It’s Time To See The World In a New Way
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes” – Marcel Proust
Our mind is truly an amazing tool that we are all blessed to have, a work of art really. The human brain is the most amazing creation in the universe, but no matter how amazing it is, it also has some significant limitations.
It’s important that you become aware of its limitations, that you understand how it keeps you from seeing reality.
The problem is our minds are constantly categorizing everything; they never stop analyzing. The problem with letting our minds think uncontrollably is that we become removed from reality. It is important that you go into this yourself and see why is this so.
Whenever you become consumed with your thinking processes you are lost in your past or imagining your future. We imagine so many things, that we can’t tell what’s real anymore. We confuse reality with imagination and imagination with reality.
The moment you really understand what this means to you and your life, the horror of the situation has the power to change the course of your entire life. You realize that you are not in control, that you are simply a victim of circumstances, moods, thoughts, emotions, and the various personalities that you carry. Life just happens to you.
You live so long in this space that the past and future become more real than the present. It becomes easy and comfortable to live in your imagination, no matter how many conflicts it causes in your life.
Of course, everyone knows and feels that living in the present is the best way to live, but when you try to live in the moment you see how much work it actually is, and how unnatural it has become. It seems impossible. Most people now practice living in the now by constantly “thinking” about being in the “now”, yet this still involves thinking, it’s a nice trick the mind plays.
Thinking is absolutely necessary; it’s a beautiful instrument when used sanely and rationally. But when it becomes the master instead of the servant, things go astray, you go haywire.
Why does the mind do this? Well, all our thoughts are simply a response from memory and its main job is to protect itself at all costs. It convinces us that thinking is the most important thing in our life.
It knows that if you live in the present, it will die, that all the beautiful fiction that we carry about ourselves will end. We have too much invested in our memories, and our ego, we believe it’s who we are, so the mind learns to become extremely cunning. They are not you, let them go. But once you learn to just “be” for longer periods of time, the present will once again become more real and your past and future become less real. It will loosen its grip on you.
One way to step away and give yourself space from your thinking mind is to just observe your surroundings without inner verbalization. When you verbalize something you start to think and analyze, and thinking is removing yourself from living in the now.
The mind is basically language, remove language and the mind becomes empty, what’s left is pure awareness. Then when you observe your surroundings or yourself, you are simply “seeing”, just the pure act of seeing without making any interpretation of what you’re observing.
All there is, is the seer, the act of seeing, and the seen (object). Normally we always see through a previous image stored in our brain, we give whatever we see a label, but the label is not the “thing”.
When you look at your girlfriend, you really don’t see her, you see her through the thousands of images stored in your brain. You’re living through images and not making direct contact with the world.
New Eyes Exercise
Go to a location that is beautiful to you. Sit in a comfortable position, and quiet your mind by meditating for 10-20 minutes. When you feel calm and relaxed just observe your surroundings; watch that you don’t try to make any interpretation of it. Just take in all the sights and sounds.
If this is new to you, you will probably catch your internal dialogue saying things like: “Wow.. this is so beautiful”, “that sky is an amazing blue”, etc. Don’t pay them any attention, just let them float across the vast consciousness of your inner space. They are just temporary visitors on their way out.
Just remember that as soon as you identify yourself with those thoughts, you have removed yourself from the experience. Your mind has analyzed it and given it a label, by giving something a label you have defined it and taken out the essence of what makes it beautiful.
To not become identified with what you are seeing, realize that you don’t see with your eyes. The reality is that you “are” seeing “through” your eyes, the eyes are simply an instrument.
The conscious entity inside you is what actually see. If you can constantly remember this, and deeply feel it, you will be able to simply be a passive witness. When you become identified with the instrument, you become identified and attached to whatever it sees.
Meditate on this: Who is perceiving through the senses? Just simply sit quietly with this one idea
Living In The Now
Just practice feeling and experiencing what you are seeing for a few minutes at a time, later you can make an interpretation and contemplate your experience. The more you go from thinking to feeling, the more you will be living in the “now”. The body is a here-now phenomenon, it is never out of the present moment.
Learn to see everything that is going on around you. You can do this by not focusing your field of vision on anything in particular. Learn to simply see with your eyes and use your whole field of vision by not fixating on one single point.
If you enjoyed this post please help me out by passing it along to your friends. Tweet it, facebook it, stumble it.
