iQing
21-06-2004, 10:36 PM
I hv found an interesting article... try to read through and reflect about it...
maybe we are zombies or in matrix world etc.
(this articles can be published and distributed)
All the things we do in our lives, be it good or bad, fun or painful,we miss the point. There are more divine things to be experienced. If we can remain aware and in the moment, we can experience the truth in everything.
Awareness. Something so wonderful, so peaceful, so divine. Something any one of us can experience in any situation. Something that could make our lives so much nicer to experience. Something that is so rarely activated.
Why is this? Why is it that we are so miserable in our lives, or find work so stressful, or continually feel exhausted and hard done by, yet none of us make the effort to activate the 'cure'? We all have the potential to change our life experiences and situations into divine freedom and peace just by activating awareness, so why don't we just do it.Easier said than done I suppose.
The problem is that we live in a very complicated society. Everyone feels pressured to do a million things at once. We are weighed down by expectations at work and at home, by family, friends and society. We are so caught up and identified with our lives that a lot of things go unnoticed. Most of the time we are not aware of where we are or what we are doing because we are to busy thinking about something else. For example, we are at work feeling stressed and tired, all we can think about is getting home and relaxing. We get home and relax, but all we can think about is how much we have to do at work the next day and we start feeling guilty for the time we wasted. We are running late for a meeting and we are stuck in traffic. We feel frustrated and angry, all we can think about is the people who are waiting for us and how much time we are wasting just sitting in the car. We don't even realise the beautiful day outside and how lovely it is that we have ten minutes to do absolutely nothing but sit in our car. In fact, we should be savoring the moment because it is very rare that we don't have to do anything at all! However we can't relax because we can only think of the apologies we will be making when we arrive late and what everyone must be thinking of us. Or, if we're not worrying about something we are daydreaming, wishing we were somewhere else. Visualising ourselves on some luxurious holiday far away from work and reality. We are either trying to escape our lives or too caught up in our lives, never living our lives consciously. Our problems remain and we continue to feel stressed and exhausted.
The key is awareness. We shouldn't be daydreaming or constantly thinking about our next step. No, we should just be aware. Why? Because awareness holds the answer to many of our problems. We must activate awareness so that we can see what is going wrong in our lives, so we can see our problems and how negative we really are. Even if we are thinking happy thoughts, we are not aware and we are therefore denying ourselves the divine happiness we could all be experiencing. Awareness is something much more real than any happy thought. Awareness is natural. We all have the potential for inner awareness. Awareness makes us feel incredibly blissful and free. Awareness can lead us along a spiritual path. Awareness can change our life and the way we live it.
All we need to do to be aware is be 'in the moment'. That means, if you are at work typing something on the computer, that is all you are doing. You are not thinking of something else like dinner or a holiday, you are simply typing. You can feel the chair you are sitting on; you can feel your feet on the floor. You can hear the hum of the computer and the air conditioning in the office. You can even hear the cars out on the street, people yelling, laughing, and talking to each other in the distance. You perceive everything. Everything that is going on at that moment, you are aware of it. Everything from the thoughts inside you that are trying to distract you, to the cars honking each other three streets down the road. You are just there, perceiving the moment, you are just aware.
So what is so exciting about being aware that you are in your office typing? What is so blissful and peaceful about that? Wouldn't we much rather be dreaming of a beautiful tropical island? The answer is no.
If you look back on your past experiences, try to remember a time when you felt really happy, really peaceful. Were you on a holiday at some beach, looking around and suddenly you felt that joy? No thoughts about work or commitments, just enjoying the view and the cool sea breeze running over your body? Or, were you out in the bush taking a walk, listening to the birds sing and looking at the suns rays shining through the trees? No thoughts about what you have to do tomorrow, just enjoying the smell of fresh gum leaves and flowers around you? Or was it something else? Surely we have all at one point felt that burst of peace, of happiness? That feeling that nothing matters, you are just there, peaceful and free, clear and without thoughts or emotions? Even if just for a second?
