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Chapter 2
Frames of Reference for Questioning

    There is an old story told about a very holy man. He was so holy that God came to him one day and said, ``You may ask one question, and I will answer it'' out of respect for his life of holiness. Our hero, feeling that this was a big responsibility, said, ``Would you mind giving me a little time to decide on the right question?'' God said, ``When you have the question, I will be here.''
    The holy man thought and thought. He knew that this was a very unusual opportunity: to get an answer to a question direct from the Creator's mouth. And being concerned about everyone as well as himself, he thought about all the questions that people had about living so he could pick the one question that they would most want answered. He wanted his unique opportunity to benefit everyone.
    Finally he decided that the question that bothered people the most -- because they just weren't sure which answer was really right -- was: ``What happens after death?''
    In that instant, God came to him and said, ``Ask it aloud, just to be sure it's the one you want to ask.'' The holy man said, ``I want to know what happens after we die.''
    God replied, ``You got it,'' and the holy man dropped dead.
    So I won't attempt to answer that one. It may be that questions can only be truly answered by experience. And I'm not interested in that experience, yet.
    I have noticed another question, though, that is very much on people's minds. This question can be answered with a little work on the question itself: what is the point -- what is the meaning of life? It cannot be answered as asked; but that is obvious, isn't it? Since no one has ever managed to answer it to most people's satisfaction. So one must accurately say in response to the question as asked: there is no meaning to life. Because the question itself is meaningless.
    However, there is purpose to all things, which is better than a meaning, isn't it? If you were to look the word meaning up in the dictionary, you would find that it originally meant purpose. But now we use the word to say ``why a thing exists'' -- with a story to explain it -- and call that its ``meaning.''
    If I could see the purpose, or intention, or use of a thing: would I care what story someone told to explain its existence? Do I need an explanation of fire, no matter how interesting, to know how to make a fire? So I can use fire to keep warm or to cook food?
    Before we start to deal with this, or any other, question: let's look at questioning itself. Because there are many different ways to question. Sometimes we ask questions to find out how to use something for our aims. At other times we ask questions to find out why something is happening, so we can change it from what we don't want into what we do want. Many times we simply ask questions to accumulate answers: believing that we will be safe with enough information; or that we will be well-respected and seem important to others if we can furnish answers to anything anyone might ask -- even if we don't actually understand the answer ourself.
    Real asking, or investigating to answer a question, can only be answered by my own experiences. We have been taught to believe that questions are answered by what others have found out; unless you are in the business of finding answers yourself, of course. That's okay -- but the problem with it is -- the answer does me no good until I experience it for myself.
    I've often told a little story to illustrate this -- if I went and read all there is to read about flying a plane, asked everyone I could find who had ever flown a plane about flying, but never flew one: would you like to be the passenger on my first flight? If your answer is no way, then how can you go on believing that having information without experience is to know or understand a thing?
    To make sense out of any of the answers to the question that is being investigated here, each reader will need to go out and experience each part of the answer for themselves. Just as we need to actually fly a plane, thereby using the theoretical information about flying, before we can consider ourselves qualified to fly and pilot a plane on our own -- before we can say we understand the information that we've accumulated about flying. With something as dangerous as flying a plane we intelligently look for a guide with experience of their own, so they can lend us the benefit of that experience while we fly with them; until we have enough experience of our own to fly solo. And the only way we have found to know if our guide has the experience and skills necessary is to ask others who have used the guide before -- or to try it ourselves while looking for things the guide tells us to do that don't work or that don't match our experiences as we do them.
    So one of the best reasons for actually experiencing an idea or answer is to be able to use it in daily living. Without experience, ideas always come from thinking. But thought is too slow to deal with activity. The fact is that we deal with events, which are very quick compared to analytical thinking, from a frame of reference or point of view which is built up from our experiences. There is not always enough time to analyze a situation with thinking before deciding on a response to whatever is happening, now.
    So there are at least two ways we can live: by acting based on remembered answers to questions as ideas or by acting based on understanding, living that has been fully experienced with technical ideas about living. When we start believing that we can counterfeit understanding with remembered answers (called ideas), our frame of reference stops growing. As long as all we are doing is talking, which like thinking is very slow compared to acting, we give the appearance of being very intelligent and knowledgeable. As soon as action is required to deal with an actual event in life, we seem like a child to anyone who is paying attention to what we do, because our frame of reference stopped growing when we were a child: as soon as we decided it was okay to remember ideas rather than experiencing living with understanding. This is hard for us to accept, but it can be seen very easily. Just watch everyone else: we can be objective about them. See if they are not doing the same thing little children do, just in a more sophisticated way.
    As soon as we went to school, we were taught to learn by memorizing and repeating unexperienced information: things that we were told were facts, but that we didn't have the ability or interest at the time to use in daily living so we could find out for ourself; thereby changing the ideas we were given into understanding in our frame of reference. So our frame of reference stopped growing, and we started believing in answers instead of experience.
    The ideas that we learned in school and experienced as we went about our living became a part of our frame of reference. So things like math and reading, since we use them a lot in actual living, became a part of our frame of reference, and we do them without thought. They are truly things that we know from experience. Other ideas that we had no ability or interest in using at the time, were either forgotten or became articles of belief.

