Inquiry : They Should See Everything as Included
A situation yesterday was what nudged the recent Everything Included posting into existence: A housemate received an astrology reading out on the deck, and I decided to do a quick vacuuming before it got dark - with the door to the deck closed. It turned out they were doing a channeling at that time, and asked me to turn off the vacuum. So of course, the thought (really, a belief) came up that...
They should see everything as included. (Or - they should use practices where everything happening is naturally included.)
- Is it true?
Yes. Feels true. Seems... more inclusive, would make it easier on them, fewer things appearing as "other" and a disturbance. - Can I absolutely know that it is true, or that it would be better for their path?
No. Cannot know that it would be better for their path. - How do I react when I have that thought (and they do not see everything as included, in my story).
I feel that seeing everything as included is somehow superior to their approach, and identity with this more superior approach. I may mentally run through why it is more superior, also looking for real-life evidence to support it.
I also try to hide this sense of superiority. I don't want them to see it, partly because I suspect it is not true and don't want my fiction to be blown.
I experience a sense of separation to them, and to myself as well, a sense of disconnection and distance.
How do I treat them?
I am polite and follow their request, but with a slight air of smugness, as if dealing with someone who does not quite get it - yet.
How do I treat myself?
As somebody who knows. Somebody who gets it, at least in this one area. As someone set apart from those who doesn't get it.
When did I first have the thought?
Probably in my mid teens when I started working with projections. I remember even then viewing friends, teachers, politicians, anyone in the media in this way - as often not quite getting it, as being in the grips of blind projections and not even knowing it. As approaching life in a fragmented way.
What is the payoff?
I get to be right, to know, to have access to privileged insights.
What is the cost?
Sense of distance, alienation, being cut off from them and myself. In the midst of seeing myself as right, there is confusion and a sense of being lost due to this distance and disconnect. It is uncomfortable. Also, I make myself less receptive to the fullness of the situation. In attaching to being right, I blind myself to new insights and to seeing myself more clearly. I make myself stuck through righteousness.
What is the worst that could happen if I don't have the thought?
I would go into their view, forgetting for myself to see everything as included. I would be blind. > Turnaround: I would not forget to see everything as included. That seems more true. In the peace of not holding onto the initial thought, there would just be more clarity and effortless inclusiveness.
- Who would I be without the thought? (In that same situation.)
I would appreciate them looking out for themselves. Taking what is true for them in the present seriously and acting on it, taking care of themselves that way. I would see the beauty in it. The simplicity of it.
Also, I would see that they may be right, even according to what is currently true for me. For some activities, it may be good to exclude certain things (such as the noise from vacuuming).
There would be peace for me. Receptivity to the situation. No need for the mental activity of justifying and protecting a particular view. - (a) They should not see everything as included.
Yes. That is more true. They should take what is true for them in the present seriously, and they do. I can see the beauty in that, and how I want the same for myself.
What are the gifts for me?
I get to see a different way of relating to the world, and what comes up in me in seeing it. I get to do inquiry around it, if it triggers stress or discomfort in me. I get to see them as my genuine teachers.
(b) I should see everything as included.
Yes, the advice is for myself. In particular, I should see their current path - what is true for them in the present, as included. There is no need for me to mentally try to exclude it through my own resistance to it and my mental gymnastics around it, as described under no. 3.
(c) I should not see everything as included.
Yes, also true. I should not think that everything is included in my own insight and understanding (!). It certainly isn't, but if I believe the initial statement, then I behave as if it is, as if my present understanding is complete. I am tricking myself. Short changing myself. Settling for less. Cutting myself off from receptivity, new insights, maturing.
Labels: own inquiry