One

Look at an object in the room.

Then, keeping your full attention on the first object, look at another object.

It is impossible.

We as individuals can have direct attention on one thing at a time.

We can have indirect attention, to the point of unconscious attention, on plenty of things, and discovering where that attention lies brings about a happier existence.

However having direct attention on one thing at a time also does something else.

It tends to make one create other things as "one".

Since we see no one thing completely, in time and space, we make "one" while not seeing something completely, in order to live.

We tend to do this "one" making unconsciously with objects.

A chair being a chair makes it a lot easier to sit.

Friends may occasionally play tricks with our objects but generally it is safe to assume the chair may be sat in without concern.

We may also tend to make individuals into "one".

It is possible to identify a person as "one" and assume an understanding and it is common to look at an entire race or other group as "one" and assume things about them.

It is even possible to assume things about oneself.

How does this work?

Let's say one does not understand how to complete a math problem.

One may believe oneself to be stupid and unable to do math.

That is a "one" answer and solves the problem of not being able to understand.

One has a solution that allows attention to move to other things.

A father leaves a child.

That men leave becomes a "one" for the child and affects her attitude toward men.

Someone has a different viewpoint of something.

That person is wrong or you are wrong.

You can't just have a difference of opinion.

One has unconsciously decided that math is hard, that men cannot be relied on, that there is only one right opinion.

But all one is really doing is unconsciously making one of things in order to live in a complex world.

It is possible to be conscious that there is not one, there are virtually an infinite number of viewpoints in this place.

No two individuals see things quite the same.

You can try the experiment of looking something over in your room that you are very familiar with.

Look at it from all angles, in the now.

Then go ask someone you know well to tell you something you don't know about them.

Then, if you are willing to try, find something with that person that you disagree with and have him or her thoroughly explain that other viewpoint.

Listen and understand without objection.

In other words, try to understand, do not try not to understand.

Then, completely agree with that other viewpoint.

Be aware of physically moving over to that viewpoint and completely agree with it, as if you were that other person..

Then move back to your viewpoint.

This may not be easy to do, but then again, it might.

Whether one chooses that experiment or not one can live with a more aware, conscious acceptance.

This makes for an interesting world.

Even chairs get more beautiful.

[Squatchit]

Lovely post. Made me smile.

[Deusdrum]

'When you make the two into one, when you make the inner as the outer, and the upper as the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male shall not be male, and the female shall not be female: . . . then you will enter the kingdom.'

Everything is an extension of everything else, therefore one or maybe just a continuous stream, but to call it one suggests a comparison in the midst of none. Could 1 represent existence? If we give one company so there are two ones, does that second one imply there is/are more than one? Or by dividing 1 does it mean one more is less? (If one was all there is) Can anything be lost? Or increased? But is it not also multiplying? for the one has become 2. Quantity is a tough one to wrap my head around sometimes.

I like dancing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsShzgNEj48

[organic born]

Originally Posted by KevinO

Then, if you are willing to try, find something with that person that you disagree with and have him or her thoroughly explain that other viewpoint.

Listen and understand without objection.

In other words, try to understand, do not try not to understand.

Then, completely agree with that other viewpoint.

Be aware of physically moving over to that viewpoint and completely agree with it, as if you were that other person..

Then move back to your viewpoint.

We are so accustomed to the noise our own brain makes that to trade it for a moment for the noise of anothers may feel like we're in motion, but we're still dealing with the mirroring of our own. When you listen to another you are still immersed in your own frame of reference. Your experience, and the manor in which you interpret/remember this experience, is the container that houses your perceptions. So you would absorb what you already deem similar, and will deem odd what doesn't align, and perhaps bookmark observations for further investigation, but you will by no-means share the inner space/interpretations/ and assumptions of this other soul. Your history is not their history. Your parents are not their parents (and even among brothers and sisters you will find that each were raised by different-appearing parents)

Add to this the fact that at any given time we express a snapshot of how we're thinking about things. So as you "align" with this other you are tapping into a "temporary" concoction as what they're "thinking about things". Tomorrow may be different, or they may express themselves differently to another.

Keep this in mind when we're attempting to dream alongside another souls dream. In all cases, "perception" is a continually moving target.

The idea of this exercise is that one sees a point in space held by another. It is possible to do this, to know one has done it, and to realize more about the nature of how this place works than one previously understood.

When you do it for real, you are never quite the same.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by KevinO

The idea of this exercise is that one sees a point in space held by another. It is possible to do this, to know one has done it, and to realize more about the nature of how this place works than one previously understood.

When you do it for real, you are never quite the same.

Is this one those ACIM things?

I don't know what ACIM is. Taking another viewpoint happened for me by accident (if anything is by accident) when a friend was making a point I did not agree with, and for some reason I made an effort to see what she meant.

And it happened.

I know it is not easy for most humans. It is rather life changing.

[Rawnrr]

I can relate to that experiment you proposed about listening to two different view points.
I used to belong to a study group which had two very dynamic individuals. One had done and enormous amount of reading and studying of the works of several eastern guru's, and the other was an older man who worked in the steel mills and lived a very practical life. They would approach the same topic of discussion from a totally different perspective, and have glorious arguments over the point.
I found as I sat (in an open partially meditative state) that I could watch both their points of view and lead each thought to the point of commonality from which their views started to diverge. The point of clarity where the object of discussion could be seen beyond the two viewpoints where both views can be held in unity as one without diminishing either view.
This always brought a much larger understanding of whatever was being focused on.

It is now a tool which I use heavily in my life.

Rawn

Originally Posted by Rawnrr

I can relate to that experiment you proposed about listening to two different view points.
I used to belong to a study group which had two very dynamic individuals. One had done and enormous amount of reading and studying of the works of several eastern guru's, and the other was an older man who worked in the steel mills and lived a very practical life. They would approach the same topic of discussion from a totally different perspective, and have glorious arguments over the point.
I found as I sat (in an open partially meditative state) that I could watch both their points of view and lead each thought to the point of commonality from which their views started to diverge. The point of clarity where the object of discussion could be seen beyond the two viewpoints where both views can be held in unity as one without diminishing either view.
This always brought a much larger understanding of whatever was being focused on.

It is now a tool which I use heavily in my life.

Rawn

I had not thought of the third viewpoint, although I don't know how often that opportunity would present. Thank you!

[Rawnrr]

Originally Posted by KevinO

I had not thought of the third viewpoint, although I don't know how often that opportunity would present. Thank you!

As long as there are two viewpoints on one topic, then that is a sign that the whole truth of that topic has not been found.
The truth lays where all the viewpoints on a single thing unite.

Rawn