In Awareness There is No Reaction
In this second instalment of the Awareness Series of blogs, I will be looking at another of the non-awareness descriptions to better understand awareness. Last blog covered the notion that awareness wasn’t about giving your thoughts, feelings, sensations and desires a meaning. In this blog I discuss the idea that awareness isn’t having a reaction to whatever is happening in the moment.
Awareness isn’t having a reaction to whatever is happening in the moment.
This means that in awareness there is no defence.
There is no separation, there is no resistance, there is no need to control.
It goes without saying that anytime we have a reaction to something, we have attributed a meaning. As discussed in the video last week, when we attribute a meaning to something, we stop being aware. Awareness seeks to understand, meaning attributes some form of judgement. The more awareness or understanding we have about an object or a situation, the more mindful we can be. A simple example – the more understanding you have about the nature of electricity the more mindful you are about it. You won’t go sticking sharp objects into power points.
So when we are presented with a volatile situation in a relationship for example, we typically resort to being reactive (using strategies of the past to deal with the present, re-act). We become defensive, often justifying our behaviours, thoughts and expectations, many times to the point of making sure we are heard by yelling, or even worse being physically abusive. We shut people out of our hearts that normally would be central to it, fuelling a consciousness of separation. We resist applying higher values, like forgiveness, compassion and gratitude, and we’ll use whatever means of control, like bullying and victimhood to justify our story.
So if we aren’t reacting, defending, withdrawing, resisting and trying to control, what are we doing? In awareness, you just observe with the desire to understand. In the scenario described above, you could ask yourself the following question. What could this person tell me, that would help me to understand why they are the way they are? Through having expanded your awareness you could rationalise that as much as what is playing out appears to be an attack, it could in fact be a call for help. This is based on the understanding that all behaviour is either motivated by love or a call for help. The more aware we are, the more understanding we possess, and the more understanding we posses the more mindful we can be.
Central to the idea of enhanced awareness is the evidence of how it presents in one’s life. Being the observer with a desire for understanding, means there is no judgement. Anytime judgement is applied it is governed by the notion that we can only see the world as we are and not as it is. So the meaning we attribute to anything or anyone is an aspect of our consciousness projected onto someone else. This would suggest that the fight we are having with another is an outward expression of our own internal conflict. It has long been observed that when we fail to deal with the demons within, we externalise them and then justify our attack on them. This not only happens on a personal level, we see it happening on a global scale too. Their are countries, who in failing to resolve their national demons, resort to labelling other nations as demonic, justifying military action. All the while the inner demon continues to destroy the soul of the nation, often resulting in a despot becoming its leader.
I have been facilitating the enhancing of people’s awareness long enough to know that when we can maintain a consciousness of awareness, and be committed to using that understanding to be more mindful, our inner reality changes. Our ability to see the world as we are and not as it is, also applies to the state of enhanced awareness. Our inner peace is projected out just as our judgements are, and we literally create a parallel reality, which sees people turning up in our world peaceful. It makes sense that when enough of humanity can make that shift, all of those peaceful parallel realities combine only then can we change the world.
Please go to my video, where I share an experience I had in the late 80’s in downtown San Francisco late one night. For me, it was one of the first of many real-life lessons in awareness.
This Weeks Video
Read More From This Series
Comments