Waking Up

I've made reference in another post to Sam Harris' book, "Waking Up," and to some of what I learned from that book here. I recommend reading it. (The book, not just the posts.)

I got several BIG insights from his book. That's BIG WITH CAPITAL LETTERS. I've read mindfulness literature over the years, so the bar is pretty high for new insights that I would call BIG. 

WITH CAPITAL LETTERS.

BIG!

BIG IDEA ONE is that the standard mindfulness practice is workable, but inconsistent and inefficient. It's workable because people have been doing it for thousands of years and getting results. It's inconsistent because there's no way to know how long it will take any one person to achieve any particular state of awareness, enlightenment, whatever. It's inefficient because it takes a long time.

But there's a better way. It's possible to point someone toward that which meditation is trying to lead them to. This pointing out instruction is part of the practice of Dzogchen, which Harris had studied. So he pointed out this. 

Imagine that your in instructor directs your attention to a window. He tells you that if you practice every day looking at that window, that one day will come a moment when you will "see things differently" and when you experience the difference, you'll know it. This will happen, he tells you, if you practice diligently, with focused attention.

Another instructor prepares you differently. She says: If you just look through the window you'll see whatever is on the other side of the window. But if you look carefully, you may catch your reflection in the window. That moment of seeing your reflection while looking through the window is what you are trying to experience.

You may not catch your reflection right away. It might depend on the light, or where you are positioned. But if you are looking for your reflection, you'll find it a hell of a lot faster than if you are just looking through, toward, or out the window waiting for "something different."

BIG IDEA TWO. A description of the "reflection" that Harris wants me to look for. It is the experience he calls "waking up." And he uses pointing out instruction to give me an idea where to look.

Imagine you're in a theater, watching a movie. You are immersed in the story. Your attention is captured. You are emotionally engaged. Then suddenly you realize that you're sitting in a theater, surrounded by other people, watching light projected on a screen. A moment ago you were entranced -- in a trance. Now, for a moment you are in a different state. You're still aware of the story that's still playing out on the screen--but you are also aware that you are outside that story. You are not in the story, but watching it. That particular spell is broken. That's "awake." He says: "Most of us spend every waking moment lost in the movie of our lives."

That made sense to me, and if it hasn't happened to you already, take a moment and look for that metaphorical reflection in the window. Take a moment to step away from whatever engagement you have with what you are reading, and -- while continuing to read -- recognize that you are sitting or standing somewhere, looking at black shapes on a white background (or white on black if you are one of those people) and realizing that somehow your eyes, scanning over the shapes are producing words and/or ideas in your head.

That's a little of the experience of waking up.

After reading that I started experience more and more "waking up" moments. I would realize that I was "awake" and that up until that moment I had been in a trance, "watching my life" the same way that I watched a movie. 

BIG IDEA THREE, and the biggest of all: Harris says that the conventional self is an illusion. We know we have bodies, and know we have brains, and that somewhere in our brains is something called a mind, and some part of the mind is a "self" that makes decisions, causes actions, and from time to time "wakes up."

But what is that "self" that "wakes up?" And is it an illusion?

He says: the way you tell an illusion from something real is to examine it. You look at it more closely, more deliberately. If you examine something and it changes to something completely different--or disappears entirely, that's a sign that what you first saw was an illusion.

So now as soon I "wake up" and feel that "I," my "self," am no longer in my usual trance, I look to try to examine "that which is now awake." When I do this, when I turn my attention toward whatever I just identified as "my self" when I "look" in a direction I would describe as "inward" I IMMEDIATELY feel my attention shoot "outward" toward the rest of the world. I have an immediate sense of WOW!!! And I'm even more awake.

It's as though the "self" that was perceiving the world was just a window or a screen. By looking to examine it, I see more clearly what's on the other side. 

It happens every time. Looking for "myself" (once there's a self to even look for) I always find myself transcending "self" and seeing the universe.

This is interesting. And I'll probably say more about it later,  but for now, let this simple description suffice.

If this makes sense, I encourage you to take those same steps. Try to be aware of moments when you realize that you were in a trance and now, for the moment, are not. When that happens try looking to see whether what just woke up is an illusion or real. If it works for you the way it does for me, you're in for an interesting experience.