignorant or cruel. But in any event, they are pre-thunk by somebody else. They might stimulate our own thinking. They might bring us into the creative flow of Reality if it’s a true thought. But entertaining someone else’s thought, of itself, isn’t thinking.

Real thinking is participation in the process of Creation. Each of us has an opportunity to do that. It’s a daring escapade in my experience, because if you are really open to think the structure of Reality, who knows what you might think and who knows what you might come up with? And when the creative process flows through your mind, there are so many things that might come up that question the validity of what you are doing.

Does this mean anything? Is this that I am thinking of any significance at all? I never heard of this before.

It is an act of courage to think. You might wonder about the validity, the meaning, and the substantiality of what you are thinking. After all, to begin with, it is just a thought. You might think:

Of what worldly good is this thought? And if I share this thought with anyone, will they like it? Will they think I’m crazy? And where is this all going anyway? And what relevance does it have to my life?

And then there is the bottom line for so many people:

Can I make any money with this?

We have an opportunity in our human lives to allow our minds to be given over to Reality; to think Reality. This is one of the purposes of art, which is an opportunity for the artist to give over their mind to Reality so they can think Reality.

If you really do that, Reality comes in and takes over and makes you think things. Perhaps it paints images in your mind—visions that might turn into a painting, or a sculpture, or some kind of design. Reality might come in and make you dance. It might make you sing a song, compose music or write a poem. It might inspire you to live a new life.

Visual art is Reality’s way to help us think about the structure of Reality in space. Though it takes time to create a piece of visual art, once it’s there it is laid out in space and it doesn’t change much over time. We have lovely murals here in the Dome at Sunrise Ranch, created in a workshop two years ago. It took a while to create them. But once created, there they are, sitting in space. You can see them in an instant.

Music is an opportunity for the artist to learn about the structure of time. It is measured in music in terms of time signature, the beat of the music, and the rhythm of the music, all relevant to time. We learn about the structure of the Reality of time as an artist in the practice of music. We are touching into Reality as we are creating music. Dance is the same way. It is an entrainment with Reality, or at least it can be.

Of course, much art is only for the outer effect.

I will create a song that will impact you in a certain way. Perhaps I will tune in to enough of Reality to be able to do that effectively.

If that is the approach, the artist has largely lost the point. The most central issue for the artist is to think Reality, to have Reality come in.

My experience as an artist is mostly with music. Hearing the essence of the music and songs I have composed is one of the most exquisite experiences I can imagine. Before a note is played, I hear it in my mind. And my heart thrills.

The music comes together as an amazing creation, exalting the structure of Reality that has now come within the field of consciousness. Reality has entered the mind and been loved by the heart. Art has the great benefit for the person who practices the art of having the structure of Reality come together with the urge of Reality, which is Love.

The Love of Reality comes together with the Truth of Reality in the consciousness of the artist. It changes you as an artist. I would suspect that any artist in whatever field would say that about their own experience of artistry.

I have had experiences recently speaking with people about building a website. I had to make the distinction between a thought about what the site might look like and the process of Creation in which we are called to participate. Because entertaining a thought, of itself, is not thinking. It is not creating. Creation is an act of self-expression. Reality is expressing itself in Creation.

Isn’t all of life an act of Creation in which who we are has an opportunity to create? Who we are has a chance to participate in the structure of Reality and the power of Reality—Love, which is the urge of Creation itself. Those two creative elements come together in a flow over time. And just as Reality unfolds over time, creative thought unfolds over time. It isn’t just an image or a thought that we heard someplace or that flashed into our minds once.

There is a pattern to the unfoldment of Creation. It begins with an essence contained in the urge itself. Within the urge is the seed of Reality that unfolds in the Creation. It unfolds in consciousness as an act of artistry, as an act of Creation, all beginning with that urge that we speak of sometimes as intention. And then it can manifest in physical space.

All creative processes begin and end with intention, and have intention infused into them at every step along the way. If it isn’t true for us, we may lose our way. There is a thread of Creation in all of life and in all creative processes. In composing music, it’s been my habit to get up to a certain point where I feel stuck. And sometimes we do get stuck in any creative process, or in life. We are moving along and get so far, and wonder, Where do I go now? What I’ve learned from writing music is to go back to the beginning, remember the original intention and find the thread of meaning that is unfolding through the composition. And then I know where it’s going. I know what’s next. I’m back with the thread of Creation.

Sometimes we weren’t there for the beginning. I wasn’t at Sunrise Ranch for its beginning. But I have picked up the thread, which is both its legacy and its destiny. Sometimes we are picking up a thread from somebody else. Then we feel the creative urge and become aware of the unfolding structure of the Reality that is expressing through that Creation.

We have the opportunity to feel the structure of Reality that’s present in humankind. We are not only a snapshot of human life, hoping that we can put all the snapshots together and come up with something. We are humanity’s legacy, and its destiny.

Our minds are meant to participate in the unfolding structure of human Reality, and all Reality for this sphere of things. That’s a magnificent matter. It takes fluidity of consciousness. And then, audacity. You might think, Oooh, that sounds awfully ambitious. What references do you have? What books have you read? What courses have you taken and what degrees do you have to be so audacious, to think that your mind could know the structure of Reality?

True thinking is an audacious act; it’s a courageous act. And still, we are not here to worship every thought we have. I’ve written many bars of music that I discarded because it wasn’t really picking up the thread I had found and taking it forward. And I gave myself the liberty to think it, but I didn’t worship it just because I did. I think we have to be like that in life.

In this phase of what we’re about as Emissaries of Divine Light, around the world and together, our participation in the structure of Reality means so much. Do you think we could love the world enough to change it without awakening it to the structure of Reality? We could become very caring and well-meaning people but not have the ability to bring a shift to what’s happening in human consciousness without thinking Reality.

As long as we’re just having thoughts and we’re not thinking, it’s pretty hard to be collaborating and synergizing together. Because, on that basis, you have your thoughts and I have my thoughts, and we’re arguing about which thoughts are better. And if we are being competitive about our thoughts, we are missing the point. The point is thinking together. The point is knowing Reality together and allowing Reality to unfold in this magical dimension of consciousness.

For us as humankind, in a special way we are gifted with the opportunity to participate in the magical realm of consciousness. It is the layer between the ultimate essence of Creation held in the Being of the Creator, and the manifest physical Reality. In this realm, the loving urge of Reality comes together with the structure of Reality. We have the opportunity to love Reality so much that we love it into manifestation.