Below is the Preface for the new book, SIMPLY NOTICE – Life Beyond Your Wildest Dreams Is Here, Now.
An upcoming post will feature the Introduction. This is Book 1 in what will ideally expand to a series of Simply Notice books. The book is not yet published (working on that right now…I may use a traditional publisher, or self-publish it. Hopefully this will be decided soon.) The main text is still being revised, and excerpts will appear here periodically, too.
Just as a heads up, this book is very different from Consciousness Is All. The Preface pretty much explains it:
Preface – Why This Book?
This book started out as an exercise in the power of noticing.
Then because of its very power, the noticing led to something big. That’s coming up in a moment.
Simply Notice follows this author’s first work, Consciousness Is All – Now Life Is Completely New (Blue Dolphin 2007). Consciousness Is All is an experiential book about the nature of Life and Reality. It is highly popular within its niche, and has been deemed a “masterwork” and “classic.”
Simply Notice says many of the same things, but in a basic way that is meant to propel this subject out of a niche so it is of interest to all readers. After all, who doesn’t know how to notice?
Noticing is something familiar to all because it is so natural and simple to do. It’s as easy as noticing the words in this sentence. These pages show that visual noticing (such as with these words) is just one of many types of noticing.
You’ll see that noticing isn’t exactly the same as being aware, but it occurs thanks to being aware.
Imagine having a sun-like searchlight that could be aimed at almost anything. The light itself, which is always on, is like awareness—and that is a big part of this book, too. The focusing of the light on something is a bit like noticing.
In the bright light of noticing, many things about oneself, one’s world, and the real nature of Life Itself become crystal clear.
The first part of the book talks about the act of noticing itself, and some of its benefits. Noticing and awareness are such an integral part of living, that to speak of them in terms of “benefit” almost sounds silly. It’s like saying breathing is a benefit. However, noticing does seem to be beneficial in countless ways.
When used intelligently, noticing is priceless because it exposes false beliefs that limit and constrict living. It frees one from bondage to false beliefs and puts an end to unhappiness.
Beliefs are nothing but assumptions parading as facts. They’re like mental clouds. Once exposed, they cannot limit or block—just as clouds never block the sun from being the sun—and false beliefs fade away effortlessly.
Other times, noticing is exciting and just plain fun. The wonderful thing is, noticing is much more than merely a cloud remover! It also shows how incredibly magnificent Life is, in ways previously unimaginable.
It is the nature of Life to be vitally alive, completely free and unlimited. This is another way of saying the Life you really are is naturally “happy.”
This is not always experienced however, due to clouds of human belief and emotional weight being superimposed on Life’s natural vitality and ease.
Noticing makes clear that pure, belief-free Life is what “you” really are.
As you already may have seen, each page in this book stands alone, and provides a simple noticing of something.
The noticing may be about what you consider yourself to be. It may be about everyday things, such as bananas and cell phones—or more serious subjects such as the world, and Life Itself. There also is noticing about thoughts and feelings (this is belief territory). There is even a look at the value of noticing, and how various aspects of noticing itself work.
With each simple noticing comes a fresh seeing, a keener awareness and discernment. This is effortless—and leaves one free to enjoy Life as it naturally, normally is.
As you continue reading you may begin to feel, as this author does, that this book is inadequate. That’s actually a good thing.
What happens is that a noticing of something here will trigger something you’ll notice on your own. And that will lead to still more noticing. You likely will ask, “Why isn’t the book talking about this—and why doesn’t it mention that, too?” It’s just an indication of the unlimited power of noticing.
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The noticing on page 21 says: “Noticing is self-expanding. The more you notice, the more you notice that you are noticing.”
It’s really true! So this Book 1 is the first in a series, all under the main title of Simply Notice. Each will have a specific theme—but thanks to its self-expanding nature, the noticing in each book invariably spreads in many directions.
During the writing of this first book, one point in particular kept coming up—as if asking for special emphasis. It is profound in its impact, so there was little choice but to make it the theme in these pages.
