The other day I wrote about the look of wonder on a child’s face, as he experienced a sensory reality that was completely new to him.
We were watching him play with a cleverly designed little plastic toy, and I said that we observed,
“…new neural pathways opening up somewhere inside his head and a look dawning on his happy little face…”
This is what we could call insight.
Fresh new Thought-perception, pouring in through the senses. It’s data that life already holds—all this stuff is there, in the pure potential of life’s infinite energy field—but this was the first time it had entered into his consciousness and happened on his watch.
A totally new experience. Now logged in his Thought System as a memory.
Giles P Croft
So, anyway… “the pure potential of life’s infinite energy field” – what’s that all about?
As far as I can tell (you’ll have to gather your own evidence), we simply cannot ever know what life energy really is. It would be too much for us to handle.
That’s why we have five senses: they allow through a teeny-tiny little smidgen of life energy, in a way that prevents our brains from completely melting. Our senses are a screening tool.
(Other species of animal on this planet we share, have different sensory systems and have evolved to let through different forms of data.)
I love how Alan Watts put it:
“Every one of us is an aperture through which the whole cosmos looks out.”
And from time to time, we get shown a little bit more. Our aperture opens wide, all the Thought-System stuff falls away, the true majesty of this thing we call life shines through for an instant, and we have an insightful moment.
We see something—about reality; about the nature of things—and it changes us.
(It also changes how we see things going forwards, it changes our attitude, and it changes our habits & behaviours, like in this little story, below.)
Giles P Croft
This has been happening all your life. The fact that you can even walk and talk and understand these words is testament to this process.
Every good idea you’ve ever had.
Every spontaneously funny quip you’ve ever come up with.
Every change of heart or softening of position … it’s all insight in action.
It’s life coming through the aperture of you. Another layer of misunderstanding falling away.
(And boy, are there a lot of layers! 😆)
If you’re lucky, you may even have had some fairly profound insights about the nature of things in general; something about the inside-out nature of your experience; about the thought-feeling connection; about the untouchable Innate Health within you.
Something truly amazing.
And yet if you think back to the best, most life-changing insight you ever had, there’s something even better than that—waaaaaaaay better!—that’s baked in to the human operating system, and that you get for free.
The ability to see something completely new (to you) and for your life to change as a result.
To see that nothing is fixed. That nothing is ‘just the way it is’.
Change can happen at the drop of a hat (“It’s one thought away,” as Syd Banks used to say.)
What a gift!!!
🤩
Giles
p.s. Helping people change their lives through insight is what I’m all about. It’s what’s I do in my 1:1 work, so if you're ready to commit to change on a scale previously unimagined… get in touch.
p.p.s. If you like Alan Watts, have a listen to this album – it will blow your mind 🤯
Want to start your days with helpful, insightful content like this? The Daily Reminder is a quick, lighthearted email that arrives in your inbox, to help keep you grounded in reality, so that you get to ‘Think less, and live more.’
“They feel like a moment of stillness in a world of madness.” ~ Neil, UK
“One of those small things with big impact. Honestly, just sign up!” ~ Paula, UK
Related
Giles P Croft
The aperture metaphor, explored.