Awareness

As we’ve discussed throughout these Notes, how people see the world is such a *fascinating* look into how they see themselves.

I’m writing this while on sabbatical in Bali and it always blows me away how some people choose to focus on the trash that’s often thrown to the side of the road and the stray dogs that cruise around (and any of the other possible blemishes that exist everywhere in the world) while others focus on the beautiful smiles of the people, the serenity of the island and all that good stuff. Same world, different focus.

As Emerson says: “People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.”

How about you?

Have you ever noticed that when you feel better about yourself and your life, the world just looks a tad bit brighter and the people are a lot friendlier?!?

De Mello also says this: “Anytime you have a negative feeling toward anyone, you’re living in an illusion. There’s something seriously wrong with you. You’re not seeing reality. Something inside of you has to change. But what do we generally do when we have a negative feeling? ‘He is to blame, she is to blame. She’s got to change.’ No! The world’s all right. The one who has to change is you.”

Next time you find yourself focusing on the ugliness of the world and not being able to see the beauty, think about pausing for a moment and seeing if you can find a little more beauty INSIDE you… and then see if that translates to a different view of your world!

HAH!!!

Imagine THAT image the next time you’re suffering and think someone other than you needs to change to remove the pain: A Doctor diagnosing you then prescribing medicine for your *neighbor*. :)

Beautiful.

What music are you dancing to?

Society’s music that tells us to attend this University, get this kinda job, get married, get a house in that suburb and have 2.1 kids all by this (!) age, and…, and…, and…, and…, (exhaustingly unending) and…, and…, and…, and…, and., and…, and…?!?

Ahem.

Or, are you dancing to “the music that springs up from within”?

Of course, our dance may appear very similar in either scenario. But what’s the source of your rhythm? Is it a conditioned set of expectations or a heart-felt inner music?

Important to consider, eh?

This whole chat reminds me of a couple of Transcendentalists:

Henry David Thoreau tells us: “If a man does not keep pace with his companion, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.”

While his mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson (see Notes) reminds us: “And truly it demands something godlike in him who cast off the common motives of humanity and ventured to trust himself for a taskmaster.”

Let’s turn our music up and get our grooves on, shall we? :)

That’s a really powerful distinction. To live your own life according to your own values, according to de Mello, is NOT selfish.

To tell SOMEONE ELSE that *they* should live according to your values, however, IS selfish. I dig it. You?

What an awesome image.

Can you imagine driving your car with your brakes on ALL. The. Time?

(Quick help with the visualization: Don’t forget the screeching sound as the brakes get worn down. And make sure you include that terrible brake dust smell! :)

Yikes.

Get rid of your fear of failure.

Gently release the brake pedal. Relax. Be yourself.

Ahhhh…

Ah, impermanence.

Everything passes.

Reminds me of Abraham Lincoln and my Vipassana meditation teacher, S.N. Goenka.

First, Goenka: One of the key ideas during my 10-day silent Vipassana meditation experience was the idea of Anicca—a Pali word that means “impermanence.” Life is change and we suffer when we get stuck and don’t allow the wheel of life to keep on spinning and doing its thing. In fact, the word for “suffering” in Buddhism is dukkha, which is the word they use to describe a potter’s wheel that is no longer spinning smoothly. It’s stuck a bit and screeching. That’s suffering. (See Notes on Big Mind Big Heart for more mojo on that!)

Solution: Flow with life.

Know that everything passes, everything.

Now to Abraham Lincoln. He says: “It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: ‘And this, too, shall pass away.’ How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!”

Are you stuck a bit on something? Might it help to remember that this too shall pass?!?

Wow. That’s beautiful.

Change. It’s a theme ALL the great teachers come back to you again and again and again.(Some things don’t change. ;)

Makes me think of Marcus Aurelius’ genius Meditations (see Notes) where he talks about change AND the symphony of life quite a bit as well. He says: “O world, I am in tune with every note of thy great harmony. For me nothing is early, nothing late, if it be timely for thee. O Nature, all that thy seasons yield is fruit for me.”