**Definitions**
Frame of Reference A body of knowledge and/or knowing, memories, experiences and understanding that I call upon each moment to help make sense out of the overwhelmingly vast sensory input from the body. Everything that is sensed is perceived through the frame of reference so that it can be made sensible and acted upon as quickly as is necessary for the particular experience. When the frame of reference is not able to help make sense out of a particular experience, I need to proceed slowly, with thought, and investigate, and question intelligently, before acting.
Understanding Ideas from questions I or others have asked that I have actually used and observed myself over a period of time in my daily living, while looking for a contradiction to the answer, until it becomes a part of my frame of reference. Always the answer to an answerable question: usually a what, or sometimes a how, question. Always seen as partial: that there is always room for more experiencing that will allow the understanding to grow and develop over time.
Belief An answer to a question that may never have been observed or experienced in daily living, or at best was observed a few times in a singular type of experience; but which has been acted on often enough in all experiences that remind me of the original until it has become a part of the frame of reference anyway. Often an answer to the unanswerable: a why or how come question. That which I live by without understanding, or as a substitute or counterfeit for understanding.
Disbelief The same as a belief, except that the answer is not to my taste, not to my liking.
Parasite One whose frame of reference stopped growing in childhood. That one then relies on the efforts of others who have worked to answer questions. The workers' answers are used by the parasite as rules for believing and disbelieving without ever making the effort to understand for self. Thus the frame of reference consists almost entirely of beliefs and disbeliefs; and the parasite is completely disinterested in either seeing this fact or seeing the necessity for doing anything about this situation.

    As we inquire into our question, ``What is life's purpose?'', I will suggest things that you can easily do to experience the answer for yourself as we go along, so that every aspect of the answer becomes understanding, rather than belief, in your frame of reference. As you do these experiments, you could make it possible to experience what is necessary to be able to see and use the ideas in your daily living.
    By doing these experiments, you may find out that the ideas given here to answer our question don't match your observations. If this is the case, you may choose to do the suggested experiment -- or some other that you devise -- just a little longer to make sure you haven't made an error in interpreting what is being observed -- since all interpreting is done by the current frame of reference. If it still doesn't match, then you don't need to read any further, do you?
    On the other hand, there really is no point in reading further without checking out the experiments -- without them there will simply be a further accumulation of ideas that can be talked and thought about, but it won't affect the frame of reference. So you won't be able to use the information in daily living without tremendous effort of will and thought.
    Now many readers will think that these experiments are too simple, too obvious. These readers' frames of reference, being full of beliefs, will make it appear that they do not need to experience these ideas: that they already know them, because they are obvious in thought. All they need to do is think about them, because they have already seen these simple things. So be it; those who wish to not only think about the ideas as we investigate our question, but who also want to understand them so that it provides a new frame of reference for living: these will find the experiments both interesting and worthwhile.
    There is a very simple-minded story told for those who do not feel the need to experiment for themselves to find out. It is said that there once was a person who wanted to find someone with an adult's frame of reference, someone who was not a parasite, so they could be guided into developing their own frame of reference, too. This person looked, and finally found someone who was reputed to be an adult, and decided to spend a little time observing them, just to make sure.
    So one day he went to where the adult lived and looked in their window, to see what they were doing. He saw the adult blowing on their hands, because they had just come in from outside where it was snowing, and the adult's hands were cold. He went away, thinking about what he had seen.
    The next day he went to their house again, and once more looked in their window to see how the adult lived life. This time he saw them blowing on a spoonful of soup that was steaming on the table in front of them, because it was hot. He went away, thinking some more about what he had seen on these two days.
    A few days later one of his friends asked whether the adult he had found had been willing to serve as guide. He said, ``I never asked.''
    His friend replied incredulously, ``Why not? I thought that's what you wanted more than anything else in the world.''
    ``I could never learn anything from such a simpleton!'' he shouted, disgust palpable on his face and in his voice. ``Why, can you believe it: but he thinks that the exact same method will both warm one thing and cool another thing?
    ``Who could possibly take him seriously?''
    Our frame of reference, of course, contains the ideas that resolve this apparent contradiction, which is why this story is so useful. But what if it took an idea outside our current frame of reference, one that we hadn't yet been exposed to, in order to understand such contradictory behavior? Would we need to experiment for ourselves with blowing on cold hands and hot soup just to make sense out of it, through our own experience? And then, after finding out that it does indeed work, would we need to work even more to investigate, and bring ourselves to an understanding of a principle about living that could be used in many other events that may not seem at first glance similar? In other words, bring an idea into our frame of reference through experience and intelligence that can be used without thinking, by the way that we perceive.
    How many of us are unable to see this technically: even though we have a frame of reference containing beliefs that resolve the contradiction; which allows us to do it without thinking about it? It is very simple to understand when seen technically on some level.
    Many will be able to see the difference between acting out of belief and acting with understanding by a simple experiment -- stop reading after you have finished this sentence, and think for a moment about an explanation for why the same method could be used to accomplish these two very different effects: warming and cooling by blowing on an object.

