I've been reading Don Miguel Ruiz's book - The Voice of Knowledge (with Janet Mills) It's an older book from 2004. Interesting though. Wonder if his newer books change his thoughts on what he wrote in this one. Will, maybe, look into them.
One of the biggest things I've read so far (I'm half way thru) is about TRUTH. Basically the knowledge/voice inside us lies to us. As do other people. But going to the beginning of the book, some of the interesting things to me are:
Chapter 1
The story of Adam and Eve - We believed the fallen angel's story, and that was our big mistake.
We agreed and took his word as the truth. We believed the lies; we put our faith in them.
The meaning of the word sin is 'to go against'.
How many lies do you hear in your head?
The storyteller is born inside our head, and survives inside our head because we feed it with our faith.
Chapter 2
The real conflict in our mind is between the truth and what is not the truth, between the truth and lies.
Miguel, all of the drama you suffer in your personal life is the result of believing in lies, mainly about yourself.
And the first lie you believe is you ARE NOT: You are not the way you should be, you are not good enough, you are not perfect.
Humans make up stories about everything we perceive, and just like Picasso we distort the truth; but for us, it is the truth.
Chapter 3
As little children, we are completely authentic. We never pretend to be what we are not.
We create a story about what we should be, we put our faith in the story, and the story becomes the truth for us.
Humans are born in truth, but we grow up believing in lies.
It's just a story, but we believe it, and we use the story to judge ourselves, to punish ourselves, and to justify our mistakes.
Chapter 5
The Storyteller (basically we are the story teller of our own life)
In your story, everything is about you, and it has to be that way because you are the center of your perception. The story is told from your point of view.
You create an image for the secondary characters in your story, and you assign them a role to play. The truth is that you don't know anyone, and nobody knows you either.
THE ONLY WAY TO CHANGE YOUR STORY IS TO CHANGE WHAT YOU BELIEVE ABOUT YOURSELF.
Whatever people say about you is just a projection of their image of you. It has nothing to do with you.
Chapter 6
The voice of knowledge can also be called the lair who lives in your head.
You know truth; you feel it.
That voice is usually lying because it's the voice of what you have learned, and you have learned so many lies, mainly about yourself.
The solution for taming the liar is to stop believing what it tells you.
Don't believe yourself.
And don't believe anybody else.
Chapter 7
Every emotion that you feel is real. It is truth. It comes directly from the integrity of your spirit. You cannot fake what you feel.
The voice of knowledge can make you feel ashamed of your feelings, but there is nothing wrong with whatever you feel.
Every time you lie to yourself or judge yourself, or reject yourself, you have an emotional reaction, and it isn't pleasant. If you don't like the emotional reaction, it's not about repressing what you feel; it's about cleaning up the lies that cause it.
Emotional pain is a symptom of being abused; the pain is letting you know that you have to do something to stop the abuse. The emotions are the most important part of your story because they are telling you how you are doing in your life. By following your emotions, you can change your circumstances.
That's where I left off.
So far, I have come to realize I lie to myself, and have believed a lot of lies.... including from others.
Between this book, and the body image books, and the statement - Does this make me happy? I feel a tiny, tiny, very tiny shift. Mostly in how I perceive myself.
I tell myself sometimes, when I think something, 'that's a lie'. Gets quiet after that. Then I look in the mirror and remain myself there are lies that have been told to me. Currently I'm struggling more on do I try to lose weight or not? Do I just love myself, my body as I am and let it be? Or do I try to be where I want to be in my weight? Is that a lie then? There is a part that is content at this weight, only a part, and then I think ok, stay here. And inside I start to cry - but I want to wear those green pants, I want to fit into those tan pants, I want to wear those other clothes I have. Then I struggle in - is it a lie I have told myself for so long, that I don't know it's a lie or truth anymore?
So I go grocery shopping - I stand there with chicken pot stickers in my hand, and think I don't need these, start to walk away, and inside cry but they make me happy. So I take them. Ice cream? Does it make me happy? Not really. Leave it. Chicken? Does it make me happy? I mean I have chicken pot stickers, and I'm going to get a BBQ chicken for lunch.... No, it doesn't, leave it. Weird. I can't figure out if there's a truth or lie in that chicken issue.
Do I follow a food program (because I'm suppose to....lies told) or just trust my body and be happy? But then how do I wear those pants?
I feel a lot of what I've read lately is aligning me. I feel I'm stepping back and starting to look at things in a different light - or at least try to. And I'm back to doing more art.
When Truth is replace by silence, the silence is a lie. - by Yevgency Yevtushenko (poet)
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