Post by lover on Feb 4, 2009 8:10:36 GMT -8
Thought this would fit in nicely here. I copied these 5 mirrors from the book The Divine Matrix by Gregg Braden
"You read the face of the sky and of the earth, but you have not recognized the one who is before you, and you do not know how to read this moment. - The Gospel of Thomas
Animals are great mirrors for triggering the subtle emotions that we call our "issues." In the innocence of just being who they are, they can ignite powerful feelings of control and judgment about the way things should or shouldn't be. Cats offer a perfect example.
My first experience with cats began in the winter of 1980. I was working for a petroleum company as a computer geologist and living in a small apartment in Denver. As a member of the newly formed technical-service department, I spent most of my days, evenings and weekends learning the ins and outs of new computers and applying what I learned to the traditional concepts of petroleum geology. I hadn't really considered owning any pets simply because I was never home enough to care for one.
One weekend a friend was visiting and brought me an unexpected gift: a beautiful orange and blond kitten about 5 weeks old. He was the runt of the litter and named Tigger after the tiger in the classic Winnie-the-Pooh. Even though I wasn't allowed to have a pet in my apartment, I was immediately drawn to Tigger and found that the big presence he carried in his small body added so much to my life that I missed him when he wasn't there. Telling myself it could be only temporary, I decided to bend the rules a bit and keep him. And just like that, Tigger and I were a family.
Immediately, I trained my new friend to honor the "forbidden zones" in our home. He was taught to stay off the couches, counters, and the top of the refrigerator. Above all, he couldn't be perched in the windowsills for the world to see while I was at work. Each day I'd come home and he would be sleeping in one of my approved places. Everything seemed to be working out great with our secret relationship.
One day I came home from work earlier than usual. As I opened the door to my apartment, Tigger was awakened from a deep cat sleep right on the kitchen counter next to the sink - a spot we had definitely identified as being off-limits. He was as surprised to see me come through the door as I was to find him on the counter. Immediately, he jumped down, returned to his place on the bed, and waited to see what I would do. Now I was curious: Was this just a one-time incident, or was it an indication of what really happened when I left the house each day? Did he know my patterns so well that he would be in the right place at the right time just as I arrived home each evening?
That day I tried an experiment. Walking out to my balcony over looking a beautiful greenbelt below, I slipped behind the drapes to hide and wait, pretending that I'd left for work. Within minutes, Tigger jumped from the bed and went directly into the kitchen. Believing that I was gone, he returned to his perch on the counter. He was so comfortable in this place that he began to nod off and was soon fast asleep next to the sink, somewhere he'd never go if he knew that I was home.
It was only when I spoke with friends who also had cats that I learned something probably every other owner of a feline has already discovered: You don't train a cat! While there are certainly exceptions, generally cats do what cats do. They like high places and will gravitate to the highest ones - the same countertops, refrigerators, and windowsills that are forbidden zones. Although they may honour our rules while in our presence, when they're alone, cats rule their own worlds.
THE MIRRORS ARE EVERYWHERE
The reason I share this story is because of what Tigger's behavior "did" to me. In his simply being who he was, I found myself frustrated almost to the point of anger. He would look me directly in the yes, and I knew that he was aware of precisely where his boundaries were. Still, he acted against his training and did what he chose to do, when he chose to do it.
Perhaps not coincidentally, during the time of my challenges with Tigger, I noticed parallels with frustrations in my job. In fact, it seemed as if the people I was supervising were doing to me exactly what Tigger was: They were disregarding my instructions for our projects. Following a particularly round afternoon, one of my co-workers came up to me and asked why I simply didn't just let her do her job. I had given her an assignment, and she felt that I was micromanaging her performance every step of the way. Later that evening, I walked into my apartment, and Tigger was in the forbidden zone of the kitchen counter once again. And this time when he looked at me, he didn't even bother to move. I was furious!
As I sat on the couch to think about what I was being shown, I noticed the parallels between Tigger's "disrespect" for my rules and what felt like the same attitude from my co-workers. Through two simultaneous although seemingly unrelated experiences, both Tigger and my co-workers had shown me something important about myself. Each had mirrored a pattern s subtle that I hadn't been conscious of it until that very moment. It was to become the first in a series of mirrors that I would have to recognize within myself before I could heal even more powerful and subtle ones in my other relationships.
