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An excerpt from "Learn to Meditate" Written by David Fontana The
Russian mystic George Gurdjieff likened the mind to a house and suggested
that our failure to explore its deeper levels is like living in a single
room instead of roving through the spacious corridors from one room to
another.
The Russian mystic Georgei Guridieff frequently pointed out that much of
human misery is caused by the fact that we live our lives mechanically,
never properly attending to what it is to be alive.
Contemporary American psychologist Charles Tart describes us as being in
a kind of "consensus trance."
These teachers, and all of the great traditions, refer constantly to the
need to awaken. This acute sense of being properly awake is really another
word for mindfulness.
Tart suggests that the concept of mindfulness should be motivated by the
assertion, "I want to know what really is, regardless of how I prefer things
to be."
Our lack of mindfulness insulates us from the direct experience of what
this mysterious, intriguing, maddening thing called life actually is. |