Trading Consciousnesses
Here is an exercise I often catch myself doing when observing people: Trading Consciousnesses. The game is a simple one but requires the use of your imagination. You may also look at it as exercise for your imagination but it also provides insight to your own life experience and how you may handle obstacles or challenges. So here is how you play: when observing somebody (without creeping them out of course!) imagine what it would be like to switch consciousnesses with them on the spot. You immediately inherit their life situation, memories, relationships, and overall situation while losing your own. Your consciousness exists – your “Am-ness” so to speak (you know, I am that I am).. Imagine how you would take their life and run with it. The other part of the game is to imagine how they might run with yours.
Rethinking Reality
Here's an idea that has taken some time to evolve. What if we tried on a new belief system? I mean backup our current one, delete it from our brains, and upload a new one. What would the outcome be? If you take the simple question, "What do you know to be true?," the only possible answer is "I am conscious." Everything else is assumption, even for me to believe you are conscious or that there is anything 'real' outside of my projection of it. Taking the only thing I know to be true and removing the rest of the clutter allows me to reconstruct a different view of reality that I can upload and take for a spin.
The Nagging Feeling
Today I got that nagging feeling. That feeling that I need to 'do' something, to act or investigate further into to something. Sometimes it is clear what that something is and other times, such as now, it is not. Typically when this feeling shadows me, I make list of things I want to pursue or accomplish and notate an adjustment that I think needs to be made to my current routine to get there. There are times when reviewing is enough to appease the feeling. Today I sense it is a career oriented cause to this sensation. I honed in on it by my need to check the financial news and review some stock prices.
Climbing Rationality
Benjamin Frankiln noted, "So convienent a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do." That is one of my favorite quotes and one I think about every time I am motivated to do something. I listen to my mind "reason" it out and, wow, it can be really convincing! I got this rock climbing bug... to the point that I am constructing a climbing wall in our garage (I will post that later with blueprints and pictures). There are a lot of things I like about the activity and as I reason it out in my head, I wanted to share with what I rationalize as REAL benefits that I don't think the general public understands about climbing.
Criticize, Condemn, and Complain
A favorite quote of mine by Dale Carnegie reads, “Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain but it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving." This thought carries serious weight. I read it some time back in his book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, and it has resonated with me ever since. But it has taken until more recently though, when I have been monitoring closely my thoughts and ego that I have witnessed how quick that part of my brain is to judge.
Dreaming Consciously
Are you dreaming right now? The Chinese philosopher Chuang Chou (also known as Zhuangzi) wrote, “Once upon a time, I, Chuang Chou, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Chou. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.”
A New Earth
I think the chain reaction that lead me to a spiritual exploration started with an article in Fortune magazine. It was a small review on a book called, “Are you Ready to Succeed,”by Srikumar S. Rao, and it intrigued me enough to buy the book. That little book was excellent and from there I was lead to Eckhart Tolle’s book, “Power of Now.” That was a very good book but I still didn’t quite “get it” if you know what I mean… My wife reintroduced me to Tolle when Oprah talked about his new book, “A New Earth,” and setup a 10-week classroom on his insights.
Meditation Experiment - Part 2
I have been meditating daily on a fairly regular basis now. I haven’t been disciplined about doing it on the weekends and I’m doing it only once a day instead of twice like I had originally planned. That aside, the progress is improving though I can tell there is a long way to go.
Penguin or Bust
It has been a while since my last update. It is not because I am lazy but because I have transitioned my computer operating system from Windows XP to the Linux Ubuntu distribution. It has taken some trials to get it functioning but now that I am up, the overall assessment is positive.
"God damn it, Gump! You're a god damn genius!"
A thing that stuck with me after reading McKenna’s series was the idea of “letting go of the tiller.” Basically, this concept is to stop trying to control everything; that control is an illusion and if you are able to let go of that control, the universe will navigate you. He states that he doesn’t necessarily makes choices but has developed a sense of rightness and not so rightness and goes with the flow. This seems to have been successful for him, and numerous other reports I have read about since becoming intrigued with the subject.
