Let the World In

Live Meet Transcript 17.04.2016
Speaker: Rohan
www.Rohan.Life

Letting the world come to you.

Something I discovered that top martial artists, awake people, and top athletes have in common, is that they allow the world to come to them when performing their arts. Whether it's a martial arts, or the art of football, the art of hockey, or the art of… whatever sport they’re doing. Particularly in the team sports category here. Or, awake people (or not sleeping, people, is a better way to put it, I think) is that the world comes to them, and they respond to that.

What does that mean?

How does that look?

What it means is, most of us are continuously, or for a large portion of our days, projecting into the world from reference points of our past, onto things, objects and people. We’ll see somebody that may have been negative to us in the past, or there’s something about them we don’t like, and when we meet them, there’s a filter; that filter will overlay what we’re seeing in that moment. The reality is, that person may, since you saw them last, have had a major shift in consciousness—and changed. But, you will not see this because you’re pushing out into the world. And, you push through filters to see. This may be on objects, certain types of animals or creatures you don’t like, or a bird… etcetera. It’s pretty obvious to see what we don’t like, and we’ll naturally look at things we do like—a more attractive face, a more attractive piece of scenery. We’ll look past the rubbish on the ground, in front of the beautiful river mouth. Constantly searching for attractive things to push out into.

The other way to be in the world, is to allow the world to enter us. Visual is usually our stronger sense; so what if we allowed the world, the light of the world, to simply enter through our eyes. As if our eyes were just… holes. Just let the light come into them.

Try it.

So, we look as far as we can see to the left. without moving our eyes. And, as far as we can see to the right, and as high, and as low, all at once; and allow ourselves to absorb the light coming in… the trees, whatever the objects are, without thought. We don’t need to label them as trees—or all the rest of it, that’s actually pushing out. We just accept everything within our vision as one. It’s like we are a video camera. The camera’s not pushing out, everything’s just coming in, and it sees it all at once.

This is a powerful mindfulness technique. We can practice it while we’re walking, or sitting. Best to practice the first few times when we’re walking somewhere safe, like a park, somewhere not in traffic. But, we can start walking this way in the world. Walking the dog. Or, the dog walking us, as I so often see. This practice is quite powerful. Because if practised enough, we can start integrating it into our day to day life.

Slowly—it can be dangerous if you integrate it too early, because you might be in dangerous circumstances. You may not be accustomed to this method of… seeing, or allowing… just allowing the world to be as it is, without preference.

A side effect of this technique when practiced, is that it floods the mind with so much information, now, instead of looking from point to point as most people do, one object to the next, constantly cycling through objects, looking at beauty, not beauty, this, that, judging, analyzing, what type of tree, what type of car, I don’t like her hair, I do like her hair, she’s pretty––all of this can stop. Imagine a speaker on your mind when you’re doing this, when you’re thinking––that everybody can hear. Wouldn’t we all sound insane if everyone’s mind was being broadcasted?

We notice it in a person talking to themselves, walking around, let’s notice it in ourselves, shall we? The repetition of numerous voices, bouncing around the inside of our skulls, pretending to others that it’s not happening. This technique can help to bypass this in day-to-day life.

It was used by a group called the "Toltecs", who were into awakening, and who weren’t able to show they were truth-seekers, because it was dangerous. Their life would be at stake. So they developed techniques that they could use while sowing seeds, planting, cooking––whatever else. Martial artists have been doing this for centuries too, using techniques for quieting the mind.

While using a knife, it’s good to put all of your attention on the knife—I’m not saying to use this technique in such circumstances at all. It's best in dangerous circumstances, that you put your full attention on your action. This technique is great for walking, etcetera— safe environments, or when there are lots of things going on at once, in crowded situations. Practice and see.

The side effect of this is that it will stop your mind from chattering. Another technique to add to this, if you are in a safe environment, is to pinch your fingers together or do two other actions—pinch your fingers together and… maybe bite your tongue gently, or something like this, which puts your attention on those as well. This technique is very powerful and very ancient… and once again, from my experience, is very beneficial. You can quieten the mind this way. Because what you’re actually doing, if you consider the mind like a computer, it has only so much memory it can access. It can only do so many functions at once. So by doing this, you’re using up a lot of the CPU, or the memory (RAM), or the power of the computer, just on these actions alone. It doesn’t allow a chirpy, chattery mind as well. There’s no room for it. So it becomes a cross between mindfulness and meditation.

With practice, you’ll start to see that very little escapes your attention on what’s going on around you, because you’re seeing everything at once, and you're not overlaying the mind, thinking over the top of everything, drawing your attention to it. It isn’t pulling you away from what’s happening around you. You become mindful. This is the vision of a Samurai, or a warrior. They see something move on the right-hand side of them and at the left at the same time. When they’re in battle they see every movement, from the toes to the head, and what’s on each side of them at the same time. Their fighting abilities increase incredibly. There’s a reason they do it–– because it works. It is time-tested and proven, and it has also been my experience.

So try it. Go for a walk. Or try it if you’re trapped somewhere safe, like a train or a bus. The amount of opportunities the average person has in the modern world to practice this, without others noticing, is incredible. You don’t want to look like a zombie, you don’t need to show you’re practicing. You can practice in crowded places, when you have nothing else to do, instead of jumping on Facebook, or distracting yourself with the thousands upon thousands of opportunities to distract ourselves that we’ve been presented in this world.

We can head deeper into being, and seeing, by allowing the world to come in. You’ll start to see the magnificence of the world, how much is actually going on in every moment. That’s for you to find out––how beautiful the world is. This is just another way to do that.

Try it, what have you got to lose?

I hope this helps.