Being at choice

This one was seeded from a conversation with Barine. 

The Dojo premise is, “There are many real things out there and none of these real things is causally linked to any specific experience.”

The real thing is opening up a geode. 

One POV is from Barine.

One POV is from her 7 year-old daughter. 

For Barine, you open up the geode and see what you have inside. It’s a rock that has a hollow space inside in which there are crystals. 

For her daughter, there is a spirit that lives within the geode. When you open the geode, the spirit of the crystal is freed.

“Where does the spirit of the crystal go?”

“I don’t know where it goes. Maybe to you. The person that was there when it opened.”

“And what happens to that person?”

“You become even more beautiful? You, Mama, become more beautiful.”

“Would you like to open one?”

Enthusiastic nod.

“I asked her how she knew it was there and she looked at me like I was crazy.”

One real thing happening, a geode being opened. 

What looks like two very different experiences happening. 

The experience of the real thing depends on what you’re bringing to the party, what values you are holding, what meaning-making lenses you are using.

In terms of relational experiences, there is no “true” experience, as far as I can tell. 

(There are some who believe that there are no other experiences other than relational ones.)

I have lots of friends who have VERY different experiences with certain real things than I do.

You can be at choice about what experience you’re having with any real thing.

Not saying that it is easy to change from one set of values/meaning-makings to another.

And there’s def a learning curve. 

AND

You can certainly rearrange the furniture so that you can have the experience you want without changing one thing about yourself.

You can try to create a temple that is conducive to the experiences that you want to have.

I prefer the, “Who do I have to be, what do I have to do, to have the experiences show up that I want to have?” POV.

Just a personal preference. 

It’s a lot easier making that happen, not being self-identified with any single character.

It’s a lot easier making that happen, having a lot of characters and character traits to pick from. 

If you are self-identified with a single character, that your character’s values, your character’s meaning-makings, your character’s reality are the real things, then the only choice I can see in getting the experiences you want is rearrange the furniture in a way that best supports your character.

Perfectly fine way to live a life.

Me?

I find stories that make opening geodes about the coolness of science boring.
I prefer engaging with geode spirits.