When I was learning how to meditate, I exposed myself to a variety of teachers, gravitating towards the works of Drs. Joe Dispenza, Tara Brach, Deepak Chopra, and Jack Kornfield in particular. Through their books, podcasts, and online courses, I practiced using anchors and breathwork, postures and mantras, but some of the more sophisticated concepts, such as awareness, escaped me at the time.
As a novice, I picked up on their basic teachings that our witnessing awareness is what’s left when we look beyond our roles, that awareness is a sense of spaciousness and graciousness and being aware of being aware. I easily accepted—perhaps because I experienced it—how our awareness is a place of silence and refuge in which we can find momentary rest, but, at that time, I don’t think I was ready for the more nuanced understandings that come with a deepening and expanding daily practice.
Now, as a certified meditation teacher who practices multiple times a day, I know I’m always going to be a student as well; when I look at states of being like awareness more closely, I realize—again and again—the more I know, the more I know I don’t know. Awareness may be the precursor to change, yet I’m now fully aware I’ll never “arrive” at some imagined pinnacle and consistently become more like a guru and less like a human.
The practice is the pinnacle, and compassion for everyone’s humanity, especially our own, is the gift awareness brings.
When we surrender to awareness, according to Dr. Joe Dispenza, we get out of our own way, our senses effortlessly become more acute, and we open up to infinite possibilities. Then, he goes on to claim, by remaining aware and experiencing the elevated emotions that match our desired outcomes, we prevent ourselves from reverting back to our old ways of being and move forward toward a future of our own creation.
Avoiding “the trance of unworthiness” Tara Brach warns against comes to mind for me here as does her steadfast belief that the wholeness of our being rests in awareness since it’s the “source of our love, wisdom, and creativity.” She calls it “the gold, the sacred essence of our life.” According to Jack Kornfield, this awareness exists only when we trust in the present; it can’t be found in our thoughts, personalities, past experiences that brought us to today, or in our hopes and dreams for the future.
Sometimes, we can and do turn our awareness off, so Deepak Chopra offers the following warning signs to help us become aware of those times we’re not being aware: letting others take charge, acting unconsciously, feeling emotionally trapped, isolating ourselves, acting passively or resigned in the face of what makes us unhappy, or following rote habits and behaviors. And he offers a solution too: becoming more self-aware by tuning into our inner worlds, listening to the messages our bodies and our minds are giving to us, and then proceeding with mindful awareness.
To practice mindfulness, Jack Kornfield says, is to pay attention in a state of non-judging, respectful awareness. To become aware, we must first acknowledge what’s there with kindness and compassion without identifying with it. Tara Brach’s RAIN practice, wherein we recognize, allow, investigate, and nurture, is a wonderful tool for developing our mindful awareness. Other strategies for deepening awareness include paying attention, staying in the present moment, witnessing, befriending what’s there, refraining from judgment, and noticing our thoughts, words, and deeds.
Although we have these and other strategies, awareness may be as simple as this: we become more aware not by striving to be aware but by actually just being aware.
Author: Terry Shamblin
Mindful Life Connections 