Dick: That is a means of achieving mindfulness. Being in the moment and completely open and aware, without being in the midzone, semantic reality. Just being here and looking at that plant or at that red, or anything. There is a Sufi saying, "the apparent is the bridge to the real" What is apparent is a bridge. To say that is not to say that what is apparent is not real. What is apparent is absolutely real, apparently, as long as we are in the world of the apparent, but what is apparent is also a bridge that I can cross to a different reality behind it. And when I have you look at a plant and say, "What more is there for me to see," to open yourself up and to look, not with the effort of seeing details, but rather with looking with an openness. You may have noticed this, every time I look at something and say, "what more is there to see," poof, the periphery pops in. Instead of seeing like this (points to a spot), I see like that (indicates the periphery). So everything pops in. And the thing that you are looking at gets sharper and clearer, right? So you are getting that sharpness and clarity, that also it there, and I am convinced that there is more than that. That taking in with the softening the gaze, with the periphery, and getting more clarity and intensity of color here. That is moving in the direction, starting to move over the bridge, but not yet over, and when we are over on the other side maybe we can see something quite different. Maybe we will see what these people were seeing here. Something like that. ... I struck upon this 15 years ago one time when I was obsessing and saying, Is this all there is in my life?" Any I thought, "what is there for me to see right now" and I looked out and "blue sky, white clouds, green trees, and making myself attend to that and all of a sudden it just opened up, and the obsession was gone.
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