Yesterday we had the wonderful sharing and also discussion on present moment awareness. I got such a wonderful response from you in my discussion with you that I am going to continue today with present moment awareness.
Narrow focus leads to expansive awareness
I’ve been saying that present moment awareness is being fully in the moment, being completely in the present. Sometimes when we hear present moment awareness we want to think that it means being aware of everything in the space, and this is not necessarily so. It means being fully attentive to whatever you’re doing, complete devotion to the object of your concentration, giving full attention to whatever you’re focused on. So in that moment you may not be aware of everything around you because you are focused on your task and, of course, you are in a safe space. If you need to be aware of something while you are in activity, then you bring that into your awareness. However, I’m speaking about a safe space where you can actually give attention to whatever is before you.
Oneness gives an experience of freedom
We said yesterday that when you can actually hold every moment very powerfully, in the present, the experience is extraordinary. You see more in that particular event so it becomes an extraordinary event. So, in actually narrowing your point of view to whatever you’re focused on, can also lead you into an expansive awareness. So even though you are focused on some object and you may think that you are limiting your view, or focus, it is also an opportunity, an invitation, to enter an expansive state. And I want you to think about this carefully.
The whole idea here is, when subject, object and process become one, it is an experience of freedom. When you’re completely in oneness with whatever you are focused on there is an experience of freedom, an expansive experience of oneness where two become one. So it actually takes you into an expansive state of being. You can see this in a conversation with someone.
A relationship becomes a spiritual experience
Let us say you meet someone for the first time, the person may be a stranger. You have no idea of who this person is although you may make some assumptions by their appearance. Then you begin to speak with the person, and you realize how many things you have in common with the person. When that happens you begin to see that you are actually sharing a more expanded space with you and the person. You begin to see more in the person; the person becomes more to you. And if you find out that you have some kind of relationship with that person based on family or based on where you’ve come from, then there’s more intimacy in the relationship. Suddenly you just seem to invite the person into your world a little more and you want to share more. You want to ask more and if you have a common vision about things, or a common goal, then even more so you feel much more connected. Then in a half an hour of speaking to someone you can feel it: “Wow! I feel as if I’ve known this person for so long.” And the person is never the same again to you.
Though you focus on one person exclusively in that moment, it opens you up to a whole new world. Then you can become in conversation with a person so deeply that you feel so much in common that you want to be in silence for a moment with this person, because you seem to be touching something so deep that even words seem to block. And in that moment of silence you feel completely at one with the person and you seem to be sharing something so deep where there is no need for words. We would say: “That is a spiritual experience, that is where subject and object and relationship all are in oneness. So here is where a stranger has turned into not just a friend, but a part of yourself. That person is no longer going to be a normal person to you.
When the ordinary becomes extraordinary
Present moment awareness invites you to have this relationship in everything that you do. A mystic, William Blake, wrote very beautifully these captivating words, or these profound words:
To see a whole world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wildflower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.
“To see a whole world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wildflower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour” - “a grain of sand…a wildflower…the palm of your hand…and an hour,” may seem to be such ordinary objects but if you open your eyes to the experience, you can experience so much more.
Present moment awareness invites you to this expansive experience in every moment, in coming into oneness with the object of your concentration, to go deeply into it where ordinary experiences become extraordinary.
Learning - a joyous experience
Each person becomes a doorway to another world. As you enter life every day you are eager to experience: “Who am I going to meet today? Who is the world going to send to me today that can enlarge my experience, that can expand my world? Who is the Universe going to send to me today? What am I going to learn today from my world that will make me a better person, or that will expand my view of life? And here there is excitement in learning. What am I going to experience today that will give me a greater experience with my world and that will bring a greater joy for living? What am I going to learn today in my world that will help me to see beauty in diversity and duality?
When you look at the world like this in a fresh way every day, full of excitement, learning and growing can be a joyous experience. The present moment invites you to experience this. What may seem to be a limiting view may lead you into such an expansive experience of oneness.
