What is awareness?

Posted August 28th, 2008 by Noah E

What is awareness, and why would we want to try it?

What point is there in trying to be aware, which takes effort, when I can complete my daily tasks without very much concentration at all?

Isn't it fine to be in a daydream while I act?

Awareness is being here in the present moment, where peace can be felt, outside of the swings of the egos. Awareness is appreciating life and being grateful for everything we have been given, in all situations. Many people give thanks to the Divine before eating a meal, saying Grace. But really, if we aren''t completely in the present moment while we eat, experiencing all the details and tastes of the moment, then we aren't grateful for anything and our prayer is just empty words, no matter how sincere we wish them to be.

With awareness we are living our prayer, we are giving thanks to the Divine with every moment because we open ourselves up to experiencing the moment fully, which is truly giving thanks with the heart, beyond any poetic words of the mind.

Observation and the driving energy of the animal ego:
http://www.belzebuub.com/node/321

Thanks for that, Noah. I

anonymous's picture
On August 28th, 2008 MikeL says:

Thanks for that, Noah. I especially liked how you mentioned with awareness we are living our prayer and giving thanks with the heart - true and inspiring words.

When we see that, I guess another question that springs to mind is: why do we throw this awareness away for the sake of the egos? What a terrible mistake that really is.

All the strength!

Mike

Some daydreaming can be

scot's picture
On August 29th, 2008 scot says:

Some daydreaming can be dull, but some daydreaming can be quite lovely, and awareness is like the sun to daydreaming's moon. The sun and moon both have to shine in their own way, and clouds get between them and us all the time, in any case. Awareness has a beauty no daydream can match, though.

Thanks for this, Noah.

"My opinion is that when it

Robert D.'s picture
On August 30th, 2008 Rob D. says:

"My opinion is that when it is known what one wants and one fights to achieve it, even if it is not formulated in words, one is in permanent prayer. Sometime I read somewhere that all profound wanting is a prayer and that never remains without response; man always receives what he asks for. But, since man generally dosen't know what his heart really wants, niether he knows how to ask for what is convenient for him."

Judas

Thanks a lot for this blog

Vadim's picture
On August 30th, 2008 Vadim says:

Thanks a lot for this blog Noah, I find very useful the point you've made about need to be aware and being grateful, the link between high emotions, and a true prayer, and awareness.
Such a beautiful picture also…can we experience something like that in the higher dimensions?
Now, what is awareness?
I think that’s really imperative question to find an answer on.

For me, the most important with the question “WHAT IS AWARENESS” is and was, to find answers through my personal experience because any description of it is only fragmented and limited reflection of it, and thus gives inadequate understanding of what awareness really is.
To say awareness is “alertness” is replacing one term with another…to say it is presence of spiritual, begs for the question “what is spiritual”, different people have a different ideas about spirituality...to say it is simultaneous holistic external perception of information received from 5 senses combined with internal observation of 5 inferior centers is very likely to bring a question: “man, how you do it?”

So, how you do it? If someone is aware and gives us an explanation of what this state is, then, even if we don’t know anything about awareness and never even heard this term, I think we may get this feel of it right away. If we look into our eyes in the mirror we can feel if we are aware or not…maybe that’s why I don’t like to look into my eyes in the mirror sometimes or look into eyes of others?
Ultimately only sufficient direct personal experience of it seems to give a good answer to the question “what awareness is”.

With experience of awareness, we can actually see better awareness in the context of a bigger picture of life and it can help us later with our efforts.
Why to be aware? Who wishes to be aware? What are benefits of being aware?

I find, mind can be so tricky though while I try to be aware, and even trying hard to be aware may take place within a different frames of mind blocking awareness to happen and substituting it with a different ideas…
When I went for the Gnostic Retreat in Greece this year one of the tricks I’ve learned from the Greek colleagues was that if you’re completely confused and can’t be aware… then try NOT to be aware. If trying doesn’t work, then the trick may be to stop trying…it may just come naturally.
And it never comes naturally without willpower. To force without forcing is the paradox intellectually and in the same time is very likely to be the only right way to do it.

And where can we find the motivation to do it in this world with all its distractions and temptations?
Now imagining that our next minute is our first one and the last one here on Earth…just one more minute we have to be in this world, just one minute before the life is finished!
Obviously we know to some extent that it is not the first minute we live here, but can we be sure that it’s not the last one?
One minute is only 60 seconds to live, but how much can we experience during these 60 seconds? How muh can we miss during these 60 seconds? Time just passes by, what is gone is gone, past will never come back again.
Is there any force in this or any other worlds which will steal our time away from us… even if we truly and sincerely wish to live the time kindly given to us, the best we can?

And now…we have about 55 -50 seconds of that next minute to live through…do we?...and what's next?