Witnessing is an awareness, independent of the mind, that sees each process unfold in its perfect beauty.
In this work, witnessing is
- intending something
- doing the doing part
- and watching it unfold
It is an energetic phenomenon: the results are dependent on your witnessing: your witnessing is part of what is causing the result.
The long-long, over 20 week, four times a week course, the Second Phase Activators is drawing to an end.
One student, who has been continuously doing courses with me for 11 months, is visibly irritated, reactive, antsy, and maybe even angry.
I sat down to meditate what is the issue: I had a feeling that it’s not personal, that if I can see what is the driving force behind the irritation, I’ll be able to glean something about the human machine, that you too want to know about.
I did… and here it is:
Unless you witness (in action) what you have learned, you have learned nothing useful, as far as your mind is concerned.
The mind is not able to draw a connection between what it learned and action, unless…
Let me break it down for you so you can actually get what’s happening, and maybe start behaving differently.
Almost any course, even the ones that have exercises in them, only satisfy the mind’s craving for knowledge.
But there is a world of difference between doing something because it is your homework, and doing something for of your life.
Example #1: I am an architect. In Hungary architects are trained as architectural engineers, so our training is both technical and creative.
I am good at both end of the spectrum, which is rare: I have a very balanced mind: left and right brain are almost in perfect balance.
After I graduated, I started to work for a firm that needed help in the structural (engineering) end of the spectrum, and they moved me to that department.
Every time I did a calculation, I had the fear of death. I asked my boss: “Does what I learned in school work in real life?”
There is a disconnect in almost any education between training and real life.
Example #2: In a series of courses by the famous Robert/Lance empire, I created a goal to complete every assignment, and be the first to submit it. I succeeded 98% of the time. Why did I do that? To leave me time to implement what we learned in my own business, during that same week.
I ended up making money and having multiple sources income from each class I took.
Others? Some people competed with me to be the first to complete the homework, but they never incorporated the lessons learned stuff in their business — In fact, if I am not mistaken, only two to three of each class did.
Each class was in the 1-2 thousand dollars range, so it is strange… but just think back to MY university education: there is a disconnect.
Example #3: In my courses I teach (for very little money) simple techniques that if they are applied, not as homework, but on your REAL LIFE,will increase your vibration, your quality of life, and your level of success, so significantly, it boggles the mind.
In my classes, I observed that the tendency is for people to do the homework to please me. They do it minutes before the deadline. Somewhere, somehow, I didn’t get it across that the homework is for them, for their life, and for using it for more than homework.
The student that is suddenly irritated, is probably feeling gypped. I imagine she is telling herself: I have invested so much time in this work. I have come to every class. I have watched every replay… why am I not having the result I deserve?
I understand. It makes sense to the mind — perfect sense. Somehow, magically, there should be a link between learning and doing… shouldn’t there? In fact there is: the link is the homework, starting to incorporate the magic into your life and start the growth.
At the end of the course I declare that every single one of my students now has what they need to become the most successful people on the planet, in whatever they choose to do. Will they be? Doubtful.
Mind knowledge differs a lot from muscular knowledge, feeling knowledge, seeing knowledge, sensing knowledge. Mind knowledge is easy: you throw in words, and you’ve got it. The rest of the knowledge, the only knowledge that really matters, is experiential. It takes practice to find it. That doesn’t make sense to the mind, because the mind tells you that it’s enough that you know about it.
When there is a disconnect between life and your mind knowledge, you are again at the mercy of good ideas, whims, and ego-trips Failure is certain.
Mindset needs to be practiced, just like a bird needs to practice flying before it can take a “real” trip. Practice day in, practice day out. Not just a little bit here and a little bit there. That won’t build neural circuits, or whatever fancy words you want to use.
If you are like me, even if you have it all step by step in clean, clear English, unless you follow the instructions a few times in spite of your horrible resistance (because translating words into doing is painful!), you won’t learn anything useful.
