Archive for Conversations
Listening to Ourselves
Student: What instruments do people use to begin the process of listening? Barbara: Their ears! Everyone knows, I suppose, from reading don Miguel’s books that we have a voice that is constantly going in our heads, what he calls the Voice of Knowledge. You could call it thinking. It is happening all the time, and [...]
[Click to Continue →]Listening with Impartiality
Student: Most of us understand that the hardest part of this teaching is getting to the point of listening with impartiality. What is impartiality, and how do we go about gaining an impartial point of view? Barbara: As you know, one of the fundamental suggestions in this teaching is that you come prepared not to [...]
[Click to Continue →]More on Writing a Journal
Student: This business of telling stories about ourselves, consumes so much of our thinking in our heads. We have actually practiced telling our life story at school, responding to our name and identity, writing essays on “how I spent my summer vacation”, we get used to telling our story to a therapist. We can create [...]
[Click to Continue →]Writing a Journal
Student: Can you talk about the role of journaling in this process? Barbara: Any exercise that brings your hidden thoughts that are under the radar into light, into view, into a place where you can perceive them, are good exercises. Journaling, or writing down what’s been happening in your day, and the emotional responses to [...]
[Click to Continue →]Gazing Technique
Student: There is a technique called gazing, which like most techniques serves that purpose. You can gaze at anything. You can use a candle, you can gaze at clouds, at stars, a tree, your eyes. Barbara: You can resist giving those objects meaning. Student: Exactly. You start, often hearing the dialogue in your body about [...]
[Click to Continue →]Physical Exercise
Student: If I do exercise with awareness, then my entire relationship with my body changes very dramatically. Barbara: Of course. But the “I” in this commentary is the mind, making an analysis of itself and its behavior towards the body. From the mind’s point of view, you decide you are going to be good to [...]
[Click to Continue →]Dream Teaching
Student: Can you say something about dreaming, and the dream teaching? Barbara: Well, dreaming in don Miguel’s estimation, is the highest level of spiritual teaching. The reason he says that, is that it lifts us out of all mythologies and brings to us an awareness of life that goes beyond our little definitions with feelings. [...]
[Click to Continue →]Clean Mirror
Student: In your experience, wouldn’t you say that being a clear mirror is one of the most important assets of a good teacher? Barbara: That’s really the only thing a teacher can give. You can give words, you can give mythologies, you can give wonderful parables, you can try in ways of language and sound, [...]
[Click to Continue →]Control of Your Attention
Student: You introduced the word attention. Can you explain why understanding attention is important to developing awareness? Barbara: Up until now, really what we decide on, as a structure of beliefs has been completely controlling our attention. Whether we are aware of it or not, you made a contract early on in life that you [...]
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