Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation) to the ones paying heed, this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of our attention, why is that? Now ‘let us remember this again, ‘What we give our Attention to matters,’ as Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.
Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.
This week I bring to your attention an excerpt titled – How do You spend Your Day? from a book titled ‘Personal Freedom – On finding your Way to the Real World’ by Dr. Arthur Deikman.
In Personal Freedom Dr. Arthur Deikman shows us a key to unlocking the door of this invisible prison of ideas that has enclosed us since birth. We deceive ourselves, he demonstrates, by taking our identities from the people around us instead of looking closely at what we actually are. With a lyrical yet scientific approach he enables us to see the possibility of freedom and to take steps to make that freedom our own.
How do You spend Your Day?
On waking in the morning, things are unsorted. The first stumbling steps informed by a foggy vision give way to clear re-entry into the familiar. You wash your face, you brush your teeth, without realizing the sensations of your present moment. Thoughts of the day’s work, yesterday’s events and wishes for the future, all perform an act of transmigration, and you fly through your breakfast world, only occasionally aware of the taste of the food and its texture, or the colour and light of the room.
The morning paper absorbs your attention with a thousand details, giving you the same news daily, none vital yet arousing concern, fear and desire.
At work, you put in continuous efforts, get tired, have a lunch while laughing and talking with the others, but not tasting your lunch. During the day, if you were lucky, a brief suspension of concern and will took place. Your energies flowed, converging on the task, and with just the lightest touch to guide the stream; something whole emerged, new to you, not exactly yours. The creative moment was complete; it filled you solid, there. You felt it’s difference from all the rest, its flowing life, that magical appearance of something more than you- from you.
The housewife’s routine is the same. She lives a thousand fantasies while the vacuum cleaner sucks up the dirt, its noise washing out detail. As she does the dishes, prepares the grocery list and then gathers with friends for a talk; did she notice the texture of the cup or capture the feeling in the eyes that touched briefly?
At the end of the day, man, woman and child gather there to receive, for so much effort wants reward. The super meal, biggest of the day, designed to fill, can give some joy of not washed under by the daydreams or the talk. Each moment focuses on “doing” rather than “allowing”.
During the weekend, working around the house, going to restaurant or even a movie; it is the service and the expectations that are more important than the food. Movies ensure that you have nothing to do but to surrender to someone else’s world.
Consider; Every thought you have is unreal. Each one is an abstraction, a shadow of the thing that is. Your future is not real (imagine a purple cow). Your past is not real for the past is memories (how can you fit the ocean in your living room)? Memories are images of where you are not, so how can the past be real? Concepts are not real.
All that which you remember having, all that which you imagine will come – all are unreal.
So, what if the day that you just lived in fantasy- in abstraction, concerned with past pleasures and future problems- How Much Was Real?
Excerpt from ‘Personal Freedom – On finding your Way to the Real World’ by Dr. Arthur Deikman.
I am sure that you will enjoy reading this thought-provoking book. You can click on the following link and buy your copy: https://qsconsultants.in/resources/books/
Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.
Namaste!
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