Perspective

Perspective is a concept that some people should think of more often. Something may seem a problem from one angle while with a change of perspective it could offer a great opportunity. In essence, perspective is what distinguishes people from each other. All the influencing factors in one’s life, before and after, come together to form their perspective at that point in time and space. The concept of perspective in a way incorporates all possible viewpoints. And while it is impossible for one person to succeed at completely understanding somebody else’s point of view, the most powerful thing one can do in life is to influence and control one’s own.

The question for most people is how to accomplish it. How can somebody possibly turn something negative into something positive?

The solution to such problems lies down the same path as finding enlightenment. It is easy to tell somebody to see the opportunity in failure or even to tell oneself. The difficulty lies in believing it, in actually having that conviction. Too often one can convince oneself superficially. However, real and hidden beliefs may be the opposite. It is changing and reshaping these that poses the real challenge. By training the mind’s flexibility and freeing it from the ruts it digs for itself one can achieve the means to change the perspective like a set of clothes.

Some people may argue that this perspective is what forms who we are and that by freeing yourself from it you would destroy your personality. But far from it; the freedom of an unshackled mind presents the opportunity for a person to display all the traits that make one feel inherently happy. And these traits are the ones that one could describe as goodness under the guise of morality.

To change one’s perspective to a positive vantage point allows one to concentrate what one wants to concentrate on. No more dealing with unwelcome issues, no more trying to solve burdening problems. In the light of opportunity and the positive you will find new energy to achieve what is important to you in life.

Expriment N°3: Nothing

Some meditation techniques, especially the Zazen in Zen Buddhism, work towards a state of nothingness. A state of the mind in which no thoughts circulate, nothing pops up or in, there is just serene silence of thought.

One can compare it in the following way. Imagine a choppy sea, with white foaming waves crashing into each other noisily. Everything is in turmoil, up or down. The little boat of the mind is thrust back and forth, a clear path denied by buffeting winds. This is the normal mind, working and mulling over thoughts and inspirations.

In comparison the empty mind is a clear lake, not a ripple curles across the water. In its middle lies the boat of the mind, peacefully at ease, with no need to move, drifting along without care. The drifting clouds reflect in the still water and an absolute silence lies over the scene.

This state may seem absolutely unachievable if you think you know your mind as popping up with random thoughts here and there taking you on to long and winding journeys. However if you have managed to master to extract language from your thinking for a while and then even the imagery of concepts you may be closer than you think.

Entering the mind into this state of nothingness is admittedly a difficult task. Worries may lay on it. You may be in a hurry. Or any other matter may be bothering you. And yet with practice you will achieve the sense of nothingness. Give yourself a specific amount of time. Don't hurry. Eliminate all distractions. And start concentrating. Consciously feel your breath move in and out of your lungs. Feel your chest move in and out. If a thought enters and steals your mind away, notice it and return to concentration again. And move on, cutting back on thoughtprocesses.
Cut back on language, and finally on ideas until finally you reach the point where nothing is in your mind. No idea of nothingness, no image of nothingness, just nothing. There are days when you may hardly ever achieve this, on others it could be the easiest thing in the world. Like all things the only way to reach that point of stripping away the self is by trying.

And what use is this you could ask?
If you are stressed, worried or under pressure, returning to the state of clarity, emptiness simply stops everything. It interrupts thought processes, it lifts anything off your mind and may allow you to see it for a clearer viewpoint when you start afresh.

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
- John Lennon.

The Effect of Releasing the Shackles

What really happens with the release of thoughts? The unshackling of the mind from language and structures such as grammar. We now stand in from of the mind as a possibility. There are no rules or regulations as to what thoughts, what ideas can be interlinked or can follow or precede each other. The rules have been swept away and with it all restrictions.

Without these, there is an utter freedom. A freedom that should not be new to you in any way. Because each and every one of us has felt it and experienced it before. For if you have managed to release yourself from controlled thought processes you have returned to the possibilities of a child's mind. Gone are the worries of future and past. Gone are monetary valuations or analyses of other people's behaviour. No more calculating people's reactions to your own actions. All that remains is pure and true thought.

It is a feeling like finally going on holiday after years of hard work and regimented free time. It is this sudden influx of freedom that may allow you to find your true self beneath all the imposed images and influences. In that realm you can discover the meanings you are looking for. And for one single reason this is the case. Because none of the nurtured constructs obstruct your view on to the essence of what we are any longer. This is the state in which you can analyse objectively. This is the state in which you can mold yourself into what you want to be and not simply what has become of you. It is simply the state of the world. The state of possibility.

Experiment N° 2: Your thoughts and their mind

If you have tried thinking without words, you may want to try a further step. If you analyse each and every of your thoughts, without the constriction of language you may realise that every concept that you know is actually founded in a specific feeling, a sense that you perceive in your mind. For example, imagine the colour blue. Not the word blue or an object that may be blue, but simply imagine the colour blue. Now concentrating on it remember what "feeling" is present in your mind. Then imagine the colour red. Just the colour and the feeling that it conveys within you. You should find that both "feelings" are distinctively different. There is no similarity in them, linking them as the language concept of colour would. These two feelings are completely separate.

If you have not actually thought the words "red" and "blue" but actually imagined the colour
and felt what feeling these provoke in you, you may be inching closer to discovering how the thought process works. Every concept that we have, may it be "table", "red" or "memory" is far more than just a differently sounding word, or an abstract idea. Each of these concepts is saved in our nervous system under a specific feeling. These feelings put together create a story or a description of a scene, which we can thus recreate in our mind. Think of "the red apple was juicy and sweet". But ignoring the words, just picture that scene in your mind. Each of these concepts is linked to a specific feeling that springs forth from your memory.

Hence, the next level of discovering your mind is to think without words or concepts but just in these feelings.It is quite reveiling as it shows how much our thought processes are governed by the past and our language. Practicing to eliminate these "shackles" can give a grand new way of thinking, releasing the thoughts into infinite possibility.

It is certainly an effective way of learning how to concentrate deeply and of how to be in control of your thoughts and feelings instead of letting them control you.

The reemergence of distraction

Thrust back into everyday life of study, earning money, personal projects and social commitments it has become increasingly obvious how maintaining an ordered, clear and structure basis for the mind is difficult.

The last month has become busy again. And the first indication of that is, when things are done not for the sake of doing them but because they have to be done or because it is for the outcome. Instead of being able to enjoy a proper meal including its preparation and digestion, foot is only ingested in order to curb hunger.

It is so easy to lose focus when once is reingulfed into the hustle and bustle of one’s life. Yet there in lies the challenge. Once a person can stay in equilibrium while the human made world is bulging with pressure, that is when one has mastered the truly free lifestyle and sense of being.

I for one still struggle but at the same time improve, hopefully every day.