I don't believe in aliens but maybe I am wrong. It has happened twice now, without warning or explanation. Two different friends, each highly intelligent, worldwise and knowledgeable, suddenly changed. They live far from each other and I am confident they don't know each other, probably never met.
Suddenly, they both show signs of deeper wisdom, greater acceptance of the trajectory of life, both their own and their loved ones. The older one let me know one day that he had just completed a retreat wherein he learned meditation and through it gained greater calm, acceptance of life's ups and downs and gratitude for all the good things and people in his life and history. Where the heck did that come from??
The other guy has kidded me several times about being unduly optimistic about life and death. This same chap suddenly starts going on about the good things in life, the joys and pleasures to be had. I asked him what has come over him? You know the first thing he said? "I have just been paying attention". !!!!! Just been paying attention? I am confident he has never heard of B. Alan Wallace and his The Attention Revolution or Dan Siegel's Aware. I bet he didn't read this from my blog post:
Reading Rosenberg, I learned about his trip to Korea to practice with Korean Buddhists. The group was to practice meditation from 3 AM to 11PM for 90 days straight. That seems too rigorous to me. So, when I read that that group was going to spend a solid week without sleeping, I thought the idea was REALLY over the top!
The problem was that, in addition to my fatigue, I was carrying around an extra burden: the concept of seven days without sleep. I would be able to get through the week, he said, if I would put that burden down, if I took every activity moment by moment, breath by breath, giving full attention to whatever it was. Every sitting period, every walking period, every break, every meal. Just stay in the moment, and I would be fine.
Rosenberg, Larry. Breath by Breath (Shambhala Classics) (pp. 27-28). Shambhala. Kindle Edition.
With the right alien takeover, he didn't need to read those books. He just paid attention on his own.