Well, the good news is that we don't have to be on a holiday or bushwalking to experience this bliss. We can feel just the same sitting in our office typing on the computer. This is because when we are aware, we are acting through the divine part we all have within us. As is explained in the previous article, awareness wakes up our divine aspect. We all have it; we just don't know how to use it. We must be conscious. We must escape our minds, our thoughts and our emotions. We must act with our consciousness so that nothing is good or bad, beautiful or ugly, everything just 'is', and we see it just as it is. Anything we do in our lives, if we are aware, we can experience peace and freedom, anywhere, anytime.
I must admit, it is not quite as easy as it sounds. If we were all aware all the time, we would all be like Gods by now. No, it's not as easy as it sounds, but it is possible and it is worth making the efforts. I would like to explain a bit about my experiences with awareness and how I was able to feel blissful and peaceful in my everyday life. How even in negative and painful situations, I was able to experience true happiness.
I was at University when I first thought I would give awareness a go. It was near the end of the year and I had a million things on at once. Loads of essays to write and to hand in, lots of singing practice to do for my recitals as well as having to go to work and attend other rehearsals etc. Basically I was extremely busy and stressed out. I really didn't think I could get everything done. Everytime I went to do something, I couldn't stop thinking of all the other things I had to do. Where could I start? All these thoughts like "I wish I was on holidays" or "It's not fair, why do I have to do all of this work?" Anyway, the fact was that I did have to do all that work so unless I changed my attitude, I would go insane!
I began little by little. I would go to write an essay and I would say to myself "Right, for the next two hours, all I'm going to do is this essay. Nothing else." So I did. I would sit down and try to be aware, just doing my essay. Almost automatically I began to notice all these thoughts coming in like "Oh no, what about the other four essays I have to write?", "How am I going to get everything done in time?", "I don't want to go to work tomorrow". All these thoughts, distracting me from just writing my essay, distracting me from the moment. Making me feel nervous and worried. I had to force myself to not let these thoughts affect me, take me away. They kept trying, but little by little, they would get weaker as I made an effort not to go along with them. I kept doing this exercise; I would set aside a couple of hours to do ONE thing only. And in those couple of hours I would try to stay aware. I would strive to stay in the moment, watching myself writing my essay, guarding myself from any thoughts that would try to come in and take my mind to another place.
I then started to take this practice of awareness into other aspects of my life. Instead of just trying it when I was trying to get things done, like my essays, I began to try being aware when I had a break for lunch. Instead of eating a sandwich, thinking about what I was going to do next, or worrying about something else I should be doing, I made an effort just to eat my sandwich. Nothing else, nothing else mattered, only what I was doing at that time, eating. Then, in the mornings, I would have a shower; I would try to be aware again. Not think of my busy day ahead. I would just enjoy the feeling of the water running over my body, enjoy being aware and in the moment. No thoughts, no emotion, just being there, naturally. More and more I tried this, one thing at a time, one moment at a time. I tried to be aware of where I was all the time, be aware of how I was doing things, what was going on around me, what thoughts were coming in trying to distract me.
This wasn't a boring exercise. I began to realise this amazing feeling within. I felt this amazing peace and this amazing freedom. Through being aware, through exercising my consciousness, I began to experience a real sense of happiness. I was still extremely busy; I still had a million things to do, yet I no longer felt worried or stressed. In fact, I would sit down to write an essay and instead of it being a chore, it was magic. I really felt ecstatic within. I had freed myself from the negative thoughts and expectations that used to enslave and restrict me. I began to enjoy everything I was doing. I began to enjoy every moment of my life, no matter where I was or what I was doing. I realised that by being aware, any situation could be turned into a magical, blissful experience. I would eat my lunch, normally a fairly mundane thing to do, but by being aware I began to really experience what it is to eat. I could feel exactly what happened to the food. I could feel my body digesting it, extracting the goodness. I could feel my taste buds react to each flavour, and I could taste things like never before. Really, quite an amazing thing if you experience it. I even remember having to walk up to the shops to get some groceries. It was about a twenty-minute walk from home and I ended up buying quite a lot of things. I had about five shopping bags to carry, and I couldn't go past a big box of cherries that were going cheap! So there I was, struggling home, weighed down with heavy bags over each arm, clutching a big box of cherries with both hands. It was very hot and I didn't think I could make it all the way home. I felt pain in my arms from the strain, but I thought, "No, I'm going to stay aware, I'm not going to wish I was already at home free from this heavy shopping". I began to notice how I was walking, how much effort I had to make to lift my feet off the ground. I was aware of how my muscles worked to hold the box and how they were being pulled down by the other bags of shopping. I felt the sweat dripping down my face and how my whole body adjusted to the extra load it was carrying. It was amazing, I felt wonderful, and I discovered things about my body I had never realised before. I didn't even worry about how much effort it was or how I was hurting, and before I new it I was at home.
