The Business Illusion

Sep 17, 2018 | Business Coaching

Question – What have you ever experienced outside of awareness?

Answer – Nothing.

business illusion

We live in a world of apparent form and realness. Assuming things to be fixed and finite in time and space.  When on closer investigation it turns out that the only way any of this can exist is through our ‘knowing’ of it, in experience, in awareness.

Could it be possible then, that everything exists because it arises within awareness into our experience, and therefore the common factor in everything we experience is the “I” that experiences it?  This is the Inside-Out understanding that I teach and coach from.  Understanding this can have big implications for business.

The experiential nature of things applies to the physical objects in awareness, financial obligations, our businesses and careers, as well as the sensations, thoughts and feelings that mould our lives.  We experience these things as real because they are experiential.  Just like a dream appears real because our experience of it is real. What does this mean?  Well, it means that everything which we have previously taken to be true as a hard and fast thing that is happening to us is up for grabs.

Let me expand on that

Take for instance that person in your team that makes you feels so angry.  Whoa, wait a minute.  If all of this is arising in awareness, and you are the “I” that is both the creator and the experiencer of that – how can it be possible that a separate team member can make you angry?!  They are not separate, they are made of experiential awareness, in exactly the same proportions that you are.  So how can anything that is not separate from you, make you feel anything?  It can’t.  You are the experiencer and the experience.

Or what about that enormous workload and that impending deadline, that keeps you awake at night, with stressful thoughts about how it could possibly go, and whether you’ll be okay if you don’t get it done.  Again, stop right there.  The experience of work, the experience of stress, the experience of time is all subjective.  It is all made of thought arising within awareness.  And when we fall into an understanding of that suddenly we can’t be anything other than okay.  We have all the time we could possibly need, and however it turns out, it’s okay.

What about the success of your business as a whole?  Well the concept of success in itself is subjective – yet we objectify business success as though it is something separate to us that we need to reach.  Business success (or lack thereof) can only ever exist within our experience.  We are the “I” in which the experience of business unfolds.  And we are the “I” which creates that success. All of it is subjective, and all of it is transitory.  The idea that we can be happy or secure as a result of something which is created within our observation, cannot be true. Because just as quickly as we have experienced having success, we can experience losing it. It’s only the appearance of things that may give us a fleeting moment of gratification, or worry. The security comes from knowing that the business is the “I” unfolding. Nothing more.  You are not your business.  You are the creator.

Still not sure

Play around with this idea for yourself.  See if you can find the place where experience stops and something else starts.  See if you can know a way in which things can exist objectively (without the experience of them).

If you want to know more, keep an eye out for future posts.

Want to know more about how I can help? Drop me a line or give me a call. A successful coaching relationship depends upon a great rapport, so it’s important to talk. I want to get to know you, see inside your world and we can assess how we’d go from there!