Awareness Meditation – Barely Being Aware

 This is emptiness/awareness meditation.
Non-meditation,
Non-dual being!

 There are two parts to our being. It is aware, and it is clear/empty. It is here that we have to be ‘spiritual engineers’, slightly adjusting the relationship between these two aspects.

 In the old spiritual world (in the East), they were (and maybe still are) more relaxed than in the West. One could say they were more aware of the emptiness aspect, and so needed more awareness practices. You may have experienced that when they say tomorrow, that could mean next week! They were more laid back, and relaxed about everything.

 On the other hand, we in the West are very aware, and tense about everything! It all has to be done yesterday. The West is on constant speed – we are super soldiers! Being even more aware will drive us crazy, giving rise to fantasies and paranoia, so we need to calm down. We need to relax more. Relax…relax…r e l a x….

 In the modern world, we have to adjust our approach to the Dharma and meditation. There is an ancient allegory of applying the same sense of urgency to our spiritual journey as a beautiful women whose hair is on fire. This allegory was directed at Eastern students: as westerners, we are constantly rushing around believing our hair is on fire all the time ,and desperately seeking a solution (I have spent most of my life panicking and missing the point).We need more relaxed clarity. In awareness meditation, we are barely aware. This creates a deeper relaxation, without any doing involved. No doing. Merely being. No duality.

 There is a fine line of perception within the unity of awareness and emptiness, and this can be adjusted (just as the gaze can be adjusted: when we feel dull we raise the gaze, and lower it when we feel agitated) Here, we are adjusting the balance of this unity slightly towards emptiness, and so we are barely aware and more relaxed – everything slows down. If we use the term “unity” in a generic way, it is vague: if as an experiment, we change the balance of becoming too aware, we will note that we are taking in too much sensory stimuli and losing the sense of mere being.

 If we fall into the extremes of emptiness or awareness, we become distracted. Too much emptiness and we are vacant or oblivious. Too much awareness and everything appears super-real and solid. If we are too alert, too focused, we become tense and conceptual, and if we are asleep,we have lost consciousness altogether.

 For the modern world, we need to lean slightly towards emptiness – “Barely being aware”. We are still aware of all the open senses, but just enough not to be surprised by an elephant creeping up on us.

 Personally, I meditate indoors and outdoors, and find outside better, with some part of my body touching the earth (earthing). Indoors is a more disciplined routine, which includes chanting and pujas, and one is more aware of time…things can get a bit tense! Getting through millions of mantras seems to have that effect 😉

 Barely being aware is like being between awake and asleep – not quite in one world or the other. It’s a feeling of gentle wakefulness without being distracted.

 Do not mistake this for a trance-like dream state: that is precisely what we are coming out of…being vacant or occupied…like the signs on a toilet door. If we train our bottoms, why not train our minds?! (see how easy it is for a western mind to wander off…)

 Hopefully, barely meditating will have an effect to some degree on consciousness while sleeping. That is the introduction into dream yoga.