He also says: “Time is a river, the resistless flow of all created things. One thing no sooner comes in sight than it is hurried past and another is borne along, only to be swept away in its turn.”

So, what are you clinging to?

Don’t hold on to a few bars of the music, my friend. Allow the notes to pass and let’s enjoy this beautiful symphony!

I love that.

Feeling down?

Look at “It.”

Say, “It’s a little down today.”

YOU are NOT the depression. Observe it. See it as separate from your purest self.

And, let it pass. (Pretty, please. :)

Powerful. And, more than a tad bit morbid but a theme echoed by many great teachers. (Quoted a few below.)

Imagine you’re lying in your coffin. It’s closed. And cold. You’re underground. Dirt is being shoveled on top.

… You there?

… Now, from that scenic location, look at your current problems.

… Changes everything, eh?

… Now… LIVE!!!!

More de Mello death mojo: “You’re not living until it doesn’t matter a tinker’s damn to you whether you live or die. At that point you live. When you’re ready to lose your life, you live it.” And a couple friends:

Seneca (see Notes on Letters from a Stoic) says: “Rehearse death. To say this is to tell a person to rehearse his freedom. A person who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave. He is above, or at any rate, beyond the reach of, all political powers.”

More Seneca: “You want to live—but do you know how to live? You are scared of dying—and, tell me, is the kind of life you lead really any different from being dead?” And, “As it is with a play, so it is with life—what matters is not how long the acting lasts, but how good it is.”

Carlos Castaneda (see Notes on The Wheel of Time): “Death is our eternal companion. It is always to our left, an arm’s length behind us. Death is the only wise adviser that a warrior has. Whenever he feels that everything is going wrong and he’s about to be annihilated, he can turn to his death and ask if that is so. His death will tell him that he is wrong, that nothing really matters outside its touch. His death will tell him, ‘I haven’t touched you yet.’”

This is, remember, a Jesuit PRIEST talking.

And if HE tells us life is for the gambler, well, then, I’m in! :)

Seriously, though. How are you playing small? How can you expand into your life?

Let’s take a few more risks. It’s a truism (that’s true ;) but do you really think you’re gonna be on your death bed and wish you took less risks?

As de Mello says: “Live dangerously, and when I say ‘Live dangerously,’ I mean live according to your own self, whatever the cost. Whatever is at stake, live according to your own consciousness, according to your own heart and feeling.”

Sometimes I wince a bit when a celibate priest is telling me about love, but this is beautiful.

Leo Buscaglia (see Notes on his great, must-read book, Love) says this: “As soon as the love relationship does not lead me to me, as soon as I in a love relationship do not lead another person to himself, this love, even if it seems to be the most secure and ecstatic attachment I have ever experienced, is not true love. For real love is dedicated to continual becoming.”

How’s your love? Let’s get rid of the fear and move toward perfect love…

Brilliant.

In her great book, Loving What Is (see Notes), Byron Katie tells us that: “The pain shows you what’s left to investigate.”

Rumi (see Notes) tells us that: “This discipline and rough treatment are a furnace to extract the silver from the dross. This testing purifies the gold by boiling the scum away.”

Our suffering just points out where we have a little (or a lot! :) more work to do.

The trick is to be able to hold a high level of AWARENESS and SEE that rather than *be* the suffering.

So, are you currently suffering? Can you bring a little more awareness to the challenge, maybe shift your perspective and see the opportunity to grow a bit?

Well that puts it in perspective, eh?

As Dan Millman says (see Notes on Everyday Enlightenment), “Life is brief—a flash of lightning, a snap of eternity’s fingers.”

Do you GET (I mean *REALLY* get!) just how brief life is??!?

And do you really want to waste it on anxiety, worries and all that jazz? Schew. Didn’t think so. Me, either. :)

So, what would your highest self do in this moment?