Class 5 Homework Portal

Homework assignments are provided at the end of each class meeting. They are entirely optional and intended to integrate the teachings into your everyday life. At the start of the next class, Kelly may choose to read excerpts from homework submissions. If you choose to share your findings, they may be included. Your name will not be read aloud. If you cannot attend the live Q&A sessions, then please enter your name and questions into the portal. That way, Kelly can respond to you via email. 

This week’s homework assignment:

Your homework this week is to find the distinction between the person and the programming. The person refers to your present-moment experience of human-beingness. The programming refers to whatever your mind happens to be saying at that very same moment. In order to choose willingness, you must be able to differentiate the person from the programming. 

This is an essential practice in the reclamation of power. Why? Because the mind is constantly scanning (to evaluate your situation), planning (based on your past experiences), and advising (to control your future happiness). All the while, the mind is unaware of its blind spot (regarding what you can actually control). If you take your thoughts to be reality, rather than seeing them for what they are, then you slip into a habitual pattern of disempowering yourself.

Alternatively, you can reclaim the focus of your attention and find what is alive in your experience. With repetition, you will begin to distinguish the person from the mental machinery. You can start by following these concrete steps:

• Open up to the experience that you’re experiencing. 

• Use single words to label physical sensations (e.g., “tight, hot, tingling”)

• Use single words to label thoughts (i.e. “thinking” or “programming”)

• Find the distinction between the person and the mental machinery

Please report any discoveries in the portal below. Be sure to click the “submit” button.