Welcome to Day 21 of our 40-Day retreat.
Yesterday we spoke about freedom from the memories of the past. During these days we have been exploring the intellect and the energy centre of the brow.
Expanding our view of seeing
Today I want to add another dimension to this - the ability to expand your view. I’ve been saying to you that you need to expand your awareness.
In any given situation you need to expand your awareness. It is extremely important that you see more. If you can see more in any given situation you become more aware of all the possibilities that exist; that allows you to make a better decision when it comes to choice.
How do we expand that view of seeing things? This potential that our view can be expanded exists in every situation. We have been so accustomed to thinking in limited points of view. If we take the physical body, for example, I think that a number of people still think that this is just a physical body, that the awareness we have is a matter of chemistry - the chemistry of the brain. They also think that when the body dies, that’s the end of it. However, now we’ve been learning so much more about the holistic nature of the body and that allows us to be more aware of different fields of being, different dimensions of our existence: mental existence, emotional, vital and spiritual existence, and we see more. So the challenge is to move away from the narrow point of view in any given situation, to a view of more possibilities.
Ourselves relative to the planet
I’ll take a simple example of you sitting here. You are focused on just your sitting, but if I were to ask you to expand your view, you could say that you are sitting on the earth, you are sitting on a huge sphere that is rotating on its axis and revolving around the sun. And I am asking you to expand your awareness of your sitting. If I were to tell you that you are sitting in a Universe, and moving in space, then you’re a space traveller.
You’re on earth that is moving through space. The earth takes 365 days to revolve around the sun, so you are continuously moving around the sun. When you want to have fun you go to amusement parks where you go on the swings and games, and you are moving all around having a lot of fun, but you are on earth. And earth is revolving around the sun as centre. The earth rotates along the axis and gives you the idea of day and night. When it revolves you see how the seasons change. So you are a space traveller, but you don’t normally think about that. You think that only those people who dress in space outfits, go into the space shuttle and are sent into space are the only space travellers. But you are a space travellers too, right on this earth. You are in the band of an atmosphere that protects you so that you can breathe oxygen to survive, and you are moving around.
If you were to expand that view, you will have a great appreciation for the earth and the sun. What if the gravitational pull were to move away? What would happen to us? So you are very happy that we have a gravitational pull towards the sun. Now you see why so many people hold the sun dearly because the sun holds us in an orbit. Just expanding your view allows you to appreciate things around you. If you were to become more aware of the earth and its ecology, for example, you will see how things work together to create balance and allow us to survive: the importance of the trees, the importance of the atmosphere, the importance of water, the importance of the earthworm.
Importance of the Environment
We tend to destroy the earthworm, but it burrows into the earth and aerates the soil. We want to kill the serpents only to realize that they are also a part of life. They have some important functions too. They help to control the population of certain other species. When you become more aware of the earth and the balance of nature, then you have an appreciation for every specie of life.
Today we have to work very hard to ensure that certain animals still survive because we need them for the balance of life. These are called endangered species. Then we go about the earth and cut down the trees. We cause deforestation that erodes and rips away the cover of the earth, even the grass. We deplete the oxygen supply because we destroy the trees and we begin to interfere with the oxygen balance Soon enough we realize what destruction we are causing because it is so difficult to restore it. We also do mass felling of trees, put the logs in the rivers and let them float down to the mills. Then we realize that we are polluting the water and destroying the fishes in the rivers.
We then have a greater awareness of the earth: the importance of a tree; the life of an animal or plant; the balance of nature; how things work, helping each other to create the balance that is required for survival. We have greater appreciation for life itself. So just expanding your view changes the way you deal with the earth.
How well do you know your body?
You live in this body without an awareness of what a marvellous body you live in, what goes on in the inner world of the body. If you have ever looked at the dynamics of a heart at work, you will be in awe of this powerful pump you have in the centre of the chest that pumps blood through the whole system. You will be amazed at the tiny cells that beat in unison creating a kind of teamwork that we, human beings, struggle to imitate. These heart cells work in perfect unison with each other. The whole muscle beats in perfect timing, pumping blood through every part of your body. And it’s not like these pumps that can’t work when the power is gone. Your pump continues to work, even under difficult situations, even when you clog all the little arteries with plaque. It raises its pressure just to make sure that you have blood.
Are you aware of the health of your body?
Are you aware of the food you eat? You eat for taste and pleasure. The more it is fried, the more condiments there are, and the more processed it is, you feel, “Wow! This tastes so good.” When in truth you are bringing chemicals into your body that is creating a lot of destruction: clogging the arteries, bringing more toxic matter into your body, putting pressure on the liver and kidneys, and on your digestive system. But you just think “My tongue has a nice taste,” and you eat anything willy-nilly. However, when you are more aware of what happens, then you take care of every morsel that you put into this mouth. You take care of what you eat.
You ensure that you have a good water supply in your house so that you can wash everything and flush away the dirt to keep your house clean. And then you neglect to drink water that flushes your own inner system because you are not aware of what the water does to your system. So when the body is thirsty, you say, “Well, I’ll drink water later,” not being aware of the importance of water in the body in that moment. So expanding the awareness of your own physical body gives you a greater awareness of the body. It gives a greater appreciation for the human body and what goes on inside of it, and allows you to take care of your body in a better way.
Do you appreciate your own existence?
These are just simple ways of expanding your view so you can appreciate your own existence. If you think of your own being, “What am I doing in the earth? Is life just about survival?” I’m caught up in, “I have to work every day, I have to get money, I have to feed my children,” so we are caught up in survival every day. Sometimes we are asking ourselves, “What is really happening? What am I really doing? I’m just working to eat and to survive.” And something inside of us tells us, “This can’t be, the ‘be and end all’ of everything.” But we never take that cue to go deeper into it and see, “What is life about?” and expand our view of what the purpose of life is.