During the 60's and 70's it was common for self-help professionals to say that if we don't like what the world is showing us, we should look at ourselves. They taught that everything from the anger of our co-workers to the betrayals of our trust is a reflection of our deepest beliefs. The patterns we identify with most strongly are often the ones we can't even see in our lives. This scenario is precisely what was happening with regard to Tigger and the people at work.
I'm not suggestion that my co-workers were aware of how they were mirroring me or how this pattern was playing out in my life - I'm almost certain that they weren't. It's simply that through the dynamics between us, I saw something about myself that they brought out in me. At the same time in my life, it was the mirror of control. Because the reflection happened in the moment rather than hours of even days later, I could see the connection between my behaviour and their reactions. Immediate feedback was the key to my lesson.
THE MIRROR OF THE MOMENT
We can see how important it is to recognize the relationship between what we do and what happens in the world if we look at the anthropological studies of hidden tribes in Asia. When explorers first discovered one of the "lost" tribes (they were only lost to us, of course, as they knew precisely who they were and where they were located}, they were surprised to find that the members made no connection between sexual intercourse and pregnancy. The lag time of months between the act of sex and the moment of birth was so great that the link between the two events wasn't obvious to them. This is the value of our mirrors - their immediacy helps us understand the real, underlying connections between seemingly disparate events.
If we're seeing our beliefs play out through our mirrors, then they're happening now. Any reflection we see affords us a precious moment of opportunity. Once it's recognized, a negative pattern can be healed in a heartbeat! To recognize it is the first clue about why it exists. More often than not, we find the the negative patterns mirrored in our lives are rooted in one of the three universal fears we explored in the last chapter. (first universal fear - abandonment/separation, 2nd -low self-worth, 3rd - surrender and trust)
When we see our beliefs reflected in real time in our relationships with others, we experience the first of our mirrors, and it's just that: the mirror of the moment. Sometimes, however, the reflection of the moment maybe showing us something even subtler that what we're doing in our lives - sometimes it will reveal to us what we judge in our lives. When it does, we're experiencing the second mirror of relationship.
"You read the face of the sky and of the earth, but you have not recognized the one who is before you, and you do not know how to read this moment. - The Gospel of Thomas
Animals are great mirrors for triggering the subtle emotions that we call our "issues." In the innocence of just being who they are, they can ignite powerful feelings of control and judgment about the way things should or shouldn't be. Cats offer a perfect example.
My first experience with cats began in the winter of 1980. I was working for a petroleum company as a computer geologist and living in a small apartment in Denver. As a member of the newly formed technical-service department, I spent most of my days, evenings and weekends learning the ins and outs of new computers and applying what I learned to the traditional concepts of petroleum geology. I hadn't really considered owning any pets simply because I was never home enough to care for one.
One weekend a friend was visiting and brought me an unexpected gift: a beautiful orange and blond kitten about 5 weeks old. He was the runt of the litter and named Tigger after the tiger in the classic Winnie-the-Pooh. Even though I wasn't allowed to have a pet in my apartment, I was immediately drawn to Tigger and found that the big presence he carried in his small body added so much to my life that I missed him when he wasn't there. Telling myself it could be only temporary, I decided to bend the rules a bit and keep him. And just like that, Tigger and I were a family.
Immediately, I trained my new friend to honor the "forbidden zones" in our home. He was taught to stay off the couches, counters, and the top of the refrigerator. Above all, he couldn't be perched in the windowsills for the world to see while I was at work. Each day I'd come home and he would be sleeping in one of my approved places. Everything seemed to be working out great with our secret relationship.
One day I came home from work earlier than usual. As I opened the door to my apartment, Tigger was awakened from a deep cat sleep right on the kitchen counter next to the sink - a spot we had definitely identified as being off-limits. He was as surprised to see me come through the door as I was to find him on the counter. Immediately, he jumped down, returned to his place on the bed, and waited to see what I would do. Now I was curious: Was this just a one-time incident, or was it an indication of what really happened when I left the house each day? Did he know my patterns so well that he would be in the right place at the right time just as I arrived home each evening?
