GETTING OUT OF HOUDINI'S BOX

In mind
We find ourself locked in Houdini's box,
With the key left on the outside.

Inside this chained and padlocked Mind-Box
We occupy points-of-view that we have to justify, pump up and be right about --
Ideas, beliefs, concepts, principles and values --
All the positional things we'd sacrifice our happiness for;
Things we'd rather die for than give up,
Ideas that readily help us feel right,
But rarely make us happy.

The good news is
We can change our points of view
(We actually do it a lot more than we'll ever admit).
BUT,
And this is my main point.......

We cannot see our point of view while we're on it

Because that is where we are viewing from.

In order to see a limiting position,

We have, first, to get that we're on it

Then get off it.

This realisation is central to all my counselling and communicating,

And it is the hardest thing to achieve

Because nobody in their righteous mind wants either to admit they're on a position,

Or to get off anything they feel right about.

Left to our mind's devices,

We'd all rather be right than happy!

I deliberately set about moving people around,

I aim to change your viewing-point, so that --

a) You can see that you have been standing on a point-of-view; and

b) You can get a glimpse of what it looks like; and

c) You can get a different perspective on what you're looking at.

I aim to get you out of the box,

Even if only for the briefest of moments.

You can do it, consciously and willingly.

Here's how --

• Acknowledge you are caught inside the box
• Appreciate that the box does have an outside
• Own that there's something right now that you feel right about, that there's something you're defending.
• If you want to know what position you're on right now, it will be the opposite to those positional people you're resisting, the ones who keep showing up in your face to mess up your day.
• Look at it, as objectively as you can. Don't think about it; just see it. The seeing is the movement.
• Get the joke. If you can see the funny side of it, you're out! (and you will go back in again -- but that's OK. You know how to get out whenever you want to.)

Only from outside of the box,

When we jump off our point-of-view for a moment,

We see that we have available to us

Other, optional Points TO View.

Once we are outside the box

We can go anywhere,

And everywhere.

Now that's freedom.

Warning: Your mind isn't going to solve this problem; your mind is the problem.

There's a non-sense Zen riddle that goes something like this ---

A goose was once raised in a large bottle.

There came a time when the goose grew too large for the bottle.

Question: How do we get the goose out of the bottle

Without damaging either the goose or the bottle?

Answer: The goose is out. 

(It was never in the bottle in the first place. I was mistaken about that.)