It concerns an extremely limiting belief which is widely accepted today—but one which is rarely questioned by the general public.
To set the stage: The biggest breakthroughs in the so-called history of man often involve a shift in perspective. What basically happens is that new discoveries are made, or old, limiting beliefs are seen through. These are called changes in worldview.
They all occur thanks to noticing something that wasn’t noticed before.
Near the top of this breakthrough list would be the now-clichéd realization that the earth is not flat, but a tiny sphere, apparently floating in a vast universe of space. At one time, earth supposedly was thought to be so massive it was the center of the universe—the geo-centric belief.
The appearance of the sun, moon and stars rising each day creates a visual illusion that everything really does rotate around earth. The human sense of sight also gives the earth’s horizon an illusory appearance of being flat.
These illusions gave rise to beliefs, and the beliefs acted like self-imposed barriers or limitations.
It’s worth noticing the role played by sensory illusion in causing beliefs, because a similar sensory illusion appears to be affecting you right now, today.
First was the illusory appearance (everything rotates around earth; earth is flat).
Then a belief seemed to follow as a result (earth ends at the horizon).
Then came the limitations caused by the belief (don’t dare sail past the horizon).
Notice what happens once the illusion is seen through. The belief falls away automatically. Then so do the limitations—like a line of dominos.
(Of course, it could be argued that the geo-centric belief was not accepted by civilizations worldwide—but this helps illustrate an important point.)
There is another similar illusion apparently operative today—but so taken for granted, it’s generally not even noticed.
What if exposing this illusion is so significant and potentially freeing—it makes the old flat earth breakthrough seem trivial?
What if you were not a mere passive observer in this—but an active participant?
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Today it is generally believed that Life is only on planet earth.
Many are willing to entertain the possibility that Life may be on other planets, too. But notice something here.
This still involves a belief of Life having to be on things—on physical planets.
The key word is “on.”
Hand in hand with this general belief of “Life being on” is the belief that Life also is limited to being inside things or solid objects.
Supposedly, Life has to be inside human bodies, or animal bodies. Life also is believed to be inside forms of vegetation such as plants and trees.
And, of course, all these things appear to be on planet earth.
Admit it. This belief of Life having to be on earth and in objects seems so ingrained (like the flat earth) that it’s rarely questioned by the public.
Why is this believed?
Because this is how the five human senses of sight, touch, hearing, taste and smell appear to portray the world.
To the human senses, it certainly looks as if Life is in human, animal and plant forms. It also looks as if those forms are on a solid physical object called earth.
Notice these are the same senses that create the illusion of earth being flat!
If the senses are capable of producing one illusion, why not another?
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Without getting into details here, the noticing in these pages essentially turns this traditional Life-on-earth view inside out.
Simple noticing shows that instead of Life being on earth—it is more accurate to say earth is in an all-embracing Life.
Admittedly, this may seem quite a stretch to today’s way of thinking—so there is a brief experiential example of this coming up in the Introduction, plus much, much more inside. Easy, everyday illustrations and examples throughout the book help to clarify this.
Notice any thoughts coming up right now in response to reading this. Perhaps it’s one of, “Life not on earth? Okay, show me.”
This book does show this. But notice if there’s already an expectation as to how this Life not-on-earth is to be shown. Notice if there’s a thought, “If Life really is not on earth, this book will have to show how Life extends way out beyond this solid physical planet, and spans across all physical space in the vast universe.”
That is not how it works.
What appears to the human senses as separate, solid physical objects (such as earth) is another illusion of the senses. In the same way the senses create an illusion of flatness, they create an illusion of solidity. The senses also create an illusion that items are physically separate from each other. They’re not.
This illusion is not anyone’s fault—it’s just how the senses seem to work.
Does this new view sound unbelievable? If so, the old belief is still in the way, distorting how you see things.
If there really is no solid physical object earth, there is no such object which Life could be on.
