mind is like a cloud covering reality
While angry I started to replay the tape of what happened. But many filters intervened, and while playing, at the same time there was a who’s to blame game going on. Replaying the tape is metacognition. Seeing the blame game is equally metacognition.
At once I saw my mind going round in circles, and I stopped it. Anger gone, blame game gone. This is awareness. This is the power of awareness: suddenly you step out of it!
I went in the house and said I was ‘normal’ again. That again was common sense.
Wonderful. Just another proof that man needs to think about his thoughts because ultimately we are in control of them! Thank you for sharing.
… think about his thoughts, and rise above them …
… thx for your inspiring comment
Hallo,
This is for you, for being kind to others and me : )
Pick it up here if you want to http://summer4soul.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/valentines-day-this-is-for-you-because-you-are-love/
Sweet greetings, Summer
thank you
You’re welcome : ) And thanks to you too
i like this very much
thanks ..
Good solid explanation.
thanks
I think it was a wise decision to get out, cool down and get back again. Or am I to simple now
That was the wisest thing to do. Breaking the endless train of thoughts was not a decision. I don’t know what to call it, except awareness?
Ah, thank you for the example. NOW I can “map” your distinctions onto mine. What you called “meta-cognition” in this example I would call the Ego as Observer. Or to put it more precisely, the limited mind as Witness, or perhaps if even more limited, then the “separate self’s mind” observing itself. What you are calling Awareness I would call the Infinite Mind aware of itself in and as this particular manifestation within time and space.
Does that resonate at all? My terms (deivied from several teachers most recently Adyashanti and my own experience) might not “compute” for anyone else.
BTW Ken Wilber and others say that “the Witness” eventually as Awareness wakens ever more thoroughly, dissolves, as a distinct experience. That might mean that your “meta-cognition” level disappears, I’m not sure. We’ll see when we get there, LOL!
Thanks for the good example to follow. The key seems to be that crucial moment to allow common sense to walk you out the door.
P.S. Is it your photo? Very beautiful!
Common sense is very important. Awareness is not going to lead you out of the door.
I made this photo in aug 2010 in Loetschental, not far from Visp VS in Switzerland.
I had no idea there were so many names for the same thing. I saw that metacognition and awareness have been put sometimes at the same level, often by psychologists. So I tried to make a difference between them from my own experience. Since META means ALONG or TOGETHER WITH in old greek, I see metacognition as tagging the cognition. From my own experience awareness is completely different. Metacognition in my experience is a process on par with thinking and interpreting, on the same level. Awareness is a supervising factor from a higher rung (but probably in the brain) so to speak, different from being a process, capable of interrupting mental activity.
I use computer language like ‘process’ and ‘interrupt’ cause they mean exactly the same thing as what I experience, But let me observe another year, and my language will fine-tune and perhaps point to the real source of the ‘interrupt’.
I understand your ‘ego as observer’, but I don’t see an ‘unlimited mind’ in my interrupts.
I see indeed that the metacognition level is not going to stay for ever. But only my future experiences will tell how this could happen for this individual. Ive been actively ‘metacogniting’ now for about 12 years, but awareness is always in the background. Already long before that. It is comparable if not the same thing as that sudden spark of insight when creating something ‘completely different’.
so you tamed the “Chef Ramsey!”
exactly – although my impersonation is more cynical
lol
Great sense!!
thank you
You’re welcome~ Cheers!!
so you stopped the meta-cognition ?
I stopped the ‘mental games and circles’ – meta-cognition is part of that. Meta cognition is a mental process. Awareness is the interrupt.
Not unlike a meditator losing the vision of thoughts and those thoughts taking over. Meta-cognition is just a process competing for brain-power. It is not strong enough to survive against the flood of opinions and interpretations about sensations. But suddenly you notice that you are not tracking and logging the thoughts any more … that is awareness.
thanks for clarifying.
Exercising common sense by stepping out is a relationship saver. I don’t hold onto to regret but I do recall times when my anger was triggered and I didn’t walk away as well as the results of remaining. Now when I feel anger arise I visualize an iceberg, start following my out breath, and I step out.
… it is the best thing to do …
Good sense
thank you