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Welcome to Mind Chatter #117, the July 1, 2003 Interim Report.
On June 16, you'll receive a full issue of Mind Chatter.
In this issue, I'm going to hop around a bit in what I talk about,
because I have a number of things I've been thinking about lately. My
thinking has been stimulated mainly because of the telecourses I've
been teaching lately. Over 700 of you are calling in on the first and
third Monday evenings, and emailing me your questions after each
call. Interacting with all of you always stimulates me. As I do my
best to communicate the different principles and ideas I think are
important to those who want to find out who they really are and learn
to create just what they want in the world, I learn a lot myself.
One of the reasons why many people look to me as a teacher is because
I seem to be able to communicate ideas and principles so that people
understand them in a practical way. Most of the things I teach are
not new (though sometimes the way I present them is new). Some of
what I discuss you have heard many, many times. I find that most
people agree--theoretically--with these principles (principles such
as "let whatever happens be okay," "resistance creates suffering,"
"you are the creator of your life and your reality," and so on), but
don't (or can't) apply them to life in moment-by-moment situations.
They often can see when and how other people should apply them, but
in their own life they go unconscious at key moments and don't see
how the principles apply to them.
These moments of truth (or, if you don't follow the principles,
lack-of-truth) are often the most mundane situations. Sometimes
people are waiting for some sort of earth-shattering "significant"
time to apply life principles, when the real application comes in the
smallest, most mundane situations.
I, too, was once of these people. As a result, I repeatedly created
suffering for myself, and created outcomes and responses I did not
want, over and over and over--which is precisely what happens if you
fail to follow the principles I've been sharing with you over these
100+ articles.
My one redeeming quality was that I was so persistent, to tenacious,
so absolutely set on figuring out how to be happy instead of being
angry and depressed, that I just kept trying to find an answer, no
matter what happened, no matter how many times I failed. I screwed
up, fell on my face, and created what I didn't want, over and over,
but I kept searching.
As a result of making nearly every possible mistake, becoming
confused in every possible way, misinterpreting things in every
possible way, and resisting change in every possible way--and then,
finally, figuring out how I was doing all of this, and, as a result,
getting out of my suffering--I gained the ability to look at other
people's struggles, understand what they are going through, and have
a pretty good idea of what they need to do or how they need to shift
their thinking, to create a change.
One of the key insights for me was realizing that people fail to
change, even when they do things that seem to work for other people,
because they don't feel safe changing. This was a key realization for
me. It led to the model I have shared with you may times of the
internal map of reality, the idea that each person has an internal
conceptualization of who they are and how they relate to the rest of
the world--and the key point that this map generates your entire
experience of life, both internally and externally! This map includes
your beliefs, values, strategies, ways you filter, store, sort, and
retrieve what comes at you from the world, and a number of other
things.
Finally, it's important to realize that the main criteria we have in
creating this map of reality is to be safe in our family while
growing up.This means we strongly associate our map of reality with
safety, which means that changing it doesn't feel safe. This
association is so strong that we will cling to our internal map of
reality even when it is creating results that make us miserable. I
know my map of reality was certainly creating results that made me
miserable, yet I resisted everything that might have changed it, for
decades. The only thing that was really able to budge me from
clinging to what I thought kept me safe was meditating with Holosync.
Part of the irony here is that we only think we will be safe if we
keep our map of reality the way it was when we were growing up. It
worked well to get us through our family while growing up, but since
we are not powerless children anymore, many of the strategies,
beliefs, values, and other aspects of that map don't work well in
adult life. But an unconscious part of us, what some people call "the
inner child" thinks this map is needed, just the way it is, in order
for us to be safe, and this unconscious part of us is often strong
enough to override what we want on a conscious level.
Why does Holosync work to create change when other things may not?
Because it solves the safety problem. It does this a several
different ways. One way is to raises your threshold for what you can
handle coming at you from the world. When your threshold is low (a
result of trauma or wounding experienced while growing up), much of
what you experience triggers unsafe feelings. As this threshold is
pushed higher, which is exactly what Holosync does, you begin to feel
more and more safe, and the people, things, and situations of the
world that used to trigger you don't bother you in the same way
anymore.
Another things Holosync does is calm the mind, which allows you to
identify and be caught in the creations of the mind (all the
thoughts, worries, fears, emotions, confusions, attachments, shoulds,
and so on) to a lesser degree. When this happens, a part of you which
I call the witness, or the watcher, becomes more prominent, or, you
might way, becomes less obscured by all the frantic jumping around of
your mind.
The watcher is who you really are. The watcher is content and
peaceful, and is unattached to things happening in a certain way. It
just watches whatever happens with curiosity, including watching the
mental/emotional ego-based "you" doing things, wanting things,
creating things, feeling things, and so on. When looked at from this
perspective, all the typical things of life still go on, but you
aren't so caught up in how they turn out because you have this
underlying realization that these things are not what you are.
Instead, you realize that you are the one who serenely and
objectively watches them happen. Ironically, the doing part of you,
when you watch it, rather than identify with it, does a much better
job of doing, and the results it creates are almost always better.
And, ironically, you are no longer attached to whether or not the
results turn out in a certain way. It's as if the doer is a character
in a play, and the watcher is the actor who plays the character. As
the actor, you know it's just a play, so no matter what the script
says, you can just enjoy being in the play, watch it all with wonder
and awe and enjoyment as you act it out, and enjoy the challenge of
being the best possible actor.
