DAY 11
Each of us was born into an interpreted world. Previous generations spent their lives giving everything a human meaning. Every newborn grows up by learning the ropes, and once you can navigate the world—walking, talking, making life choices, forming relationships—you find your place in virtual reality. At some point you would like to have your own unique experiences. “I want to be me” is a powerful incentive.
But the only way to have an experience is to use the mind, and everyone’s mind is totally conditioned. It had no choice. By learning the ropes, each of us sacrificed “I want to be me” in the name of “I want to fit in.” More than social pressure was at work. The rules of virtual reality require us to accept a shared set of pictures, stories, beliefs, and habits. By waking up, you get to be yourself beyond the rules. The “real” reality is always new and original.
Today the challenge is to have a thought that is totally your own. Such a thought cannot echo anything you’ve heard someone else say or anything you’ve read in a book. It can’t be couched in a familiar phrase. It must not grow out of memory, because then you would only be repeating the past. Faced with this simple challenge, you can see how tightly the conditioned mind holds you in its grip. There are well-tried escape routes, like imagination and fantasy, which get around the rules by not matching reality. There is another escape route, waking up, which allows you to be here now. In the eternal now the conditioned mind has no place.