I sat on my patio watching the sunset when I had an epiphany!
We experience EVERYTHING through our minds.
I found this thought very comforting. If we experience everything through the lens of our own minds and we REALIZE that we can use our will to exert control of what we think or stop thinking, then we are ULTIMATELY in control of how we experience the world. Putting your perception on check for your own greatest good, feels,… well…, so damn empowering!
I often see how- we get bogged down with circumstances, people, thoughts, etc… But meditation has taught me a very useful skill and that is to exert my will over that wily brain of ours! By doing this, I am also choosing the type of interactions I have with others and thereby my experiences.
“You should not let anyone, or anything dominate your mind.”- This was taught to me by a very wise person. This is a quick way to become prisoners of your own making. There is no worse prison than a prison that you are unable to escape- your mind.
Our imagination is very powerful, our minds are very powerful and if left unchecked, they can cause us real issues in our lives. It can cause us to experience life at the mercy of our own preoccupations.
I’m currently reading The Wisdom of the Shaman by Don Jose Ruiz and he explains that in the Toltec tradition, when someone begins to regularly practice awareness, they say he or she is now called a Toltec Hunter, because they begin stalking their mind and watching for thoughts or beliefs that no longer serve them. The Toltec Hunter defeats his thoughts instead of allowing them to drag him back into suffering.
If we kill thoughts that are burdensome then we can have a pause to truly experience our surroundings, our relationships, our reality with an open and receptive way without the baggage. When we are open and receptive, we experience peace and wonder.
And so, to my fellow Toltec hunters, I wish you all happy hunting and may we all come to know the power that resides in each of us.
-K