I've been noticing since doing The Work (Byron Katie thework.com) that my perspective on life is shifting all the time. This is not the same as trying to 'kid myself on', this is about truly seeing that the opposite of what I am thinking could indeed be true and from that point the mind is open, the heart is open and I'm much more curious. I've got an example, something to demonstrate in a small way (and bigger way) what I mean by that. I used to walk around believing that buildings were somehow against nature and the more buildings there were the worse it would be for the world. Trees are better than concrete, something like that. Sound familiar? I've certainly heard some kind of version of that from others. I want to be clear before I say this that I'm not condoning pushing out all green space with buildings, not at all, I just want to highlight that if my mind is doing this with one aspect of life i'm wondering how many other things I'm thinking that just aren't true.
I've been doing a practice that suggests that we look at the world in 'first generation' terms e.g. sky, water, tree, vehicle, concrete, earth etc. The intention is to stay open and curious, to notice when the mind wants to be right or make sense of something by projecting a story onto the outside world e.g. it's a beautiful sky, it's the sea, it's a conifer, a curlew, Hyundai etc. Keeping the observation simple and noticing what arises. I've been doing this exercise for around 5 weeks now and something that came to me was this shift in perception. I'll focus in on this shift in my story about buildings. So, I'm walking around noticing where there's space, earth, concrete and then the buildings seem to appear out of the earth as though I've believed them into being there. I then see them as not separate at all rather they are an extension of the earth and that they too are earth, they are the sand of the earth (literally right? If concrete is made from sand and glass is made from sand; or so I believe) and all that's happened is that earth has been formed into another shape. Then I had the funny thought that all they are are elaborate sandcastles towering into the sky. I smile thinking about them in this way and now walk around in awe of these magnificent structures towering over me. I see them there, they are reality and I cannot do anything about it even if I wanted to. This for me is a prime example of where if I argue with reality i.e I'm surrounded by buildings and I don't want to be, then I suffer. I don't suffer with this anymore because I can see I've been believing a concept about buildings. Some buildings are better or nicer than others? I see something amazing in all of them now and much more likely to notice little details I've never seen before.
Without my story, the world and everything in it really is beautiful.