Nature of
Your Reality
“I began
to realize that my identity depended not upon any beliefs I had,
inherited beliefs or manufactured beliefs, but my identity actually
depended on how much attention I was paying to things that were other
than myself—and that as you deepen this intentionality and this
attention, you started to broaden and deepen your own sense of
presence.”
David
Whyte (The Conversational Nature of Reality; On Being with Krista
Tippett, April, 2016)
David Whyte, poet and
philosopher, spoke with Krista Tippett in 2016 about his life and his
understanding of how we mature as human beings. He started out his
adult life as a Marine Zoologist, and noticed while in the Galapagos
islands, when he sat observing the wildlife for hours on end, that was when he felt most present in himself. He called that state
the “frontier between what you think is you and what you think
is not you” where things are actually real, and there is an
opportunity to deepen and grow.
What he describes is a
time when our attention was not on the superficial concerns of life
that take up so much of our time and energy—what to wear, what to
cook, who's going to pick up the laundry, wash the sheets, drive the
car-pool. In those rare moments when we are completely present and
attentive to something other than ourselves, we have an opportunity
to experience ourselves as pure being, and not simply a personality.
In other words, paradoxically, we can go deeper into the essence of
ourselves, when we focus on something other than ourselves. It is in
those quiet, alert, and attentive moments that we are open to the
universal consciousness, when the voice of our soul can speak to us.
We can have a conversation with reality through that experience that
is unlike any other conversation.
Most of us don't have
that conversation because we're afraid of what the content might be.
It might allow in some subjects that we tacitly steer clear of—such
as the fact that we won't be here forever. So we turn on the radio,
or the television, or put on our headphones and turn up the
volume—whatever it takes to keep from having that experience. What
we miss when we do that is our deepest Self—the one that forms our solid
ground, is not washed away by the winds of change, is not concerned
with passing trends and pop-culture fads, but is eternal and ever
present. David Whyte writes from that place. Here is a taste of his
poetry:
“Sometimes
it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement
of your aloneness
to learn
anything
or anyone
that does
not bring you alive
is too
small for you.”
In the Spirit
Jane
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