I had a breakthrough in my ability to learn for life in 1996. As a beginner webmaster, I wanted to learn to customize or tweak some of the moving parts of my sites, so I signed up to an online class teaching exactly that.The first session taught how to do a simple line of code that will announce to the world “Hello World!” I could not do it. I could not get it.It didn’t matter what I did, I couldn’t do it.
I signed up to repeat the: same thing. I signed up again: this thing won’t beat me! If others can do it, so can I. The third time I saw, suddenly, something I never noticed before. It was hiding in plain sight. “Oh, this is what you meant?,” I said. I didn’t have to stay in the class. The whole mystery was resolved in that one little hidden/visible thing.
I learned something that day, something more important than anything I had every learned before: some things, like distinctions that alter your worldview, are not going to allow you to see anything other than what you have always seen, until you exhaust all your mind’s power… and then they will reveal themselves in their full glory.
If this were teachable (it isn’t) then people would have the results they are willing to work for 100% of the time. They must experience it to get it, but because the mind 1 is so easy to satisfy, they read a book, listen to a lecture, take another course. Most people aren’t able to fathom that there is another way to learn that isn’t even similar. It takes doing something poorly, without knowing what the heck you are doing, for quite some time, before the paradigm, the new one, is willing to reveal itself.
This is what we practice on the drill calls. Even there, people are hell-bent to be instantly successful. Success won’t teach you anything! Only failures do. If you are misfortunate and succeed the first time, it will be that much more difficult for you and your mind. Lucky accidents do not reveal anything. You need to earn it, and earn it every time.
I have been doing this “earning” thing for 16 years now. I still have to earn everything. I still have to bang on the walls of the current cocoon long enough and hard enough for the new paradigm to become possible for me.
Now, compared to other courses, the Second Phase Activators course has been a spectacular success in that we have ten success stories. When I started, I knew we would have only four…and I was wrong. What did I do? Well, in addition to yelling at people a lot (lol), I worked my ass off to convey the method. The third thing I did was to do in my own life what I asked the students to do and share it with them. If they can successfully refrain from going to the mind for evaluation of their progress, they will expand, grow, and flourish further.
As soon as we finish this course I will have another course that is all about actions. It’s a mentoring program. I promise 100% success in that one, at least to the students that have shown that they are willing to take risks.
John, the most important first step, maybe, is to bring some compassion to the instances when you fall short of the ideal you have set for yourself. You’ll notice something interesting: bringing compassion to it will get you out of your head and into the witnessing position… quite miraculous.
Very interesting observation about the music: I’ll meditate about that… music… hm. thank you for that.
I had a small experience of witnessing when playing my guitar the other day. I put my attention on the sound coming out, rather than on the fingering and the notes. Ahh, music…me and the guitar as co-creators…the wood and strings have so much to say. Even using a mic and amp helps…I can witness the performance as it is occurring. That’s what makes the audience so important, they witness. and it raises the stakes and makes it real.
I still have the hardest time getting out of my mind. It seems that trying to find the witness is a very challenging and subtle task. I had a bad week last week: too much zombie time on my days off…and too much sleep…then a little dip into depression. Not as deep as in the past, but still a waste of time. I live as such a passive whiner. I have a constant complaint about just being alive. I still have not let go of my racket with “God.” Yuck.
I know I can trust your methods. I feel it when I connect, and when HOE is downloaded. Your accomplishments and efforts are an example to me of the hard work it takes to accomplish anything. It takes me a lot of energy just to keep crawling up to zero, but maybe that’s my karma, or whatever. Sometimes just staying alive is my biggest accomplishment.
Yes, I don’t dig deep, I complain and reason my way out of any real work or effort.
This morning I was trying to put batteries in a flashlight. Sounds simple, right? Three times I tried. Read the directions, looked closely at the pictures, couldn’t do it. I was pissed! Fourth time, I climbed out of my mind, and it just happened. Voila’, I have a functional flashlight.
Six months ago, that flashlight would have been in a million pieces from me smashing it after the third try. Remembering to incorporate everything we have learned into my every day life is the most important aspect for me now.