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Points And More Points
of View
By Sheri Rosenthal
Have you seen Michael Moore’s movie Fahrenheit 9/11? The fantastic lesson in
this movie, as I see it, is the opportunity to see how many ways you can
write history while an element of truth is still present in each story and
point of view. For example, after watching this film, I can easily say how
much of a dope President Bush is, yet if someone who liked the President
would make a film, the story would be completely different. Selective use of
“information” is what creates the story either way. It is important to keep
this in mind because this is the same method we use to create the story of
our lives!
President Bush may have gone to that elementary school the day the bombing
occurred, but did he really sit in there like that? Where did that clip come
from and who filmed it? Is that really the bigger picture of what happened?
Who knows? I certainly don’t. He is sharing a piece of information which may
be truth, but the context is gone. Even if we could have been there to
actually see what happened in the classroom itself, would there be agreement
amongst us as to what “really” happened? I think not!
I imagine us all as computer programs that are constantly in the process of
qualifying, analyzing, pigeonholing, and assessing everything we perceive
with our senses. The mind is a wonderful gift of being human, yet we do not
put this gift in the “proper” context. Just because we run something we
perceive through our mind/computer doesn’t mean the conclusion the program
comes to is the truth. The conclusion is simply the result the multiple
permutations the program goes through based on learned formulas. In other
words all the stuff you “know” and what you believe you have experienced
(from your point of view of course) is qualifying what you are currently
seeing and experiencing in every moment! How can the conclusions of a
slanted computer be accurate? It simply cannot.
Based on this, I recognize that everything I perceive and run through my
program is no longer the truth. It is truth from my point of view of course,
but not “the truth.” By “the truth” I mean simply “what is,” without the
world of concepts superimposed upon it. Once you put concepts upon the “what
is” you distort it and make it into something else – a story. Of course, the
cleaner the information in your program is the easier it will be to move
through your life seeing what is, rather than seeing what you want to see! I
am guessing right about now that you are wondering how you can possibly walk
through the world without your mind telling you what’s going on, but you can
do it!
If you can practice just seeing, without the judgment and commentary from
your mind (better known as thinking), you will find that you must use your
feelings and heart to interact with the world. The trick to doing this is
having total detachment from the mind; otherwise you will feel all kinds of
emotions based on what is in your subconscious mind even if you “think”
you’re not thinking!
To gain clarity about your life, it’s necessary to see all points of view
for what they are. Detach from all the concepts and agreements you’ve made
about everything in your story or anyone else’s story. Go ahead - take a
chance and experiment with perceiving life from a different point of view!
Sheri Rosenthal DPM is a master Toltec teacher and author
of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Toltec Wisdom (which this article was
adapted from). Having trained with don Miguel Ruiz, author of The Four
Agreements, she currently takes students on spiritual journeys, works with
personal apprentices and enjoys being extremely happy. You can reach her at
info@sherirosenthal.com or at
http://www.sherirosenthal.com
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