When a child comes into this world, she looks at her surroundings without naming anything. Just pure awareness, taking it all in. What if we could see the world like a child?
Imagine you're walking through a park, or perhaps even just sitting where you are now. When you look around at your surroundings, either in this park, or in the comfort of your own home, what do you see out there?
More importantly, what do you see in there, in your mind? You probably see, and hear, a dialogue happening around what you're noticing in the outside world.
"That tree is beautiful. Why is that man talking to himself? Oh look, someone's dog is off the leash. Wow there's geese poop everywhere, someone should pick it up. The pond looks so serene."
And on and on and on. If you pay attention, you realize that your mind loves to narrate everything happening around you. As if seeing it wasn't enough, your mind feels the need to tell you what it just saw.
Think about how absurd that sounds. It's not enough to just see something. Your mind will then tell you what you saw, and most likely, make a judgement on it.
Children, especially infants, don't do this. Instead, they look at the world in awe. Of course, unless they're crying, but that's a different story. For the most part, babies take everything in with big, open eyes. They don't pass judgement, they just see.
You can learn a lot about presence by just observing a baby and watching how they see magic in everything.
The truth is, everything is magical. From the galaxies down to the glass of water, everything within us, and around us, is teeming with life. The problem is, we're just too caught up in our own thoughts to notice.
In your own life, you can start by just observing this narration of the outside world taking place within you. You're not even doing it; your mind is. But you can watch it. And as you watch it, you might even notice commentary on the commentary. That is, your mind comments on how it comments on everything. That's okay too! Just keep watching, witnessing this take place.
Most of the beauty in this world is actually quite apparent, quite obvious, if you take a moment to pay attention. Beyond our habitual mind is infinite beauty. When you're fully present, like a child, even the most mundane of things can wow you into ecstasy.
Live with substance!
Gabe Orlowitz
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