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by Jayaram V
Awareness means to know experientially and consciously what
is going on
around you and inside you, with enough sensitivity
and discriminating intelligence to identify the causes and
forces that are at work in precipitating the reality that you
experience objectively and unobtrusively. To be aware means to
be awake, watchful, vigilant and attentive. Awareness is making
sense of your perceptions and learning from your experiences,
whereby you vastly improve your chances of survival and success
in an unpredictably and overwhelmingly distracting world of
conflicting interests and innumerable challenges. The same world
is perceived differently by different people because they are
driven by different set of thoughts, desires, opinions and
beliefs. People do not observe mindfully when they are lost in
thoughts or overwhelmed by problems and disturbances. However,
if you are aware and thoughtful at the same time, your
actions and responses to external events will be very different.
Your thinking and maturity also depend a great deal upon your
awareness. People are successful in their lives to the extent
they are aware of themselves, others and the world. Your
awareness depends upon several factors, such as your education,
your interests, your personal philosophy, your state of mind,
your beliefs and your general attitude. Those who are overly
self-centered, selfish or egoistic do not pay much attention to
the world or to what others say or do. They are so full of
themselves that they do not allow their senses to do their job
properly. Awareness is the key to life. Awareness is the key to
liberation. Awareness saturated with thought, tempered with
responsibility, polished by practice and skill, lead to balance,
equanimity and inner stability. To be aware of the consequences of your actions, and
their influence upon your life and your future; to be aware of
the forces that interfere with your life and determine its
course; and to be aware of the underlying reality of your
existence, and your personality, is the ideal towards which we
have to move eventually.
In two different ways, you can bring your mind to rest and
take it into a heightened state of awareness and stability. One
is the classic withdrawal of the senses (pratyahara) into your
mind and your mind into your intelligence or rationality
(buddhi) and practicing concentration on your inmost self with
determination, until you become lost in your thoughts and
experience the inner unity. The other is by becoming a good
observer, letting your senses do their work and paying close
attention to your perceptions, sensations and feelings. One is
the inward approach in which you take control and the
other is the outward approach in which you let go without losing
your focus. To
practice the first you probably need some privacy and a place
where you are not usually disturbed by others. However, you can
practice the second method almost anywhere and in any situation.
You can practice mindfulness as a way of life and learn a lot
from your experiences, even while performing the most routine
and ordinary tasks such as washing dishes, cleaning the house,
listening to a conversation or while walking or eating. Both the
approaches are useful and can be practiced complimentarily to
develop keenness of observation and depth consciousness. By
depth consciousness, I mean becoming aware of what is happening
in you mindfully, even when you are busily engaged with the
external world or when you are interacting with people and
situations. If you want to cultivate expansive state of
awareness and heightened sensitivity to the world in which you
live, you may practice one or both these approaches. In both
cases, if you want to make your practice more fruitful and
become a skilful observer of things, you need to pay attention
to the following and practice them seriously.
- Practice detachment. If you are attached to things and
if your mind is driven by desires, it is difficult to
stabilize the mind. You will see well, when you learn to
look at things with certain aloofness and from a distance.
If you become involved with what you see, more likely you
will be overwhelmed by it and become lost in your feelings
and emotions.
- Pay attention to your breathing, whenever you find time.
If you breathe regularly and with certain rhythm, you
develop greater mastery over your emotions, reactions and
impulsive behavior.
- Practice silence. Silence soothes the nerves,
saves you from conflicts and misunderstandings, gives you an
opportunity to observe the world around you and choose your
responses carefully. Besides, when you are silent you become
more thoughtful, attentive, sensitive, empathetic, intuitive
and tolerant.
- You have to set aside your ego, your thoughts and
preconceived notions to see things as they are. Your ego
distorts your vision of the world whereby you do not see
things as they are but as represented by your thoughts,
notions, interests and opinions. In short, your view of the
world is impeded by your own worldview. If you can silence
your ego, your awareness of the world increases
tremendously.
- See things as if you are seeing them for the first time.
Inject some enthusiasm and interest in what you observe,
even if they are routine and boring. Try to bring into play
as many senses as possible.
- Develop critical observation skills by watching
paintings, art objects and photographs with the mindset and
awareness of an expert. Pay attention to the details and the
thoughts and emotions that arise in you as you observe them.
- Be here and now. Our minds usually wander off into
the past or future. These distractions prevent us from
experiencing life as it happens. The quality of your
perceptions and thoughts improve vastly if you remain in the
present and pay adequate attention to your surroundings. If
you want your feet to be grounded in reality, you must let
your mind stay in the present and your senses under its
masterly control.
Suggested Further Reading
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