Be Dazzled

**Practice This**

When is the last time, or a time, when you felt dazzled?  Give yourself a moment to remember.  Remember the details of that moment - what did you see, who was with you, what was the temperature, what were you wearing, where were you? Be there again and bring the feeling of being dazzled into your body. This feeling is you.  

So why don't you walk around feeling dazzled all the time? 

Because your (as in, our) family, schools and jobs taught you to:  

• Think things through  
• Identify your position, then convince others of it's validity
• Explain yourself
• Rationalize your behavior 

None of this is particularly dazzling.  Right?

These are all functions of the brain that make experience predictable and known. There is nothing wrong with this.  In fact, this mechanism is a blessing in times of danger or when executing technical actions.  

         For example, when you hear a sound and your brain says, 

"That is the same sound that the tiger that almost mauled you 

two weeks ago made. Giddy up!"

And, when you are cooking a roast and remember, 

"last time I did this, I left it in a half hour too long." 

Thanks brain; that was super helpful!  

More Than The Known  
We live in a society that elevates the value of what can be seen, measured, predicted and controlled.  So much so that we have accustomed ourselves to perceiving the world through the (unexamined) belief 'what is best is what is known.'  

When I don't know what the heck is going on I feel uncomfortable.  I am so trained - like Pavlovian dog trained - to equate knowing what is going on with feeling safe that when I do not understand what is occurring I feel uneasy. Even when there is no danger or technical action to perform.  How is it that my automatic reaction to not knowing what is going on is to think, think, think, so I can know? How is it that it is not "natural" for me to surrender to an experience that I don't understand and let it dazzle me? 

Again, this excerpt from The Voice of Knowledge by Don Miguel Ruiz helps explain this.  Please be kind with yourself; being socialized is not a personal failing.  

Thinking can get in the way of Love when you confuse what you think with who you are. You cannot think your way into being dazzled any more than you can think your way into Love.  Love is. Love is who you are.   

Question Your Thinking 
Teachers across traditions use self-inquiry as a method of dis-identifying with thinking. Simply put, question your thoughts to experience being the awareness of thought rather than the thoughts themselves: 

Who would you be without your story?

You never know until you inquire.

There is not a story that is you

or that leads to you. 

Every story leads away from you. 

Turn it around; undo it. 

You are what exists before all stories. 

- Byron Katie

Rest Your Brain
Honor the brain by letting it rest.  When you let your mind rest, you will find it is easier to move out of your head and into your heart. When you are quiet and still it is easier to experience who you are: 
~ loving awareness 
~ loving awareness of your brain 
~ loving awareness of the thoughts you think
~ loving awareness of the stories you tell 
~ loving awareness of the feelings in your body
~ loving awareness of everything
~ loving awareness 

Be dazzled.