You see, when you are aware and conscious you don't have to try to see all these things. No, you just see them because you are there, experiencing it. If I wasn't aware on the walk home, all I would be doing is thinking. Thinking about how nice it will be when I get home and can put all this heavy shopping down. Thinking how hot it is. Thinking how my arms feel like they are going to drop off and poor me, no one to help me carry it all home. This thinking would mean that I was not in the moment because I would be at home, in my mind, or in my pain and my self pity, not seeing at all what was really going on. Not seeing any of my surroundings, not hearing the cars on the road, not feeling my consciousness alive. Nothing but dead, negative thoughts. This is not what we want, we want awareness. We want to experience the joy that is in awareness rather than the pain that is in the mind.
Other things also began to happen to me. I began to feel this amazing energy. I used to feel so exhausted all the time; I used to have to drag myself out of bed and to my books to study. Now, I had this internal spark, this energy that I could do anything. I realised that before, every thought I had, every complaint I made used up an enormous amount of energy. I was totally draining myself and I wasn't even getting anything done, I was just thinking about things. Amazing! However, by not allowing those thoughts to take me away from what I was doing at the time, I was saving this energy, in fact I was feeding it. I also realised that through this awareness, everything I did was of better quality. Instead of half doing something and half thinking about doing something else, I was 100% doing one thing at a time. I was able to do things more efficiently.
Then, to my amazement, my efforts to stay aware during the day started to have an effect on my awareness at night. I started to experience Astral Projection and I started to remember my dreams vividly. No longer would I go to bed, tense and negative, dreading waking up the next day. No, I would go to bed aware and notice the process of sleep. (See article on Astral Projection for details) Gradually, I realised the reality of a spiritual path. I realised that there was a better way to be. At first I didn't think that awareness would really do all that much because I was so used to living and behaving the way we all do, always worrying and thinking. Without awareness our lives are so empty and we miss the whole point of why we are here. All the things we do in our lives, be it good or bad, fun or painful, we miss the point. There are more divine things to be experienced. If we can remain aware and in the moment, we can experience the truth in everything. Through awareness we can discover amazing things about ourselves. Through awareness, we can see the way we behave, the way we daydream, the way we think negative thoughts. Through awareness we can see the things we need to change and change them, then we can truly walk along a spiritual path.
I don't want to make out like I am aware all the time because I am not. Awareness is very difficult to maintain, but the more you try, the longer those moments of peace become. I often find myself giving in to my thoughts and daydreams. However, I know that when I don't, when I fight to be aware and in the moment, I feel amazing and I see and experience things like never before. The great thing is that everyone can do it. Imagine no longer dreading work. Imagine, no longer sitting in traffic feeling frustrated. Imagine every moment of your day can turn into bliss. Every moment of our lives we have a choice to either think negative thoughts, feel sad or angry, feel tired or exhausted, or.be aware, be happy, be free. We have the choice, so why don't we give it a go? If you are walking to work, try not to think of anything. Watch yourself and make sure no thoughts are there trying to take you away. If you feel anxious or worried, try to let it go. Try to just be there perceiving your surroundings, objective, clear. Just try it, just for a moment; try to be aware. Try it now, just one moment at a time. Then try it a bit more, and a bit more. It really is the only way to be.
maybe we are zombies or in matrix world etc.
