The Voices in Our Heads... Friend, Foe or False?

One of the women in our support group wrote:

"Good morning, ladies... When I step on the scale I have a number I want to see. When I look in the mirror my eyes are scanning for a certain amount of definition and muscle tone. What I notice is, even when the scale number is "right", my mind jumps to something else that is "wrong." In my opinion, that is how the addict brain works... it is irritable and discontent no matter what. It is a fault finder. More than anything it is angry and sad and scared and wants my attention... so it makes a lot of noise and throws a fit." 

My response: 

I love our group!!! It is so rich. Thank you so much, everyone.  I treasure our conversations as the provide so much fodder for contemplation.

I also love the gentle approach to dealing with the voices AND

                                               Illustration borrowed from The Footprints Hearing Voices Group site

I wish to offer yet another perspective. 

Have you noticed that which we give our attention to becomes larger and more ‘real’ in our perception?  Perhaps by continuing to objectify and personify the voices (Especially after having seen them for the conditioned noise and nonsense that they are.), they are made more tangible and more real. 

Dis-identification (separation) from the imagined horror movie is what we’re eagerly learning to do in our Tuesday meetings. Befriending the voices for too long, however, personifying them and having a relationship with them, might eventually inhibit seeing the ‘non-reality’ and nonsense of them. 

As far as I can see it’s a very insidious aspect of the bondage of self.

The more we learn to relax the way attention is being paid, the more the ghost-like nature of those voices and images becomes more evident, seeing indeed they have no ‘real’ substance or validity. 

It’s a very convincing, invisible movie that becomes less and less ‘real’ as the lens of attention learns to relax.

After awhile (and I do not profess to ‘be there’ - I just see what’s possible...) those ghost images and voices no longer capture our attention and the present moment becomes apparent and available without any imagined horror movie about the future or past obstructing its view. Can you imagine how each moment might be different if no attention was paid to the imagined time line of events. 

Boy, that sounds like peace to me.

The BIGGEST Case of Mistaken Identity EVER

"The Bondage of Self"

One of the women in my support group wrote:

 “Eden (That’s her term for an Eating Disorder. Most of us call it ED.) is telling me this morning that I need to get thinner. That the food plan I am on won't allow me to get much more weight off and I need to start considering other options...” 

Since we’re all working towards recognizing what’s ED and what’s not, I’d like to point to what I see in the above paragraph as a BIG case of mistaken identity, or what I often refer to as identification. 

I welcome the same thing from each of you!

While it is true Eden is talking to you, it is not true that she’s talking about you. She’s talking about the body and there’s confusion of what is the body and what is ‘you’. It’s probably the deepest neuronal pathway there is, identification to that which we were taught we are, rather than what we really are. What a heist!

Think about it... When a body is born, Self has no identification with it. That’s why babies do not experience separation or time. Indeed, they do not even consider the body ‘theirs’ until they have been taught that. After enough repetition, the body as our identification is believed.

Prior to the creation of personality, no baby claims anything to be ‘mine’, rather it all just is the way it is, being experienced and observed. The observing remained (and always remains) untouched by anything that arises, the sensations of the body, emotions, thoughts, clouds, birds, cars, etc…

The peace that passeth all understanding that I mentioned yesterday is that ‘Ground’ of ‘being’ and has nothing to do with the personality or body or anything we were taught. None of us were taught to notice the intangible. Instead, we were taught to narrow the way attention is being paid. I mean, how many times have we all heard, "Pay attention!"? The more trauma to the body there was, the narrower the lens with which sees the world. What we notice most often is the personality, which is nothing more than a transparent movie made of ghost images and ghost audio tracks that take up the majority of our attention and claim to be who we are.

You claim to be the body in your statement, yet notice - You were here PRIOR to any identification (or bondage) to the body or personality. Indeed, it is the biggest identity heist of all times! Yes, there is a body. It's named Sarah, but the body is not you. It’s a point in the view You look out of and a vehicle to have experiences. Claiming that ghost movie to be you, and thinking that’s all there is, IS the bondage of self.

The goal is to keep seeing what you are not so what you ARE becomes more and more obvious.

And how do we see the biggest picture we can? 

By seeing the point of view that is the body/personality is actually in a much larger view. The seer is seen. The hearer is heard. The feeler is felt. In the Bible (for what it’s worth), there's an expression called a single eye. That’s what happens when attention is relaxed fully. Two eyes become one and you become the View rather than than a point in the view.

It is all an attention issue. That’s all it is. 

When attention learns to relax, everything slows down and starts to be seen for what it is.

When attention relaxes, so does the bondage of self.