Spiritual Awareness for Inner Harmony
For most of us, work situations, family interractions, social events and other life circumstances require a lot of our energy. y. When we are experiencing life in its fullest, our ability to remain present within each experience can provide us with the right ingredients to obtain insights useful to our expanded awareness. The intensity of certain life situations requires that we be present and aware of our choices, rather than being pulled along with the tide of emotional activity. Awareness is the key to inner harmony.
When a teacher writes “I” on a blackboard and asks the students what they see, most of them will answer that they see the word “I.” It’s rare for one of them to say “I see a blackboard with ‘I’ written on it.” Just as the large blackboard is ignored in favor of a single letter, we ignore the awareness that is the permanent background to our life experiences. We tend to ignore this in the same way that we forget the television when we are watching a show or the screen on which a movie is projected.
The television and the movie screen are the permanent factors, yet they never become involved. The show or movie may depict a romantic scene, a crashing ocean, a long winding road, a murder, or a forest fire; but the screen will not react, get wet, move from place to place, bleed, or burn. Awareness itself remains unaffected and pure.
Awareness is the consistent and permanent factor in and behind all life experiences, yet it most easily escapes our attention. Attention is not the same as awareness. Our brain is designed in such a way that giving attention to something automatically implies that we ignore something else. We see the stars and ignore the space; we read this text and ignore the page; we see the movie and ignore the screen; yet it is obvious that the ignored space, page, and screen are as fundamental to our observations as the stars, the text, and the movie which hold our attention.
It’s important for us to recognize this difference, for attention often is confused with awareness. Attention is at work when we notice one thing and ignore another. Awareness occupies the dual space of being noticed and ignored. Attention requires effort. Awareness merely is. Everything that exists in creation is embraced by awareness, including those things and people that are not ‘part of ourselves’ – such as our cars, houses, employers etc. On the other hand, our emotions, thoughts and feelings are experienced as ‘inner parts of ourselves’. So in this sense, awareness is as much in our body and our mind as the body and mind is in our awareness. For example – we can compare awareness to a glass. The glass contains space and at the same time is contained by space. If the glass were to break, the space would not be affected.
There is an essential balance between physical chemistry and awareness. The chemistry in our physical body can often become unbalanced during periods of high emotional activity, intense inner work or even spiritual healing work. It is during these times that our systems produce energy at a rate never before required – not even during physical exertion. The conditions present in our inner selves will produce whatever chemical agents are needed to continue. This energy will then explode into revelations or insights for even greater spiritual awareness - enlightenment.
Emotional Balance
Remaining emotionally balanced during these times must be given serious consideration and effort. When we “explode” emotionally, we let off enormous amounts of energy. Such an explosion can destroy the awareness process taking place within us. Remember that even in a scientific experiment, when reactive agents are placed in a container, a constant temperature must be maintained for a given period of time in order to have a result. Our ability to completely surrender during an emotional situation is actually a barometer of our ability to evolve. Each life experience is an opportunity for growth – for the building of compassion. Our level of compassion is directly based on our level of life experience. Even reading a book about various experiences does not fully prepare us for the same experience when it occurs in our own life. It is this unique work and surrendering of self that makes our growing into a compassionate individual even possible. It requires us to work towards a quiet mind, one that is open, non-judgmental, all-accepting and aware of the need to surrender all control to the creative flow. Compassion requires that we recognize there is no point to holding onto anything – thoughts, ideas, feelings and emotions. It requires we surrender our past and be in the moment.
Miracles
Our potential for spiritual awareness is directly related to the dynamics of energy with which we are involved in each of our moments. Being present and focused in the moment, allows us to be the active creator of our lives and the observer of miracles. Miracles are the results of certain electrical events in our bodies. These forces are products of psychological change which bring about even more, newer chemical conditions. When we can remain balanced with our inner work, these conditions will activate the chemical agents required for greater spiritual changes to occur. These changes bring about miracles – our own indication of inner process or spiritual development. While many miracles occur throughout our lives, we may only recognize a few. Our process of spiritual development produces miracles, which then produces awareness. Our ability to surrender to the creative flow, allowing full compassion to exist fully in that moment, enables us to experience and recognize our miracles.
Each day we witness miracles in healing by virtue of compassion for the experiences of all creation. It is at this time that we feel truly within the ‘creative flow’, allowing for the possibility of anything and everything. During these periods of being One with creation, all things are possible. It is important to be focused and balanced on all levels of our being. So it is important that we look carefully with discernment at what effect our choices make in our world; 'taking stock' (so to speak )of what consequence each and every choice has brought in our life.
Awareness is one of those choices. If you realize that this is your Earth journey as a spiritual being and the goal is Conscious Awareness with full Enlightenment, then you realize that life is really about nothing else. Finding the inner harmony and balance to be present in our moments, allows us to choose carefully and with discernment. Often we make choices out of anger, fear, frustration or limited vision. As humans we have the ability to truly see and experience all of the dimensions in the universe. Whether it is because of our fear of change or of the unknown, we sometimes choose to limit our ability to create.
Awareness leads to enlightenment. This is real and is within our grasp all the time. At any moment, we may awaken from our current perception of the world around us to another view altogether. With awareness, nothing changes except our point of view – and that awareness can change everything forever.
So, how can we encourage awareness in our daily life? How can we be
so present that we are aware of everything and ignore nothing? See the
finite picture and also the big picture at the same time? Again and again,
we have found that being present in the moment and allowing our vibration
to be one of compassion and unconditional love of self - actually encourages
and invites awareness to our being.
What we are doing at the moment must be exactly what we are doing at
the moment – and nothing else. This 'present self' allows for an
expanded awareness.
Working diligently towards an awareness of all things in all moments, without ignoring the ‘background’ in our focus, we can find the courage to let go of what we know to move into the present moment and reach for the very thing that can heal us, the very truth we need for enlightenment.
Here’s a simple and easy technique you can have for yourself, it brings about an awareness of the present moment
