We’re all familiar with the saying “it’s not what, it’s how,” and one that points to the same understanding “the content is different, the process is the same.” We get it that conditioning wants us to focus on the content—relationship, job, money, health, the kids—when what’s really being maintained is a process—worry, anxiety, fear—that‘s siphoning off our life force.
As we become accustomed to losing interest in content, attending to process instead, we begin to see that every process egocentric karmic conditioning/self-hate uses against us we can use for us. For instance, for most people there’s a near-constant negative conversation in conditioned mind. With Recording and Listening we can attend to a near-constant “not negative” conversation in the present. Attention is habituated to tuning in to a conversation; we can choose the conversation attention attends to.
Most conditioned human beings are familiar with the resistance embodied in statements such as “I don’t want to” and “I don’t feel like it.” Egocentricity, conditioned mind, states a firm refusal to do something, and the person hearing the statement believes they are the “I” making the statement. Once we realize that “I” am the awareness hearing the statement, rather than the ego-identity making the statement, it’s easy to turn the technique to our advantage. If I can resist, then I can resist resistance!
And so we can practice using that well-honed skill of resistance to resist resistance.
In gassho
Cheri