The Eyes Have It, And Won't Let Go! 😳

Day 211

Having just spent a month investigating our human awareness, today we kick-off another month of using that awareness to look at our thinking monkey minds. We'll begin by developing a subtle awareness of thoughts as they arise, form and multiply.

We can start to see this process in action by noticing how our eyes like to find and stick to certain objects (like written words and faces, for example). Once they lock-on to something, countless thoughts related to that object immediately start bubbling-up. Your attention follows your eyes, and thoughts follow your attention, like a shadow.

This flow and accretion of thoughts will probably not be noticeable at first. What you might notice though is the stickiness of your eye gaze. When you notice that subtle freeze, you can be sure that thoughts are starting to build, most of them below the level of your awareness, at first. These initial thoughts are subtle and contextual. They identify and attach emotion to the object of focus ("What is this and what does this mean to me?") based on your history and bias.

But, if you stay stuck, they won't stay subtle for long. Thoughts, like all of nature (atoms, cells, plants, people...) have a propensity for density (solids, organisms, forests, cities...). Some of our most solid thoughts show-up, after long periods of development, as our identity/ego and core beliefs (e.g. 'people are like this...').

PRACTICE

Notice when/where your eyes get stuck. They are constantly searching for a target. See if you can feel/observe a pause in the flow of things when they inevitably do find something to fix on. Then, see what thoughts eventually grow out of that pause.