evels within levels. Degrees of paying attention. Moments of distraction. What is it that awareness brings to us to make it worth our while for the commitment, for the practice, for the time. Will this shift in my focus bring wealth or happiness, will it lessen my pain, will I understand more and suffer less? Will my belief system be challenged or will I rise above a belief system and connect directly to the source? What will happen to me if I embark on this journey?
The quality of our lives as we understand it, as others understand it, is infused with our birth culture and reflects both our experiences throughout the journey and how we responded to those experiences. Our choices, how we respond. So simple, so powerful and yet so filled with great potential and great risk, great joy and great disappointment.
Awareness is a concept of living, it is different than just walking around and paying attention. Awareness has levels of conscious attention. It is the beginning tool for mastery of "self" and it allows you to reach your full potential as a whole human being with the gifts, talents and opportunities you came into this world with. It also allows you to live through the events and experiences of life that can only be described as "not what I wanted or signed up for", with a measure of peace, acceptance and dignity.
Will this path alter your relationships, your personal views on life, your behavior, decisions, choices, even your political and religious viewpoint? The answer is yes but it is yes not because a new thought has been placed in your mind but because your entire consciousness will shift. You will become friends with the unknown. Your choices will not be driven by your unknowing but by your awareness. You will respond to life, conscious, thoughtful, and kind and your choices will reflect your aware state of mind. The word freedom comes to mind, freedom to see, to feel, to choose with responsibility and with compassion.
The Metaphor of Light and Dark
Light is where we experience living. We see and create, we observe and learn. The absence of light is darkness. We carry light metaphors around with us, light is good, light is safe, light is understanding while darkness is spooky, darkness brings danger and is filled with scary unknowns, darkness is not safe. And yet the rising of the sun can bring life and death, and darkness can bring rest and healing.
Awareness is like that. Awareness says we are conscious of what is going on, it is our light into ourselves and others, but awareness is only the flashlight to see into the darkness, to observe what rises from the unconscious. Other tools are needed. Our unconscious, our darkness, is not the bad side of us, it is the invisible side of us. It is the unknown driver of many of our actions, beliefs, feelings and thoughts. We can turn on the light so that everything that emerges from the shadows is immediately visible. This visibility changes things. All life experiences force us to choose. Better to choose with as much conscious information as possible.
Yet our unconscious governs most of our existence. This is for the most part, the way it should be. The unconscious does its job, conscious thought and awareness does its job. We can however tweak the relationship to get better results. I for one believe that this relationship, though incredibly complex, can be much more positive that it has been for most of us. We all "self reference" everything we experience. We instantaneously value judge the experience. It is good for me or it is not? Will my self image or identity be compromised? Does this reality mirror my own internal reality? None of this self reference reaches our conscious awareness until these questions are answered. The answer is often in the form of a feeling or emotion. Pleasure, a warm fuzzy, a flicker of anger, a touch of fear, anxiety or a number of others. So what appears from our unconscious is not always in neon lights, many times it is tiny and subtle. None the less our developing awareness/observer will notice and we will choose appropriately, or at least the best option at the moment.
There are four levels of awareness: Our body, our intellect, our emotions, our spirit. When we recognize each of these as they are and apply ourselves to their energies then we approach a wholeness that is what it means to be truly human.
Our body: the energy of action, muscle strength, speed, agility, lightness of touch, our senses visual, hearing, touch, smell, taste. Graceful forms, gentleness, defensive response, sexual energy, heightened senses and the thrill of physical challenges. Playful behavior and the pure joy of physical play, intense focus and the challenges of precision effort.
Our Intellect: thought, imagination, problem solving, inventing, creating
Our emotions: The driving energy of our lives, Joy, sadness, anger, love, the full range of everything we feel about everything we experience.
Our spirit: Our connection to the source. The transformative relationship we experience as we go beyond ourselves and connect with the Divine nature of all that is not us.
We will be exploring each of these and we will honor each as we discover what it means to be fully aware.
But First - Responsibility
The hardest, the most difficult is to come to terms with the illusion of your existence - "that you are not responsible for your health, your happiness, your misery". You have participated either consciously or unconsciously in every moment of your life. Your choices have moved you along the path for better or for worse. Not until you acknowledge, that the chatter of your mind distracts you from the present, your thoughts invoke emotion which stimulates action, that you and all those in the world choose every moment of every day to live, to exist, or to die. Choose to live, fully human, aware, alert, attentive. Awareness brings a new level of alertness and alertness brings the opportunity for paying attention, for focus.
When there is no one left to blame, when you silence your mind, when you are a witness to the moment, your new journey begins.
The Body
Far be it from me to tell you how to develop your body into a well oiled machine, healthy, fit, agile and strong. There are thousands of people that can do that better than I. I am hardly the lean surfer dude, not a fighter, can't run very fast and I am not a match for tall buildings or runaway trains. But I can suggest how to develop a relationship with your unconscious that will maximize your efforts at getting healthier and more successful at anything you really want to do.
First you must consciously decide what you want to accomplish. Then you must develop a program of practice, with help as you feel appropriate. Then you must apply yourself, over and over until something important happens. You may have to work at getting stronger or more flexible at first. You may have to change your habits, eating, drinking, smoking, sleeping (we will talk about this in a bit). And, you may have to overcome setbacks. Sore muscles, bad knees, a cold, or the famous plateau where you just don't lose any more weight, can't run any faster or farther, or all your golf clubs hit the same distance. Since the list for what we want to learn or improve on is almost infinite, from here we will discuss the true relationship between your conscious and unconscious mind. In other words your body awareness.
The first step is to learn to be quiet and still. It is very difficult to focus if your mind is off somewhere else. What you will be doing here is (sooner or later) intensely focusing on nothing. This is a feeling or sensing exercise. Do you know where every part of your body is. Can you sense the tips of your fingers, your lips, your nose, your knees, your feet? Can you over and over again close your eyes and feel every part of you. Can you feel yourself breathe, your heart beat, your muscles tense and relax. Can you observe the wandering of your mind and then relax and bring it gently back to nothing? Finally can you feel the energy within you as it floats and courses throughout your body. However you practice this, however you feel this, this is ongoing, never ending and a consistent part of your everyday experience. It is not magic, it is the first level of awareness and is practiced everyday until just a single thought will trigger the exercise. Do it while eating, walking, before you sleep, after you wake up, in the line at the grocery store, while driving (careful there).