(this articles can be published and distributed)
All the things we do in our lives, be it good or bad, fun or painful,we miss the point. There are more divine things to be experienced. If we can remain aware and in the moment, we can experience the truth in everything.
Awareness. Something so wonderful, so peaceful, so divine. Something any one of us can experience in any situation. Something that could make our lives so much nicer to experience. Something that is so rarely activated.
Why is this? Why is it that we are so miserable in our lives, or find work so stressful, or continually feel exhausted and hard done by, yet none of us make the effort to activate the 'cure'? We all have the potential to change our life experiences and situations into divine freedom and peace just by activating awareness, so why don't we just do it.Easier said than done I suppose.
The problem is that we live in a very complicated society. Everyone feels pressured to do a million things at once. We are weighed down by expectations at work and at home, by family, friends and society. We are so caught up and identified with our lives that a lot of things go unnoticed. Most of the time we are not aware of where we are or what we are doing because we are to busy thinking about something else. For example, we are at work feeling stressed and tired, all we can think about is getting home and relaxing. We get home and relax, but all we can think about is how much we have to do at work the next day and we start feeling guilty for the time we wasted. We are running late for a meeting and we are stuck in traffic. We feel frustrated and angry, all we can think about is the people who are waiting for us and how much time we are wasting just sitting in the car. We don't even realise the beautiful day outside and how lovely it is that we have ten minutes to do absolutely nothing but sit in our car. In fact, we should be savoring the moment because it is very rare that we don't have to do anything at all! However we can't relax because we can only think of the apologies we will be making when we arrive late and what everyone must be thinking of us. Or, if we're not worrying about something we are daydreaming, wishing we were somewhere else. Visualising ourselves on some luxurious holiday far away from work and reality. We are either trying to escape our lives or too caught up in our lives, never living our lives consciously. Our problems remain and we continue to feel stressed and exhausted.
The key is awareness. We shouldn't be daydreaming or constantly thinking about our next step. No, we should just be aware. Why? Because awareness holds the answer to many of our problems. We must activate awareness so that we can see what is going wrong in our lives, so we can see our problems and how negative we really are. Even if we are thinking happy thoughts, we are not aware and we are therefore denying ourselves the divine happiness we could all be experiencing. Awareness is something much more real than any happy thought. Awareness is natural. We all have the potential for inner awareness. Awareness makes us feel incredibly blissful and free. Awareness can lead us along a spiritual path. Awareness can change our life and the way we live it.
All we need to do to be aware is be 'in the moment'. That means, if you are at work typing something on the computer, that is all you are doing. You are not thinking of something else like dinner or a holiday, you are simply typing. You can feel the chair you are sitting on; you can feel your feet on the floor. You can hear the hum of the computer and the air conditioning in the office. You can even hear the cars out on the street, people yelling, laughing, and talking to each other in the distance. You perceive everything. Everything that is going on at that moment, you are aware of it. Everything from the thoughts inside you that are trying to distract you, to the cars honking each other three streets down the road. You are just there, perceiving the moment, you are just aware.
So what is so exciting about being aware that you are in your office typing? What is so blissful and peaceful about that? Wouldn't we much rather be dreaming of a beautiful tropical island? The answer is no.
If you look back on your past experiences, try to remember a time when you felt really happy, really peaceful. Were you on a holiday at some beach, looking around and suddenly you felt that joy? No thoughts about work or commitments, just enjoying the view and the cool sea breeze running over your body? Or, were you out in the bush taking a walk, listening to the birds sing and looking at the suns rays shining through the trees? No thoughts about what you have to do tomorrow, just enjoying the smell of fresh gum leaves and flowers around you? Or was it something else? Surely we have all at one point felt that burst of peace, of happiness? That feeling that nothing matters, you are just there, peaceful and free, clear and without thoughts or emotions? Even if just for a second?
