Evidence of this collective, species-wide amnesia—for who we really are, and how we experience the world—is absolutely everywhere.
Including our local car park.
It’s a big one, but it’s the only free one in town, so on a busy day it fills to capacity, and you’re lucky to get a space.
The other morning, my wife and I headed in together, arriving just as the last few spaces were slipping away.
And there it was: the evidence.
Someone had parked so hastily and so sloppily that the front corner of their vehicle was a good foot into the adjacent space, thereby effectively ruling out anyone else parking there.
For a while there, I think you could describe my mood as “incandescent.”
The Giles Ego Construct 📦 could imagine someone (me, for instance) in a hurry for an appointment in town, desperate to find a space, seeing one off in the distance—a glimmer of hope; serendipity striking!—only to have those hopes dashed utterly by the thoughtless, self-ish behaviour of another.
🤬
I mean, I say “thoughtless” but it’s not, really, is it? It’s a head FULL of thought! I have no idea of the details of what was going on for that person in their life, right there and then, as they were parking (it doesn't really matter) but I know for sure what the root cause of it was: identification with the fictional narrative of thought, playing through their mind.
They were up in their heads about something… something that separated them from the inter-connected reality of the world and their present moment experience of those two, bold, white lines on the floor – what they meant; and what they implicitly signed up for when entering the car park.
🤨
So it wasn’t really the person who parked so badly that I was angry about, it was the wider issue – this collective amnesia for who we really are and how we experience the world. The cause of it all!
(This is my life.)
Because that kind of “thoughtless” crap is way less likely when we’re present and correct.
A little later, this same point—that this ONE misunderstanding lies at the root of ALL our ills—was hammered home as I listened to Mavis Karn’s book: “It’s That Simple: A User’s Manual For Human Beings”
Near the beginning of it, she relates the story of someone who got a temporary summer job as a janitor; a position that came with the biggest bunch of keys you’ve ever seen in your life – one for every room in the building! As a newbie, it therefore took them forever to find which key fit which door.
Until the regular staff took pity:
“Several days later, the more experienced men let me in on the joke. They took back the really cool-looking but incredibly complicated ring of keys and gave me one ‘master key’ that opened all the rooms.
That was what it was like for me to learn about the User’s Manual [i.e. the Innate Health understanding] – it was the one simple key to unlocking everything!”
This is why I’m so bullish on the Innate Health understanding – because everything makes sense and everything gets easier, once you’ve seen that these are Principles (i.e. just the way it works) at play for everyone, all the time, even when it doesn’t look that way.
1. Constant
2. Explanatory
3. Predictive
I’ve seen the miracles that occur for people, looking in this direction, which is why I show up each day, to encourage you to do the same.
💟
Giles
p.s. Do I always park perfectly? No, of course not. But I do my best, and when I don’t, I know the reason why!
p.p.s. Ironically, when I came back to take a picture, although the original badly-parked car was still there, one of those cheeky little pint-sized Fiats had parked next to them in a display of pure perfection… which just goes to show that the Giles Ego Construct 📦 knows ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!
😆