Tweet: The power of personal commentary to obscure what actually is astounds me! Commentary can shroud what is real, true, beautiful. It leads me to do battle with what is. Am I truly seeing life as it is, or only what I am making it mean? Empowering question for this day.
Response: How do you stop the commentary?
I am glad you asked.
The above is one of my Tweets from this past week, and a question that was posed by a reader. The exchange not only inspired me to answer the question from my perspective, but also gave me an idea for an extension to this blog.
I AM GLAD YOU ASKED.
What feels truer for me with every passing day is that the distinction between what is occurring and what I making it mean is everything in terms of my own inner peace. There is for all of us a commentary that is always running through the field of the mind. There is a constant inner dialogue that is labeling, interpreting, evaluating, and storytelling. If you read that closely it is an acronym for LIES. It is the dynamic of how the mind content operates. It is not in and of itself a problem or an enemy.
It simply is.
Our suffering does not come from the LIES. It comes from believing and identifying with the LIES. It comes from taking actions and relating based on those LIES.
The LIES are the effects of how we were programmed and conditioned. They are the foundation of our core beliefs. They are an operating system. They form and lens and a paradigm.
And they are not true.
As we evolve and grow spiritually the relationship to those LIES begins to change. More space becomes available in the mind. We become more masterful at watching rather than believing. It isn’t that the LIES go away, though there are many who say it is so. We are programmed for survival and while beliefs do indeed change trying to make the commentary go away is resistance and resistance always strengthens and solidifies what is resisted.
As we become more and more proficient at watching and wakefully relating TO the commentary it has less and less hold over us. The thought stream flows in and on while we simply notice. We see it, we feel the effects, we watch, notice, and let pass.
We do not try and stop the commentary. That increases its velocity. We recognize we do not have to react to it. We do not have to believe it, or act based on it. It is just thought stream. It has no inherent meaning. It says nothing about us, or about anyone.
This is not welcomed news to the ego. And it is the liberation of the Self.
Goodness, beauty, and truth are everywhere present. They are just beneath the constant commentary that shrouds the perfection that is beyond interpretation.
Don’t believe what you are making this mean, and just watch what happens.
Thursday, August 2, 2018
Thursday, July 26, 2018
CHOOSING CHOICE
“It’s a choice.”
“You chose that.”
“Life is an out-picturing of your choices.”
Is it?
I so often hear people comment on the circumstances and challenges of others with some rhetorical version of the above. It most often sounds and feels dismissive. While at a level I would agree that our life experiences are indeed a reflection of our choices it is not as tidy as the surface mind would have it be.
Over ninety percent of consciousness is in actuality unconscious. That is a staggering number. Which means ninety percent of our choices are being made from an unconscious level. That number decreases as we begin to spiritually awaken. And the truth of the matter is that all of us are living with the effects of what were unconscious choices at the time.
Choice is always a matter of consciousness. As our level of conscious awareness increases so does our ability to make conscious and mindful choices. The effects of our lives are incredibly valuable in that they let us know what we do not know. The effects are showing us what is in our field of consciousness, what is contained in that large percentage of the unknown. These effects are often painful and disturbing. Even so, they teach us to go more deeply within and to learn to become more awake to how we are using and misusing the immutable laws of consciousness.
As beings with reptilian brains we go into reaction numerous times in any given day. When in reaction we are triggered and disturbed, therefore response and choice are impossible. We have literally “gone lizard.” There is emotional distortion and clarity of choice is obscured.
The recognition of this dynamic can lead us to self-awareness and self-regulating techniques that can then bring us back on-line and make choice once again available. This requires both psychological and spiritual discipline and practice. Persistent meditation is incredibly vital to building an internal pause into our energetic system. This pause gives us the chance of literally choosing choice.
Remembering this dynamic and recognizing that choice is always equal to our current level of consciousness allows us to apply that pause to how we respond to other’s circumstances. There is nothing compassionate about telling someone who is troubled that “they chose that.” That is a closed hearted reaction that reveals more about the commentator than it does about the experiencer.
Choosing to respond with compassion is an indication of our own increased level of choice. And perhaps that is the height of being able to choose choice.
“You chose that.”
“Life is an out-picturing of your choices.”
Is it?
I so often hear people comment on the circumstances and challenges of others with some rhetorical version of the above. It most often sounds and feels dismissive. While at a level I would agree that our life experiences are indeed a reflection of our choices it is not as tidy as the surface mind would have it be.
Over ninety percent of consciousness is in actuality unconscious. That is a staggering number. Which means ninety percent of our choices are being made from an unconscious level. That number decreases as we begin to spiritually awaken. And the truth of the matter is that all of us are living with the effects of what were unconscious choices at the time.
Choice is always a matter of consciousness. As our level of conscious awareness increases so does our ability to make conscious and mindful choices. The effects of our lives are incredibly valuable in that they let us know what we do not know. The effects are showing us what is in our field of consciousness, what is contained in that large percentage of the unknown. These effects are often painful and disturbing. Even so, they teach us to go more deeply within and to learn to become more awake to how we are using and misusing the immutable laws of consciousness.
As beings with reptilian brains we go into reaction numerous times in any given day. When in reaction we are triggered and disturbed, therefore response and choice are impossible. We have literally “gone lizard.” There is emotional distortion and clarity of choice is obscured.
The recognition of this dynamic can lead us to self-awareness and self-regulating techniques that can then bring us back on-line and make choice once again available. This requires both psychological and spiritual discipline and practice. Persistent meditation is incredibly vital to building an internal pause into our energetic system. This pause gives us the chance of literally choosing choice.
Remembering this dynamic and recognizing that choice is always equal to our current level of consciousness allows us to apply that pause to how we respond to other’s circumstances. There is nothing compassionate about telling someone who is troubled that “they chose that.” That is a closed hearted reaction that reveals more about the commentator than it does about the experiencer.
Choosing to respond with compassion is an indication of our own increased level of choice. And perhaps that is the height of being able to choose choice.
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