I believe we all want to know how we are supposed to be spending our time. It feels like there is a specific answer to this question, a designated path we should somehow match with perfection. I remember growing up with the movie “The Wizard of Oz.” In the 1970’s, this movie aired on t.v. once a year and it was a thrill each time it came on. I have a very clear memory of the scenes with the crystal ball, when the wicked witch looks into it to see what Dorothy and her friends are doing. I know crystal balls have been around for a while, but I only knew about them from this movie.
We all have our own crystal ball that can give us precise information about how we should be spending our time. When looking into a crystal ball, like in the movies, we see ourself in a contained space (the ball) in some action. I am going to suggest two places to look for this magical report. The first is our own skin. Like a ball, we are three dimensional. Our skin is the container of our whole body covering all of us. Our action is the shape our body makes in the space it is occupying. Therefore, if we want to look into our crystal ball to see what we should be doing, we can sense, touch or look at our skin to see it indicating our present physical activity.
Now this may sound like a crazy solution, but it is full proof. There is no part of us that is outside our skin barrier; even our thoughts are in our brain inside our skull inside our skin. We are our skin. Furthermore, it is close by and accessible to our curiosity every moment of the day which means we can get our questions answered whenever we need to (regarding what we should be doing with any given situation on our mind). When the witch or Dorothy wanted to know what their enemies were doing they looked into the glass for a reliable response. When we want to know what we are doing, we can look to our skin for an exact account.
The second place we can look, which may be easier for some, is the surface we are on. We are always on a surface because of gravity (even when under water we are ultimately held up by the ground under the water, or we can just consider the water to be the surface we are on). When looking to the surface, you can give it one word in your mind. For me right now it would be “chair.” My chair is under me, catching most of my weight, in addition to the floor that my feet are falling onto. In this case I can list two surfaces, but one is sufficient. Because my body is always a whole (parts can never split off from each other even though I may feel fragmented), the whole of me is on the chair (head included). Now, this takes some practice. Most of us are rarely aware we are ever even on a surface. So, pointing out the surface to oneself will be unfamiliar, but very grounding (pun intended!). I first acknowledge the word to myself, “chair,” and then slowly come to the sentence, “I am sitting on the chair.” This confirms the space and activity I am in.
This last recognition is the jackpot because it is what we look for when looking into a crystal ball. We want to know where we will be and what we will be doing. Now I understand that when we think of a crystal ball we think of a future predicament, but I believe that underneath the desire to know what life has in store for us is the hunger to know how we are supposed to be spending our time to begin with. Are we living our life correctly?
In my experience of life on this planet and the physical laws we are all subject to, there is nothing physically possible, ever, other than what one’s body is doing in the current moment. It is not physically possible for us to jump into the future to know something (nor for some other entity to know something about us) because those events haven’t happened yet! We can only know what has already happened, and the closest we can get to knowing what we are doing now is to observe it, and by the time that information registers to our conscious mind the activity is already over. If we can barely see the present moment, how could we possibly know the future? However, the silver lining is that we can know what we are supposed to be doing because it is what we are doing.
A crystal ball is a contained visual space that displays an activity by our body and this can be obtained either by tuning into our skin or identifying the surface we are currently on. Gravity is a strong force and we are bound to whatever our physical placement is at any given time. Even in an airplane or a helicopter we are still sitting or standing on a surface. In outer space we are contained to a spaceship and equipment which harnesses our weight. Thus, the contained space where we can witness our activity is either the encasement of our skin or the surface to which we are bound.
Are you ready to look into your crystal ball to find out how you are supposed to be living your life? This does not mean your thoughts will not flow as they usually do, accompanying you in all your daily actions and movements. Everything we do, every space we occupy is our path, with nothing left out, including every thought and feeling we have. However, when our thoughts contain messages telling us we should be spending our time differently than we are, then our personal crystal ball can set the story straight, no matter how disappointing the news may be. It can be devastating to come to terms with our actual path (at least what we know of it up until now), but it does signal the truth. No glass ball could ever speak a more accurate tale than looking down to see what our body is doing right now. The next time you feel like you are not behaving correctly, remember that you can look into your crystal ball to find out your true destiny.
Jill Eng 