Exercise Six

February 23rd, 2006

Refer to: I; Reality and Subjectivity, pages 220-227

Re-contextualizing the ego: Beyond the Ordinary excerpts, Feb 2, 2002

RE-CONTEXTUALIZING (Part Two) – Circumstances of your Birth

To review: What does re-contextualizing mean? Let us begin to define its root word. The following are two dictionary definitions of CONTEXT: 1. The part of a text or statement that surrounds a particular word or passage and determines its meaning. 2. The circumstances in which an event occurs; a setting.

Viewing an event, person or belief from a broader, more inclusive setting - in other words, taking it from one context to another - is re-contextualizing. Re-contextualizing is a word that Dr. Hawkins developed. This descriptor expresses the removal of our judgment, stance or position about an event, person, or belief.

To re-contextualize we take the attitude that there is another way to look at any negative event in life. Choosing to do this arises from the willingness to change our minds. That willingness places us in a position of natural humility. Open mindedness is key to re-contextualizing any situation.

A circumstance, or even a thought about a circumstance, tends to lead us to judge. To be without attachment or positionalities, it becomes imperative to let go of our judgments. Putting life-events into a spiritual context is a fundamental practice. You are encouraged to view every situation as an opportunity to remove the blocks to Love.

While re-contextualizing is fairly simple to execute, it is the practice and use of it that releases our minds.

EXERCISE

• We are still re-contextualizing, expanding it now to look at our childhood issues as they relate to:
• Social,
• Socio-economic,
• Physical,
• Mental abilities or lack of them.
• Review last week's lesson. Remind yourself that your life is an optimal spiritual opportunity. Consider having an indifferent mother. Perhaps this experience enabled you realize that Love arises from within. Or if you were the youngest and weakest male in an athletic family, you may more readily look to hone your intellect - an intellect which ultimately prepared you for a spiritual focus. Perhaps being beautiful and envied by your family taught you outward beauty is of no consequence. What if you were of average intelligence amongst intellectual giants? What if you had disabilities and were raised by a perfectionist?
• Bring out the watcher in your mind [see exercise #2] and look at how you viewed your body, your mental abilities your social and socio-economic life. The context of being a victim of them is now lifted from your mind. In its place, all of your birth circumstances are assumed to be ideal - are assumed to assist you to develop and expand spiritual awareness.
• View all of your stories about who you are from this new context. Take your time and write out or jot down your new perspectives.
• With the consideration that all was the perfect medium for your growth, how do you experience the circumstances of your birth and early childhood differently? Review the above list while considering this new context.
• Contemplate the impact of your re-contextualization on your personal life story.
• It is as if you are the seed and initial experiences are the soil you are scattered on as well as the season and its weather you experience. Thus they potentiate growth in a unique and particular way - a way perfect for your particular spiritual opportunity.
• Thus be certain to note that these early childhood circumstances and events are not causal, but rather potentialities.

After practicing our previous exercise, which focused on your primary family, did you find it easier to go through the physical, mental and social, aspects of your childhood?

Consider your relationships with your body and mind. Consider how you saw yourself in relation to others in the family or in your neighbourhood or in your schooling experience. Again, notice how removing the stance of being a victim of your body or of your life events at that time, releases you.

Review your new perspective. Where have you shifted? How have you shifted? Do use your watching the mind skills to let this whole new recontextualization unfold in yourself.

Do you have a different understanding about your beginnings now? What has changed in you? What has replaced those emotions?