Reaffirmations From The World Around Us

Let us begin with a couple of quotes which will be explained below.

"He [Don Juan] said that for a sorcerer, the world of everyday life is not as real, or out there, as we believe it is. For a sorcerer, reality, or the world we all know, is only a description.

"...A description that had been pounded into me from the moment I was born.

"He pointed out that everyone who comes into contact with a child is a teacher who incessantly describes the world to that child, until the moment when the child is capable of perceiving the world as it is described.

"According to don Juan, we have no memory of that portentous [portentous- of momentous or ominous significance] moment, simply because none of us could possibly have had any point of reference to compare it to anything else.

"From that moment on, however, the child is a member. He or she knows the description of the world. Their membership becomes full-fledged, I suppose, when they are capable of making all the proper perceptual interpretations which, by conforming to that description, validate it.

"For don Juan, then, the reality of our day-to-day life consists of an endless flow of perceptual interpretations which we, the individuals who share a specific membership, have learned to make in common.

"The idea that the perceptual interpretations that make up our world have a flow is congruous with the fact that they run uninterruptedly; and they are rarely, if ever, open to question.

"In fact, the reality of the world we know is so taken for granted that the basic premise of sorcery - that our reality is merely one of many descriptions - could hardly be taken as a serious proposition."

Ah, but some of us DO take this as a serious proposition! The above, at least for me, is self-explanatory. If it's not, please re-read the above and use some critical thinking on the topic. If there is a need (for myself or others) to expand on this I'll do so at a later date.

Now that you (hopefully!) understand that above, at least on a basic level, let's perform a simple exercise.

Stop whatever you are doing right now, unless you are driving or something that requires your attention for your own safety, and perform the following:

Whether sitting or standing, take a few deep breaths in and out. Try and relax the physical body just a bit. Then, become aware of everything around you as quickly as possible and remain alert to everything around you for just thirty seconds without moving. Begin with what’s directly in front of your eyes and focus on that. Then, slowly expand your awareness to everything around you. Focus on what you see and that’s it. Be alert and aware as you possibly can for just thirty seconds.

If this is difficult for you, keep practicing. If this is easy for you, while performing the above, engage your other senses. Listen to what's around you. Touch something within reach. What does your mouth taste like?

What are we attempting to accomplish here? We are breaking the continuous flow of thought. Don't 'think' about anything while performing the exercise above. Don't judge, good or bad or otherwise, what you see, hear, touch or smell while performing the above exercise. Just recognize 'it,' and leave it be. Just reside in awareness. Don't 'think' that what you are looking at is pretty, or ugly or anything of the sort. So, as don Juan stated above, we are attempting to break the "endless flow of perceptual interpretations." Or, we can say we are allowing the endless flow and just not interpreting it, thinking about it, within duality. Good or bad. Soft or hard. Pretty or ugly. JUST OBSERVE and that's it.

Now, with that said, thinking is good. It has its purpose. Yet, with the exercise above, we're just giving it a rest. I'm a huge fan of critical thinking, yet what we need to rid ourselves from is the mindless chatting that's usually always going on in our heads. That doesn't serve us well. Most of us worry about the past and fret over the future. With the exercise above, give the mind a rest and just observe what's 'out there.'

The exercise above is also what I label a premeditation. Most cannot meditate because they don't have any attentive capacity. The ability to focus. The beauty of the exercise above is to learn how to meditate or pay attention for a short period of time. It's also great when we are performing a task and get all stressed out. Take a minute, relax, and perform the above. Voila! Now you are centered and focused. Meditation is great, but I don't that when you're stressed out at work you can tell the boss that you need to run along and go meditate. The exercise above is best used in THE MIDST of stressful situations.

Here's another behavior pattern that all of us get stuck in: Not only do we ramble on with the internal dialogue, we rambling on in regards to OURSELVES. Performing the exercise above gets us 'out of our minds' or continually thinking about ourselves by gazing at external stimuli. So, yes, as don Juan mentioned that 'the world out there is a description,' at least we can sneak out of our own heads and thoughts for just a bit. And guess what? Where IS that description don Juan mentions? In our mind, of course. Let's loosen up that stead-fast belief we have about what we know, how that world is, etc.

Okay, I think that's enough for now. I was going to continue on and tie the above in with the topic, Reaffirmations From The World Around Us, but I'll write a separate post for that. For now, work on the above premeditation. Do it as often as you can throughout the day. I do! Start building up your attentive capacity. Gaze at the world around you. Close your eyes and listen, without judging, to everything around you. Breathe through your nose and see what odors you can differentiate. Touch something and truly feel it without judging it.

Until next time....

TMMK