    In both cases, the temperature desired is closer to the temperature of our breath, isn't it? That part is obvious, but why does blowing accomplish these two different effects? When warmer air is exposed to cold hands, some of the heat transfers from the air to the hands; repeated exposure eventually warms the hands. When air that is cooler than hot soup is exposed to the soup, some of the heat transfers to the air, and the soup cools. We know this happens, but many will not be able to mention the heat transfer, they just know that it works.
    I know that we don't need this explanation, but most of us have experienced this through imitation, not through understanding of the way things work: we just know it works without thinking about it, but we don't understand it as a principle about living. So coming up with even this simple description is rather difficult for many of us -- but not all.
    Some will find even the explanation given here inaccurate, because they have a greater technical understanding. But it still serves to illustrate the point that many things we do out of belief are not understood technically.

**Experiment**
Frame of Reference Go to a day-care center and volunteer for a day. Watch how the children act. Write down your observations for future reference. Then spend a few days watching how your friends and coworkers act. Then spend a few more days watching your own actions. Compare the observations of yourself and friends and coworkers with what you saw at the day-care center.
Questions to Consider: Does it look like there are two things that we do differently: dealing with technical things and dealing with interpersonal relationships? Do we behave with a more adult frame of reference when we are doing technical things, and a sophisticated child's frame of reference in our interpersonal relationships? Do you see the similarity between the way that the children interacted at the day-care center and the way that grown-ups interact? Is it generally the same type of interaction, motivated by the same childish needs and behaviors; the behavior is just more sophisticated in adults?