Well, the good news is that we don't have to be on a holiday or bushwalking to experience this bliss. We can feel just the same sitting in our office typing on the computer. This is because when we are aware, we are acting through the divine part we all have within us. As is explained in the previous article, awareness wakes up our divine aspect. We all have it; we just don't know how to use it. We must be conscious. We must escape our minds, our thoughts and our emotions. We must act with our consciousness so that nothing is good or bad, beautiful or ugly, everything just 'is', and we see it just as it is. Anything we do in our lives, if we are aware, we can experience peace and freedom, anywhere, anytime.
I must admit, it is not quite as easy as it sounds. If we were all aware all the time, we would all be like Gods by now. No, it's not as easy as it sounds, but it is possible and it is worth making the efforts. I would like to explain a bit about my experiences with awareness and how I was able to feel blissful and peaceful in my everyday life. How even in negative and painful situations, I was able to experience true happiness.
I was at University when I first thought I would give awareness a go. It was near the end of the year and I had a million things on at once. Loads of essays to write and to hand in, lots of singing practice to do for my recitals as well as having to go to work and attend other rehearsals etc. Basically I was extremely busy and stressed out. I really didn't think I could get everything done. Everytime I went to do something, I couldn't stop thinking of all the other things I had to do. Where could I start? All these thoughts like "I wish I was on holidays" or "It's not fair, why do I have to do all of this work?" Anyway, the fact was that I did have to do all that work so unless I changed my attitude, I would go insane!
I began little by little. I would go to write an essay and I would say to myself "Right, for the next two hours, all I'm going to do is this essay. Nothing else." So I did. I would sit down and try to be aware, just doing my essay. Almost automatically I began to notice all these thoughts coming in like "Oh no, what about the other four essays I have to write?", "How am I going to get everything done in time?", "I don't want to go to work tomorrow". All these thoughts, distracting me from just writing my essay, distracting me from the moment. Making me feel nervous and worried. I had to force myself to not let these thoughts affect me, take me away. They kept trying, but little by little, they would get weaker as I made an effort not to go along with them. I kept doing this exercise; I would set aside a couple of hours to do ONE thing only. And in those couple of hours I would try to stay aware. I would strive to stay in the moment, watching myself writing my essay, guarding myself from any thoughts that would try to come in and take my mind to another place.
I then started to take this practice of awareness into other aspects of my life. Instead of just trying it when I was trying to get things done, like my essays, I began to try being aware when I had a break for lunch. Instead of eating a sandwich, thinking about what I was going to do next, or worrying about something else I should be doing, I made an effort just to eat my sandwich. Nothing else, nothing else mattered, only what I was doing at that time, eating. Then, in the mornings, I would have a shower; I would try to be aware again. Not think of my busy day ahead. I would just enjoy the feeling of the water running over my body, enjoy being aware and in the moment. No thoughts, no emotion, just being there, naturally. More and more I tried this, one thing at a time, one moment at a time. I tried to be aware of where I was all the time, be aware of how I was doing things, what was going on around me, what thoughts were coming in trying to distract me.
This wasn't a boring exercise. I began to realise this amazing feeling within. I felt this amazing peace and this amazing freedom. Through being aware, through exercising my consciousness, I began to experience a real sense of happiness. I was still extremely busy; I still had a million things to do, yet I no longer felt worried or stressed. In fact, I would sit down to write an essay and instead of it being a chore, it was magic. I really felt ecstatic within. I had freed myself from the negative thoughts and expectations that used to enslave and restrict me. I began to enjoy everything I was doing. I began to enjoy every moment of my life, no matter where I was or what I was doing. I realised that by being aware, any situation could be turned into a magical, blissful experience. I would eat my lunch, normally a fairly mundane thing to do, but by being aware I began to really experience what it is to eat. I could feel exactly what happened to the food. I could feel my body digesting it, extracting the goodness. I could feel my taste buds react to each flavour, and I could taste things like never before. Really, quite an amazing thing if you experience it. I even remember having to walk up to the shops to get some groceries. It was about a twenty-minute walk from home and I ended up buying quite a lot of things. I had about five shopping bags to carry, and I couldn't go past a big box of cherries that were going cheap! So there I was, struggling home, weighed down with heavy bags over each arm, clutching a big box of cherries with both hands. It was very hot and I didn't think I could make it all the way home. I felt pain in my arms from the strain, but I thought, "No, I'm going to stay aware, I'm not going to wish I was already at home free from this heavy shopping". I began to notice how I was walking, how much effort I had to make to lift my feet off the ground. I was aware of how my muscles worked to hold the box and how they were being pulled down by the other bags of shopping. I felt the sweat dripping down my face and how my whole body adjusted to the extra load it was carrying. It was amazing, I felt wonderful, and I discovered things about my body I had never realised before. I didn't even worry about how much effort it was or how I was hurting, and before I new it I was at home.
