Advanced Awareness Exercise
“The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
As far back in time as we can tell, people have sought a method of achieving and maintaining a sense of peace within themselves through an understanding of the foundational processes of consciousness and awareness. Failing this, many people live as automatons, enduring constraints placed upon their awareness by the need to survive mondial existence, continually focusing their attention on the task at hand, and continually failing to fully participate in the life they are experiencing. It is this extreme focus on tasks which deprives them of their essential interconnectedness. Their awareness is continually constrained by the conventional concepts of duty to family, occupation and society, by false notions about the origination of emotions, and by a lack of understanding about the true nature of consciousness. Breaking through these constraints requires recognition of their existence and a willingness to exert the effort to overcome them. This is sometimes accomplished with an awareness exercise. Typically, an awareness exercise concentrates on a single aspect of the human experience, honing that experience to a precise level. In spiritual environments, this one pointedness is the dominant practice. Many disciplines start the seeker down the path of growth with lessons of concentration on the breath or watching the mind, with the expectation it will eventually lead to impactful realizations. There is another way.
“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us”
Joseph Campbell
This exercise pursues the opposite approach, gathering, nurturing and exploiting every possible sensation available to a sentient being, enriching each moment to the fullest extent. This advanced exercise is not one that is done a few times and then remembered as a pleasant experience. This is an exercise that needs to be developed over an extended period of time, with the aim of becoming a more beneficial and fulfilling way to experience life.
But first, a cautionary note. It is possible to break some constraints on awareness with alcohol, drugs, certain plants or particular mushrooms but these are all shortcuts to a dead end path.The benefits are limited and short lived and the detriments may become life threatening. They cause an unhealthy imbalance in bodily chemistry and more often than not, result in manifestations which are deleterious and nonsensical. Rather than lose personal consciousness, it is better to take the path the Buddha took and receive inspiration from universal consciousness.
AWARENESS CONSTRAINED
Let us use the analogy that the body is the house where the awareness resides and the senses are the windows through which your awareness experiences the world.
Open the first widow, concentrate on sight, not just what is seen but how sight affects the seer. As a start, choose a pleasant image which provokes soothing emotions, relax into your awareness of them.
Open the second window, play soothing music. Associate the sound with the image, gently hold them together in your awareness.
Open the third window, burn sweet incense or spray flowered air freshener, hold all these things tenderly in your awareness.
Open the fourth window, caress some silk or cotton, hold all these things softly in your awareness.
Open the fifth window, put a mint in your mouth, hold all these things sweetly in your awareness.
These windows face outward, now turn inward.
Open the sixth window, what subtle emotions have been evoked? Hold all these things compassionately in your awareness.
Open the seventh window, what thoughts have arisen? Hold all these things considerately in your awareness.
No, it is not easy. Even so, your awareness of your awareness has been elevated, and perhaps you identify a little less with the house and a little more with the awareness that resides within.
Open the eighth window, awareness of awareness, hold all these things serenely.
If you can hold The Eightfold Path in your mind, you can do this.
Practice. Practice. Practice.
“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.”
The Buddha
“My brain is only a receiver, in the universe there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength and inspiration.”
Nikola Tesla
“While asleep…I was observing it. Suddenly a hand began to write on the screen. As soon as I woke up I committed them to writing”
Srinivasa Ramanujan Aiyanga
“The total number of minds in the universe is one, in fact, consciousness is a singularity phasing within all beings”
Erwin Schrodinger
It is taught that Brahma Sahampati realized the Buddha had attained enlightenment through his awareness.
“The Tao is the infinite, common source; eternally present within you.”
Tao Te Ching
Once you are skillful at holding all these things serenely, turn your awareness neither outward nor inward, neither downward nor upward, neither demanding nor supplicating, merely open, similar to a radio receiver, so that it may be fully illuminated with inspiration.
Open the ninth window, awareness of the infinite, an awareness that resides within your body but also outside the constraints of spacetime. Close your eyes, it is not total darkness, shades of gray dance and shimmer. Remain patient and alert. Do not seek a specific goal, merely open your awareness to receiving. It may be that nothing occurs, try again another time, at the time appropriate for you, it will. Suddenly, an image may appear. Many of the paintings on this website have emerged in this manner. It may be that a single word will cross your mind, or a sound will boom in your mind, or a scent will arise from nothing. It may be something so vague you hardly notice it, or it may knock you over. It might be something that you will need to meditate on to understand. Whatever it is, it will lead to spiritual growth.
“The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions into our awareness.”
Lao Tzu
It will lead to spiritual growth and an appreciation of the benefit of keeping your windows open, enriching your awareness and nurturing your spirit. With all your windows open, “The present moment is filled with joy and happiness.”. This method develops a sense of peace within oneself through an experience of the foundational processes of consciousness and awareness and fosters the continual reception of inspiration.
For me this has been a beneficial and fulfilling way of life and I feel it is only natural to have a desire to disseminate it for the enrichment, development and progression of the collective awareness.
If you have found any benefit from any aspect of this website, please share it.
“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but a thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”
Chief Seattle
