The ideas presented within these pages can help the reader focus on improving self and community through imagination and thinking. There is hope for change when the inspiration comes from within. When it comes to freedom of thought, it is easier to change one mind at a time than entire cultures. As long as there are individuals who express optimism for such change, there is hope for all of us. The topics cover common themes that people and society come across while passing through the fire of daily life. These themes are about all of us. They are about time, space, matter, spirit, humanism, and universalism. They attempt to explain by seeding the complex with the simple. There are no endings, only beginnings in awareness when its purpose is to unify consciousness on Earth with universal life. When this occurs rightly, our perceptions will move us into that next stage of being: universal inclusiveness and its eternal expansion.

PASSING THROUGH THE FIRE

Conscious Imagination and ThinkingBy D. C. KERNS

BALBOA PRESS

Copyright © 2011 D. C. Kerns
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4525-3596-8

Contents

Preface.....................................................................1The Unfettered Reflection...................................................2Conversation with the Living................................................3The First Light.............................................................4Persons, Places and Things..................................................6How We Create...............................................................7What Kind of Image Do We Want to Become?....................................8What Kind of House Do We Live In and Upon?..................................10Through the Light of the Mind, We See our Lives.............................11Rising and Setting..........................................................12Work for the Greater Good...................................................13Family Equals Politics and Money............................................14Infrastructure of the Mind, Emotions and Body...............................15The Future is in Time.......................................................17A Heart of Clay Becoming a Heart of Fire....................................18Thinking in the Always is to be Part of its Awareness.......................19Life Does Not Think Us: We Think Life!......................................21The Shifting Standards for Change...........................................22A Wider Vision for the Right Use of Money...................................23Life is an Education of Sorts!..............................................24The World in its Many Different Ways........................................26The Human Ways of Life......................................................27Dimensions of Being.........................................................28The Burning Flow of the Ethereal River......................................30A Set of Feelings...........................................................31The Economy of Life.........................................................33Association through Knowledge...............................................34When We Know Ourselves, We are Total and Natural............................35Politics, Envy, Money, War and Redemption...................................37A Constant State of Being Intimate..........................................38To Blend is to Create the Story of Life.....................................39Lightness of Being..........................................................41The Sacred Matters of Life..................................................42A Combination of Circumstances..............................................43What We See, Think, and Come to Know........................................45Thoughts are Transcendent...................................................46A Moment of Cosmic Arousal..................................................47The Thinking and Feeling Dimensions.........................................49The Space In-Between........................................................50The Essence of Relationships................................................52The Twofold Perspective.....................................................53The Constitution of Comfort.................................................54In a Ray of Light...........................................................56The Seasonal Silence of Time and Place......................................57Clouds of Colors Patterned in the Stars.....................................58The Silence of Clarity in the Gray Areas of Living..........................60Making Connections..........................................................61Smoothing Away the Friction.................................................62The Politics of Living......................................................64Looking Through the Glass...................................................65The Inner Journey...........................................................67The Painting of Contentment.................................................68The Use of Time.............................................................69The Cleavages of Life.......................................................71Life is Only What We Accept it to Be........................................72Memories....................................................................73Large versus Small..........................................................75A State of Loyalty..........................................................76The Use of Information......................................................77History's Innumerable Variations............................................78The Face of Depression......................................................79Living in Patience..........................................................81Commitment..................................................................82Consequences of Age and Consciousness.......................................83Purposeful Being............................................................84Intimidation................................................................86Transition..................................................................87Interaction.................................................................88Involvement.................................................................89Acknowledgement.............................................................91Synchronicity...............................................................92Togetherness................................................................93Growth without Suffering....................................................94Re-Entry....................................................................95Spirit: a Metaphor for Sustainability.......................................97Transformation in Infinity..................................................98Shifting Images of Time and Space...........................................99Our Right Humanistic Ways...................................................100Ideals and Reality..........................................................101Imitative Behavior..........................................................103Identification..............................................................104Adaptability and Contentment................................................105Perfection..................................................................107Justification of Belief.....................................................108Alone and Together..........................................................109Realization of Thoughts.....................................................110The Sun, the Earth and Everything...........................................111Recall......................................................................113Truth of Consequence........................................................114Forgiveness.................................................................115Spiritualism, Science, and Hypocrisy........................................116The One Body................................................................117Futurism....................................................................119Indifference................................................................120Permanence..................................................................121The Emotional...