Chemistry of Change part eight

We continue the discussion by exploring how our perceptions of our perceptions or mental states help or harm beneficial changes. How we feel about our own feelings, attitudes, or perceptions can either help or harm the progress of beneficial changes.

For the unhappy person who has a controlling type of nature, their present perceptions attack and whip that new perception, twisting it into its world-view! It will distort it until it dies. Even those who practice carefully for a long time have killed healthy new perceptions again and again

Perhaps feeling challenged in our attitudes or energetic pushing and pulling even in body sensations could cause the weak to abandon the search for reality or meaning. Some return to a safer place such as the religious practices they experienced as a child, even though they are capable of attaining enlightenment in this very life. In order to overcome the fear of change we return to core inspiration remembering that the desire for beneficial changes comes from the awakening Dharma in our mind. This marvelous process of awakening and anticipation of the enlightenment process that Lord Buddha Shakyamuni demonstrated in this world combined with altruistic principles of benefiting others, needs to comes alive in our mind inspiring us again and again. This desire includes a wish that our perceptions of our perceptions should be in alignment with higher functioning values toward ourselves, making us strong and capable.

This safe and reproducible set of marvelous perceptions allows the Buddhist practitioner to feel good about the changes that are happening. Instead of fear and apprehension, one could feel how marvelous it will be to end the relationship with an unhappy perception such as anger and not even feel it anymore! We could be experiencing the alivement of a principle such as the precious human rebirth or understanding causes and conditions after receiving a Buddhist teaching or reading a book such as Liberation in the Palm of the Hand. Then we begin to feel that we have some basis upon which to appreciate the changes in our perceptions that have such profound impact in our body and mind as well as how we express ourselves by speech.

Now, we can speed up the rate of beneficial changes by holding potential harmful perceptions in check while stabilization of the new positive perception is occurring. This means, for example, if we have natural tendency toward paranoia or anger, we might mentally or even actually put post-it-notes everywhere, including the mirror! We could even write it on the face of our eyeglasses so that it is the first thing we see. “Calm down! Relax! Nobody is trying to make me angry, this is a normal part of higher change happening.” If we can succeed in holding harmful habits in check, it cannot fight your new perception until stabilized. That is the one we want to be supreme – this new awareness, but it cannot happen unless we hold away bad thinking! This is the practical application of the behavioral changes that we practice in traditional Buddhism. To be continued…