Mary O’Malley – What is awakening? To me, it is waking up from the belief that the storyteller in your head is who you are. It is realizing that who you really are is that which can see the stories. As you awaken, you see through your stories of fear, not enoughness, anger, sadness, loneliness and despair and instead make contact with this living moment, the only moment that matters in your entire life.
A friend once sent me a remarkable email describing his storyteller and how he learned to open to the joy of truly being awake to his life again. I want to share this email so that you too can realize that you are not your mind:
The most striking image I see that describes much of my mental activities on a daily basis is the agitation cycles of a washing machine. My mind churns very hard. It whirls and spins. It splashes water all over if I carelessly leave the door open. But it is primarily mundane, repetitive, compulsive and involuntary. The washing machine is void of any creativity, deep awareness or intelligence. It is just a machine to solve mechanical problems. And it is astounding to me that now I can see my mind as a busy washing machine.