Probably the best thing my mind can do is to perceive with awareness a situation. This type of being alert occurs in the background and doesn't really require evaluation. An ancient ZEN story says that a master and his student were on a journey. The student asks:"How do I enter the state of consciousness that is ZEN?" The master asks if he can hear the far mountain stream and he says that he cannot.

 

"Listen more carefully my child"..... and the student stops, his intense listening blocks out critical thinking......he gets very quiet, as he tries to increase his auditory awareness to hear the stream the world drops away...and then he catches a barely audible trickling of the far away brook. "Alright", says the master, "enter ZEN from that point." His rational thinking mind had nothing to do with his ability to locate and hear the stream.

 

What does that "alertness" feel like?  There is no stress when you try to be alert. It is a relaxed state that some would say is a vibration. What it is not is a bout of "Critical Thinking" I feel like critical thinking helps to navigate content. Or to unlock the answer to decision making.  The modern lens on education sees creativity, communication, collaboration and critical thinking as the essential skill bundle  to achieving goals or making a judgement.

 

Of course while these things are upmost in importance, if you visualize journeying through life with only these "conscious rational methods" then half of what you could be gleaning in a situation is lost. Our scale should be weighted equally on both sides.  The ability to have extreme observation while reserving judgement is key. In the background our unconscious alertness begins to give dividends when your awareness allows you to see things differently. It may be difficult at first to grind off that layer of rust and start this side of the machine working but the payoff is grand.  For one thing it allows you to be come an artist in the most effortless way possible.  You see it's like a tape running in the background holding answers, yours for the taking, when you are able to dial into this frequency.  

 

Have you had the experience of looking to the side of a cluster of stars to better see them?  Or how about the times when you are staring off into space not blinking, but are oddly satisfied here and don't want to return to the present. This is exactly how our awareness without judgement works.  Seems a little counter intuitive at first but once that machine is oiled and humming away you will be able to unfurl the petals of the tightly closed rosebud inside your mind to the positive effect of hyper awareness. Some say this is the same street your mind travels when you believe in something bigger than yourself be it the "universe, God, life after death, or something else". Some say this is the room in your mind mansion where you direct your body to heal on a cellular level. 

 

Have you ever stumbled into the state of being enlightened? Some people have this sporadically, some probably continuously.  I think that education is a valuable necessity. I do however think that we came with the ability to easily step into enlightenment to perceive things beyond concrete rational thinking but our socialization through school environments quickly bring this ability to a dorment state when we begin our education. 

 

Whatever this wonderful ability is I know it is relaxing, productive, and informative. It is the state of mind I enter as I walk up to my studio. It allows me to bring ideas to life as I paint. As I hold the paintbrush it feels like the piece almost creates itself and that someone else is actually producing the image.  It makes me able to craft a visual poem that I hope carries this background message to those that can perceive it. Do you suppose that skilled surgeons, ballerinas, offshore fishermen, and Elon Musk use this hyper aware, non judgmental ability to stretch the boundaries of the known and forge other paths to inventive betterment in their fields? 

 

Thanks for listening, my friends and now that I am hyper aware and relaxed it's time to create a masterpiece! Come by Cynde Roof Fine Art for your next acquisition and see what I've been up to!   PS . It's time to select a lovely piece to give as a Christmas present to someone very special!

 

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