We refer to the constant stream of words, images, labels, the chatter that goes on in our heads, as internal dialogue. It is through the filter of these images and labels that we interpret the world around us. That is how the brain of an infant learns to make “sense” of the world around it and it is through this process of conditioning that we become the social creatures we are.
But what this also means is we don’t see the world as it is, instead we see an interpretation of the world or a model of it. This model is based on our particular social conditioning. Our particular culture and values, and our individual experiences, the hurts, scars and successes that society bestows upon us. Therefore seeing things as they actually are, and not through the filter of our conditioning, is only possible once internal dialogue ceases.
The root of internal dialogue is the pursuit of security. Because we act out of this need for continuity of security, of pleasure, of avoiding pain, our experience of life is based on conditional motive. This means we don’t do a thing for itself, but for what we think we will get out of it. Eventually our lives become so completely about results and controlling out comes we forget the journey, the process, the actual moments that make up our life.
The real experiencing of life, of Seeing Things As They Are, is possible when we have a completely silent mind. This silence comes about when we let go of trying to control outcomes, when we let go of conditional motive. This silence comes about when the process, or the moment to moment journey of our lives, becomes more important than outcomes.
Fear is the destroyer of this silence. As long as there is fear we will be results oriented with a need for control. Fear and the resulting need for control is the root cause of the mess we have made of the world around us.
It is only a life based on complete Trust and Gratitude that can be free of fear and therefore of our conditioning. It is only then that we can experience the joy of seeing things as they are.