Choose...

[Guest guest]

>>I tried to " choose. " I stood with my arms hanging at my sides and I

said to myself, " I am going to lift my arms. " And I did. And then I

thought, " I am going to lift my left arm. " And I did. Then the

right arm decided it was its turn and it rose as well.

 

>>And I really thought about it...

 

>>In the end, I felt as if I was kind of a puppet... Something was

moving my arms! Something decided to stand there in the first

place. What was it? It felt like such a mystery! It was so cool.

 

>>I had a felt-experience of not being the doer. No matter what I

consciously tried to do, it felt as if I was being moved rather than

me moving anything.

 

>>What a paradox. Didn't " I " decide to try this experiment? Didn't I

think about raising my arms? And yet, when I paid very conscious

attention to my movements, it DID NOT feel as if " I " was DOING

anything. So weird. And so wonderful.

 

 

 

I am not trying to say that everything

you do is done by you " consciously " . That

is not possible. When you drive car, do

you consciously think of everything you

do, When you walk, do you consciously

plan every step that you take. If you

are like me, then, you don't.! But,

that does that mean that somebody else

[such as ghost ] drives your car? No,

it simply means that 'once learned',

unconscious takes care of things like

driving car, walking, skiing.

 

 

When we start " learning " these

activities, we make " conscious " effort

to learn each move, each step,

everything that it involves. But, once

we have 'learned' - it seems to happen

on its own! What has happened???

 

What has happened is our unconscious brain

has 'learned' it and now it can take

care of it without needing input and

direction from conscious. Learning any

skill simply means 'training'

unconscious brain to do that! Once

unconscious has learned how to do it -

it becomes effortless!

 

 

According to some estimates, more that

99% of what we do is taken care by

unconscious part of the brain and this

is what makes multi tasking possible!

 

But, to stay true to our real intentions,

unconscious needs observation, guidance

and input from consciousness. Else, it simply

acts as a repeater and keeps doing what it

it has done before.

 

 

Unconscious is

where habits, conditioning, prejudice,

habitual stressful thinking lies too!

And, thinking unlike many other things like

swimming, walking, driving car… can't

be that effectively " automated " ! It

requires more input, guidance and

observation by consciousness than many

other activities... because, thinking

many times involves something " new " !

Absent that, it simply keeps repeating what

It has done before - because, this is what

unconscious is good at! So, anytime, you

want to get out of 'rut', anytime you want to

do, act, think differently than what you

are 'habituated', 'conditioned' to - consciousness

is required!