I see that I can meet what’s here at two levels, and in two different – and complementary – ways.
I can meet it at the gestalt level, as what it appears at in a conventional sense. For instance, when something comes up in me that’s experienced as difficult or challenging, I can meet it with love. Hold satsang with it. Do ho’oponopono or tonglen. Have a dialog with it. And so on. And when something comes up in my life, I will relate to it in a conventional way, through conversations, plans, seeking information, and engaging in any other activity.
I can also see through it. I can examine how my overlay of meaning is constructed. Examine the words, images and sensations making up my experience of it. Recognize words as words, images as images, sensations as sensations. Feel the sensations as sensations, free of the images or words associated with it.
One is not inherently “better” than the other. The first takes seriously how I experience the world in a conventional – and, of course, learned – way. The second is seeing through how my world is created. And both invites my human self to reorganize and live a bit differently in the world.
Another way to say it is that the first is at the level of who I am, this human being in the world. The second is seeing through this, revealing what I am. And both are valid and important in their own way.
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notes….
When life goes against our hopes and wishes, and when “dark” material such as wounds and traumas surface, there is some help in seeing and knowing that too as the divine. And what’s really helpful, and where the invitation is, is to also shift into loving it as the divine (since it already is love), and feeling it as the divine. (Another approach is to see through it, see how what appears as “dark” is constructed by the mind, how it’s made up of words, images and sensations, and feeling sensations as sensations.)
– levels
— (a) gestalt level, (i) meeting it with love, (ii) satsang, (iii) ho’o, tonglen, (iv) dialog etc.
— (b) see through it, inquiry, feel sensations as sensations
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draft….
I see that I can meet what’s here at two levels, and in two different – and complementary – ways.
I can meet it at the gestalt level, as what it appears at in a conventional sense. For instance, when apparently difficult situations appear in myself or the wider world, I can meet it with love. Hold satsang with it. Do ho’oponopono or tonglen. Have a dialog with it. And so on. This one also includes anything I would ordinarily do in the world, such as conversations, plans, seeking information, and engaging in any other activity.
I can also see through it. I can examine how my overlay of meaning is constructed. Examine the words, images and sensations making up my experience of it. Recognize words as words, images as images, sensations as sensations. Feel the sensations as sensations, free of the images or words associated with it.
One is not inherently “better” than the other. The first takes seriously how I experience the world in a conventional – and, of course, learned – way. The second is seeing through how my world is created. And both invites my human self to reorganize and live a bit differently in the world.
Another way to say it is that the first is at the level of who I am, this human being in the world. The second is seeing through this, revealing what I am. And both are valid and important in their own way.