How To Wake Up From Your Fevered Dream Chapter ten
"The stars are so beautiful and the sky is so dark,I'm just sitting here getting my full of being here and playing my part.Lyrics from' No More Looking For U.F.O's' by Mike Selley.
Sometimes you fall back on your old conditioned way of living.If this happens,slowly but surely, re-start your living in the now without the cumbersome ego.
What usually stops people temporarily or even permanently practicing this mindfulness is when the ego is threatened.
If your boss shouts at you,you may well lose the ability to be a detached observer of this scene.In fact, this is a marvelous way to check how well you are succeeding in over-riding the programme you are on.
If you can still observe your upset and annoyance without any emotions,while the boss is letting rip,you are doing very well.
Even if you fall out of the exercise for a few days or even weeks or months,do get yourself doing it again.
Why?
Because the rewards are very high.
After a short while of doing what was explained in the previous chapter,you will feel a lot different.This is because you are no longer a slave to your programme and to you ego.
Other aspects of your life will change.Nature may well have a greater fascination for you.You may find that you want to spend time walking in the countryside.Your eating habits may change too.Natural food suddenly starts to taste far better than processed food.Almost without realizing it ,you might find yourself buying loads of fruit and vegetables.
Also,you will note that when you are not practicing mindfulness ,you keep having the same thoughts with minor variations everyday.Absurd,isn't it? Don't you want to stop this? To be free from this automated conditioning ;to no longer be on automatic pilot.
Do you understand that the mind is not you.It is,according to the Buddha,another sense,like the sense of sight or hearing.The mind senses the inner world of thoughts,which I am sure you have noticed,never stop coming.
Life is not lived properly like this.You are trapped in the prison which is your mind.
It is like being trapped in you ear!All the time most of us think of ourselves as being in our head! We have truly become a slave to our thoughts, and, let's face it, most of our thoughts are a complete waste of time.
It is essential to live in the present, as if we don't , we are not really living. The future is a mirage; it is created by our imagination; we are simply considering all options that we think are going to happen. To be alive, we must be in the absolute present. You create your own future by what you imagine it will be. Nowadays the world is in such a negative mode with these absurd austerity measures most of us are experiencing, that we live in a constant state of fear about what might happen. We must stop planting these seeds.To do this stay focused on the absolute present.Only then are you alive and living as you are meant to.
So mind conditioned are we,that we tend to ignore the body.
Really be in your body.
Ekhart Tolle,on a YouTube video,claims that the body gets upset when we don't take any notice or interest in it,and might even get ill because of this.
He also said that it is like we only live in the very top floor of our house and never go downstairs.
A good exercise to make you more aware of your body can be done while you are eating.
Really experience the sensation you feel when you put your food in your mouth.Relish the taste when you chew it.When you drink something,be fully aware of the taste you experience.
These exercises bring you back into the now,whereas you usually spend your time thinking about an imagined future,or on what happened in the past.
Such thinking gets you nowhere,and it is a trick of the ego,to make you believe that you are your ego.
But there is only now;that is all there ever has been.
Everything that happens takes place now.
Another exercise that should be done everyday is to find a room where you will not be disturbed.
Lie down on a bed or on the floor.
Firstly, breathe slowly and in a regular pattern,feeling all the stress leaving your body.
You can tell yourself that as you breathe out,stress and negative emotions are leaving your body.
Then tell yourself that you are inhaling the positive life force.
After you have done this,concentrate on your feet, then legs-slowly go right through your body.
When you reach the neck,face and head,you will be surprised how tense you are in these areas
Just slowly relax each bit.
Then,go back to the lower parts of your body;feel yourself dwelling on firstly, your feet,then your legs,middle,hands, arms,chest and shoulders etc.
Do this for about five minutes or ten.
That is the end of this chapter;the next chapter will follow shortly, and it continues on the journey that takes us to where we really already are.
Sometimes you fall back on your old conditioned way of living.If this happens,slowly but surely, re-start your living in the now without the cumbersome ego.
What usually stops people temporarily or even permanently practicing this mindfulness is when the ego is threatened.
If your boss shouts at you,you may well lose the ability to be a detached observer of this scene.In fact, this is a marvelous way to check how well you are succeeding in over-riding the programme you are on.
If you can still observe your upset and annoyance without any emotions,while the boss is letting rip,you are doing very well.
Even if you fall out of the exercise for a few days or even weeks or months,do get yourself doing it again.
Why?
Because the rewards are very high.
After a short while of doing what was explained in the previous chapter,you will feel a lot different.This is because you are no longer a slave to your programme and to you ego.
Other aspects of your life will change.Nature may well have a greater fascination for you.You may find that you want to spend time walking in the countryside.Your eating habits may change too.Natural food suddenly starts to taste far better than processed food.Almost without realizing it ,you might find yourself buying loads of fruit and vegetables.
Also,you will note that when you are not practicing mindfulness ,you keep having the same thoughts with minor variations everyday.Absurd,isn't it? Don't you want to stop this? To be free from this automated conditioning ;to no longer be on automatic pilot.
Do you understand that the mind is not you.It is,according to the Buddha,another sense,like the sense of sight or hearing.The mind senses the inner world of thoughts,which I am sure you have noticed,never stop coming.
Life is not lived properly like this.You are trapped in the prison which is your mind.
It is like being trapped in you ear!All the time most of us think of ourselves as being in our head! We have truly become a slave to our thoughts, and, let's face it, most of our thoughts are a complete waste of time.
It is essential to live in the present, as if we don't , we are not really living. The future is a mirage; it is created by our imagination; we are simply considering all options that we think are going to happen. To be alive, we must be in the absolute present. You create your own future by what you imagine it will be. Nowadays the world is in such a negative mode with these absurd austerity measures most of us are experiencing, that we live in a constant state of fear about what might happen. We must stop planting these seeds.To do this stay focused on the absolute present.Only then are you alive and living as you are meant to.
So mind conditioned are we,that we tend to ignore the body.
Really be in your body.
Ekhart Tolle,on a YouTube video,claims that the body gets upset when we don't take any notice or interest in it,and might even get ill because of this.
He also said that it is like we only live in the very top floor of our house and never go downstairs.
A good exercise to make you more aware of your body can be done while you are eating.
Really experience the sensation you feel when you put your food in your mouth.Relish the taste when you chew it.When you drink something,be fully aware of the taste you experience.
These exercises bring you back into the now,whereas you usually spend your time thinking about an imagined future,or on what happened in the past.
Such thinking gets you nowhere,and it is a trick of the ego,to make you believe that you are your ego.
But there is only now;that is all there ever has been.
Everything that happens takes place now.
Another exercise that should be done everyday is to find a room where you will not be disturbed.
Lie down on a bed or on the floor.
Firstly, breathe slowly and in a regular pattern,feeling all the stress leaving your body.
You can tell yourself that as you breathe out,stress and negative emotions are leaving your body.
Then tell yourself that you are inhaling the positive life force.
After you have done this,concentrate on your feet, then legs-slowly go right through your body.
When you reach the neck,face and head,you will be surprised how tense you are in these areas
Just slowly relax each bit.
Then,go back to the lower parts of your body;feel yourself dwelling on firstly, your feet,then your legs,middle,hands, arms,chest and shoulders etc.
Do this for about five minutes or ten.
That is the end of this chapter;the next chapter will follow shortly, and it continues on the journey that takes us to where we really already are.
Mike Selley.
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