MacGyver Of Consciousness

Making use of the resources the Mystery leaves lying around for us and using them to help grow our consciousness.

In the 80s there was a show on TV called MacGyver. I don’t remember a lot about it other than the main character, MacGyver, used to find himself locked in cupboards, or small rooms a lot. What was unusual about the places he found himself was the surprising amount of raw materials that always seemed to be lying around. From these bits and pieces, MacGyver would fashion the most amazing things. He was the sort of guy who could make an airplane out of two elastic bands, a broom, and five coat hangers. You and I would just see a pile of stuff, MacGyver would see a working hydroelectric motor or something equally complicated.

It occurred to me recently that when it comes to consciousness we too can be like MacGyver. The Mystery leaves all sorts of raw materials lying around for us. Everything is an opportunity to grow our consciousness if we can see it for what it is.

The Yips

Here is one example. Four years ago I was standing on the 10th tee on a local golf course I had played many times. Normally the place was deadly quiet and you were alone with your thoughts and your swing. Not this day. 

This day it was packed to the gills with golfers. They were in from another club playing their own little tournament. The tee box was empty and quiet so I didn’t think it would make any difference. I lined up the shot, a shot I had taken many times before, and took my swing. I sent my ball straight into the pond in front of the tee box. “That is unusual,” I thought to myself, shrugged it off, lined up my second ball and pretty much did the same thing again. I tried another couple of times with similar results. It slowly began to dawn on me that I was being influenced by all the people around me. 

The weird thing was, I wasn’t consciously aware of it. It was not like I was saying to myself, “Oh God, please don’t let me screw this shot up because there’s so many people around.” I wasn’t, but try as I might, I just could not hit a straight drive. 

In that moment I became a little bit more conscious because I realised I was being influenced, or some part of me was being influenced, by the people around me. I became conscious in a very embodied way of the effect my unconscious has on me.

Ancillary Oneness

Here is another example. I was reading a science fiction trilogy recently. It was full of complicated political intrigue and artificial intelligences running vast ships. Each ship had its own personality and had hundreds of ancillaries which were bodies the ship controlled.

The ship could be down on a planet looking out of all the different eyes of its ancillaries and at the same time be up in space taking care of the crew and running maintenance checks. It was easy to get distracted into the plots and subplots when suddenly it dawned on me that the ships were like the Mystery.

Many bodies, each having its own experience but one mystery expressing itself through each. This has been my observation of how the Mystery is as it expresses itself in me and also in other people.

Force Vs Power

Here is another example. There are two big steel gates at the entrance to where I live. I have to open them whenever I enter or leave, and I have to close them again behind me or the donkeys and sheep will make a run for it.

If it is raining or I am rushed I will often try to pull the gate closed from very close to where the gate is hinged. This requires huge effort and puts a lot of strain on my wrists.

I usually notice this when I am closing the first gate so with the second gate I hold it as far away from the hinge as possible. This always requires a lot less strain because I am using the gate itself as a lever so it swings closed with ease.

Life is like this too. If I charge forward in my life trying to force it to do what I want it to do, it never goes well, it puts a lot of strain on me, and doesn’t get anything achieved any faster.

When I relax, step back a little I can see what is there rather than what I want to be there and I can respond to it and move with it, and when I do that everything goes a lot easier.

What if?

If you would like another example here is a video I made about moving a garden shed.

MacGyver Of Consciousness

When we start to see the raw materials the Mystery leaves lying around for us we can be like a MacGyver of consciousness and see everything as an opportunity to grow our consciousness.

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Image courtace of The Atlantic