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Preface
Due to my relentlessly consistent teaching and single-minded promotion of one life enhancing theme, I have become known as The Wake Up Guy.
If I were to attempt to summarize what it is that I have been pushing for almost 20 years, into three points, it would look like this:
1. For a variety of reasons, we live much of our lives Asleep, which means with an attention that is inappropriate for the circumstances we are in. This means attention is almost always, either:
a.) too weak, leading countless forms of suffering including a lack of focus, distractibility, and/or misinterpretation of experience.
or
b.) too strong, leading to countless forms of suffering including over-involvement, attachment and/or distortion of experience.
2. Because we are Asleep, we live in a world in our mind (Dream World), engaged in a variety of self created pain and problems (Sleep Suffering), believing we exist in ways that are very small (as Dream Characters) and surrounded by others who are also asleep (The Sleeping World).
No, this is not a pretty picture, but hold on…
3. For a variety of reasons, sometimes we can become attracted to the idea and process of Waking Up (hopefully, I can be a reason).
Waking Up means to have your attention anchored and grounded in your present life experience with awareness and clarity. When attention becomes anchored and grounded in your present life experience with awareness and clarity, everything becomes much more simple and obvious.
This means we begin to see things as they are, rather than how we’ve always unquestioningly believed and assumed they are. When we begin to Wake Up and see things as they are, everything changes, as it must.
The white noise in our heads that we often mistakenly call ‘thought’, but which is actually useless habitual chatter, is greatly diminished.
At the same time the ability for true thought, which is insightful, creative and focused, is greatly enhanced and clarified.
Self created suffering diminishes and simple satisfaction increases. We act more effectively, relate more authentically, love more openly and live more deeply.
We see more accurately, think more clearly, and we relax more fully…
and we breathe more fully…
and we love more fully…
and we live more fully.
Most of us only live a small part of the life we were given.
~ George Leonard
One reason I have been so single minded about this topic is because I cannot deny the obviousness of the value of Waking Up. When one begins to Wake Up, a deeper intelligence takes over and everything becomes amusingly clear. As clear as your own face when you look in a mirror.
Look and see.
Gratitude’s and Dedications
I joyously submit to you that Life is the Great Teacher, and that your own life is the classroom.
Much of your suffering is a result of your own truancy. You fail to show up for class, even though every life lesson is tailored just for you, and is being impeccably taught by a master and guru, at exactly the right moment.
When you do show up, you often sleep through your classes, eyes open or closed.
How do we know this is true?
We know it is true because she repeats the lessons you are not getting, over and over until you do. Over and over.
Look and see.
Life as it is, the only teacher.
~ Charlotte Joko Beck
This book is dedicated to Life.
Thankfully, She has always had Her way with me.
All around us Life’s Great Song, drifts upon the breezes,
as She slowly waltzes by, without a care for who She pleases…
In my seminars and writings I have ruthlessly (and playfully) promoted the value of having what I call, ‘Reminders’, built into your day.
Reminders are simply infallible calls for your attention, like an alarm clock or wake up call, designed to help you to remember whatever you have decided you want to remember.
The reasoning for this is simple. Your mind is not very good at remembering what you need to remember, when you need to remember it. Not very good at all.
For example, suppose you came to realize the value of being more aware, alert and attentive, or what I call Awake, in your day to day life.
You realized this because when you are Awake you remember to deepen your breath, soften your body, and come back to your present experience. You have come to understand that when you do this you feel immediately better, with more clarity and contentment, and everything is allowed to relax back into its proper perspective.
The problem is, you seldom remember to wake up on your own, because you have spent your whole life drifting off, zoned out, or lost in the thoughts of your mind. You have developed habits of inattention, and these habits run counter to your efforts to stay Awake.
What to do?
Consider how you can link various aspects of your environment to your intention to wake up and stay Awake. Turn your ringing phone, your car keys and your watch into Reminders.
Wear a piece of jewelry, not for its beauty or sentiment, but for its priceless purpose of keeping you Awake and grounded in your life experience which is now and now and always now!
These Reminders are linked with your intention to stay Awake, and each time you encounter them they are gently reminding you to instantly wake up, breathe and relax. Come home to the present moment and feel your aliveness.
Smile gently and know that all is well, and that Life does not make mistakes.
Understand that:
All around you Life’s Great Song,
drifts upon the breezes,
as she slowly waltzes by
without a care for who she pleases.
The mind is a great servant but a horrible master. ~ Zen
Usually approaches to manage negative thinking involves catching oneself in the midst of ‘negative self-talk’ and replacing the harmful scripts with kinder and more accurate ones.
This often goes by the sad and sorry phrase, ‘Reprogramming your mental tapes’.
Rather than explore this direction, I would like to consider a completely different perspective, as well as a different way of addressing the distorted, and often unkind mind.
Losing ‘My’ Mind to ‘The’ Mind
One of the most dramatically transformative understandings you might receive is also one of the most difficult to swallow if you have never considered it before.
That understanding is this: the mind is not ‘yours’, and many or most thoughts that appear in what you call ‘your’ mind, actually appear in ‘the’ mind, unbidden and unsolicited.
Most thoughts simply arise spontaneously, in accordance with ones history, conditioning, education, predispositions and tendencies. Simply put, thoughts happen, thinking happens, you don’t do the thinking.
Yes, you read right. Thinking happens but you are not the thinker.
The beginning of freedom is the realization
that you are not the thinker. ~ Eckhart Tolle
So rather than replacing negative mental activity or self talk with positive mental activity or self talk, what happens when we recognize or simply notice the mental activity is happening?
What happens when we become the noticer or the watcher of the mental activity? Is it possible to see the mental activity, and in that seeing to become a passive bystander, while not buying into the minds chatter?
The jig is up! I understand that I have become accustomed to listening to that little voice in my head. The mind is what the mind does: it moves. The mind likes to stay busy, it doesn’t like to wait, it wants what it wants now, it knows it all, it is a liar, confused and scared.
The mind is especially uncomfortable with uncertainty. William Keats coined the phrase ‘Negative Capability’, defined as: when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.
There are not many minds that like the sound of that.
The mind says “uncertainties need decisiveness, mysteries should be solved, doubt will fall to proof” all the while irritably reaching after fact and reason. The mind does not like not knowing, period.
The mind will even create stories to replace uncertainty. THE mind. THE mind is busy, THE mind is overactive, THE mind is distorted, THE mind is not ‘mine’. Whew! That feels a lot better.
One should say, it thinks, just as one says, it rains. ~ Litchenberg
