The Inner Shift For Instant Peace
What if you can experience peace by making a simple shift to where you have your attention? My explorations into finding true serenity and success within this lifetime have included meditating day and night for many months. During these extended periods of meditation and, of course, my daily meditation routine, I’ve discovered that this Content–Context model offers a roadmap for finding freedom from mind-made problems and enjoying what can best be described as heaven on earth – in which you experience life in its perfection.
With exquisite simplicity, this model explains how the quality of your life ultimately comes down to where you put your attention in any given moment, and specifically whether your attention rests on:
the content of life, and
the context of life.
In a bid to bring the Content–Context model to life for you, let’s take the room you’re currently in as an example. There might be furniture, flowers, light fittings, your telephone and other belongings. The term I use to refer to all these things is STUFF. Now, for all the stuff to exist, there has to be the context of SPACE. In fact, there has to be more space than stuff, otherwise the stuff wouldn’t fit into the space. And although the stuff will eventually come and go, the space that it inhabits is constant, ever-present and unchanging.
Continuing to read these words you may become aware of SOUNDS around you. There might be a clock ticking, birds singing, the hum of traffic in the distance, the shimmering of leaves outside your window, music playing or people talking nearby. For these sounds to exist, indeed for you to hear anything, they have to happen within a context of SILENCE. Sound needs silence for it to be distinguishable. Even if you are surrounded by loud noise, there is silence so you can hear it, and that silence is permanent compared to the sounds coming and going.
Furthermore, the content of your current experience also includes MOVEMENT. The movement of your chest as you breathe, the movement of your fingers as you progress through this website, the movement of the trees outside your window as the breeze continues to blow. Yet, again, the content of that movement happens within a context of absolute STILLNESS, a stillness that is unaffected by any movement, ever.
So we’ve discovered something quite remarkable during the last few paragraphs – your life, including all of the stuff, sounds and movement, all happens within a context of still silent space. Not only that, but the content comes and goes and is changing, whereas the context is constant and does not change. Incidentally the same is true within your mind; the movements of your thoughts and emotions all occur within a constant context of still silent spaciousness.
Now the million-dollar question:
“Where do you tend to have most of your attention most of your day - on the content or the context?”
Almost everyone, when asked this enlightening question, sees clearly they have been putting most of their attention, most of the time, on the content of their mind and lives. Which is understandable, as this is what we are mainly taught to do when growing up. However, if you want to wake up to a more serene and successful way of working and living, it is paramount to prioritise being attentive to the context.
To hear me share much more on this subject, watch this 60 minute talk called 'Doorways to Inner Peace'. I'm hope you will find it helpful.
