The Remote Control
TWhen you watch television you can only tune into one programmes at a time but that doesn't mean the other programmes no longer exist. Should you become tired of one channel you simply pick up the remote control and tune into something different.
This is a useful analogy used by many in the spiritual community to explain that your perceptual reality is a function of your attention point. If you don't like your current experience place your attention elsewhere.
Simple. If you don't like your current experience pick up the remote and change the channels. Don't like the news? Pick up the remote and change channels. Exhausted by the horror movie? Pick up the remote and change channels.
If it were that easy why do we seem to be watching the same old channels with the same old story lines week after week, month after month, year after year? Why should choosing a different perceptual reality be so hard?
To help navigate a path to a viewing experience more suited to your taste I have put together a simple user's guide to the remote control :
1. Finding the remote control.
Remote controls demonstrate an unusual anomaly within the physical world. Quantum physics describes how observation converts a wave into particle, fixing a physical reality. The opposite is true of the remote control which, in a small subset including car keys and wallets, actually de-materialise when observed. They are often impossible to find.The secret in finding your remote is not to look for it.
Just like enlightenment the remote is always there but only presents itself when you stop looking for it.
2. Take charge of the remote control.
Changing channels is not so easy if you don't have possession of the remote, especially if the one in possession of it has a large body of popular opinion behind it.Surprisingly, all war can be viewed as an argument over who is in charge of the remote control. Currently the West wants everybody to watch their channel and not only do they own the remote they will bomb anyone trying to get possession of their own.
The first step toward liberation is to gain control of your remote. This may mean leaving a room full of people wanting to watch something else and may at first feel isolating. But its only when you tune into your preferred channel that you are likely to meet others with the same taste.
3. Stop using the remote control.
One of the disappointments in gaining control of the remote is the realisation that you can only use it to access other people's content. At first this may prove entertaining (and for some this is more than enough) but ultimately there will be a feeling that there must be something else to watch. This leads to the experience of channel hopping, a condition where nothing is very satisfying, at least not for long. There is an underlying belief that there must be a better programme on somewhere else. This is the human condition sometimes known as suffering.
It is thought that Bhudda only reached enlightenment when he finally stopped pressing the buttons on his remote.
4. Let the programmes switch themselves off.
If none of the buttons on the remote are pressed for a certain length of time the television will go into hibernation mode. This is the perfect environment in which to make your own programme, or more accurately de-programmeNot pressing the buttons for a long period not only takes discipline but also requires an acceptance of what is currently on. You do not have to like the current programme but if you try to change it another from the same stable replaces and prolongs the wait for the hibernation mode to set in.
It takes a little faith but if you leave things alone they will be replaced by peace. The programmes and the desire to change them are all distractions designed to keep us away from our own stillness.
War is just an argument over which programme you should be watching.
Suffering is just a fear that there is a better programme on elsewhere.
Peace is letting the programming come to an end.
Lots of love
Bill