I’m going to be on Facebook Live today at 1:00 pm Pacific Time. Let’s try out the new technology! If you’re free, head to my facebook page and let’s see how it works. The link is here. I know, this is in only 45 mins, but it’s an experiment.
I’ll talk about self-inquiry and barriers to it (which seems to be my specialty, I speak from personal experience, LOL). Since this is my first venture into Facebook Live, I’m not sure how long, or IF, it will work smoothly, so let’s test it.
It’s actually amazing how much we humans live our lives trying an “experiment”.
We move from one place to a new place, we have kids, we get new jobs, we develop new friendships, we have conversations, we get together with people, we part ways.
In some ways, everything is a great and grand experiment, totally unknown how this will turn out.
So here’s the funny thing about the mind, and mental “thinking” that we’re all so aware of.
It moves into considering the past…..and then the future….
….constantly.
When I deeply consider the energy of “thought” it appears to involve pictures, images, imagination, creativity, ideas, review of the past, contemplation, wondering, stories, remembering.
Without any actual clear, straightforward conclusion.
Who would we be without our thoughts?
This is Question #4 in The Work of Byron Katie, and also a question raised in many spiritual and contemplative traditions. An awareness and a wondering of what we are, who we are, without our ideas about right/wrong, good/bad, terrible/wonderful.
I love how with The Work, you get to ask this question on only one simple situation at a time. A bite-sized chunk.
Who would you be without your stressful belief or image or conclusion in that ONE situation you feel scared, angry, nervous or sad about?
Who would you be without the belief you’d prefer to KNOW what’s going to happen rather than engage in an experiment?
Do you really want to know exactly what’s going to happen later today, or tomorrow, or next week, or next month, or two years from now, or in twenty years, or in seventy years when you’re likely no longer here anymore in a body?
“I need to know what will happen.”
(You can find a specific subject or situation to ask this question about, no matter how big or small, in your own life.)
Is it true?
No.
I really have no idea, and I can see how knowing might be weird, and too much, and not for me.
How do I react when I believe I need to know what’s going to happen, or that something will have a good outcome?
Anxious, seeing pictures of the Opposite of good outcome. I see terrible results, bad outcomes, big disasters, fearful scenes. My story is a worried one.
Who would you be without the thought you need to know how this is going to turn out, you need to know what will happen?
WooWee!
Right here, very present.
Excited to see how this unfolds.
Willing to allow it to be as it is, not crunch down tightly against it and get all freaked out.
Feeling the lightness of “I Don’t Know”.
Turning this thought around: I do NOT need to know what will happen.
Truer.
There are so many things better left unknown. Then I get to do only what appears to be required in the moment. Maybe it’s nothing. I move as I do. This is not me running the show. I am just here. I am not waiting.
Turning it around another way, ever so slightly different: I need to NOT know what will happen. It’s actually better that I don’t know. That leaves things to occur at a pace that’s impersonal, not all about me. It gives me the gift of coming back to this moment. Very open.
Less is required than I ever imagined (when using my mind). Instead of knowing, I need to NOT know. That’s hilarious. But has a huge sense of ease and sweetness.
Another turnaround: What will happen needs to know me.
Now, isn’t that just the most cosmic, fun, loving thing you ever heard?
The universe….what will happen….life, love, the world, everything….is so excited to know me.
It’s waiting for me, in every brilliant moment. It needs to know me, to understand, to be with, to connect with, to love me.
The ultimate “nothing is required” story. The universe and reality are here to know me. I don’t have to work hard at it, I don’t have to go out and find it in the bushes somewhere, like it’s lost in a mysterious field.
It’s coming to me.
In every moment.
Can you feel it?
“To face the totality of life we must face the reality of death, sorrow, and loss as well. We must face them as unavoidable aspects of life. The question is, can we face them directly without getting lost in the stories that our mind weaves about them? That is, can we directly encounter this tragic quality of life on its own terms? Because if we can, we will find a tremendous affirmation of life, an affirmation that is forged in the fierce embrace of tragedy. At the very heart and core of our being, there exists an overwhelming yes to existence. ” ~ Adyashanti
Can you find the “yes” in this moment of existence right now? Who would you be without your story of needing to know anything?
Much love,
Grace