Shifting our reality with our beliefs

A Harvard professor conducted a research in which he told 1/2 a population of hotel maids that the strenuous work they were doing cleaning rooms is great exercise for the body (the other 1/2 was not told anything) ... within a month, with no change in their routine, all their biological markers (blood pressure, heart rate) improved tremendously and they had lost weight also.

This relates to my previous post: "You can't get oil from a borewell" where the main question was "What if the world has a way of giving us more of what we are being in each area?" The hotel maids were being "I am doing boring work to make ends meet. It is strenuous, hard work but just work." Their way of being was shifted to "This work is great exercise. It is good for my body." Hence their reality shifted.

The placebo effect is well known in medicine. We look past the placebo effect to see the drug's effect. Why not look at ways to sustain/increase the placebo effect? Big plus: there is no medicine given (just a sugar pill) and there will be no side effects.

(NPR story - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17792517 )

But I like my tiredness!

I have been experimenting with observing impartially the various sensations in my body like fatigue or chillness and intellectually subscribe to the idea that they will disappear within a few seconds. And they have. But, I can't make it happen all the time. Many friends of mine have gotten over infections quickly or had their wounds heal very quickly by doing the same thing. But, they can't make it happen all the time.

Today, I found a clue to why this is.

Vignesh, my son, was feeling too tired to eat and wanted to sleep. I suggested that he observe all his body sensations for 2 minutes without sustaining those sensations. He tried half-heartedly and as he was giving up ... said something very interesting ... "But Dad, I don't want to do it. I like feeling tired and sleepy. I like going to sleep." He was sustaining the tiredness and sleepiness by choice!

Same way, we enjoy our times of illness ... the license to take it easy, the opportunity to quit, and whatever else that illness gives us. So, we sustain it unconsciously. Just being aware that the illness is a choice (albeit unconscious or subconscious) gives us an opening. We can ask: Am I looking forward to some aspect of the illness? Do I really choose that aspect now? Is there another way to get that aspect without sustaining the sickness? All these questions bring awareness to our choice making and give us more options.

(In the famous double-slit experiment electrons behave like waves when the slits are unobserved and behave like particles when the slits are observed (with the intention that the electron is a particle and must be passing through one of the slits). That is, we get an idea that the electron must be a particle (hypothesis) and sustain this idea and it willingly responds!)

Leading questions:
- If I look at my son as irresponsible and sustain this idea, will he respond that way?
- If I look at the world as a dog-eat-dog place, will it respond that way?

You can't get oil from a bore well

The world is a given. The only thing we have control over is our "way of being."

What is our "way of being" with various things? Some examples may be:

Son - critical
Daughter - complacent/taking for granted
World - dissatisfied
Sports/Exercise - resigned
Boss - suspicious
In-laws - angry

What if the world has a way of giving us more of what we are being in each area?

Then,
Son - will give us more reasons to be critical
Daughter - will give more reasons to take for granted
World - will give more dissatisfaction/imperfections
Sports/Exercise - will give more obstacles whenever we try
Boss - will give more reasons to be suspicious
In-laws - will give more reasons to get angry

Are we choosing our reality by our way of being?
Are we trying to get oil (we want oil) from a bore well (we keep feeling it is a bore well)?

All of us want "something else" from our world. Can we create it by being that way first?

What is our way of being this minute? skeptical? unsure? dismissive? curious? interested? Are we saying "I don't understand" or this is "too esoteric", "too simple", or "too philosophical"? Are we having a Ah-ha moment? ... Will it automatically become that? Can shifting our reality be that simple?

- After the "ways of being" and "inauthenticities" distinctions of the Landmark Forum
- Also, "we are reality-making machines" from the movie What the Bleep Do we Know

Wise Men Do Nothing

FINAL TRANSMISSION
A wise old Zen master, very near death, lay quietly on his mat with his eyes closed, all his disciples gathered around. Kneeling closest to him was his number one disciple, a longtime practitioner who would succeed the old man as head of the monastery. At one point the old master opened his eyes, and lovingly gazed at each and every one of his disciples assembled in the crowded room. Finally his glance rested on his successor, and he managed to speak his last words to the man: "Ah, my son, you have a very thorough knowledge of the teachings and scriptures, and you have shown great discipline in keeping the precepts. Your behavior has, in fact, been flawless. Yet there is one more thing remaining to be cleared up: you still reek and stink of 'Zen'!"

WHO ARE YOU?
Keiji, a long-time Zen student, approached his master and said: "I don't see how there can be any enlightenment that sets you free once and for all. I think we just get ever greater glimpses of Buddha-nature, the vastness that is our true Reality. It's an ever-expanding process." The master, looking penetratingly at Keiji, replied. "That may be what you think. But what is your experience, your experience right now?" Keiji looked momentarily confused. "My experience right now, Master?" "Yes. Do you know yourself as Keiji, having ever-expanding experiences of Buddha-nature? Or do you know yourself as Buddha-nature, having the experience of Keiji?"

THE WISE MAN
The 4th Chinese Ch'an Patriarch, Tao-hsin (580-651), stated: "The wise man does nothing, the fool ties himself up."

from: http://www.enlightened-spirituality.org/Zen_Humor.html

Attachment and Love

"Many people confuse attachment with love. But, in attachment you become selfish, interested in your own pleasure, and you misuse love."

The whole thing is conditional on the behavior of the one who is "loved." Payoffs and costs result out of attachment ... like approval, pride, shame, and guilt.

"You become possessive and try to gain the objects of your desires."

Gaining the objects means desiring or exercising some sort of control. Good and bad, right and wrong are very much in the picture.

"Attachment creates bondage, while love bestows freedom."

Usually in life, there is only bondage, no freedom.

"When yogis speak of non-attachment they are not teaching indifference, but are teaching how to genuinely and selflessly love others. Non-attachment, properly understood means love. Non-attachment can be practiced by those who live in the world as well as those who are renunciates."

In non-attachment, we are indifferent only to ourselves ... and our needs. It is a subtle trick. Our ego tricks us in to believing that in non-attachment, we are indifferent & uncaring. But, only in non-attachment can we put yourself in the other person's shoes and appreciate their true needs (short-term and long-term). Only then, can we be fully relevant to the other person and to life.


-Quotes are from Swami Rama's book "Living with the Himalayan Masters" and are attributed to his Master.