It’s Inside Knowledge

We are all taught how to look at something and then mimic what we see.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. After all, it is how we learn to read and write, walk, or bake a cake.

However, the day must come when we change our viewpoint and ask, “What is the intent behind this, and how does it fit with mine,” because then and only then do we have ultimate control over our situation, no matter what it is.

I used to teach dance, and although I don’t do that anymore, I take classes where people are doing a form of dance.

However, sometimes in class, the dance teacher part of me goes crazy because I can see that most of the class doesn’t understand the foundation and intent of the movement, which means they aren’t doing it correctly.

They simply look at what they think it looks like and try their best to mimic it.

This can and often does, lead to injuries and hinders them from fully experiencing the harmony and joy of the dance.

Here’s an example of what I mean.

We do a movement in class where the arms are outstretched and reaching from side to side. At least, on the surface, that is what it looks like is happening. Because we are trained to look at something and reproduce what we see, that is exactly what everyone does.

However, the movement's foundation, intent, and impetus are really the ribs moving side to side, and that action moves the arms.

You may think, so what? It’s just a class where everyone is having fun—and you are right. Yet, this same lack of understanding of foundation and intent is a big deal in life.

We take jobs, buy cars, marry, have babies, and buy certain foods because that is what it looks like we are supposed to be doing.

However, when we don’t understand the foundation and intent of our actions, we will—and do—take the wrong job, buy the wrong car, marry the wrong person, and eat the wrong foods for us.

When I was teaching dance, I noticed there were two kinds of students. This observation can applied to all of us, as students of life.

>There is the student who sees what the outside picture looks like and reproduces it as clearly as possible. Sometimes they are right, and sometimes they are wrong, depending on their skill at mimicking.

>The other kind of student often struggles until they understand the movement's foundation and intent or impetus. This student often has to be encouraged to continue because, to them, they are not succeeding.

They are the ones who, given time, will understand the foundation and intent of what they are doing, eventually making them better students.

They are the ones who discover and feel from within that feet turn out not from the feet or knees but within the hip socket. Arms reach not from the hands or shoulders but from the movement of the shoulder blades. Soaring leaps are not accomplished by applying brute strength but from the push-off.

I can always tell when they “get it.” The click of awareness shows first in their faces and then the often startling, to them, reproduction of the movement.

Reproduced not from what they saw but from what they felt.

A beautiful consequence of this awareness is that they can do the movement, and their individual expression shines through.

We see examples of this in people we admire as artists who have found where it begins within themselves, take the “rules” of their art, and make it their own.

In life, this is what we are aiming to accomplish.

It is not to mimic what we see. It is not to follow what others say and do but to understand where the foundation and intent of our lives begin, which is always inside knowledge.

The rules in life are simple, not complex. We know them already. The question is how to individualize the rules so that our lives reflect our unique expressions.

We start by beginning within and understanding where our desires originate. It is giving up trying to make a pretty picture of our life based on competition, getting ahead, accumulation, or being right.

Instead, we desire to live life as an art, find the foundation and intent of every choice we make, and live in accord with the harmony that leads us from within.

From this viewpoint, we truly see that all that happens does not happen from the outside in but from the inside out.

Within this awareness, we awaken to the fact that the divine Mind sets the foundation and intent of all that we see and experience, and we can rest secure knowing that everything, in Reality, is securely grounded within the safety of unconditional Love.

This means we can fully enjoy the deep harmony and never-ending joy of our unique and original purpose in life.

Isa 30: 21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.

Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner. Lao Tzu