Exercise Twenty-Two

July 6th, 2006

Re-contextualizing - Re-visiting Social, Physical, Mental Abilities

"Context is Power, content is force. … Focus at all times on the context of a situation or event rather than the details or content of the experience. … Focus on the totality of the experience not the specifics…context includes whatever you are not focused on." Dr. Hawkins, Dec 2002.

We now continue viewing our life experiences from a broader, more inclusive setting, understanding or context.

In this exercise, we are revisiting exercise 6, with the focus on looking at physical, mental, social and social-economic areas in our life, as they appear now.

EXERCISE

Re-contextualizing is a way of easily and gracefully releasing our beliefs, views, positions on any area of our life. When we focus on the details of events, we become mired in judgment, and attachment.

Allowing our self to let go of the detail and move into a broader more inclusive view or context, allows us to drop the beliefs without distress or pain.

• Where in your life situation are you focused on the details rather than the totality of the experience - the content rather than the context?
• Look into your life to discover where it is you may be stuck in any belief or attachment with regard to your body, such as loving/disliking it, wanting/yearning for it to be different in shape, size, sexuality and so forth.
• A way to re-contextualize your attachment to and obsession with the body is to consider that its death is inevitable. Remind yourself frequently that the body is temporal - the details, the content, while the 'self' is infinite or the context. Contemplation of this information shifts perspective and obsessive attachment to the body and its health or lack of health.
• Consider reincarnation in relation to the body. If we had the same body forever, how would we know what it was like to experience being the different sexes? The different nationalities? How would we appreciate all the potential expressions of it without shedding one body and life and taking on another?
• Sift through the social events of your life and again search out your attachments to finances, career, nationality, political stances.
• Consider all social events, situations in your life and search out the pride of being who you are in society. Knowing that pride is a block to the higher fields is transformative in and of itself.
• From the context of a spiritual life your wealth or lack of it; your body shape, size, or age, your financial, social, or career successes are meaningless attachments. They are the content of your life.
• Ask yourself what qualities rise up from them?
• Notice any unwillingness to let go, to release them. They are the areas to search out and place in a broader context. Ask yourself if you could walk away, release, let go of them?
• Are you willing to give it all up?
• Consider offering all your gifts, skills, attachments to body, society, career to God. This removes them as 'yours' and offers them in the potential of service to the All.

The following is a template for re-contextualization:

• Ask your self how the experience impacts you.
• Ask yourself what quality this situation has developed in you? Tenacity? Inner strength? Perseverance? Compassion? The ability to say: "So what?" and mean it? Surrendering positionalities? - Sincerely look for the gift this situation brings.
• Use Dr. Hawkin's Map of Consciousness to discover the consciousness level you are in and what the situation may have offered to potentiate that? For example, Are you in anger about your body's illness, size, shape, sexuality? Check out the map of consciousness to see that anger actually is a higher mind state than apathy. From anger you have the 'potential', the energy, to propel you to forgiveness.
• Watch your thoughts, and your emotions [exercise 2].
• Release your emotions (exercises 7, 9, and 11).
• Notice the need to defend your position. Surrender and re-contextualizing is called for when you are not in peace, and not in love.
• If there is a negative emotional charge to a situation or a memory, know that you are stuck in that field of consciousness until you release it.
• Go quietly within and ask yourself what highest good can or does come from this situation?
• If you can find none, assume you are burning off karma. This assumption is a powerful way to re-contextualization a potentially victimizing stance or situation. You can then pray to have the karma absolved.