Foundational Principle for this Lesson:
To explore the ways that we make sense of our lives and the world around us.
Definition: Meaning – Intention and significance
STUDENT: What does it mean for something to have meaning?
LEWIS: It implies that something is important to us. It reinforces our sense of being.
STUDENT: How would I even know if something had more than a superficial meaning to me? What makes something significant? Is this something I need to go to school and study?
LEWIS: It is both a personal choice, to give something significant meaning and it may also have a universal element as well. Either way, “meaning” is essential to which we are. Many of us have developed an increased awareness of our cultural, ethnic and religious roots. One does not need special training or a college degree to see the value in people, places and things, especially those people, places and things that form a 'living landscape' of the known and unknown stories that have shaped who we Are.
STUDENT: Why is this discussion about meaning important for creating greater love and freedom in our lives?
LEWIS: What we give meaning to, and what that meaning is, is a reflection of how we think and function.
“Meaning” was not something I thought much about as a concept. Then I had an epiphany of sorts in 2007. I was attending a convention in Dallas Texas. Waking up unusually early I turned on the television and came upon a television show called the Farmer’s Almanac. It was sort of a “60 Minutes” style show with short fifteen minutes stores of interest to thinkers, farmers and those who generally take pleasure in watching educational television. At 500 AM in the morning. I was half looking out the window and half listening to the television when a specific segment on this show caught my attention. It was one of those segments that speaks to something you already know well, but is clearly out of the box of what you had previously thought to be the norm on the matter.
This particular story was about a cultural anthropologist who had accumulated a collection of almost identical, seemingly ordinary objects that were actually so unique, so unusual, and so meaningful as to deserve an exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC. In fact, the collection was so valuable, and took so long to accumulate that they had come to his private little museum, packed everything up neatly, transferred them to Washington, and when the exhibit had run its course returned them all to him.
Anyone could obviously see when looking at his collection that all there was to view were small bottles, identical in size and shape, filled with a clear liquid of some type.
He explained that each of these small bottles contained the water he had drawn from one of the major rivers in the world: The Nile, Amazon, the Thames, the Seine, the Mississippi, the Hudson, even the little Sin Antonio River, no more than five or ten feet wide in some places. “The bottles hold the history of mankind, for what is mankind without fresh water?” If you weren’t catching water from the rain you can to go to lakes, ponds, streams etc., all of which either came from or fed into rivers – “these rivers.”
It was an interesting story and the interviewer commented about how unusual this type of collecting was. Then the anthropologist said something that really effected me in the moment and has stayed with me ever since. This is not a direct quote of what he said but it is the meaning it presented to me. ”Obstacles define much of what goes on in our lives. We function day to day pretty much automatically and then suddenly we experience an obstacle, often associated with some physical or psychological discomfort. It might be a red light that causes us to hit the brakes on our car. It might be walking up the steps of a non-functioning escalator or a long line at the post office. When things, events, or people limit our freedom these “obstacles” take on meaning. We also are drawn to things of great beauty, sensuality and elegance. These things also have meaning. So as you can see, to notice something in our lives is to give that thing meaning.”
I thought to myself, “If it had no meaning would we even notice it?”
He responded to this internal question as if he was reading my mind through the television screen.
“The question we may need to ask at this is, was the meaning already there waiting for us to notice? Possibly there was a shift in our perception of things that gave something meaning that might not have had any meaning just a few moments earlier?”
He smiled with a twinkle in his eye and said, “That is the difference between a bunch of small, water filled bottles lining a wall and the history of the movement and survival of mankind through history, as represented by the rivers of the world.”
STUDENT: So in the end what he is saying is that “It’s all about what something means to you?!”
LEWIS: That is the meaning I get from what he is saying.
STUDENT: Why is this idea important to the Harrison Mentoring Process?
LEWIS: This concept can have great implications for how you think, make choices in your daily life, use language, and create your personal reality.
STUDENT: It seems as if these water filled bottles are almost sacred?
LEWIS: They may or may not be, but they certainly have meaning. They symbolize something important to the anthropologist in the story. And the story about the bottles has meaning for me. The bottles are symbols of something much bigger than just a bunch of water filled bottles.
STUDENT: Would you speak a bit more concerning how things are given sacred meaning?
LEWIS: Every culture has its own unique ways of bestowing meaning or discovering meaning in objects or events. Shamans, especially among indigenous peoples, will use what I call “Tools of Meaning”. The Kabala, numerology, dowsing, plant spirit medicine or geomancy are used to access certain information, illuminate hidden meanings, and magnify intuition so as to supply the necessary conclusions regarding the power and purpose of a place, or event.
STUDENT: How does focusing on “meaning” and the use of symbols influence the Harrison Mentoring Process?
LEWIS: In our lives we will become involved directly or indirectly with religion, politics, psychology, art, etc. All of these areas of life use symbols. The more an individual appreciates the concept of meaning and symbols, the more effective they will become.
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ABOUT THE HARRISON MENTORING PROCESS:
The Harrison Mentoring Process is s personal transformation blog. It was created by Lewis Harrison, an acclaimed practical philosopher, author, speaker and contemporary spiritual teacher.
Much of Lewis work is influenced by a wide range of influences including the teachings, writings, and ideas of Plato (particularly the ideas attributed to Socrates), Joseph Campbell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Lao Tsu and the Taoist Masters, the Bal Shem Tov, Meister Eckhart, Rumi, Buckminster Fuller, Jung, Freud, The Zen Master Suzuki Roshi, Milton Erickson, Masters and Johnson, Tantric philosophy, Vincent Collura, the Radha Soami mystics of India, and the psychologist Daniel J. Weiner. This blog is extracted from a larger 3,600 page body of work. The work also integrates physical, emotional, spiritual healing and a wide range of holistic models including those used in the work of Deepak Chopra, Tony Robbins, Wayne Dyer etc. Much of the work addresses diverse techniques including Polarity Therapy, meditation, psychotherapy, cranial-sacral massage, Chinese medicine, Taoism, Zen, and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP).
Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000149 EndHTML:0000001909 StartFragment:0000000199 EndFragment:0000001875 StartSelection:0000000199 EndSelection:0000001875 This blog is extracted from a larger work composed of over four hundred informational, inspirational and motivational conversations between Lewis Harrison and his students. These conversations are structured in Q & A format and integrate a vast, varied, and wide range of theories and disciplines.
To learn more about Lewis Harrison’s work or to coach/mentor with him go to http://www.lewisharrisoninspires.com
And
http://www.lewisharrisoninspires.com/services.html
Feel free to e-mail Lewis at
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or call him at 212-724-8782
Conversation on the Art and Science of Meaning with Lewis Harrison
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2 comments
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Sunday, 23 October 2011 23:47
posted by Brandywine
Furrleaz? That's marvelously good to know.
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Tuesday, 26 July 2011 15:56
posted by Willie
And I was just wonerdnig about that too!
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