    With a little work we can see that we actually have and use two separate frames of reference. We have learned about some technical subjects to some degree or other, such as the things that we do to deal with the technology we have built and the day-to-day problems and situations that are part of our jobs. This is an adult's frame of reference, based on experiencing knowledge and ideas in many events while living and observing fully, while looking for contradictions between the ideas we have learned and our actual experience.
    There is also much technical information that we have never actually experienced, but that we use anyway as an article of belief without understanding. So even on the job or when dealing with technical subjects, we often must use the child's frame of reference, because we have never developed an adult's frame of reference on that particular subject, that aspect of living.
    And in our interpersonal relationships, we almost always use a child's frame of reference, because we have never worked to experience technical ideas about relationships; what little there is available. Our frame of reference is all beliefs left over from the frame of reference the child developed while a child. Technical ideas about relationships have never been experienced as an adult because we already have a frame of reference for relationships that is left over from childhood. It is very rare for someone to see the need to develop a new frame of reference based on understanding technically.
    But the child's frame of reference defines our perception of all events, whether we like it or not, because that is what it is designed to do -- to make events sensible, so we can respond intelligently without taking the time to completely analyze and think about every situation that we encounter before we act. This is the crucial point that we must see to understand the necessity of all this discussion of frame of reference. Whether it is made up of technical ideas understood through experience or a jumble of conflicting beliefs and disbeliefs, we need a frame of reference at all times. Without it, the world would make no sense to us: everything would be like it was when we were an infant. Just a mess of sensory images that could not be resolved into a sensible picture that could be acted upon.
    So we switch back and forth between these -- the adult's and child's frames of reference -- usually without even noticing the change in perception they bring. Yet the difference is very easy to see if we pay attention and look for it.
    In fact, we enjoy telling each other stories about the ``nerds'' who are extremely capable when dealing with technology, but can't handle the brief relationship with the person who bags their groceries, much less a long-term intimate relationship. But we don't see that we do the same thing, to a different degree, perhaps, under different circumstances, or in different ways; but still it is about switching between two frames of reference. The ``nerds'' are just an obvious example of what we all do, so we label them and don't look at what their lives tell us about the way we all live.
    From this point of view, the main difference between the ``nerd'' and the ``normal'' person is the development of the non-technical frame of reference: for whatever reasons the ``nerd'' didn't develop a non-technical frame of reference that works very well in most situations. But they over-developed a technical frame of reference that works only in a very small number of situations, we say to compensate for an uncomfortable child's frame of reference. And they don't seem to see the need to enlarge the technical frame of reference to include the interactions badly accomplished by the child's frame of reference.
    Most of us are pretty good at dealing with the events of our job. But when we deal with a problem that requires interacting with others we often find ourselves involved in childish spats; and shouting matches; and shyness or fear to speak up and voice our requirements; and feelings of inadequacy or inferiority; and unnecessary competitive power games; and so on -- when, really, there is just a job to be done.
    Yet all of these are a part of living, and therefore something to be approached with understanding and intelligence. In other words, all of living can be seen as a technical subject, and investigated and questioned and experienced until living is seen through a frame of reference of technical understanding, regardless of the type of event. This is one of the great potentials that only man possesses, that he can be an adult; even though he doesn't have to grow up and develop that potential if he doesn't want to.

**Definitions**
Adult's Frame of Reference, or simply, Adult One who has checked out all the ideas that are in their frame of reference with experience to make sure that they are accurate. One who treats all things, including interpersonal relationships and daily living, as a technical subject to be understood. One who has a frame of reference with almost no beliefs or none at all. Thus, one who acts with understanding in all things.
Child's Frame of Reference, or simply, Child One whose frame of reference is almost completely based on beliefs and disbeliefs that have been experienced only vaguely, in the past when there was no understanding of living; or more often without any experience at all: simply as answers and mimicked behavior from others in our same situation that we have picked up here and there throughout our life. Thus, one who acts from beliefs and disbeliefs rather than from understanding.
Grown-up One who has an adult body, with some small degree of a technical frame of reference, but mostly a child's frame of reference full of beliefs and disbeliefs. Thus, one who acts with understanding very infrequently, but mostly as a child from beliefs and disbeliefs.

Most people have a strong belief that someone who looks at life with intelligence, with technical understanding, would no longer be able to take simple pleasure out of living. Again, we love stories about the psychologist who cannot deal with their family. Even though they have all the theoretical knowledge about the human psyche, they do the same things we all do; the only difference is that they are often paralyzed while trying to decide how to act on their theoretical ideas -- according to the stories. We love hearing these stories, but we rarely see that this is just another example of precisely what we are talking about: a child's frame of reference based on beliefs, rather than understanding, masquerading as an adult.
Someone with a technical understanding would possibly be even better at responding to the events of life. Because it would be seen through an adult's frame of reference. It would be responded to without all the thinking that the child's frame of reference requires when confronted with contradictory beliefs and actions. So the joy of simply living is not spoiled, but may be even more frequent and enhanced for an adult. And very little observing is required to see that the child's frame of reference does not increase the pleasure in living, but actually obstructs joy and replaces it with all the problems and competitiveness of children that an adult would simply not get involved in.