Is life just a matter of survival? Or is life a journey to discover more of who we are and to express more of our potential? When we expand our view of life itself, we may discover that life is a marvellous adventure of self-exploration. There is so much to know about ourselves, so much to enjoy in this knowledge and the expression of it. So life is no longer a matter of survival, and we are not just victims of the forces of life. But life is a marvellous game of discovery, transformation, co-creation. This is what expanding our view is about.
Can I see more in this moment?
Expanding your view in every moment is such a beautiful thing. Can I see more in this moment? That’s the question. Are there more views to see? Are there more ways of looking at things? This requires a certain quality of intellect, of mind – the ability to be flexible and open in any situation, to look at different points of view. Sometimes even in a conversation when someone challenges our point of view, we are very quick to say “No, I don’t believe that,” and to hold on to our own point of view.
We may have good point of view but do we really think it’s the only point of view? I’m very wary of this. When someone brings another point of view that opposes my own, or it seems to be different from mine, I’m quick to think, “maybe there’s another way of seeing that I missed.” I’m quick to look for that because I know there can be several points of view in every situation. I open my mind immediately to another point of view.
You know, if we are involved in some operation and it’s fast paced, we want to ensure that we get this job done whatever it is. And in the heat of things we don’t want to listen to another, and that’s one thing I have learned. In the heat of things, even when I’m sure about what I’m doing and someone says, “Did you look this way? Did you think this way?” I’m quick to take the other point of view and to test it because it may have merit. So I’m very flexible, and at that moment I may even change the whole operation depending on the points of view that I get. But I’m open and flexible to every point of view. Then I think it’s my Universe offering another point of view.
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Being open and flexible
It’s marvellous when you can be open and flexible and try to see more in any given situation; and it’s another way of looking. For example, when a stranger comes to you, you can think, “Why is this stranger coming to me? I don’t need to see anybody now.” But you can also hold another point of view: “My Universe is sending someone to me, maybe I should be attentive.” That’s another point of view, in expanding your view. Expanding your view allows you to see more possibilities in any given situation.
Looking outside of the box
When you get other points of view, you may get other possibilities of acting. We call this: “Looking outside of the box,” looking outside of the narrow point of view that we may be caught in.
We therefore need to be aware of how caught up we are. For me this is a joy, because sometimes I could be caught in a narrow point of view based on how I am looking and I am always thinking, “Is there another part that I am missing?” And I am always looking for the blind spots, even in a simple thing like driving and going to an intersection. I always ensure that I look carefully on both sides and then again because you never know when you miss something. I am always very careful because it is so easy to miss a point of view.
See the extraordinary in the ordinary
Expanding your view and the expansion of your awareness allows you of course, to see the extraordinary in the ordinary. Each moment can be an extraordinary moment if you begin to see it differently and expand your point of view. For example, you expand your point of view to think that, “this whole Universe is a play of the divine consciousness of life, and everyone is an expression of this infinite consciousness at play.” If you were to hold this vision in every moment, open your mind to the possibility that every person is a divine expression, then that puts you into another space. If you continuously hold this as a point of view, each time you look at someone you’re thinking, this is an expression of the divine and you begin to look at ways of relating from that point of view.
Be open to all possibilities
So this is a challenge to open your mind in every situation to look for more; and more always exists. You’ll be amazed at how many points of view you can get in any given situation. The joy of looking for them, becoming aware of them, becoming aware of the possibilities and acting with greater possibilities allows for better choices.
I had great joy thinking about this, saying it to you and I hope that you have great joy in receiving this because it’s an exciting possibility of how you can use the intellect to jump out of the box in every situation.
Even when points of view are not presented to you, you can go looking for them. When I have an idea in mind, one of the things that I like to do is begin to talk to people about this idea. And when I do that, they give me more points of view and my idea suddenly becomes bigger and better because I inquired. I wanted to see more, I wanted to know more. I think that if I begin to share this idea with my Universe, which is whoever is before me, then my Universe will show me more. And no one is too simple to give the idea. That is an excitement by itself. Everyone has a point of view and it’s exciting to see how everyone sees things, even those whom we think are simple-minded. They may give very refreshing point of views.
May this knowledge be of use to you. May it excite you. And may it allow you to see your Universe in many different ways because these different points of view exist.
POST MEDITATION TALK
Focus with flexibility
I need to say to you that not because I said that you need to expand your view in every situation that you need to think that you are a space explorer in every moment. This expanded point of view is difficult to hold in every moment, when you have so many things to concentrate upon.
What I mean is that you open yourself to all possibilities in the moment not that you have to be in the awareness of all the possibilities as you act in the moment because you need to act in limited points of view as well. If you are eating, you need to eat, but what is important, to take the analogy of a building is that you need to be able to go to every floor of this building. You should have the key to every floor. You should explore the whole building and know where you can go to take any point of view. You can go up to every floor and look with the idea that I can move to another if I need to.
So when you are directing your consciousness, you need to direct it to what you are doing but be open to take any point of view in any moment to expand it. You should have the ability to expand, when you want to, to every point of viewing. You need to be open to do that but when you are acting, you need to act, concentrating on what is before you. So though you are acting in a limited way you are very open to all the possibilities. I need to say this to you before you become overwhelmed and want to feel the whole in every moment. No, no, no. You need to be open to the whole.
Have a wonderful day everyone! 
