When we look for personal experiences to gain from our meandering through life, we restrict our attention to a fraction of the whole. Collecting personal experiences is just a mental process that we turn into our primary object of attention.
Our awareness of that addiction to personalizing life is that it lacks feelings of intimacy or awe. Their presence uncovers a simple truth – the lack of an object of awareness (personal self) always brings awareness back to awareness itself. Objects such as thoughts are really reactionary after thoughts that can only exist in relation to already known objects of attention (more thoughts).
To really know anything, there must be no reference to anything “else.” It is a hoot to know that after just a few moments of consciously allowing life to be, the “experiencer” falls away under the weight of their own irrelevance.
The lack of an object of attention brings (me) back to awareness itself. Without a need or want, to filter life through a personal point of view.
This simple exercise is part of a meditation book I am writing: “Just Watching.”
Establishing a relationship with “Objectless Awareness” is a valuable and simple meditation tool.
Play with it and send me your feedback.
Perhaps, together, we can surrender to the sublime feel of awareness, being aware that we are awareness itself.
Peace is only evident to me when I step out of the part I play (sometimes heroine, sometimes victim, sometimes judge, etc.) as a separate someone. She compares herself to others. Who compares now with a past or fears a future all around losses and gains, better and worse.
When that drops away there is only Now, a Now that is remembered as Peace, Love, Unity, Clarity, Support and is in communication with the Wisdom and Creativity of Source. There is the freedom from the suffering and bondage of self.
Keshav says it’s not what you do, it’s how you do it. I see that this applies to many things. I recognize that there are many roles we must play, from a practical sense, Father, Son, Husband…
I endeavor to play only the necessary roles and to do so with the awareness that I am doing so. I love what Keshav wrote here “The deal we can make is to allow the mind to continue to be an imperfect tool that does the best it can to describe what it can never really grasp or understand.”. One thing I think we can credit to our prior beliefs is that they continually strove to play their roles well. What’s different now is the knowledge that these roles don’t define me and always manage to uncover minds insecurity.
Last night during energy work there was a voice that said “I’m ready to wake up.” There feels like a stronger and stronger push to stop hitting the snooze button. The story of Joe has been dying ,and even mind seems to be joining in.
Perfect metaphor, Joe.
The mind continues to appear, but the moment we start to know ourselves as awareness, we are this throughout all of our activities. The non-state is completely unaffected by the thought process, emotions, or desires. These all come and go, but YOU do not. It takes us to the helplessness of thought! The deal we can make is to allow the mind to continue to be an imperfect tool that does the best it can to describe what it can never really grasp or understand. It will take that new role over Nothing every “time”.
That’s great Joe! Keep tearing those filters off…
Recently, I’ve begun to invite people outright to be willing to see me in a new way. I find most of these people are caught somewhat off guard, but willing to the point that they are anxious to do so. I don’t try to manage their experience of me, but rather, offer a refreshing perspective of me. Self-honesty I find is mandatory in these endeavors and when spoken out loud, they are mostly willing to see and open to a newfound honesty. Rule number 1, don’t be full of shit. People can handle more than we think sometimes, when all is done in honesty. Those who aren’t willing, are stuck with a chain that at some point must be released, but beyond the offer of an honest moment, there is nothing more for me to do, but to accept, let go of the chain and move forward. I think that those who trust the least, want desperately to trust the most… I can only offer all of myself with honest boundaries. One last thing, it is perfectly all right if we don’t care to be around certain people. Honesty is King.
It is wonderful to be with people who appreciate me for who I am, not for someone I am pretending to be. Freedom to be true to myself is true freedom.
“This above all, to thine own self be true; And it must follow as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.” –William Shakespeare (Hamlet).”
Of course, first you must “know thyself,” Greek aphorism. Some of us get so caught up in who we think we are and who we think we should be we are strangers even to ourselves.
As I ponder, I feel the pull. Freedom is bound with awareness. I’ve discovered that I crave freedom from my chains, constantly. But… what’s new is that I’m realizing that chains are not made for breaking, still, freedom is found not in breaking chains, but rather letting them go!!! The chains that seem to bind me, are completely optional! Find the courage to let go of the bull shit and “Reclaim your power”. It is entirely up to us.
It is good that I can remember that I don’t have to listen to mind telling me what I need in order to be happy. Nor do I need to hang on to images of others but rather see them with fresh eyes. There I might see who they really are, without past judgements. I may see that after all, they believe they are a someone that needs things and is desperately trying to fulfill that need. Don’t we all do that when we have mistaken our identities? Withholding judgement and trying to meet them where they are without requiring anything from them is the most peaceful way to co-exist with others.
Rooting attention in the presence of this eternal moment. Without time, and distance there is no us and them. Just here and now. Those fresh eyes are available first thing in the morning; for gazing into – right in the bathroom mirror. Pass it on…
The world we create, so powerful… Your one of my heroes Betty. No one likes stale bread, so wonderful is the smell of fresh bread at the bakery, even better, the taste that enters you when you take it in fresh, every moment of every day… It is we who must manage our expectations of others. I find it difficult, but rewarding. So much unclaimed beauty in the world. In this, I am selfish… and grateful.
