| Living a Life of Constant Total Amazement By: Dave | | | | The best way to explain this is for you to begin |
| Cole | | | | watching your thoughts. You'll see that some of these |
| In the movie, Joe vs the Volcano, Joe Banks played by | | | | thoughts aren't very nice at all. You may be having a |
| Tom Hanks is a loser. His life is despicable and the | | | | fight with your boss at this very moment while reading |
| news is: Joe is selling his soul to his boss for a measly | | | | this. You may have found yourself a thousand miles |
| 300 bucks a week. | | | | away. |
| Joe is also a hypochondriac which leads him to a | | | | Many of these thoughts we have are unkind and |
| doctor that tells Joe he has a terminal brain cloud and | | | | detrimental to our well being. How many times have |
| only a few months to live. | | | | you found yourself putting yourself down for |
| So this is the wake up call Joe needs to start living. He | | | | something you didn't do right, or found yourself getting |
| quits his job then runs into an eccentric billionaire played | | | | angry or upset over some event, or even found |
| by Lloyd Bridges who promises to give Joe the | | | | yourself in a mental fight with someone? |
| lifestyle of a king if he will end up jumping into a | | | | Someone cuts you off on the freeway and you |
| volcano. | | | | immediately go spastic and begin to shoot mental |
| Joe agrees and it's fun to watch him go on the | | | | bullets at them. |
| shopping spree going around in the white limo. Then he | | | | Those thoughts put you in a state of sleep and |
| is transported first class by air to Los Angeles, where | | | | prevent you from being fully aware of the present |
| he meets up with the billionaire's daughter Patricia | | | | world around you. |
| played by Meg Ryan, who is going to transport Joe to | | | | In the beginning of the movie, Joe was in a constant |
| a remote island on her yacht. | | | | state of psychic slumber. He had no amazement, no |
| One night on the yacht with the breeze gently blowing, | | | | awe, no wonder of life. His life was despicable. |
| Joe and Patricia are talking and Joe says that Patricia's | | | | When Joe began waking up, his life began to turn to a |
| life..... and life..... seem so unbelievable to him. | | | | state of amazement and awe and wonder at what |
| Patricia responds: | | | | was happening in the present moment around him. Just |
| "My father says almost the whole world's asleep. | | | | watch the scene where he is with DeDe at dinner and |
| Everybody you know, everybody you see, everybody | | | | you'll see the difference between a man at sleep and |
| you talk to. He says only a few people are awake. | | | | a man that is awake. |
| And they live in a state of constant total amazement." | | | | In fact DeDe says, "What's happened to you. This |
| The whole world's asleep.....think about that for a | | | | morning you were like a lump, now..... You're So Alive." |
| minute. | | | | It is in this state of amazement that you often find |
| Why was that put in there? | | | | children playing. They are having fun with life because |
| If you watched the move, did that strike you as being | | | | they are not lost in thought about some fear, they are |
| unbelievable it was even there? | | | | totally within and alive in the present moment and |
| What being asleep and what waking up means is | | | | awake to what they are doing. |
| what we are going to explore for the rest of the | | | | These unkind thoughts we have draw us farther |
| article. | | | | away from the awe and amazement that life really is. |
| Waking Up that's what it's about. It took a death | | | | And as you begin to wake up and live in the present |
| sentence for Joe to begin waking up. When he did, he | | | | moment, amazing things can and do happen. |
| found himself entering into a world that was | | | | Which way would you rather live? |
| unbelievable and a world that most folks don't even | | | | In a world where you are lost in painful thoughts or a |
| know exists. | | | | world where you are in a state of constant total |
| Let's flash forward in the movie to the scene where | | | | amazement? |
| it's night and Joe is on a raft and the moon begins to | | | | Go watch a cat. Cats are fully awake and aware in |
| rise overhead. | | | | their own present moment. What creature is there that |
| The moon seems so huge and awesome to Joe that | | | | more lives a life of amazement than a cat? |
| as a movie watcher you become so caught up in the | | | | Cat's don't get lost in thought like we do, they are fully |
| vastness of the moon and the drama of the movie | | | | aware of themselves and their environment all the |
| that you almost become one with the entire | | | | time. Now a cat may stare intensly at a predator, but it |
| experience. | | | | is not lost in thought. |
| Before this in the movie he is asking himself and others | | | | To be fully awake to the present moment, begin to |
| the question does God exist. Joe is awestruck, and in | | | | watch your thoughts. Some of them may be ugly. |
| that moment of realization, he just knows that God | | | | When you practice watching your thoughts, you'll begin |
| exists and becomes so grateful for his life. The | | | | to see yourself going off in all different kinds of |
| moment is one of total amazement for Joe and the | | | | directions over nothing, it's these thoughts that keep us |
| movie watcher. | | | | asleep and away from a state of wonder and awe. |
| In that moment when Joe becomes one with the | | | | Don't try to change them, don't begin to put yourself |
| experience, he now understands.....the need for | | | | down for having them, for now, just watch them and |
| questions to be answered isn't there.....he wakes up to | | | | see how you react to them. |
| the present moment and all the present moment is | | | | Next work on being present in the now. Watch |
| trying to convey to him and finally the understanding he | | | | yourself as you do everything. Become aware of |
| has been seeking comes. | | | | where your arms are, where your legs are, what |
| Most of us are lost in thought. Now we're not talking | | | | temperature is it. As you read this, watch yourself |
| about practical thought, those thoughts you need to | | | | reading and be aware of where and who you are |
| drive a car or solve problems, we're talking about all | | | | doing this. |
| those thoughts which aren't needed for life - thoughts | | | | Become fully awake to you and the experiences of |
| that are painful to us. | | | | this present moment and you will begin to see the |
| Being asleep means being lost in painful or unwanted | | | | amazement and wonder of your life as it should be. |
| thoughts. | | | | |