So because Holosync calms the safety part of you, it allows change to
happen, and allows you to begin to watch from a new perspective.
Again, ironically, the more you identify with the watcher, the less
you care about the change, and the easier it becomes. This, to me, is
one of the most interesting mysteries of existence.
The other thing that happens when you calm the mind and allow to the
witness to become more prominent is that you notice how everything is
connected to everything else. When the mind is more prominent, it
appears that everything is divided, and that one thing is often in
opposition to another. This colors everything with a background
feeling, just under the surface (though, at times, more prominent)
that the world is a dangerous place, and that you are separate from
everything else. Once you begin to experience the fact that
everything is connected in an infinitely complex matrix, and
infinitely complex dance of creation, and that you are that dance,
something shifts. Since you see that you are everything, there is
nothing outside of you to fear and nothing outside of you to get. At
this point, the search for what to be or do, where to go, what to
avoid or get, or what to change in order to be happy and peaceful,
ceases.
This is the place I want to help you find. It's there already, all
around you, but like a fish not noticing the water, you miss it.
You're looking for it in the mind and the creations of your mind, and
that's not where it is. It is only found when you set aside the mind
and the things of the mind. Once you do that, you can't miss it.
So (to get back to my original point), when I interact with all of
you, as I do in these teleconferences, or in the Centerpointe
retreats, I hear your questions, which include all the ways you're
confused about what to do, what not to do, why you can't change, and
so on. Then, I have to turn my brain loose to figure out why you
don't get it, and how I can communicate to you how utterly simple
this really is. This challenge, the challenge of how to get you to
"get it," really turns me on, and when I see things from your point
of view, and then figure out, from that point of view, how to make
things clear, I get a real rush, a real "ah-ha." So your confusion
stimulates me to be a better teacher and a better communicator, and
creates a process for me that is challenging, fun, and very
fulfilling. In fact, the whole history of Centerpointe has been one
of me learning from the participants in the program so I can better
help them see things more clearly, and in my doing so, I see things
more clearly, too.
Ultimately, the mind really is the problem, because it constantly
thinks and analyzes, and obscures who you are with strong emotions,
endless analysis, blaming, resisting, and all kinds of other mental
gymnastics. It typically darts all over the place instead of calming
focusing on one thing. But when you can calm it down, it's like
wiping dust off a mirror: things become clear, and you can suddenly
see yourself. Most people think it is by following the mind as it
jumps around that they will figure things out, but it's really by
setting the mind aside that you begin to see clearly the way things
really are. Then, the mind becomes a tool you can use, but you
realize it isn't who you are, and you don't have to follow (or
identify) with every thought that flits across it, and you don't have
to believe every emotion you have.
Also remember that the mind, the ego, the internal map of reality is
not the enemy. A mind is a great thing to have. Identifying the mind
and all it creates as being who you are, though, is a trap. This is
why one of the principles I teach is that "the map is not the
territory"--the conceptualization you have of who you are is not who
you are. So remember that the mind is a great tool. It's job is to
generate thoughts and feelings and internal pictures and strategies
and longings and desires, and so on. If you identify with them, and
think that's who you are, you suffer. If you watch the show, without
getting caught in it, you are peaceful and happy.
So I'm really trying to get across two things to you:
1) You are not your mind, your body, and your emotions. You are the
watcher of these things, which remains largely hidden as long as the
mind is wildly zooming around all the time. Calm the mind and you can
see beyond it to who you really are. When this happens, you become
very peaceful and very happy, and you know just what to do in each
moment (and, ironically, it doesn't matter).
2) Your mind is a tool that creates all the experiences and outcomes
that the watcher watches (and that most of you are caught in most of
the time). Though this stuff is not who you are, it can be very fun
to play with it, and create whatever you want with it. If you just
let your mind do whatever it wants to do (which is just fine,
especially if you are firmly established in the watcher perspective),
based on the way it has been programmed, it will create things you
want some of the time, and create things you don't want some of the
time. You know, right now, how much of each you are creating. If you
look closely at the mind, in all its complexity (which is the reason
I'm helping you take apart your internal map of reality--all the
stuff of your mind--in the telecourses, Mind Chatter, my books--The
Management of Evolutionary Change and Thresholds of the Mind--and all
the other Centerpointe knowledge products), you begin to see how you
can use your mind to play with life and create whatever outcomes,
feelings, thoughts, states, etc., you want.
You become like a playwright, creating your own life, all the while
knowing it's a play, and having a ton of fun doing it.
So, if at this point the thought of actually living this way seems
remote, don't despair. When it's dark, you cannot see, and it can
seem as if you will never see. But when the sun comes up, seeing
happens without effort. Your sun will come up, but there is a price
to pay to get it to come up. You can pay that price in a variety of
ways, but an easy way to pay it is to meditate each day with
Holosync, and look deeply into your mind, your internal map of
reality--which I am helping you do through the various courses,
books, retreats, articles, and other ways I communicate with you.
Do keep asking me all those questions. Keep disagreeing with me when
you think I'm full of it. Keep telling me what you don't get. It
keeps me challenged. And, if you ask, I just may come up with the
answer that causes your mind to stop long enough for you to glimpse
who you really are.
Be well.
Bill
Bill Harris, Director
Centerpointe Research Institute
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