Awakening Into Awareness
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When I am able to strip away all the false notions of self, I gain access to an underlying space of awareness. It is the silent witness, the observer to all there-is, that I find myself tuning into. Indeed, nature invited me to learn from observing the terrapin (see picture below) at the start of my blogging break last month.
“Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.” — Henry David Thoreau
Awareness Looking At Itself
It was day three of my coming to the park. There was silence in the background. I was alone in a quiet part of the Botanic Gardens, far away from the crowd. As I looked out into the calm waters of the lake before me, I became aware of a terrapin standing in an island of leaves.
The terrapin was still. It appeared transfixed, looking up.
Perhaps the terrapin is observing something, I thought.
But at what, I wondered. At the sky? At the leaves? What?
I continued to wait, my eyes on the terrapin.
It did not move.
For a long time.
Then, a thought flashed in my mind: the observer (the terrapin) has become the observed (through me).
From that single thought, the next few questions arose naturally: If I am observing the terrapin observing something else, can there be another entity that is observing me observing the terrapin observing something else? Who, then, is observing me? Is it an entity to begin with?
Can that which is observing me be the same as that which is observing the terrapin? Is this awareness the silent witness to all that is going on?
Awareness in Awareness
The presence that lies in each flower, animal or person is the same awareness. We are all part of a unified consciousness that created all there-is. The same intelligent field witnesses all that is going on. It orchestrates the interweaving of all events, people and things. We are individuals integrated to the fabric of the cosmic whole.
Awareness is looking at itself in each moment of awareness. When I look at my daughter, I see the miracle of her presence right before my eyes. At the same time, I see myself through the reflection in her eyes. She is in me, in my awareness. I am in her, in her awareness. Awareness is aware that it is aware.
What is great is that there is no need to seek or go looking for awareness or enlightenment. We are who we seek. We are awareness itself. The mind is the canvas from which thoughts arise. With conscious awareness, thoughts take physical shape in our external reality.
“The ‘I am’ contains all that is needed for making the world, even though by itself it consists of nothing but a silent witness.”
— Deepak Chopra
Nature Tapestry Notes
Notes for the Day: We are the observer and the observed. We are the awareness that we seek. However, we cannot actually seek because awareness can only be experienced in the now. What we observe in our reality is an expression of the same awareness that is weaved into our very fabric of existence. We are the miracle in the miracle of life itself.
Sidenote: If the above seemingly circular discussion on awareness is putting you in mental agony, may I suggest that you don’t even try to understand a word of it. Awareness can only be known from its own experiencing. There are no labels or words that can fully describe what it is or means. Neither will I claim to live in continuous full awakeness at this point.
“My sense of identity broke down and was replaced by something that is very hard to put into words. Awareness, Consciousness.”
— Echkart Tolle
Nature Tapestry Notes in November is a series of articles put together from my walks and sittings at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Nature helps us interweave in awareness to the innate quality of our divine self nature, that of abundance.
Your Thoughts Please
Do share your thoughts or experiences about awakening into awareness.
Abundance Always,
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Evelyn Reply:
November 10th, 2009 at 8:50 am
Hello J.D., I enjoyed what you said about being a director. We are essentially talking about conscious awareness when we direct our thoughts and point our cameras at what we want.
Abundance always,
Evelyn