Reference: Mindfulness Therapy
After a person is able to recognize physical objects for what they are, he needs to separate them from his expectations, assumptions, biases, etc. This is being objective. A person who is trying to figure things out is not being completely objective. Objectivity involves looking at things more closely until it starts to make sense. To be mindful requires objectivity.
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Exercise
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Place two objects, such as, a heavy book and large bottle about 10 feet apart so you can walk between them. Place them on stools or small tables such that you can pick them up easily.
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Walk over to the book. Pick it up. Look at it closely. Examine its color. Feel its weight. Sense its temperature. Then put it back exactly in the same place.
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Walk over to the bottle. Pick it up. Look at it closely. Examine its color. Feel its weight. Sense its temperature. Then put it back exactly in the same place.
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Execute steps 2 and 3 repetitively until you feel very comfortable with perceiving the book and the bottle objectively.
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Place two instruments, or objects that make different sounds, about 10 feet apart. Examine their sounds alternately. Do this repetitively until you feel very comfortable about perceiving the sounds objectively.
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Place two different flowers, or two objects with different aroma, about 10 feet apart. Examine their aroma alternately. Do this repetitively until you feel very comfortable with perceiving the aromas objectively.
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Place two different fruits, or two different edible objects, about 10 feet apart. Examine their taste alternately. Do this repetitively until you feel very comfortable with perceiving the tastes objectively.
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Place two different cloths, or two objects with different textures, about 10 feet apart. Examine their texture alternately. Do this repetitively, until you feel very comfortable with perceiving the textures objectively.
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You may do this exercise as often as needed until you have started to perceive the physical objects around you objectively.
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Take cue from this exercise, and start to examine mental objects (ideas, emotions, feelings, etc.) more objectively on your own, as often and for as long as you feel comfortable.
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Comments
Beginning the opening post with an assumption —
Then telling another what they are doing while they are doing something that they are doing and not you is religious conditioning. I feel this is a mistake.
Rehashing and reworking Hubbard’s conditioning exercises does not seem to me a fruitful vector.
Continue! You must be working on something here. I’m still not understanding why you insist on defining mindfulness as “seeing things as they are without assumptions.” I just do not link my mindfulness to this. Possibly releasing assumptions as a process . . .,
I do not agree that the most productive contemplation is done when one is being objective. It is my own experience that I routinely come to fruitful realizations by releasing my objectivity through sleep and dreaming. Upon awakening, I routinely am in a calm, alert, refreshed state of mind with precise solutions to problems without having been objective about them. Now we are writing words and maybe the words are causing us to miss, I don’t know.
Maybe we’re mixing objectivity and assumptions. Mainly I am not tracking with you on this…
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If you think differently then that is fine with me. If you wish to discuss the inconsistencies that you see then you are welcome.
Maybe we are looking at objectivity differently.
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Hubbard didn’t quite understand what he was doing with his Book and Bottle Process. He was grinding people on it for tens and hundreds of hours introducing an element of mystery about what was to be accomplished.
That is not the case with the above exercise, which has a very clear objective – to perceive things with better clarity without adding anything to the perception.
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Vin: “Hubbard didn’t quite understand…”
I think he probably understood what he was ultimately attempting to achieve (the ability to make perfect duplicates in the mind, i.e. becoming cause over mental pictures) and Op Pro by Dup was a possible remedy for that.
In order to complete an OPbD cycle (by putting the object back in the exact location it was lifted from) a very clear mental picture was required of the original position. By becoming able to mock up the picture of the exact location (position), one gained or regained some control over mock-ups – over creating pictures – and it is that ability recovered that eventually leads to the condition of Clear.
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In my opinion one cannot become cause without also becoming an effect. That is chasing after the wrong thing. Hubbard wanted to be THE cause. See where he ended up.
The only benefit that I can see from Op Pro by Dup is sharpening one’s physical perceptions by closer looking. In other words, the benefit is that one becomes more mindful of physical objects, or more objective.
And that does not take hundereds of hours.
I think that perfect duplicates can be made better with a camera or memorization. To me more important is seeing things as they are, and that is accomplished on a gradient.
There is no such condition as a clear. That has been a moving target.
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This is a good synopsis.
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From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness
“The Buddha advocated that one should establish mindfulness (satipaṭṭhāna) in one’s day-to-day life maintaining as much as possible a calm awareness of one’s body, feelings, mind, and dhammas. The practice of mindfulness supports analysis resulting in the arising of wisdom (Pali: paññā, Sanskrit: prajñā). A key innovative teaching of the Buddha was that meditative stabilisation must be combined with liberating discernment.”
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The easiest way to practice objectivity in the beginning is to start observing the physical environment without taking it for granted. The next stage would be to start observing the mental environment without taking it for granted.
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I have made the following changes in the OP:
(1) NOTE: KHTK exercise 3 is intended to help with the practice of KHTK Exercises 1 and 2, which are primary.
(2) Any contemplation is most effective when one is being objective – looking at things comfortably without taking them for granted.
(3) Step 4: “Execute steps 2 and 3 repetitively until you feel very comfortable with perceiving the book and the bottle.”
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I have added the following step to OP:
7. Take cue from this exercise to start examining mental objects (ideas, emotions, feelings, etc.) more closely with objectivity without taking them for granted.
Any such examination must be non-judgmental.
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What do you do when a person is in a state that he cannot apply mindfulness? Let’s take a person who is all confused. His awareness is all jumbled up. He is in a state that he cannot control anything. His body and mind are operating in a random manner. How can we guide this person toward the state of mindfulness?
(1) We know that this person has lost the primary reference point of the physical body. That reference point needs to be reestablished.
(2) The person is not in a good enough mental shape that he could be guided through verbal communication.
(3) Here I believe that the CCH processes of Scientology may be useful. The first command to use repetitively is “Give me that hand.” Execute the command for him, if he is unable to do so, by picking his hand by his wrist.
(4) The purpose is to demonstrate to the person that control of his hand is possible. He is encouraged to control that hand himself until he does so. This exercise is continued until his confusion is reduced to a level that he can demonstrably control his hand on his own.
(5) The next set of commands to use would be “Look at that wall.” “Thank you.” “Walk over to that wall.” “Thank you.” “Touch that wall.” “Thank you.” “Turn around.” “Thank you.” Again, if the person is unable to execute the command, execute it for him by moving his body smoothly.
(6) The purpose is to demonstrate to the person that his body can be directly controlled and thus inviting him to control it. This exercise is continued until the person can demonstrate that he can control his body in response to the commands.
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This or a form of this can be good parenting beginning with very small children. It would be done gently and with a slant for fun – Not hilarity but pleasant interaction.
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That is correct. I don’t like the “Tone 40” sternness. It should be fun interaction accompanied by mindfulness.
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I have updated this Exercise.
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