do you see what i see

Last weekend TheMostImportantGuy said, "Oh hey! I want you to take this little 'test!"

You might want to click HERE to watch the video, because for some reason blogger
is cutting off half the danged screen

Now, y'all....DO take a moment right here, right now, and click on that video. Do not skimp, dudes. Chances are, most of you have already seen it (or some version of it)....but if you have not, do watch it. Okay?

Come on.

I'll wait.

Alright.

Done?

Ok. Cool.



Now, which fifty-percent were YOU in??

I watched the first section of the video, got all excited and shouted out, "Seventeen!!". Now for starters, seventeen was not even the correct answer....but even more incorrect was that I entirely missed the gorilla. ENTIRELY. That damn gorilla strolled in, stopped in the middle of the room, pounded his chest, and walked back out....and I still missed the damn thing.

I have been tripping out on this news all week long. This is really linked to meditation practice for me. Much of what I attempt to do with my thoughts (as I work on sitting and breathing and just letting thoughts cruise on through without my attaching to them) is to just let thoughts be thoughts. To just see them as they are. To notice the thought, exactly as it is, and then stop right there, and not embellish any further.

And example of embellishing might be...well, okay....let's say I'm sitting and meditating and I hear a dog bark. I can notice the sound of barking. And I can stop there. Or I could also start wondering why the dog is barking. Is that dog on a leash? Is it in distress? Is something wrong? Is there a burglar? Maybe it is sensing an earthquake coming. I wish it would quit barking. I wonder if it's a golden retriever. Hey, that kind of sounds like a golden retriever. Is it hungry? Maybe it just sees a squirrel.

See? Several minutes later and my brain has turned the sound of a bark (which is now looong gone, by the way) into a whole friggin' story. A fictional story.


And so now, having seen this little video "test", I now I have to ask myself:
Am I even assessing correctly that the barking sound I just heard was even a bark??
(ie...maybe it was a gorilla, if you get my drift)

And just how many other things in my life am I not seeing exactly as they are???!! Fifty-friggin' percent??

I have a hunch more.