**Definitions**
Sense The information reported by the body to the mind about what is experienced in the environment, and to a lesser degree in the body itself. The actual experience of touching, hearing, seeing, and so on. We are not usually aware of the actual sensing, because the sensory information itself is immediately interpreted by the frame of reference, usually without our noticing the act of interpreting, and often the original sensory information itself.
Perceive The picture that is built up in the mind by interpreting what is sensed in light of what is in the frame of reference being used.
Attitude The overall state of the mind, body, thought and feelings in reference to this situation, as I perceive it.
Thinking Child A mental process invoked to either resolve a conflict, or to explain or justify what has happened in the past, or to be safe and happy in the future. In all cases, thinking is trying to decide on the right thing to do to reach a goal which would bring about that what is to the child's taste. The goal is always a picture in the mind of how things ought to be, often ignoring how things are (called worrying). When the goal is reached, then the child believes they will be happy. Adult Interest in carrying out an experiment to see what happens (without any goal) with the aim of enabling understanding to grow and develop; or simply because the adult is interested in the subject and realizes that it must be experienced to understand it. The thinking is about what experiment(s) might lead to understanding, and the observations that are made during the experiment, and how they compare with the idea being investigated that led to the experiment.
Feeling A response to the value placed on this moment as perceived by the current frame of reference, and projected to a probable outcome by all that is understood or believed and disbelieved about living and moving with the frame of reference being used. Value is always determined by our purpose of living: an outcome that will take me towards my purpose is valued highly; an outcome that will take me away from my purpose is also valued highly as something to be changed; an outcome that is seen as having little or nothing to do with my purpose of living is not valued. Child Feeling is always some degree of fear: apathy, anger, guilt, fear, anxiety, resentment, boredom, anticipation, occasionally contentment, love as taste for possessing some thing, etc. Adult Always some degree of confidence: vital interest, joy, enthusiasm, love without a motive, etc.
Acting Doing something to change a situation as I perceive it into another situation more to my taste, preference, or understanding; or as a response to a challenge; or to bring about what is seen to be to my advantage -- a motion put into effort. An action can only be taken while it is believed (at the moment of doing) to be either right, proper or justifiable as seen through the frame of reference being used at that moment. Only children are interested in justifying actions: an adult is simply responsible for their actions and the consequences. With love and understanding it is possible to act without a motive.

    The mind works in the same manner whether we are using the child's frame of reference or the adult's, although the effect of this working is very different when the frame of reference is based on technical understanding in an adult.
    When we hear something, or we see, or sense something in any way; it is immediately related it to everything that we can remember, or that we already think we know on the subject: our knowledge; and knowing, understanding and beliefs and disbeliefs if we have any. In other words, part of the mind's job is to recall from the frame of reference everything that it has stored as associated with what is being sensed now. It makes available to us all of our previous experience and understanding so that we can act in this current moment without needing to take the time to completely figure out everything that is going on first. A developed awareness can allow this to happen, and still pay attention to the facts being sensed and the picture that is developed out of the mind's function, and play with responding in some new ways. But this function of the mind is automatic, and happens in any case, and it is what allows us to do anything at all -- to act.
    All action is put into motion to bring about a desired result. To do this, we first need to know what is going on in this moment. Then we make a projection of this moment into a probable outcome. The most probable outcome allows us to decide whether we like this moment as it is, and would like to contribute to its continuing or completing; or whether we want it to be different, and would like to contribute to changing it, or perhaps even to stopping it.

**Definitions**
Respond To act on what is seen through the adult's frame of reference with all the creativity that comes from experiencing this moment fully and freely.
React To act on what is seen through the child's frame of reference by finding another moment in the past that was actually experienced and which is similar to this moment (but never the same). The action now will be the same action as in the past moment, reinterpreted to fit this moment's necessities. Reaction is never creative, it is just repetition of a past moment's creativity.

    Building this picture and projecting it to possible outcomes requires a framework. It is about the most amazing thing that all living beings do, and it is completely automatic from our point of view. In an adult human being, this automatic function can be determined, by taking great care to ensure that the frame of reference is completely based on a technical understanding of self and the way the world self lives in works.
    In the child, whose frame of reference and ``knowledge'' is based on the memory of answers without any actual experience, that is, it is full of beliefs and disbeliefs, then the new information or experience is believed or disbelieved, understood or misunderstood, and almost always misperceived, based on its similarity to existing beliefs and disbeliefs. The mind works by associating things that it has declared to be similar based on our understanding or lack thereof called knowledge, so that it can make available all the information necessary for perceiving this moment accurately. So the new thing is simply associated with what is already ``known.'' Then the new information is just stored in the memory as another belief or disbelief, which we call knowledge; or the new experience is reacted to based on what we have already done in the past when a situation like it was actually experienced. It has little effect on our frame of reference in either case, other than to further harden it in its current patterns, because this moment was actually not experienced; hard though we find that to believe.
    The adult, whose frame of reference is based on investigations into the actual nature of both self and its world (called a technical understanding), has a pretty good grasp of what is going on most of the time. And there is enough understanding that the probable outcome is quite often surprisingly (to the child) accurate. When their frame of reference cannot quite grasp what is going on now, their interest is in experimenting until there is enough new information to understand, before acting. And an adult's frame of reference is usually able to suggest ways to find out if the new information or the new experience is being understood accurately, by checking it out in actual living with an experiment.

