Week #4 Application in Daily Life

Following are the practice points from Week #4, with the practical explanation/application for each point.

• Practice ‘seeing’ the thought stories and beliefs that comprise a sense of separation.
• Any thought that presents a story of ‘me’ – a sense of me, picture of me as a separate person, me as the subject and the rest of the world as object, me in comparison with another person, my history/future, etc. – is an elemental component of the separate-feeling, personal sense-of-self.
•  Just pay attention to what you are thinking and feeling, and when you are aware of this kind of thought go the breath in equanimity and see it, from the perspective of being focused in awareness, for what it actually is: a thought about reality, and not reality. 

• Practice not believing everything we think.
• Again, view thought from the perspective of being focused in awareness with equanimity and you will see that what you might have previously taken for truth or reality is only a belief – a thought.

• Practice experiencing the direct, felt sense of seeing/perceiving everyday life as it is, without the overlay or filter of conditioned thoughts and belief systems.
• The direct, felt-sense of awareness is what occurs when you are focused in awareness with equanimity. When what is is perceived from this perspective, it is seen in clarity because it is awareness, seeing. But when there is an overlay of thought in the form of ‘you,’ what is is seen from your perspective, i.e., through the filters of you as a personal, separate sense of self. With practice, you'll be able to easily discern between belief and what is.