The Norm Report - Month 96
February, 2010
E-mail: normrlee@att.net
Norm Lee’s website: www.nopunish.net
Over 28,200 visits
Who is that stranger inside my skin?
You’re not who you say you are, and
I’m not who you think I am.
WHO ARE WE? [Part Two]
In the beginning there was thought. From this seed we grew our minds, inventing who we are. We can train to see how our mind works; when we do we begin to take charge of our lives. And when we do that, our lives change, too.
We start where we are. None of us are doomed to live constantly under a dark cloud. The same things - the conflicts and the suffering – don’t have to keep happening to us. In this very lifetime we can change the movie we are incessantly creating. We can learn to take control of the thought-stream in our minds; in doing so, we change the flow of our lives. It is not new. Over the span of hundreds of years, some billions of people have so trained. In the past few years this kind of change has been quietly taking place in the U.S. There are people all around us, in every state and country, who are becoming increasingly authentic, compassionate and insightful, as word of the power of the Practice spreads.
Our thoughts are who we are, therefore it is a mark of wisdom to attend to what is going on upstairs. For most of us, it is a chaotic mess of confused thoughts, emotions and fantasies. Scary, indeed, to reflect that "As a man thinketh, so is he." But we are not without hard-won guidelines. Those before us have cleared the path. "The unexamined life is not worth living," a sage tells us. And the profound Socrates summed up his teachings with these two words: "Know thyself."
We begin by noticing our thoughts rise and fall. Weak minds allow thoughts and emotions to run wild, jerking us around like perch on a line. Where do they get that power? We, ourselves, give it to them. We give thoughts permission to kick us around, like the press treated Nixon. His folly – and ours - is in believing they are real. Without belief in the illusions, they lose their power. But with work, we can strengthen our minds by mastering our mental processes.
Similarly, our belief in the reality of thoughts has created the concept "me". With the right training we discover that the true "me" is much deeper, more authentic, more loving than mere daydreams, fantasies, emotions, resentments, and the constant chitchat. It is that unrelenting chatter inside that keeps the false identity alive – the fake "me" that we present to the world.
It is not inevitable. By the hundreds of thousands people like us, right here in the USA, sit down every morning to train their minds in acknowledging the internal dialogue and letting the thoughts go, gradually taking control of their mental processes. Every day people like you and I routinely engage in practices handed down for generations, spiritual practices that have elevated consciousness and brought new and profound insights into the reality of the self and the nature of the mind – all minds.
It is these practices that bring about the clarity of mind that connects us to the real world. Seeing thoughts as insubstantial, i.e., not solid, not real, is what frees us from illusions – so they don’t have us to "kick around anymore". We know who we are and we know what we’re doing because we live in this moment, only. Confident in our Basic Goodness, we let go of the lie of basic sinfulness. No longer do loud critical noises fired about our shortcomings throw us off balance.
We are at ease because we’ve practiced centering. We are on the path of fearlessness. It is also the way to Basic Sanity, since sanity is measured with the yardstick of reality. If you live in the dream world, you can’t function in the real world. With a healthy sense of self we begin to develop insight into our authentic being, and what our purpose is here in this world, in this lifetime. The more we examine our own minds, the more we understand others, and compassion increases and relationships improve.
The discipline of examining requires the right training as well as persistent work. When we see how the mind works, we see how our life works. We’re not stuck with chaos and confusion, living with hope and fear, addicted to indulgence in comfort, temporary highs, and surface satisfaction. When we take responsibility for our actions – and the thoughts that support them – we see the importance of attending to the state of our mind. Awareness is the ability to see what is going on in our mind at present. We can train to see thoughts as they arise, acknowledge them, then release them. "Let it be," sang the Beatles. Relax in peaceful rest, contentment and quietude. The root of our discontent is self-absorption and our fear of being present, of being open, being receptive. In mindfulness of breath we come back to Reality - the Now - which is so precious, so fleeting. Living in the Moment takes discipline. It takes work.
Dr. Wayne Dyer says that by changing your thoughts you change your life. The past is dead, the future is illusion, the Now is a gift. That is why it is called the Present.
– Norm
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