**Definitions**
Conscious Awareness The state that comes from having intentionally, and with great effort, built a technical frame of reference for perception of all living, and reevaluated our purpose of living. This technical frame of reference is built by investigating all aspects of living by assuming that what I know and have heard and read and been told is wrong, and actually observing to see what is in the light of technical ideas that describe the subject.
Unconscious Awareness The state that comes from having built a very small and incomplete technical frame of reference on a very small number of subjects. Most of the frame of reference is made of unexperienced ideas, beliefs and disbeliefs and conclusions. And most of these were made during infancy, before I could possibly have had enough experience to make valid judgments. By the time that I am five or six, this frame of reference is complete enough that I have pretty much stopped investigating living, and now am simply attempting to struggle to a situation where I ``know'' I will be happy -- if I can just get there. This struggle requires that I learn much, since I don't know how. So I believe that I am still growing up, and still interested in learning new things. What I am really interested in, though, is how to believe hard enough so that I can get to this situation where I will finally be happy. Since this unconscious awareness is the only awareness that most of us have ever experienced, we believe it to be a conscious awareness.
Knowledge A list of ideas in memory that I believe and disbelieve from hearing, reading or imitating others -- but I have never experimented with any of it.
Knowing A state of being aware of what I am experiencing, now, without forming any conclusions. This knowing awareness extends to all that is being used from the frame of reference at this moment.
Conclusion The end of investigation into a particular subject: forms a belief or disbelief in the frame of reference. I now state that ``I know,'' not that I am knowing or aware of. A conclusion made with feeling then determines my attitude/action from that moment on; until it is rediscovered by an awareness that is actively looking for such and then reevaluated in the light of new knowing.
Use an Idea To think of situations in which the idea will be apparent and observe in these situations for a period of time, looking for facts that contradict the idea. To then observe the idea in less obvious situations; until one can truly say that one tried, but could not disprove the idea. If one truly contradictory fact is found, and checked out to be sure that it is indeed contradictory, then the idea is discarded as useless. If I don't have the time, place or circumstances available to me now in which to observe the idea at work, then I simply put the idea away for future investigation and experimentation when the time, place and circumstances present themselves. In the meantime, I say, ``I don't know.''

    So we need to be aware of what is already in our frame of reference before we can investigate anything with the openness necessary to allow our understanding to grow and develop; before we can be certain that we are seeing what is being investigated in a new light. Without this willingness to investigate what we already know, we will simply associate anything that we ``experience'' (that happens to us, when a child's frame of reference is being used) with what we already believe. New ideas are not used, they are just thought about and associated with what we already ``know.''
    If -- by rediscovering and reexamining what we already believe -- we find beliefs and disbeliefs that are incorrect, we can now investigate the subject of the belief or disbelief to dissolve it and learn something new. If we discover that what we already believe is correct, we now are aware of that fact as part of our technical frame of reference as understanding: it is no longer a belief or disbelief that we automatically act on, without understanding. We can now use the awareness of the fact to further increase our understanding of many related subjects. So we now have something new that has great value in either case.
    Without this willingness to investigate our current frame of reference to see what it is made of, we will never be able to truly learn anything new; nor will we really be able to act creatively. All will be an addition of like to like: what we already believe will be reinforced with new information; what we already disbelieve will be reinforced -- and we will repeat what we have already done for many, many years -- until finally death puts an end to this folly.
    Occasionally, there is a catastrophic or dramatic enough event in our life that we are forced to look at what is in a small part of the frame of reference, on some subject. Then we reevaluate what we find in the frame of reference in light of whatever discoveries have been made while dealing with the catastrophe. This leads to what seems to us like a great change in the frame of reference; in the way that we live.
    Unfortunately, we usually do this by coming to new conclusions. These conclusions become new beliefs or disbeliefs that we act on from that time forward. They also end all further investigation into the subject, even though what we have seen may be only a small part of the whole. That part was enough to deal with the problem, so it seems like the whole thing. But it is all we will ever know on that subject, once a conclusion is formed -- and becomes yet another belief or disbelief to rule our ``living.''