Tending to plants this morning was a dance full of many unfiltered conversations . My starting point was with a vine that needed a good hair cut of its dead wood, yet not all of it I heard as I worked. Room to breathe, create space for new, yet leave some of its older body for support for the new. It was quite clear! Interesting. Another plant has boundary issues but we just continue to have an ongoing understanding and conversation. So much habitat for life in one plant too. My dance comes with moving around, not stuck in one place as I’m guided and I just get out of the way. A friendly fly decided to ride along on my arm the whole while, so I shared some water. Namaste. Love.
I went outside yesterday afternoon, put my earbuds in, sate back and closed my eyes. The words echoed without notice, but the music! I sat and cried. Not sadness, not bliss, just the beauty of the music coursing through moment, carrying me along… I lost track of time…
When I am focused on me, and forget to breathe into the vastness, as you all have said, things seem big, serious, and sometimes feel insurmountable. When I see the Mt. Elden peaks, they just absorb it all immediately and I take a deep breath. I can give all of it to the mountains & it no longer feels personal, local. I recognize THE anger, THE grief, THE worry. It’s not mine.
I’ve been having more of those deep pulses of energy coming from my core and overwhelming my senses for a bit, and I’m curious what it is. I wonder what it’s doing and what is happening to me or for me? And I also feel a little apprehensive to ask myself what it is. If I breathe into objectless awareness, then it just is.
I found a better way to describe the physical sensations I’ve been having: they are like megawatt shivers – when a full body shiver comes through, it’s the same diffuse kind of origin, but it’s much, much stronger and it takes over all of my senses. I can’t do anything but ride it out. I think I’m starting to be able to bring them on myself.
Deb. The irony about a similar encounter: is, that the “I” that thinks it experiences neither gains nor loses anything from the experience. There is no discrete experiencer, just a clear knowing that everything is connected. Everything is just the way it is.
Home is not a place; we cannot get to where we can never leave. Those feelings of peace and belonging never really leave. The background refrain is: what a strange dream of separation that was?!
So stuff is just happening, and my experience of anything is based on whether I am sunk into my eternal awareness or skimming the surface, distracted from my true nature?
If we try to eliminate conflict by analyzing it or comparing our self-image with other images, we remain mired in a mental process. Unfortunately, the mind can never change the mind.
Transformation occurs when we see it is our personal point of view that created and perpetuated the image. Free of this restriction, we no longer remain in the vicious circle of our made-up memory and are back in harmony with the totality of the present moment. That is where life spontaneously creates in us.
Right on Carol. Objectless awareness is so simple and transformative. For me, the act of drinking tea experienced from the background of the whole appears in a perfect simultaneity and brings “me” back to the silent awareness of the moment.
Within the beauty and grace of drinking a “simple” cup of tea, such global seeing is without a subject or an object. Without focusing on the absence of something, there is only the magic of original silence – not a state we enter or leave.
The first time I was reading Keshav’s post the weight of my tea was felt along my entire arm as it lifted to my mouth and set down again. Now that I am ‘aware’ of this I cannot reproduce it. Right there is the crux – awareness is not produced but is the essence of direct experience when we let all be.
Betty – When we look for an experience from life, our attention is stuck on a fraction of the whole. Transformation occurs when we know that our personal point of view supports our self-image. And knowing is without a specific knower to gain or lose.
Joe – You remind me we don’t become aware. We are aware. Keshav and Joe are “I” thoughts, futilely looking to gain something from the moment.
Bear – I have grown tired of listening to my own made-up stories. They prevent me from opening to the inspiration in plain sight, in this eternal moment. I’m here to support both of us.
Russ – In any objectified and personalized relationship, there is always tension, which arises whenever we look to rid ourselves of demanding insecurity or a sense of lack. Embracing insecurity opens us to profound tranquility, presence, and openness.
Last month I had an experience that I’ve always dreamed of but didn’t have. I laid down in my yard, headphones blaring and just completely disregarded security and laid there vulnerable. It was amazing!!!
Raven – When I sit in our pool of water and a breeze moves the surface of the water, along with the idea of a separate me. Also noticed is that every object that appears in space-time, such as the passing clouds, thoughts, and emotions, comes and goes, but wakeful awareness is untouched by what changes. Along with a knowing that ever-present stillness is not a state entered or lost, it just is. There is just a knowing of the helplessness of thought.
I feel it when I stand silently filling the water fountains in my yard. The water pressure from the hose disrupting the bees who are quietly working to gather water causes them to fly and hover all around me. As my thoughts are void of object awareness, I hover in the space of bee flight without any need to objectify.
That was such a beautiful post Betty, thank you. The world is so small when it’s all about ourselves. Everything seems possible when approaching it from a non-relative perspective. It’s been interesting for me to discover that the degree to which I am open, is directly proportional with my willingness to let go of the need for control and security.
When I am not present, there are stories and expectations. When present, there is an old friend that needs my compassion and help. Slow and steady, one step at a time that’s what I am doing.
I have experienced the same object/thought an infinite different ways depending on how “Joe” was feeling at the time. When I am rooted in objectless awareness there is no desire to add anything into the present moment. There is just surfing.
I certainly have experienced the relief and freedom of allowing the dropping away of all the minutia that weighs me down. In the narrow perspective it seems so important and pulls at me. As I allow myself to be tortured and search for the way to make it all “right” I travel farther and farther away from Truth.
During and after a walk in nature, a time in meditation, our groups, or something that just stops me dead in my tracks like a thing of beauty, I experience “just allowing life to be,” and suddenly it all seems so absurd to even consider any other way of being. The knowing is, as our teacher has said repeatedly, “there is no where to go, nothing to do.” All is well.