Awareness is beautiful, powerful, potent, wondrous, incredible. It is a defining quality of what it means to be human. It is nature's greatest gift and paradoxically presents us with our greatest challenge. It lies at the very heart of all that we experience and all that we miss. It is what sinks us deep into the present moment and is also what violently sweeps us away. Far, far away.
Through awareness, we can notice how beautifully blue the sky is on a clear day, how rich and delicious the aroma is coming from the kitchen, how crystal clear the water appears on the still lake. Through awareness, we can maintain a sense of time throughout the day, the hours, minutes, seconds. Through awareness, we can imagine, dream, view ourselves as if through a camera lens, directing the stage before our imaginary eyes. Through awareness, we can notice what we do and do not have, what we want and do not want. Through awareness, we can experience pain and attempt to separate ourselves from it, wishing, ignoring, fighting, protecting, doing anything we can to remove it out of our life. Through awareness, we can experience time as if it is something we can touch, feel, hear, move, stop, speed up, slow down. Through awareness we can remember what we did the day, week, month, year before and discuss it, study it, theorize about it, hypothesize, create formulas and feel proud, confident, and powerful by the self-proclaimed understanding we believe we achieved. Through awareness, we can concern ourselves with what we will do tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, next life and preemptively attempt to secure plans, money, materials, securities, relationships, jobs, beliefs to minimize our chances of failing.
It is through our own awareness, we can separate ourself from ourselves. And it is through our own awareness, only, by which we can save ourselves, to reunite our self, our ego, with our core, our soul, our spirit, our calling, nature. It's what I think of as being "mindfully aware". Awareness upon awareness. Being aware about being aware. Notice, the noticing.
Mindful awareness isn't new nor is it uniquely discussed, understood, practiced, honored solely within Buddhist religions. It's been realized by individuals long ago, since probably the very beginning. It isn't taught in our society. Yet, it is something we tend to develop over time. Naturally.
I've never been one for English literature, but life has a way of delivering gifts directly in front of you. You have to only remember to look up once in a while and take notice. Here is a beautiful, powerful soliloquy from Macbeth denoting so truthfully the undeniable impermanence of human existence and the delusions we *all* battle with internally to fight this very real, unavoidable, unchanging fate.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,Shakespeare lived from 1564 to 1616. He was aware, present. Today, it is 2012. We can be aware, present. There is only one truth, one reality, one experience, one place where time leaves the moment it arrives, one place we can never escape from. It is here, now. It is the moving present.
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.
Be here now.
