Though I happen to be a big fan of television, well, only the shows that speak to me, I don’t mean for you to take this title literally. It is meant to serve as an analogy, a good one, a way we can feel like we can watch TV all day long, a mini-series or movie of our own life, the actual true story of our actions as they present moment to moment, with nothing left out.
In the way we observe characters in their actions on the television screen (or computers these days), we can follow our own body moving through its physical actions on the screen it plays out on, which is the physical surface we are on. Although it seems like we act “in our mind” via our thoughts, in reality, we are physical bodies in motion, always on some surface. In our everyday living, it is easy to identify the specific surface we are on through sight, touch or sensing our weight. We are, in fact, falling onto the surface (we know this because if someone were to pull a trapdoor or slide a piece of furniture out from under us we understand we would fall). This surface is our personal TV screen where all our real-life actions take place. As we are each always a whole body (head attached to the rest of us, though it doesn’t generally seem this way), any action we are ever in is being executed by the whole of us in its inherent physical coordination (though we may only notice a hand or a leg in motion). Even thoughts in our mind reside in our skull, which is on that surface via our spine, hips, legs bones and feet. So, it is accurate to say that all our actions may be viewed by looking to the surface we are on, our built-in television screen.
What is exciting about this awareness is that this screen is always accessible and truthful. It will never serve us fake news (unless of course we are hallucinating or under some type of dementia, etc.). When we watch television, we observe bodies (usually human) in their physical movements, activities, what we call actions. This transmits some story. We like stories. We need them; it is how we are evolutionarily wired. That is fine, if we know what’s real and what’s not. We spend much of our time internally watching fictional stories of our life playing out in our mind, another type of screen, where we see ourself and others moving around in actions we take to be real. But that screen presents only fictional accounts.
I am selling you a television that provides only nonfiction about your life; it will tell you exactly what you should be doing, the verifiable “supposed tos” for which you have been turning to your mind. Look down. Watch real TV. See your screen (the surface—couch, chair, floor, mountain, etc.) and your whole body on it, parts moving as they do (breath movement, pulse, blinks, swallows included). Practice observing your bodily movements in real time to acknowledge that they are the only actions you will ever be able to take, that you will ever take, and, therefore, the correct ones that should be happening. They are your destiny.
Jill Eng 