**Definitions**
Open Perception A willingness to pay attention to all events with the assumption that there is something new to be seen, that all is not already understood about living. An understanding that the frame of reference interprets everything, so any beliefs, disbeliefs, conclusions or misunderstandings will not be seen unless constant attention is given to looking for contradictions between the facts sensed and what is in the frame of reference. Nothing is taken into the frame of reference without having first been observed in actual living for a time while looking for contradictory facts. If no contradictory facts are observed over an extended period of time, it is allowed into the frame of reference as understanding.
Open Mind A willingness to be gullible and let anyone put anything they want into the frame of reference -- sort of like turning the mind into an uncovered garbage can and then putting it on the curb for anyone to use as they pass by. Of course, I believe that I only allow pretty things to be put in; that prevents me from looking stupid for being so gullible.
Closed Mind An unwillingness to be gullible; so I become convinced that my garbage can and its contents are so valuable, and are already so well set up, that nothing ever needs to be added, or removed, ever again.

Since an understanding of this chapter is so necessary for us to be able to understand anything else, let's review its main points.

The only way to act without experience is to be educated so that we have experience.
With experience, we can respond to now very quickly, without taking the time to fully investigate each situation, by making educated guesses about what is going on based on remembered prior experiences like the one now. We only need to take just as much time as necessary to check this situation out and make certain that it is adequately covered by our prior experiences. One who has fully lived every moment of their life finds they can usually do this very quickly. And they are able to look at the facts, the sensory experience itself, without the picture created by the frame of reference simultaneously.
When we discover that none of our experience covers this situation, we must take the time to find out what is going on before we can act.
Everything that we remember, all of our experiences, what we believe and disbelieve, and conclusions that we have formed about living: these build up a frame of reference, a point of view or way of looking at life and its events. This frame of reference determines our attitude toward all events. Action is determined by our attitude toward this event.
The frame of reference builds a picture in the mind, in symbolic form, of what is happening in the outer world by interpreting the senses in the light of prior experiences. It is actually this inner picture that we respond to: the sensory information about the outer world is just too complex; and the outer world itself too unknown. For everything that happens, we quickly build this inner picture, and then make an educated guess about the value of this event for me, personally. Value is based on what we would like to experience: that which is to our taste, preference or our advantage based on the understanding in our frame of reference. By looking to see what we actually value each moment -- as opposed to what we say we want -- we can see what we really want out of life, in other words our purpose of living.
We believe that we think before we act. However, the fact is that there is usually not enough time to think before acting. Most of what we call thinking about our actions is in reality telling a story, or justifying, what we have already done.
Much of the thinking, of course, is about the future and the past. We have plenty of time to think about that. But the only time we can act is now, and that is done without thought from the frame of reference, like everything else.
It takes considerable effort to see this, because we believe so strongly that our actions are based on thought. Yet the fact is that actions are determined more by feelings than by thought. Thinking can often affect the way we feel. Mainly our feelings are determined by our attitude in this moment: by the overall picture that we have built up about this event and its value to me, personally.
We actually have two frames of reference, not one. The child's frame of reference is so full of contradictory beliefs and opinions, that we don't notice that there is a much better adult's frame of reference that we only use occasionally, under very specific circumstances: it just all looks like one big jumble to us.
Someone who catches on to the two different frames of reference can sees the necessity for having only one: for abandoning the child's frame of reference and educating the small adult's frame of reference until it grows into all there is. When one sees how value is being formed by this frame of reference, that one also see the necessity for inquiring into the purpose of living.

One who has done the experiment given here -- and who has considered the ideas of this chapter in light of what was observed during the experiment -- will hopefully see the necessity for finding another way of living. This can be done by taking each of these points and observing them as we live, while looking for a contradiction with the facts. If, after considerable time has been spent observing, no contradictions can be found, we will discover that our frame of reference has been changed to fit the new way of seeing that is now based on these ideas, instead of our old beliefs and disbeliefs.

Table of Contents
Forward
Chapter 3

Science of Man's Conscious Self-Evolution

View from the Real World

Chapter 2 Frames of Reference for Questioning

Chapter 2
Frames of Reference for Questioning