awareness & presence

Awareness is central to the spiritual journey, maintaining awareness. What do we mean by this?

Actually it is as if the energy of who we are becomes awareness itself, so we do not get caught up in thoughts, but we are aware of them. Similarly we can be aware of our senses, the sights, the sounds, the tastes, the touch sensations and the sensations in our body. It is the same awareness that watches all of these and this awareness is where we come to reside. By bringing our energy into the awareness itself, we begin to distance ourselves from our thoughts.

For most people the starting point is a world of thoughts. We are thinking almost all the time and we are so much believing the thoughts that we feel ourself to be the thoughts. The spiritual journey involves moving away from this identification and for most this is done by bringing the energy more into the awareness itself. To help this process we can follow disciplines which create gaps in the thinking process. Classic meditation will allow the thoughts to subside. Gaps, initially of a few seconds, can become more frequent and prolonged. As the thinking process begins to break up, as the silences between thoughts begin to grow, so it becomes more difficult for us to stay with the illusion that we are the thoughts. For whatever we are, we want it to be continuous, not coming and going the way thoughts do.

So, awareness and maintaining a little distance from thoughts is part of the spiritual journey. Through this awareness, by bringing our energy into the awareness itself, a tremendous presence can arise in us. It is this presence which you feel if you come close to someone who has already trodden the spiritual path for a number of years. This presence is enticing. And this presence is really the presence of an intense awareness, not disturbed by too many thoughts, not perturbed by emotions, not wanting some things to be true and other things to be false, not rejecting half of life, nor clinging to the other half. Awareness in its simple neutrality is the key to this presence. So, start to nurture your awareness, feel yourself to be this awareness.