The irony is that none of this is new! The notion of Life not being on earth—but rather that Life is all-embracing of all there is—has been known to philosophers and sages for centuries. Today it is increasingly accepted by scientists.
In some religions we are told, “The kingdom of God is within you.”
In science we are told there is no physical world “out there” separate from the one who observes it.
Rather than merely being told about this theoretically, these pages are a way to literally see and live this, experientially.
The point of this book is to make these same things clear to anyone—all through simple noticing. The idea is to have this “new view” accessible to all readers instead of being esoteric and limited to experts.
It took many years for the “round” earth to be generally accepted. So the limitations lingered. Today is different. In this apparent age of having instant information everywhere, there is no need to continue laboring under an old, severely limited way of living.
The reason for dredging up the old geo-centric universe example is that it’s actually a helpful parallel. Some of the noticings in these pages may seem radical at first, and bring up doubts. That’s only because they refute the currently popular belief system of Life being only on earth. If doubts come up, simply notice how a round earth may have seemed radical at first, too.
This seemed to be a subject well worthy of a book. So Life’s all-embracing-ness has become a major theme in these pages.
***
To glimpse the fantastic implications of Life not being on earth, first consider what it meant to see through the belief of a flat earth.
The world and experience literally opened up in so many ways it’s indescribable. Now there was another side of the new round world, and new realms to explore.
But notice that all of that new-world experience was still on a physical basis. All of it still was assumed to be occurring on a physical planet, in a limited physical, material world of space and time.
What if Life and all experience really were not physical, and had none of those weighty limits of physical space, material objects and time?
What if all Life really, truly was like a state of infinite imagination?
It literally would blow the lid off all those so-called physical limitations!
But the first step would be to start with Life as Life really is—and not be taken in by illusion, beliefs and limitations.
To expose the illusion, this book provides a thorough noticing of how the five human senses work—and how they seem to create illusory appearances.
Beliefs that arise from the illusion are essentially thoughts, and often emotions are involved, too—so some of the noticing here deals with those.
To balance this, there also is a lot of noticing of the nature of Life’s pure awareness or perceiving—which does not function on the level of thought.
You are about to go beyond even “thinking outside the box” and make it obsolete. The very act of thinking is the box!
This is an adventure in getting altogether outside the box of thinking—and going way beyond, to that which notices all thinking.
This book has a sequence. First, there is a lot of noticing about noticing itself, and awareness—to literally raise the “level” of seeing. Please turn right now to page 77 for an example of this.
Not until later in the book is the illusion of a separate, solid earth exposed. It is recommended that all sections be read in sequence. But it also is realized that readers may not have patience and will want to jump forward to read about the illusion. If so, go ahead.
Start on page 144 with an easy example of why a banana isn’t a solid object. Then go on from there to the bigger illusory object, earth.
Be forewarned. This jumping ahead may leave a feeling of floundering—with questions such as, “As there is no solid earth, then where am I?”—because the book does make it very clear there is no solid object earth.
When the sections are read in sequence, the reader is first put on a new “foundation” of all-embracing Life. This is so there won’t be a feeling of not existing, or having had everything literally pulled out from under you. After Life’s all-embracingness is clear, the sensory illusory regarding earth is exposed.
Those familiar with Consciousness Is All will find that Simply Notice is not nearly as broad in its scope, nor as thorough. It is not trying to be. These pages selectively emphasize content from only six chapters of Consciousness Is All. Please go to www.ConsciousnessIsAll.com for more information.
Simply Notice – Book 1 has one point: to make clear in an easy, reader-friendly way, the unlimited and all-embracing nature of Life.
Since the seeming shift away from the old earth-centered view of the universe, millions of books have been written. Most of them, whether it is realized or not, contain views which arose basically out of that shift.
How about the significance of Life not being on a solid earth? Just making this one point clear is enough of a task for any book. To then get into what it means is something else!
Millions of books can be written on this new basis also—and that’s what is so exciting. So this is just the tip of the iceberg—a humble beginning to notice some of this unlimited magnificence that Life already, effortlessly is.
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