Wednesday 23 June 2010

Fixating


What are you fixating on?

Is it something negative and stuck, a perceived problem?

Of course it is! Preoccupation and problems go together. Struggles are little illusions endeavouring always to come between you and the vast vista of freedom.

Watch yourself. We are so often either engrossed in troubled pursuits or at least distracted by the temptation to invest in them.

Tensions present themselves continuously, trying to take us away from a sense of well being. They cannot exist, though, without our attention. And we cannot be ourselves while fixating on them.

You are not a troubled state of consciousness. You are the boundless sky, the infinite.

So if you are feeling uptight, even in the slightest way, you are identified with something that is not you. You think you are the clouds, the thoughts, because you have lost touch with your freedom.

It is the mind that fixates, and you are not your mind. You are what watches, unfazed yet infinitely enthused. You are openness.

One of the ways to get unstuck is to find your fixation. What are you fixating on? What are you chewing over and over?

When you climb into the shower, are you consumed by your mind or are you relaxed and alert, in the moment? Can you celebrate the water and let life love you? Or are you gnawing on some nonsense in your head at the expense of what’s real?

Your mind will always be occupied with problems. In the absence of problems, mind falls away. In the absence of mind, problems fall away. You are either pedalling to keep your mind moving or you are watching.

Whenever you find yourself fixated, let the clouds go and restore the sky.

7 comments:

Jade said...

So is all Fixation negative?
Does one call "Fixation" on something positive by a different name?
Will I get my Fix by fixing my fixating?

Robin Wheeler said...

Fixating on anything is tense, and tension is ego. Whether you concentrate on something positive (like a wish or a mantra) or get stuck on something negative (a problem), you are still identifying with your mind.

By finding that tension, the you that is beyond it is activated and the tension is identified, so you can let go and watch. This opens you up, frees you to just be and accept. If something happens, you can act on it with clarity and spontaneous freedom. That is intelligence.

You fixating will give you your fix, that's part of its appeal. Struggle is tremendously compelling. Who are you without it? Letting go means risking the unknown.

Ultimately, you will be fixed when you fix your fixating, but it's tricky. That makes it look like another problem to solve. What you will do is gradually lose your habit, and access the life in being clean.

Jade said...

...you can let go and watch...

FIXED! Thanks Robin!

Unknown said...

what about fixating on your goals? to achieve something you have to be concentrated on what you want or need to do

Robin Wheeler said...

The problem with goals, Nina, is that they take you out of the now. They make the present a means to an end, when it is really the end in itself.

If you achieve something at the expense of being in the moment, it is not worth it. A goal-oriented life moves from illusion to illusion as a substitute for what is already here. It is a searching on the surface for what is already at the centre.

When you are centred and present, achievment still happens but your meaning is not invested in it. You can express yourself and create, moving continually on the journey of self-actualisation, but you are not defined by it. It is a delightful by-product of already having arrived.

Unknown said...

It's difficult to put it in practice :) but how would I understand that I am or I am not being "in the moment". Are there any indicators?

Robin Wheeler said...

The moment can feel very remote at first. It's like an awake state when you are dreaming ... How do you attain it? What is it?

If you are thinking, planning, scheming or reminiscing, in other words, if you are fixating on the future or the past, you are not in the moment. If you are tense or feeling negative emotions, like tension, stress, and frustration, you are not here now. If you are going somewhere, you are not present.

In the moment, you are relaxed with a sense of well being. You are aware of your sensory experiences. You are accepting of how things are. You are friends with life as it is.

Finding the moment is not difficult, it is not a thing to achieve. That, too, is a trick of the ego to stay engaged, trying another task. It is simply a seeing.

The more time you spend in the now, which you can gently bring yourself back to every time to notice that you have drifted off, the more it fills your life.

It's not something you understand, it just happens, like waking up.