Lesson 10 - Awareness, Free or Attached
This wonderful story of awareness. I could go on and on explaining it,
because it is so very basic and so very, very important. This
perspective makes everyone realize himself to be infinite intelligence
and the same as everyone else. Only each one is aware in different
areas of the mind, or in different rooms of the mind, so to speak.
Have you ever had someone come and tell you all of their problems? What
did they do? As a pure state of awareness, they came to you, another
pure state of awareness. You were not identified in the area of the
mind that they were living in. They came to you because they wanted to
get out of a particular area of the mind. They had been living in it so
long, they really thought they were that area of the mind, like
somebody that has lived in a house so long and has become so attached
to it that they would rather die than move from the house. So then they
came to you, and began relating all their problems, beginning first
with the little ones and then on to the big ones, and all their
complaints, heartaches and sorrows that the subconscious area of the
mind involves. In such a situation, one of two things will happen.
Either you gently talk with them and bring them out of that area of the
mind into the area of the mind that you currently are in, or they move
your awareness right into that area of the mind that they are in, in
which case, when you part company you are feeling terrible.
Here is another situation. You go to the movies or watch TV. The movie
screen is just a screen. The film is just film. And the light is just
light. And yet, the combination of the three can move your awareness
into areas of the mind that can upset your nerve system, make you cry,
make you laugh, make you have bad dreams at night for a week or more,
perhaps even change your entire perspective of life. The combination of
these three elements, the screen, the picture film, the light--can be
so powerful, if they can attract your attention, move your awareness.
While sitting in a movie, try to realize that you are going through
moods and emotions and are not the moods and emotions that you are
going through, and that all that is happening is that you are being
entertained by your senses. A mystic does just this. He is enjoying
life and what life has to offer. When seeing a film, he remembers
past-life experiences stimulated by similar experiences that the
players are portraying on the screen, and he has empathy with them.
The mystic lives a full and vibrant life, and yet when he walks out of
the theater, he forgets the whole thing. He does not carry it with
him. His awareness is immediately right where he is currently. That is
the power of meditation, for it brings us into the awareness of the
great eternity of the moment.