The Subjectivity Vortex

The Focus of a Furnace Without a Chimney

Of all the advice in the world that you do not want to listen to, it is the advice of a disturbed mind. (Location 1317)

Telling myself the worst case scenario can happen non-intuitively allows me to pass the block. It seems that by fully embracing and acknowledging the anxiety, it is allowed to occupy the part of the brain that disposes of closed loops.

But it is just as important to realize that most of what you take in does not get blocked; it makes it right through you. Imagine how many things you see all day. They’re not all stored like that. Of all these impressions, the only ones that get blocked are those that cause either problems or some extraordinary sense of enjoyment. (Location 827)

Consciously remember that this is not what you want to do, and then gently disengage. Do not fight it. Do not ever fight your mind. You will never win. It will either beat you now, or you will suppress it and it will come back and beat you later. Instead of fighting the mind, just don’t participate in it. When you see the mind telling you how to fix the world and everyone in it in order to suit yourself, just don’t listen. (Location 1367)

For example, there are myriad things that you see at any given moment, yet you only narrate a few of them. The ones you discuss in your mind are the ones that matter to you. (Location 211)

Your consciousness is actually experiencing your mental model of reality, not reality itself. (Location 213)

Local experience of reality is actually subjective fixation on one or some amongst the many. This is a very powerful tool, but is a double edged sword when used to cause suffering.

Meaning and reality were not hidden somewhere behind things, they were in them, in all of them. (Location 369)