Our attention is our reality

This will happen to you at each of the stages of understanding, which in turn will "remove" the levels of limitation. At some point, perhaps after the practice and exercises that accompany each step or "quantum leap", there is a change and you find yourself on a new stage. With each step, the sphere of your perception expands, embracing an ever-expanding horizon.

First-stage

As an observer of the contents of my mind (thoughts, feelings, emotions, sensations, associations), I am more than the contents of my mind.

Anyone interested in Eastern practices will recognize the obvious sources of this first level. The cornerstone of most meditation disciplines is the practice of observing, "witnessing," or becoming aware of the contents of one's mind or state of existence. In this way one observes concrete thoughts, images, sensations, feelings, emotions, and in the process one acquires the feeling that one is separated from the flow of content and is something more.

When the observer begins to realize that he is not his thoughts, feelings, and emotions, but rather someone watching, the beginning of the process of disidentification opens, which is gradually built as the first bridge to your Attention.

Second stage

Everything consists of the energy of thought, feeling, emotion, sensation, Association.

In the second stage we will consider our relationship with energy. When you experience yourself as an observer, you can begin to experience how all that you have observed as happening in "your mind" consists of the same fundamental energy. Anger consists of the same energy as joy. The second level allows you to remove titles or content and then you will automatically negate the charge of any experience that you observe.

Third stage

I am the Creator of what I observe.

The practical importance of the third level is that it will give you the opportunity to move from the passive position of the witness to the active position of the Creator. When you realize, for example, that you are creating your anger, fear, or anxiety, you can stop creating it. This step will lead you further out of thought to the extended freedom of your Attention.

Fourth and fifth stages

The physical universe consists of energy, space, mass, and time.

Now in the fourth stage we will better study the time aspect of our universe and how we create the concept of time. In the fifth stage, we will pass through an aspect of our world: the omnipresent space. At this level, we come into contact with the unchanging nature of space, and explore how our experience is transformed by touching it.

The energy we experience on the second level can be more accurately described as the unfolding and folding of energy, space, mass, and time.

When I realized that my fear consists of energy, space, mass and time. The observer-Creator (I) consists of energy, space, mass, and time, and the situation I fear consists of energy, space, mass, and time, it has become easier for me to experience the illusory nature of the boundaries I create and temporarily believe in.

In other words, we as creators and what we create-the objects of our creation-are all made of the same substance.

Sixth stage

"Everything interpenetrates everything else»

David Bohm

Here in practice, this level will remove those divisions that we take for granted. For example: we assume that the feelings "I love" and "I hate" are fundamentally and irrevocably different. That success is obviously different from failure. The world as we know it is crowded with boundaries that mark differences.

In the sixth stage, we will experience how the manifested and invisible are constantly "folding" and "unfolding", where all the boundaries are created by ourselves, and not given by nature.

Seventh step

"Everything consists of emptiness, and form is condensed emptiness.» (Einstein)

In other words, everything is made of the same substance.

Everything in physical reality has a form.

Agreed boundaries define how we normally perceive the world, how we live on an explicit level of form. When we see that these boundaries do not exist, that the perceived, open space consists of the same particles as the objects that we perceive as dense and "physical – – then our limitations, experiences of "you" and " I " dissolve in the cozy space of unity.

At this stage there is pure, unbroken " is-ness."

Chapter 3. How to get out of what we create

As an observer of the contents of my mind (thoughts, feelings, emotions, sensations, associations), I am more than the contents of my mind.

The point is observation. Therefore, the task of the first stage is to teach you how to observe your inner experience and not merge with it.

Such observation gives you the experience of considering the events of your life without judgment, evaluation, significance, or preference.

In most of us, judgments, biases and biases jump out automatically, we "discover" that we do not like something, or can not stand some event. We don't consciously choose a reaction. Reactions happen to us, often without our control. These automatic reactions greatly embellish and modify the way we perceive and experience the world around us, and as long as the reactions remain "on the machine", we can not choose how we feel, how we live.

When you use part of your Attention to observe a reaction, you are essentially putting a distance between you and the reaction. In this space you are not absorbed by the reaction. Even when the reaction goes its own way, the space of observation creates a distance that reduces the feeling of attachment to the reaction.

Since your Attention is more an experience than a concept, it is useful to create an environment for experiencing this phenomenon, reactions and responses. Similarly, each level is accompanied by exercises and contemplations.

Exercise 1

Sit comfortably and close your eyes. Remember the incident that upset you. It can be a case when water flooded the apartment, and except you nobody was at home, or it can be an angry exchange of gestures with the driver of the car, misunderstanding with the official, or quarrel with the loved one.

Imagine this incident, seeing it from the inside. Be at its center, reproducing the scene with all the confusion and irritation with which you originally experienced it.

Then continue to see the same scene, but at the same time notice that now you are watching it, from the side. Now see yourself in the scene experiencing all the emotions and upsets, and there you are outside the scene experiencing the observation, noticing all the emotions, thoughts, and sensations.

See if there is a difference between how you experienced the incident in two ways.

In the beginning, you may not experience a sense of objectivity and impartiality. Most of us are very attached to our emotions. If we feel that we have been insulted, misunderstood, or humiliated, we are usually not ready to quickly move beyond our fair emotions. If you have not been able to move on to the second part of the exercise, do the first part while inside the incident until the emotional charge is removed from it. After a while you will feel that you are ready to let a part of your awareness pass into impartial observation.

As you move in and out, immersing yourself in the experience and observing yourself in the experience, you begin to feel your self, which is present on both levels. When you recall an emotional experience, realize that you existed before, and remained after the complete exhaustion of emotional reactions. The " I " that observes your experience is always present; it notices how all thoughts, sensations, and feelings come and go.

The first step experience is how to be more than what bothers you.

Consider two ways of experiencing the same event.

For example: I gave my boss a monthly report, which he usually approves and praises. This time I'm called into his office, the door closes, and he irritably tells me that there's a major oversight in my report and it needs to be completely redone. I blush with surprise and embarrassment, beads of sweat stand out on my palms, and my stomach feels as if it has been hit with a club. I mumble an apology and feel embarrassed again. My breathing is shallow, my heart beats fast, and all I want to do is run away. I feel stupid and angry.