That day I tried an experiment. Walking out to my balcony over looking a beautiful greenbelt below, I slipped behind the drapes to hide and wait, pretending that I'd left for work. Within minutes, Tigger jumped from the bed and went directly into the kitchen. Believing that I was gone, he returned to his perch on the counter. He was so comfortable in this place that he began to nod off and was soon fast asleep next to the sink, somewhere he'd never go if he knew that I was home.
It was only when I spoke with friends who also had cats that I learned something probably every other owner of a feline has already discovered: You don't train a cat! While there are certainly exceptions, generally cats do what cats do. They like high places and will gravitate to the highest ones - the same countertops, refrigerators, and windowsills that are forbidden zones. Although they may honour our rules while in our presence, when they're alone, cats rule their own worlds.
THE MIRRORS ARE EVERYWHERE
The reason I share this story is because of what Tigger's behavior "did" to me. In his simply being who he was, I found myself frustrated almost to the point of anger. He would look me directly in the yes, and I knew that he was aware of precisely where his boundaries were. Still, he acted against his training and did what he chose to do, when he chose to do it.
Perhaps not coincidentally, during the time of my challenges with Tigger, I noticed parallels with frustrations in my job. In fact, it seemed as if the people I was supervising were doing to me exactly what Tigger was: They were disregarding my instructions for our projects. Following a particularly round afternoon, one of my co-workers came up to me and asked why I simply didn't just let her do her job. I had given her an assignment, and she felt that I was micromanaging her performance every step of the way. Later that evening, I walked into my apartment, and Tigger was in the forbidden zone of the kitchen counter once again. And this time when he looked at me, he didn't even bother to move. I was furious!
As I sat on the couch to think about what I was being shown, I noticed the parallels between Tigger's "disrespect" for my rules and what felt like the same attitude from my co-workers. Through two simultaneous although seemingly unrelated experiences, both Tigger and my co-workers had shown me something important about myself. Each had mirrored a pattern s subtle that I hadn't been conscious of it until that very moment. It was to become the first in a series of mirrors that I would have to recognize within myself before I could heal even more powerful and subtle ones in my other relationships.
During the 60's and 70's it was common for self-help professionals to say that if we don't like what the world is showing us, we should look at ourselves. They taught that everything from the anger of our co-workers to the betrayals of our trust is a reflection of our deepest beliefs. The patterns we identify with most strongly are often the ones we can't even see in our lives. This scenario is precisely what was happening with regard to Tigger and the people at work.
I'm not suggestion that my co-workers were aware of how they were mirroring me or how this pattern was playing out in my life - I'm almost certain that they weren't. It's simply that through the dynamics between us, I saw something about myself that they brought out in me. At the same time in my life, it was the mirror of control. Because the reflection happened in the moment rather than hours of even days later, I could see the connection between my behaviour and their reactions. Immediate feedback was the key to my lesson.
THE MIRROR OF THE MOMENT
We can see how important it is to recognize the relationship between what we do and what happens in the world if we look at the anthropological studies of hidden tribes in Asia. When explorers first discovered one of the "lost" tribes (they were only lost to us, of course, as they knew precisely who they were and where they were located}, they were surprised to find that the members made no connection between sexual intercourse and pregnancy. The lag time of months between the act of sex and the moment of birth was so great that the link between the two events wasn't obvious to them. This is the value of our mirrors - their immediacy helps us understand the real, underlying connections between seemingly disparate events.
If we're seeing our beliefs play out through our mirrors, then they're happening now. Any reflection we see affords us a precious moment of opportunity. Once it's recognized, a negative pattern can be healed in a heartbeat! To recognize it is the first clue about why it exists. More often than not, we find the the negative patterns mirrored in our lives are rooted in one of the three universal fears we explored in the last chapter. (first universal fear - abandonment/separation, 2nd -low self-worth, 3rd - surrender and trust)
When we see our beliefs reflected in real time in our relationships with others, we experience the first of our mirrors, and it's just that: the mirror of the moment. Sometimes, however, the reflection of the moment maybe showing us something even subtler that what we're doing in our lives - sometimes it will reveal to us what we judge in our lives. When it does, we're experiencing the second mirror of relationship.
