"What I hadn’t anticipated was the tree. I was too weak to think or write or call or even watch a movie. All I could do was stare at the tree, which was the only thing in my view. At first it annoyed me and I thought I would go mad from boredom. But after the first days and many hours, I began to see the tree." ~Eve Ensler
Why did I post this? Because it reminded me of an acquaintance, a certified genius with patents and everything, who wanted to join a study group centered on a book by Harry Benjamin called "Basic Self Knowledge". My acquaintance told me that he was instructed to read the book and report back as to what he had learned. He came back, made his statement, and was told "Read the book". He went home and went through it again, and came back and reported and was told "Read the book".
This is a true story, so here I will save us many repetitions and simply inform you that for whatever reason he persisted, whether through ego, spite, curiosity, or some motive more subtle, this scenario was repeated a total of 26 (twenty-six) times. Yes, it was a short book, as most go. But it was on his twenty-sixth repetition that this genius became aware that he had all along been projecting his belief about the book on to the words it contained. At that twenty-sixth reading his perception, his genius perception, cracked enough to see what his mind, as a belief engine with its mission to make itself right no matter what, was doing to him, who was not his mind. Returning to the study group and making this confession got him admitted to the circle, and he, and they, proceeded happily and curiously from there.
I'm hoping that this offers some small indication of why I am constantly harping about the danger of unexamined belief and the lack of critical thinking, of unskilled thinking, that is rampant on our stage today. And I hope that in reading this that you either caught or were tweaked by the line "his perception, his genius perception, cracked enough to see what his mind, as a belief engine with its mission to make itself right no matter what, was doing to him, who was not his mind." I point to that because in so many discussions, conversations, etc, the participants identify with their own mental state as if it was their being itself.
Why is that worthy of note, or of any importance? It's because if you think your thoughts are reality, are a one-to-one correspondence with the actual maelstrom or impressions you are being swirlied by, [sic] there is little hope of understanding that your mind, as magnificent as it is, is not the essence of yourself, however inseparable from that that it might be. The point is, that if you think your thoughts are yourself, there is not the perceptual distance available to you to have a larger perspective from which your impressions you use for navigating your life can be sorted out, ordered, evaluated, appreciated, or whatever. In other words, without that perspective of emotional distance, or impartiality about your thoughts as simply things, or serving suggestions if you will, you are--because of your identificational involvement--asleep and dreaming for all practical purposes.
Now that doesn't mean you are not intelligent, good, perceptive, able to hold a job or lead people or any such thing. It only means that there is a point of view possible to us which some don't cognize and take advantage of, at least consciously. As evidence we have an impersonal example of a genius who didn't get the meaning of a simple small book on account of his investment in his world view as real. And yes, there is more to it than that, but these lines are about that part of the lesson we might learn.
Why did I post this? Because it reminded me of an acquaintance, a certified genius with patents and everything, who wanted to join a study group centered on a book by Harry Benjamin called "Basic Self Knowledge". My acquaintance told me that he was instructed to read the book and report back as to what he had learned. He came back, made his statement, and was told "Read the book". He went home and went through it again, and came back and reported and was told "Read the book".
This is a true story, so here I will save us many repetitions and simply inform you that for whatever reason he persisted, whether through ego, spite, curiosity, or some motive more subtle, this scenario was repeated a total of 26 (twenty-six) times. Yes, it was a short book, as most go. But it was on his twenty-sixth repetition that this genius became aware that he had all along been projecting his belief about the book on to the words it contained. At that twenty-sixth reading his perception, his genius perception, cracked enough to see what his mind, as a belief engine with its mission to make itself right no matter what, was doing to him, who was not his mind. Returning to the study group and making this confession got him admitted to the circle, and he, and they, proceeded happily and curiously from there.
I'm hoping that this offers some small indication of why I am constantly harping about the danger of unexamined belief and the lack of critical thinking, of unskilled thinking, that is rampant on our stage today. And I hope that in reading this that you either caught or were tweaked by the line "his perception, his genius perception, cracked enough to see what his mind, as a belief engine with its mission to make itself right no matter what, was doing to him, who was not his mind." I point to that because in so many discussions, conversations, etc, the participants identify with their own mental state as if it was their being itself.
Why is that worthy of note, or of any importance? It's because if you think your thoughts are reality, are a one-to-one correspondence with the actual maelstrom or impressions you are being swirlied by, [sic] there is little hope of understanding that your mind, as magnificent as it is, is not the essence of yourself, however inseparable from that that it might be. The point is, that if you think your thoughts are yourself, there is not the perceptual distance available to you to have a larger perspective from which your impressions you use for navigating your life can be sorted out, ordered, evaluated, appreciated, or whatever. In other words, without that perspective of emotional distance, or impartiality about your thoughts as simply things, or serving suggestions if you will, you are--because of your identificational involvement--asleep and dreaming for all practical purposes.
Now that doesn't mean you are not intelligent, good, perceptive, able to hold a job or lead people or any such thing. It only means that there is a point of view possible to us which some don't cognize and take advantage of, at least consciously. As evidence we have an impersonal example of a genius who didn't get the meaning of a simple small book on account of his investment in his world view as real. And yes, there is more to it than that, but these lines are about that part of the lesson we might learn.
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