[From Marsha: Once in a workshop I expressed stress about the thoughts always running in my mind with complaints, judging self and others, blaming, figuring how to lose weight, worried about this and that. So I asked Dr. Bob how I could stop the constant chatter.\u00a0\u00a0 He asked me just to listen; and the room became quiet for a few moments Then he asked me what I heard.\u00a0\u00a0 Here is that idea of a \u201clistening exercise and experiment\u201d embellished from an older workshop. He called it:]<\/p>\n
Degrees of awareness<\/p>\n
This time we\u2019ll talk about degrees of awareness. \u2013 degrees of perception.<\/p>\n
When we look at things, we have a big impression and immediately begin to want to know \u201cwhy this happened and how it happened\u201d; and, of course, we get concerned with the results of the pictures we\u2019ve created in our minds. Then we conjure up all sorts of explanations, of \u201chow I can make it go away\u201d and \u201chow I can keep it from happening again\u201d — and truly speaking, very seldom does anything happen over and over again in just the same way.<\/p>\n
Most minds are constantly going over situations, events and people\u2019s motives and then conjuring up pictures which we then almost instantly accept as fact just because we thought it up. When you are aware this is happening, there is a very lovely beautiful thing to do.\u00a0\u00a0 If you will listen closely with no explanations, the mind becomes quiet. So one can listen and observe to see — not trying to solve something but merely seeing the essential fact as you see it in the present moment.<\/p>\n
Very few have time for the mind to be totally quiet so immediately we start inventing answers until we\u2019re totally lost in them; and then we attempt to find some technique to change it .\u00a0\u00a0 So sometimes it\u2019s kind of interesting to let the mind go quiet. Now you don\u2019t \u201cmake it quiet\u201d because that\u2019s conflict \u2013 you \u201callow it to be quiet\u201d by listening or observing.<\/p>\n
When you do this, you see relationships you have never seen before; and you can see the direction something is going. If our mind is quiet — \u201cabsent from any reasoning\u201d — then there is perception beyond all the things that the busy mind prevented. We have lived with the busy mind for years which prevents ever understanding.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a simple practice. So let\u2019s try that for a few moments and listen real close as an experiment – [there is silence in the room while everyone listened] And your mind went what? Was it noisy or was it in a real peaceful state?\u00a0\u00a0 If you do that for a little while, you\u2019re aware of all sorts of things you\u2019ve never seen before — you\u2019re more perceptive. You can\u2019t see too many things at one time. In other words you can\u2019t listen and think at the same time.<\/p>\n
Now when the mind is quiet, it is an empty vessel. When it is full, you can\u2019t get anything else in there, I don\u2019t\u2019 care how much is sittin\u2019 here available for you to be aware of. And how many avenues of awareness do we have for all of those possible perceptions.<\/p>\n
Now at first when you start listenin\u2019 you\u2019ll see it as result. But if you just practice listening, pretty soon you can listen a lot. It\u2019s like living in an entirely different world because there is so many wonderful things going on that we never knew existed. In this, you won\u2019t see the future, you only see the probability of something; and so it doesn\u2019t necessarily go that way.\u00a0\u00a0 Then you can experience a great value to it.<\/p>\n
So you can pursue the idea of \u201cwhat\u2019s going on\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 In this way, you are in an attitude of listening and you\u2019ll find a quiet mind which is natural. In that natural state you perceive a whole new world that you\u2019ve never seen before.<\/p>\n
Next time you want to experiment with listening, instead of asking \u201cwhy\u201d, ask \u201cwhat\u2019s going on\u201d and just let it remain quiet if you wanna ask a question. \u201cWhy\u201d questions are not valid because it begins an endless loop in the brain that is unanswerable.\u00a0\u00a0 Asking \u201cwhat\u2019s going on here\u201d or \u201cwhat am I doing\u201d will work much better. \u00a0 But one can just leave it alone, okay?\u00a0\u00a0 Just stay in the quiet.<\/p>\n
[from Marsha\u2026Following up on my question in the workshop at the beginning of this excerpt, when Dr. Bob asked me to listen — he then asked what I heard; and I said the birds outside and an air conditioner running. Then he asked what I was thinking, but the thoughts had quit. It switches the attention; and I\u2019ve discovered that I can certainly get hypnotized by the thoughts that ramble around in the head. I\u2019ve also discovered that when I pay attention to \u201cwhat I am doing\u201d physically such as practicing piano, it brings me back into the now rather than hearing the mind chatter about some past event, even if it was an hour ago, or planning or predicting some future event. And how many things have I planned that rarely, if at all, turned out the way I pictured them.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, when I can remember, I like to take another step in the listening exercise.\u00a0\u00a0 If I can drop thinking about what I want to say in conversations, I can more clearly hear what the other person is saying. It is then even more difficult for me to listen to \u201cwhat I say\u201d. I think my conversations would be less confusing to others which I have noticed on occasions that I do \u2013 especially if I\u2019m excited. \u00a0I\u2019ve even had people mirror back what I said; and it\u2019s completely different from what I meant to say. One day I had just played \u201cMoonglow\u201d and the next song was \u201cMoon River\u201d. I announced the name of the song as the former \u2013 \u201cMoonglow\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 The audience called me on it and said \u201cNo, that was Moon River\u201d. I, then, saw what happens when I\u2019m not paying attention to what I say. Just a little demonstration of the direction things go when I\u2019m not paying attention and the mind is trying to encompass too much at the same time whether it\u2019s following a conversation, trying to \u201cfix\u201d something or whatever.<\/p>\n
Comments from a friend who shared a similar story of a conversation with Dr. Bob.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you for sharing your observations and the experiment. He told me that one while we were having coffee at his apartment one day. \u201cListen!\u201d he said. \u201cWhat do you hear?\u201d I told him the sounds inside and outside the house I heard. \u201cNow do it again and listen to what\u2019s being said inside.\u201d I immediately identified with the thoughts. He must have known that and said, \u201cListen CAREFULLY, don\u2019t just watch.\u201d I did it again and listened for the not-I\u2019s talk and they went mute. I\u2019ve used that tool ever since. Plus I\u2019ve offered it to a few people who somehow recognize even in some small way that they are NOT their thoughts.<\/p>\n
And somewhere along the way I heard this little idea.<\/p>\n
Listening phrase – Be like water<\/p>\n
Water is fluid allowing people or situations to be as they are without judging or trying to change them — yet still listening untroubled — it is reflective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[From Marsha: Once in a workshop I expressed stress about the thoughts always running in my mind with complaints, judging self and others, blaming, figuring how to lose weight, worried about this and that. So I asked Dr. Bob how … Continue reading