The Spaciousness of Mind

A wonderful aspect of Alexander's discovery is how it demonstrates an ancient esoteric adage: “As above, so below.” Macrocosmos is the same as microcosmos. Yesterday I went into my local Mac shop to complain about a DVD drive that was repeatedly rejecting my rented movie disc. I had had the same problem with another drive of the exact same kind recently, so I was all fired up to get them to acknowledge the problem and fix it. “It’s the disc, not the player” the guy said, getting me hot under the collar and ready to fight “These machines are extremely sensitive.” I knew this wasn’t true!!! (Because it hadn't been true last time.) And that’s what I noticed most about the exchange: how my mind moved towards defending, fixing, proving - rather than spaciously gathering more information to enlighten me about what is going on. Call it listening. There’s me and the sales agent, going back and forth, trying to pretend we are being polite and calm when actually we are battling for the supremacy of our own idea. As this is going on, the boss slowly ambles over and looks at the disc that is being rejected. He picks it up, examines it, then looks at me, waiting for a pause in the back and forth… Finally, I turn to him. He says: “This is a Blu-ray disc.” Oh shit. Of course it can’t work in my (non Blu-ray) DVD player. After some embarrassing about turns, I left the shop feeling a fool and wondering how I got to be there in the first place? However, what I discovered made the whole sorry experience worth every second. I was doing in thought what everyone does whenever a pain appears: looking at the pain area itself, rather than considering - spatially and temporally - the context within which the pain appeared. I see this all the time with my students: they arrive complaining about mysterious knee soreness, or sharp back pains for example… For them, it’s all about the wrist or the back, and nothing about areas around it, or what might have occurred to bring it on. Realizing how this also mirrored what had happened with my Blu-ray disc offered me a new way to practise living whenever I got into a “problem” mind space. Now I notice how spacious I am in my communication with "the problem.” Spacious means wide, all encompassing: gathering information about any and every aspect of what is appearing to me. The recognition of factors that are influencing any phenomena or situation can be expanded infinitely. It’s a meditation that Alexander spent years on when considering the factors that were impacting his loss of voice. Had I applied this same technology to my DVD problem, if only for a minute or two, I would have immediately recognized what was actually going on. It was my belief that I already knew the cause of the problem - and my effort to defend this position - that obstructed my ability to solve it. I understand now that the information I need to solve my problem is already there, but only always. It’s not discovering that you need to do, it’s undoing the obstruction that won’t let you discover. The answer is there, waiting to be noticed. Sometimes for centuries. This is true of all things. As above, so below.