Welcome to Emotional Wellness Daily. We've been talking about the fact that where we put our awareness or our Da’at defines who we are. We are where our awareness is, and we can view, on the screen of our awareness, many different things.
I'd like to share a mashal: Imagine someone watching a movie for two hours, and during that time, he gets so engrossed that he becomes detached from reality. He’s so engrossed that there are no thoughts running through his mind. His brain is off. He is completely immersed in this movie, which is, so to say, projecting on his inner screen. When this happens to us, we gets so involved in what's happening I’m the screen that we might get jolted or scared, and even jump back when the car screeches on the screen. While you watch the movie, you're hearing and you're seeing- using two of your senses, and that gets you even more engrossed and connected.
But if, for some reason, the audio is not in sync with the video, you can't really get as engrossed it in. On the other hand, sometimes movie theaters are so advanced that smoke that comes out, and you can smell what's happening. Sometimes your seat starts shaking, and you can feel what's going on… but you still have your mind.
Now imagine if the movie screen was so advanced that when the character felt scared, you also got scared.. Imagine if the movie was actually in your brain. That would be very scary.
But in truth, that's really what's going on in life. We get drawn in to the outside movie. Life is really a video. Everything that's happening is happening because we get involved in it. But we can choose to get involved or not. We can choose to be in the situation or not. There are stories of great rabbis, who remained totally engrossed in their learning or what they were doing while the world was collapsing around them. What was going on outside wasn't where they were put their focus.
It's similar, in a short term way, to when people use breathing techniques to try to avoid pain. What happens is that they aren’t focusing on the pain- like using the Lamaze method for childbirth. They're not focusing on the pain.
The point is, it's really we who decide where we're going to be. That's why people like to learn meditation techniques; because all you really are is your conscious awareness. But there are multiple levels of how we can identify ourselves with things that are not really us. And we'll explain. Rav Wolbe tells a story of a time in Israeli politics when the government wanted to incentivize the ultra-Orthodox to join the army, and punish them for not joining
(there are such things currently in play as well. There are certain rights that you can't have unless you serve in the army.)
At one time, a person couldn’t get a driver's license unless he served in the army. There was a tremendous uproar in the Yeshiva world. The Yeshiva boys wanted licenses (eventually the idea was dropped).
Rav Wolbe was thinking, as great thinkers do, what’s the big uproar? What’s the great need for licenses?
These boys didn’t need licenses. They could take bus or a bicycle. What was the need for a car?
He said that when a person drives a car, he identifies with his car. His self becomes larger. When you sit behind the wheel in a small sports car and go from zero to 60 in a few seconds, that surge of energy somehow identifies with you.
It's a fascinating concept, when you think about it, and it's almost false. When people go on vacations and rent luxury cars, sitting behind the wheel of a Rolls Royce or a Bentley, they suddenly feel more important. They identify themselves with that car.
We can identify ourselves with many things, but as we said, our job is not to identify with the false identities inside of us.
And just like we can get engrossed in that movie, we can get engrossed in the movie of life, instead of peeling away the layers of the onion, so to say, to get to who we really are.
That's our goal- not to lose our identity in the false identities that are out there.