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Radical Self-Awareness



"Well, are you a man?" "No."

"So, what are you?" they asked perplexed.

Buddha simply replied, "I am awake."


The spiritual teacher Neville told a story about one of his students. While in New York, the student stepped into an elevator shaft, but failed to notice that the elevator wasn't there. Consequently, he tumbled many flights downward. The student had the presence of mind to say to himself: "God is all that there is. God is all that there is. God is all that there is." When he hit the bottom floor, he had no injuries – not a broken bone, not even a cut. Nothing had happened to his body temple. The witnesses who were present corroborated the event.


According to Neville, the student was so absorbed in his awareness that God was all that there is that no harm came to him. Although it is far removed from our own experiences, we want to develop that kind of awareness in our lives. We are here to wake up and live into the realization that each moment of our life is the life of God.


Perhaps we have thought we are the fantasies of well-meaning parents or grandparents. Or maybe we have unconsciously thought we are the thoughts that pass through our awareness. Perhaps we have accepted that we are the experiences we have had up to this point in our lives. Or we have identified ourselves based on accepted norms of the society in which we live or by the things we have learned in school.


Unconsciously we may have been thinking the phenomena mentioned above is who we are. And, if someone were to ask about us, we might tell our name, our date of birth, who our parents are, what school we went to, and all the things that have happened to us up to this point. But we would be mistaken. We are not all the temporary phenomena that passes through. We are avenues of God-awareness itself. Those things that are passing through are just that – temporal things that come and go.


However, when we hold on to the temporary phenomena, they become congealed beliefs: our focus of attention, perceptions, and points of view. And because we have accepted them as who and what we are, they become self-fulfilling prophecies. Many of these self-fulfilling prophecies are of the lack, doubt, worry, and fear variety. Since they have been part of our past, we believe they are our future and our personal law. But we can interrupt that once we become aware.


Self-awareness is powerful. With self-awareness, we realize we always have a choice. We are here to hone our power of awareness.


Peace and Blessings,

James


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