You see, when you are aware and conscious you don't have to try to see all these things. No, you just see them because you are there, experiencing it. If I wasn't aware on the walk home, all I would be doing is thinking. Thinking about how nice it will be when I get home and can put all this heavy shopping down. Thinking how hot it is. Thinking how my arms feel like they are going to drop off and poor me, no one to help me carry it all home. This thinking would mean that I was not in the moment because I would be at home, in my mind, or in my pain and my self pity, not seeing at all what was really going on. Not seeing any of my surroundings, not hearing the cars on the road, not feeling my consciousness alive. Nothing but dead, negative thoughts. This is not what we want, we want awareness. We want to experience the joy that is in awareness rather than the pain that is in the mind.
Other things also began to happen to me. I began to feel this amazing energy. I used to feel so exhausted all the time; I used to have to drag myself out of bed and to my books to study. Now, I had this internal spark, this energy that I could do anything. I realised that before, every thought I had, every complaint I made used up an enormous amount of energy. I was totally draining myself and I wasn't even getting anything done, I was just thinking about things. Amazing! However, by not allowing those thoughts to take me away from what I was doing at the time, I was saving this energy, in fact I was feeding it. I also realised that through this awareness, everything I did was of better quality. Instead of half doing something and half thinking about doing something else, I was 100% doing one thing at a time. I was able to do things more efficiently.
Then, to my amazement, my efforts to stay aware during the day started to have an effect on my awareness at night. I started to experience Astral Projection and I started to remember my dreams vividly. No longer would I go to bed, tense and negative, dreading waking up the next day. No, I would go to bed aware and notice the process of sleep. (See article on Astral Projection for details) Gradually, I realised the reality of a spiritual path. I realised that there was a better way to be. At first I didn't think that awareness would really do all that much because I was so used to living and behaving the way we all do, always worrying and thinking. Without awareness our lives are so empty and we miss the whole point of why we are here. All the things we do in our lives, be it good or bad, fun or painful, we miss the point. There are more divine things to be experienced. If we can remain aware and in the moment, we can experience the truth in everything. Through awareness we can discover amazing things about ourselves. Through awareness, we can see the way we behave, the way we daydream, the way we think negative thoughts. Through awareness we can see the things we need to change and change them, then we can truly walk along a spiritual path.
I don't want to make out like I am aware all the time because I am not. Awareness is very difficult to maintain, but the more you try, the longer those moments of peace become. I often find myself giving in to my thoughts and daydreams. However, I know that when I don't, when I fight to be aware and in the moment, I feel amazing and I see and experience things like never before. The great thing is that everyone can do it. Imagine no longer dreading work. Imagine, no longer sitting in traffic feeling frustrated. Imagine every moment of your day can turn into bliss. Every moment of our lives we have a choice to either think negative thoughts, feel sad or angry, feel tired or exhausted, or.be aware, be happy, be free. We have the choice, so why don't we give it a go? If you are walking to work, try not to think of anything. Watch yourself and make sure no thoughts are there trying to take you away. If you feel anxious or worried, try to let it go. Try to just be there perceiving your surroundings, objective, clear. Just try it, just for a moment; try to be aware. Try it now, just one moment at a time. Then try it a bit more, and a bit more. It really is the only way to be.