Perhaps a more realistic appraisal of this dilemma is that
by being fully present to our experience, we increase the effec-
tiveness of any potential action we might eventually take. By
increasing our conscious awareness we will be less likely to
react to a given situation based on past conditioning. Should a
real need arise to take action, we will be more likely to respond
from a place of clarity and wisdom.
Even though recurring negative emotions can contain
important messages, most changes that we make in our life cir-
cumstances, though they might be helpful, are ultimately only
cosmetic unless they arise from a change in our level of con-
sciousness. Most of us have had the experience of moving to a
different place or trading one relationship for another only to
find that nothing has really changed in how we feel about
things.
Many of us live in an impaired and painful state of con-
sciousness. The great religions speak of this state as a dream,
illusion, or maya in which, according to Buddhism,
Christianity, and Islam, our minds are veiled. St. Paul claimed,
“A veil lies over their mind,” while Islam multiplied the
metaphor to seventy-thousand veils.
Philosophers, poets, and psychologists have had similar
ideas. Plato suggested figuratively that we live in a cave, mis-
taking shadow for reality. William Blake saw man as peering
through “narrow chinks in his cavern,” and Charles Tart offered
that we live in a “consensus trance” that is “a much more per-
vasive, powerful, and artificial state than ordinary hypnosis,
and it is all too trancelike.” The metaphors differ, but the mes-
sage is the same.^1
The experience of watching movies can be seen as a
metaphor for this trance or illusionary state. Becoming con-
sciously aware in the present moment helps us to wake up. This
is like remembering that we are watching a film even as we are
deeply absorbed in the story. Sensing our arms as they touch
the seat in a movie theater might make us conscious that we are
just watching images on a screen in front of us.“We are not human
beings having a spiritual
experience. We are
spiritual beings having a
human experience.”
Teihard de
Chardin36 E-Motion Picture Magic