Aware of Being Aware

 

Space Consciousness

“Space consciousness means that in addition to being conscious of things…there is an undercurrent of awareness. Awareness implies that you are not only conscious of things, but you are also conscious of being conscious. If you can sense an alert inner stillness in the background while things happen in the foreground—that’s it!”

Eckhart Tolle (A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, p.228; Plume, 2005)

          In this example of human consciousness, Eckhart Tolle asks the question, “Can you feel your own presence?” In other words, are you engaging all your conscious awareness, or simply focused on what is outside yourself. Most of the time, because we are consumed with activity, we are focused on what is going on around us; where objects are in relation to us, who is within visual distance, within touching distance. For purposes of physical security, we monitor our surroundings and mentally keep track of our environment. But if you’ve ever been driving your car, deep in thought, mentally somewhere else, and suddenly come back to your physical body inside a car, you have experienced dual awareness. You were somewhere else, but you were also driving the car. Thus, you know that your consciousness is capable of being in two places at the same time. In other words, you have more than one level of awareness.

          I attended an improvisational salon in a friend’s home last night. Fifteen or twenty people were there talking among themselves, a dancer danced in one room, a musician played, and I watched all of them, but I was also aware of myself, sitting on a chair, watching. Inside us, inside all of us, is an observer consciousness. This observer is always monitoring within and without. Michael Singer wrote about this part of human consciousness in his book, The Untethered Soul. Singer has lived through many human ups and downs, as we all have, but he isn’t terribly interested in what happens in his outer life, whether good or bad, insisting that his true identity, everyone’s true identity, is the observer within who watches it all unfold. Carl Jung called that piece of us the Self.

          The Self is our consciousness, our inner observer. It is our connection to cosmic consciousness. It is our soul, which is eternal, mystical, and divine. It is always present, whether our personal consciousness, the one connected with our sensory experience, is aware of it or not. It is older, full of wisdom and complete understanding, and if we can connect with it, and be aware of it, it will create within us a sense of peace that is impossible to come by through our thinking head. It resides in the space between our thoughts and our deeper understanding that this world is transitory, and our soul is eternal. Inside us is a well of calm clarity. Reaching it may take practice, but it is accessible when we become still, quiet, and fully present. Try it today—just sit quietly, be aware of all that surrounds you, and then explore who within you is aware, and exploring. Your soul is waiting to be discovered.

                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                  Jane