This is a wonderful guide to how to simply be present in the moment. Thank you for inspiring your readers to take time to observe without labeling, to see without analyzing. I look forward to reading more.
.-= Daphne´s last blog ..Self-Esteem and Making Mistakes =-.
It’s my pleasure…thank you for taking the time to comment, I really appreciate it 🙂
Beautiful message and yes, I know this place and live it. We are not our thoughts or even our minds. We are our consciousness. We ARE consciousness…if we choose to live it. Thank you. :))
.-= Robin Easton ´s last blog ..Are We Eradicating Soul? =-.
my pleasure :)…thank you for contributing to my site 🙂 glad to know we are on the same wave length…take care..
Hi Ivan!
Thanks for the reminder. I find often we try to force the world to be what we want it to be, instead of opening our eyes and seeing how it really is, and letting it guide us 🙂
Keep well!
.-= Diggy – Upgradereality.com´s last blog ..Travel,Adventure,Lifestyle Design,Self Improvement and Passion =-.
my pleasure diggy 🙂
Hi Ivan. Thanks for the interesting post on “removing conditioning” to see the world in a different light. This process can transform the world around us into a stunningly new experience again and again. Here’s something about “seeing” that amazed me equally. Imagine for a moment that our brains were personal computers, hooked into a kind of “Cosmic Internet”. Think of this place as a “Universe Wide Web” if you like, and the Source of our ideas and feelings and intuitions. Just like on the everyday internet, there’s software “out there” that can be downloaded. The most special software gives us “Vision”. To download it, you learn to take away fears of judgment. When this inhibiting fear is removed, your brain is updated and you have eyes to see something astonishingly important. Namely, who you are and what to do with your life. Practically speaking, you see which careers are meant for you, and what opportunities make sense. You see which way to take your life, because that “software update” brings with it passion for some special life-activity that you’ll go make a living doing. With Vision, you look around at the world and see your place in it. Add this kind of insight to your life along with the process of “removing conditioning” and Joy flows in along with beauty. John Duffield
.-= John Duffield´s last blog ..You Were Born Following Your Calling =-.
thanks so much for contributing to my site john :)…be well…peace
Ivan – Wonderful post on an important topic! Your guidance is really on-point. I would like to add that for me personally, what helps is to place my attention in my body – perhaps in the breathing sensation in my stomach or chest. This helps me tune out, or lessen the thought activity & labeling, and helps me absorb at a more visceral level what is going on around me, particularly when I’m out in nature.
thanks so much lb for your suggestions..keeping your attention on your bodily sensation is key to living with awareness….be well…
Hi Ivan
First let me thank you for taking benefits from your thoughts. I am very much impressed by the article and your video. My own internal thought analysis, assumptions and perceptions conform to your views and guidance.
Though you have posted it earlier to Sep 2009, I was destined to see it only today. I wish to go through all your postings and links.
When one is engrossed in his/her own thoughts and emotions, it becomes pain or pleasure. But if you detach yourself and start observing your own mind behavior and thought patterns it becomes interesting.
One thing I am a bit unclear is about past and present the states which are related to time dimension. I think existing in present time is very very difficult and requires quite a lot of training and practice.
Thanks again
thanks so much 🙂 and welcome to my site…let me know how i may be of service to you…peace
thank you for sharing your beautiful writings…keep us posted!!!
Love and acceptance without jugement.Love is the ooposite of fear.To love is to forgive.To forgive is to love.I have known the secret of the eyes since childhood.At that time I didnt Know I tapped into a power.I noticed that some children ,and teachers were off put by a smile or glance from me.I now understand that they were miserable.My life was not so grate so I did not factor that in.Cause I was allways bubbly and smilely.One teacher even snaped what are you smileing at.I was filled with joy and got labbled goofy.You would think that nuns, and lay teachers in a catholic school would know better.Well I would have thought cause we are taught that all people in positions in authority are smart and are beyond resenting a student.I have used my knowelege of the power to my advantage and I have helped people that dont get it.As I began to understand it I tried to teach it.I learned that if a person looks angry while I do it they are scared .So in that case I will not press the issue and look away.Other times people just dont want.Its a shame cause they are really saying no love .They are witholding from themself.God is Love.The eyes are window to the soul.
Hi,Ivan thanks for sharing this wonderful exercise.I do this quite frequently.Whenever I am travelling I would do this exercise.I have started becoming observant although sometimes I do end up labeling but I am improving.
My pleasure my friend, happy to hear that you practice it!