The Shift (2)

We shift our attention from the outer to the inner world by maintaining a moment-to-moment awareness of every thought, feeling and action. Here ends the unobserved life. From now on, nothing happens inadvertently.

Polishing the mirror

The estimable Nisargadatta Maharaj baldly asserted that ‘I am’ is the only true statement anyone can make. These two words, consciously returned to, work on the mind like a Zamboni on an ice rink, sweeping and smoothing, leaving it mirror-clear and undistorted. Feeling follows.

Divine indifference

We have three operational centres: Mind thinks, Heart feels, Body acts. We know this because they change. (We cannot see what does not change.) After waxing and waning, the centres shut down. This does not affect us. 

Boom!

Our thoughts and feelings are completely unbidden. We don’t say, ‘Now I’m going to worry for 20 minutes,’ and then do just that. Our thoughts and feelings cannot be controlled. They happen to us. And then something untoward occurs. We get attached to them.

Serpent devours its tail

Anger is a judgment in the head that creates a felt equivalency in the body. This energetic excess jumps back ‘upstairs’ to validate the thought that created it. Call it the ouroboros effect.