I'm going to talk about an extraordinary paralyzed man that I met.
He said to me,
I really began to live after I became paralyzed because for the first time in my life,
I had the time to look at myself and to see my life and to see how I was reacting and to see how I was thinking.
And as a result,
Life has become so much deeper and richer and much more appealing than it has ever been before.
Isn't that interesting that a paralyzed man would find life and so many people who would be moving around freely would not find it because they would be paralyzed inside?
That is the great block.
No time.
That's what they tell me everywhere.
We have no time.
Where are we going to find the time for this?
Well,
What are you spending your time on?
On maintaining this mechanical existence of yours?
You know,
It reminds me of that mugger who says to a man,
Your money or your life.
The man says,
Well,
You better take my life because I need my money for my old age.
Now,
If you find that funny,
Think of this,
Think of people saying,
You better take my life because I need my time to maintain my puppet existence.
Well,
I'm going to give you an exercise that seems so simple that you'd hardly believe that it works.
And if you persevere in it,
You will see the difference.
And the exercise is this.
You can even try it out as I am talking to you.
Think of an event in the recent past,
Something that happened yesterday,
Something that happened in the past week.
It could even be an unpleasant event.
In fact,
If it is unpleasant,
The better.
And what I want you to do now is observe yourself reacting.
How are you reacting emotionally?
And what kind of convictions and attitudes,
But what kind of convictions and attitudes do you have in that event?
Just look at that and ask yourself,
What voice am I responding to?
Or you could say,
Is somebody else reacting there for me?
Someone that I am carrying around from the past?
Now,
This exercise has lasted a few seconds or a minute at the most.
If you really want to get what it brings,
Then you'll have to take more time and observe various events of the day.
Look at yourself reacting.
Just look.
Don't judge.
Don't condemn.
Don't approve.
Just be a neutral observer and look.
You need not even ask that question that I suggested.
You know,
What am I reacting to or who is reacting in me?
What voice am I responding to?
You need not even ask that.
If that distracts you,
Just look and the mechanicalness will drop and the light will begin to come in and you will notice the change.
