The Empty Living Room
Through the three slaps exercise, I discovered that I have full control over my hand.
In the thief in my living room exercise, that discovery was challenged, yet not invalidated.
It was clarified.
I have full control over my hand, but I do not have full access to it.
I am fully in its control, and fully out of its control.
What happened?
I realized that something sits between me and my hand. It is nobody—just a thing. I am not interested in what it is or how it came to be. I only know with certainty that something is there.
If I recognize that, I see I am in familiar territory.
That is the first case of
the three slaps exercise:
something I have no control over, but which has control over me.
That is just nature.
That is natural.
I could try to turn this into a second-case situation. I could try to educate, reform, punish, or reward whatever sits between me and my hand. But if that worked, I would already have full control and full access.
Perhaps this is not convincing enough, so let’s return to our thief. He is still in my living room. He is no different from me in any way.
All my realizations about myself apply to him. He has full control over his hand, but not full access to it.
What is he doing in my living room?
He is as helpless as I am.
Nobody else is slapping me.
I am not slapping myself either.
I am simply slapped.
I do not blame him for being in my living room.
I do not blame myself for slapping myself.
The second case and the third case fold into the first.
I saw nature in the human.
I saw human nature.
I saw both in myself.
The case is not closed.
It is opened even more.
Now the three cases are not outside me.
They are inside me.
Case 1 is nature.
Case 2 is human.
Case 3 is I.
Human is nature.
I is human nature.
My hand is double-folded: I have full control, yet it is also controlled by nature.
Like breathing. No human has access to or control over my breath. I have full control and full access to my breathing— but not always. It is shared custody.
When I have access, I have full control.
When I lose access, I lose control.
This does not mean I do not have full control.
This does not mean I do have full control.
It means both.
I stand in the living room.
I am ready to resume the scene.
Am I interested in what the thief will do?
Am I interested in what I will do?
I have no full access to my hand.
I have no full access to the thief.
The thief has no full access to his hand.
Play.
I explain all of this to thief, he says what a non-sense.
We agree finally that he is free to take anything.
We part ways.
Thank you thief for all you gave me.
Thank you thief for all you took from me.
I am in my empty living room.
My living room is emptied.
I am ready to visit the living room of the thief.