Just because it's normal doesn't mean it's not insane

This concept might be a bit out there to a conventional mind. But I’ve been studying Eckhart Tolle’s teachings a lot lately and are really deep in these teachings. I wanna remember them as the tempo of everyday life gets back into our consciousness.

There’s so many things that we do and consider “normal” that really are quite insane.

We set up an arbitrary deadline at work and get sick over meeting it.

We fill our lives up with so many things, some important, some meaningless to us and some just because we have always done them, and then we act as if we don’t have a choice.

We read the news about all the horrible things happening in the world and fill our minds with terror but stay in inaction, not doing what we can to help.

We care so much about what other people will think of us (without ever really knowing what the do think, if at all) but have no idea what we think ourselves.

We eat meat from slaughter houses for breakfast, lunch and dinner but buy beautiful necklaces for our dogs and go out of our way to make them as happy as possible.

We treat our bodies like crap and then check into a hospital when we get sick and get pills that cover the signals of our screaming body and not deal with the imbalance that is the root problem.

We run around all day doing things and staying busy and claim we don’t have time to sit down and meditate for ten minutes.

We follow leaders blindly that have a strong and convincing voice without ever really listening to our own inner guidance system.

I could probably go on and on but I won’t. I think you get what I’m trying to say.

Maybe you now think, well, I don’t have a choice, this is what we do, it’s normal human behavior. And, yes, I agree, it is normal. And that’s the point. Just because it’s normal doesn’t mean it’s not insane.

I’m not asking you to change everything and go weary from questioning everything that you ever do. But I am asking you to think for yourself. To sometimes not think at all. And to remember, that we humans, are a particular species that do a lot of strange things. But I do believe that more and more of us are waking up. And with hightenend consciousness comes wiser choices and a new paradigm for human kind. Are you with me?

With all my love,

Helena

Lost in mind, observing mind, no mind

I’ve reflected on this topic more intently in the last couple of and every time I try to explain it to myself or others it somehow slips away. Because, you know, the mind, and moving beyond it, it’s hard to explain and needs to be experienced. But if you know me at all you also know that I always start before I’m ready and I don’t let very much stop me. So here goes a concept that I’d love your input on.

Lost in mind, observing mind and no mind.

Lost in mind is where most of us spend most of our time. Thoughts going in all directions and emotions following right after. We’re constantly reacting to everything going on around us and sometimes even believe in the things our mind tells us. The mind is your master.

Observing mind is taking a step back. Looking at all this craziness with some distance. Not identifying with the thoughts but rather witnessing what’s going on and consciously deciding what to act on and what to let go of. This is mainly what meditation helps you develop. Being the observer of your mind.

No mind is what happens when it all quiets down and you are only in the now. Pure consciousness. It’s not a very common thing in our society but it is a sweet place to dwell in. But the tricky thing is, since your mind is not really present in this state it’s difficult to notice when it happens. Your mind will probably argue that it never happens because it can’t register what it does not see.

Someone said that there are no enlightened people, there are only more and more enlightened moments. And for people who have lots of those moments, the mind is like the ventilation on the other side of the room. It’s constantly buzzing over there, but you’re not in the ventilation drum so you just hear it as a light buzz far away. Most of us spend our time in the ventilation drum constantly being thrown in all kinds of directions. When we step out of the ventilation system and look at it instead we’re in observing mind. When we move away from the ventilation and pay attention to the present we move to no mind.

Hmm, yeah, this feels quite accurate. To my mind at least. Well. Let me know your thoughts on this and what works for you when you try to move from lost in mind to something else.

With all my love,

Helena