"If you take a look at the way you have been put together and the way you function you will find that inside your head there is a whole program, a set of demands about how the world should be, how you should be and what you should want."

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Anthony De Mello

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I've been reading Anthony De Mello's "The Way To Love"; one of my favourite authors & speakers. He refers to our conditioning as a computer program, and I love this analogy. We have all been programmed; and it wasn't from ourselves. This happened at a very early age by the big people around us, parents, society, culture, religion, and past experiences who have all fed into our operating system. Anthony says, as long as reality fits the computer program we have, we will be peaceful and happy. When reality doesn't meet the demands of our programming, of the way life "should be" our computer generates negative emotions & causes us to suffer.  This program creates the lens in which we view the world. That is why people will have a completely different experience even though they were at the exact same event or had the exact same conversation.  

When we meditate, we learn to meet reality where it is, instead of where we think it should be. In the stillness, it's a little like we get out a polishing cloth for our lens - and give it a good clean, buffing back the stories & beliefs, each time getting a little closer to the truth, to reality. Or, to go back to the computer programming analogy - it's like a de frag for our computer system, a clean up; creating more spaciousness within. And over time, there are shifts in the way we feel inside our own skin, the way we show up & deal with the ebbs & flow of life.

I'll be guiding meditations for The School of Modern Meditation on Mondays at 8am for the next few months. Join me for a de frag of your computer system. Bookings - www.wearesomm.co/timetable