Expanded awareness – the practice
In just a few minutes I will tell you how you can do this in a practical way. It requires a certain kind of discipline to bring yourself into this state of awareness. You know the saying that “practice makes perfect.” You need some kind of self-discipline to hold you in this kind of awareness of the present moment because it is so easy to lose it. I’ll therefore give you little exercises where you can focus on the discipline and the first is the breath:
Breath
During sitting meditation, if you can become more aware of your breathing throughout the meditation, it can actually take you into a deeper experience of being. Just looking at the breath go out and in, one may think, “But where can that take you?” This is a technique that is used by a lot of seekers, just observing the breath, nothing else. Now, just observing the breath is not just observing the breath. When you begin to observe the breath going in and out, a number of beautiful things can happen besides the mind becoming more and quieter.
The breath allows you to forget the mind for a moment and to focus on a wonderful experience of energy. As you move the breath, you are actually moving subtle energy. And as you begin to breathe, what happens after a little while is you will actually feel that “I am looking at my body breathe.” Instead of “I am breathing,” I begin to say: “My body’s breathing.” You begin to look and say: “My body’s breathing. I am observing. The air is going out and it’s coming in.” And suddenly I begin to become more free of my body. I’m looking at my breath and I’m feeling that body’s breathing. I have only to look.
And then as you go deeper into the breathing, you begin to feel that the Universe is breathing, and I’m observing, because the breath is coming from the Universe outside of you and it’s coming into you and it’s going back into the Universe, so this body is in a relationship with the Universe. So the Universe is breathing, as though I’m breathing with a rhythm of the Universe. And suddenly the experience becomes expansive, and what would have seemed to be just following the breath would have led to a beautiful experience of watching your body breathe and then feeling the body in a relationship with the Universe, and you’re just looking from this expansive space of being.
The breath can actually take you into deeper and deeper experiences. Then as you go deeper inside you may begin to feel that the breath is becoming more and shallower and then begins to want to stop. And when it does, if it does, it leads to a beautiful experience of stillness and unity with your inner being. And here it is, just focusing on your breath can lead you into an expansive experience of being. So that is one experience that can actually hold you in the present moment in a beautiful experience of being.
Looking at a Thought
Another one is looking at a thought. You can put a specific thought in the mind: an affirmation or little prayer or mantra. You put it in the mind and you begin to repeat it. And you’re being in the moment with it. You’re not allowing yourself to go into the past or the future. You’re staying with this word, this thought continuously, so it’s grounding you in the present. As you begin to continue with this, many things may happen as you hold the present moment awareness. You begin to enjoy the company of this little thought in your mind. After awhile you don’t want to give it up: “because it’s nice to keep this little thought in my mind.” It’s like my friend. It takes me away from all kinds of worrying and negative thinking so I’m keeping this wonderful little thought in my mind. So I’m beginning to love this little thought. I’ve a relationship with it.
Then as I begin to repeat it even more, I begin to feel the power of it. It seems to take me to some kind of power as I repeat this thought. It seems to expand my power. And so I not only repeat it as a friend, to hold in my consciousness, but it seems to put me in touch with some kind of energy field inside of me as I go deeper into it, and it changes my energy. It holds me in the present in an expansive way. But you need to explore these.
Discipline strengthens you
What I like about these simple exercises is that they make you disciplined. You need to keep your attention on them and they have the potential of taking you into deeper and deeper experiences. So in your sitting, if you do these, you can choose to do them together if you wish. With the breath you put a thought. And go into it, be completely in the present moment and see where it takes you, and even if the mind wants to shift, you don’t allow it to shift. You stay with it. This discipline can really strengthen you.
When you go into the world, you carry this same discipline with you. If you’re listening to a person you listen with the same intensity of discipline and that can lead you into a oneness of experience with the person. It allows you to go deep into the experience. So present moment awareness is such a beautiful invitation to expansive experiences of being and oneness and is such a discipline when you apply yourself as I have said before in specific concentration techniques.
