November 18th, 2022
Rise and Shine! Time to wake up!
Did you know that your brain processes about 70,000 thoughts per day?
Did you know that roughly 96% of them are repetitive?
How many times has any particular mind movie played out in your head? Why would similar projections run again and again? Beyond that, how is this movie (and what happens within it) going to be a tool in your awakening?
Let’s play with a scenario: You’re driving to work. Because of general life hectic-ness, you’re always at least ten minutes behind schedule. Invariably, there will be a utility company doing line work somewhere on your route. This will result in only one lane open, buoyed by a couple of people in fluorescent jackets holding signs and walkie talkies. You’ll also be behind a school bus, and there will be countless pedestrians crossing the road today. Do you have the scene in your head? The clock ticks and the muscles in your neck tighten. Now, let’s work with the next bit of your script. When your agitation and annoyance reaches full crescendo, you could….punch the steering wheel? You could curse and give dirty looks to people. You could tailgate. You could play a game. What? Yes, riddle yourself this: when a similar scenario occurred last month, six months ago, or 2 years ago, how did it negatively impact your life? More simply put, when you were late due to some road construction last year, how did that negatively affect your life? The answers are always along the lines of ‘it didn’t’ or ‘I don’t know.’ Can we acknowledge that given a little space, that particular late day was rather unimportant or inconsequential? Go a step further– if we already know the ending to the narrative, can we alter the scenes leading up to it? Is it possible to be indifferent or even happy when you’re late? Could it be that getting upset or angry in a repeat scenario might be a valuable piece of the awakening puzzle and process if you’re allowed to consciously change it?
I spend time on the idea that every single moment and occurrence is a tool in my awakening process. The movie each of us is playing out has to have meaning, right? What do the scripts reflect, apart from the same old gains, losses, successes and failures? Isn’t anger really just us being upset because something didn’t turn out the way we think it should have? Now, let’s go a step further: when good things happen (outcomes I desire), perhaps there isn’t as much growth in my awakening because there’s less to work with. When unfavorable events occur, we tend to get so caught up in them that we neglect the big picture — which is the idea that all experience, even the undesired ones, are part of the ride to eventually being enlightened. Even hardship. Even suffering. Even death. Whoa dude, being late isn’t analogous to death! True, but perhaps it’s similar within the negative concept narrative you hold within your mind about it? That eventually dovetails into non-attachment….which is not being attached to outcomes.
The grace that involves our awakening has to be composed of all parts, all angles, all pieces. If you wear a tire on one side only, what happens? It eventually causes the car to shake unevenly and it doesn’t operate correctly. Same concept. Good and bad experiences are equally part of our spiritual evolution. Your conscious awareness is what will realize and utilize this.
So, is an unremembered thought still there if you are not thinking it? Is it born again when it returns to your awareness? Or is it the same scene playing out again within the same movie that keeps running off in your mind….the question then becomes how you will endeavor to work within the rerun scripts, aka the next time you’re in the driver’s seat, running late and dealing with traffic when the crescendo emerges. Do you go with the same movie selection out of the Drama section? The old Anger and Irritation movie? Maybe treat yourself to a Feel Good Comedy instead? You’ll play this same movie again in a few days, so might as well mix it up a little.
What are your experiences around this?
“A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks he becomes.” -Mahatma Gandhi
Peace & Love to All Beings,
Jesse Kells
