Recently I read a FB post from Peace Arnold in which she shared an
excerpt from the writings of David Whyte, an extraordinary poet. The
sharing regarded the very human feeling of aloneness/separateness.
You might ask” what is a hidden discipline?” The title of the sharing attracted my interest. Within the larger context of a short essay were these few words: “Awareness is the hidden discipline of familiarity”. They captured my attention. They drifted down through my conscious awareness and kept on sinking. Bringing up long forgotten memories, pictures of the many times, in the midst of a familiar activity I lost touch with the broader awareness of all of life flowing around me. Shared pictures of how this loss of awareness was, in my experience ,absolutely and profoundly true.
True when I am driving along a familiar route and realize that my attention moved inward, focusing upon the thoughts running in my head like a hamster in a wheel- round and round, going nowhere. True when I discover that I seem to have “lost” myself, in a narrow and deep focused doing. In both cases, as I participated in the familiar- my awareness of the world around me, sensations, sounds, colors, feelings faded and my attention seemed to have become anesthetized, oblivious.
I use and have used the word awareness to describe the state of being a witness. A witness to my personal languaging, to my breath, to my thoughts. David Whyte’s phrase created a bridge between two very separate experiences of awareness. One the awareness with a purpose- to be a conscious witness: a deliberate, focused and purposeful act. The other- the awareness imbedded within the familiar. It is this later form of awareness that I experienced while driving with my 93 year old friend along familiar fern lined country roads, listening to her share how a tree/ the flowers/the birds had changed from the week before, the season before, the year before. She demonstrated an aliveness to all of life as it flowed around her. Her awareness was integrated into the flow of nature from one minute, one day, one week, one year flowed into another. She demonstrated impeccable awareness; integrating the smallest details into the broader flow of nature’s rhythms- the hidden discipline in the familiarity of a daily routine.
In Transcendental Rebirthing Certification Training as we are reminded of the importance of holding a state of discernment, safety and tracking- always tracking- broadening our awareness to include every being in the room, monitoring their breath, their body language, listening to the space itself- always maintaining a constant state of wide awareness. We are called to never lose our awareness in the story of the being who comes to let go of all the stories of who they thought they were, to become the being that they truly are.
Awareness the hidden discipline in familiarity-
Do you have it?
Did you ever have it?
Can you feel how it can take you deeper and wider, even more than before?
For more information http://www.beyourbrilliancenow.com
You might ask” what is a hidden discipline?” The title of the sharing attracted my interest. Within the larger context of a short essay were these few words: “Awareness is the hidden discipline of familiarity”. They captured my attention. They drifted down through my conscious awareness and kept on sinking. Bringing up long forgotten memories, pictures of the many times, in the midst of a familiar activity I lost touch with the broader awareness of all of life flowing around me. Shared pictures of how this loss of awareness was, in my experience ,absolutely and profoundly true.
True when I am driving along a familiar route and realize that my attention moved inward, focusing upon the thoughts running in my head like a hamster in a wheel- round and round, going nowhere. True when I discover that I seem to have “lost” myself, in a narrow and deep focused doing. In both cases, as I participated in the familiar- my awareness of the world around me, sensations, sounds, colors, feelings faded and my attention seemed to have become anesthetized, oblivious.
I use and have used the word awareness to describe the state of being a witness. A witness to my personal languaging, to my breath, to my thoughts. David Whyte’s phrase created a bridge between two very separate experiences of awareness. One the awareness with a purpose- to be a conscious witness: a deliberate, focused and purposeful act. The other- the awareness imbedded within the familiar. It is this later form of awareness that I experienced while driving with my 93 year old friend along familiar fern lined country roads, listening to her share how a tree/ the flowers/the birds had changed from the week before, the season before, the year before. She demonstrated an aliveness to all of life as it flowed around her. Her awareness was integrated into the flow of nature from one minute, one day, one week, one year flowed into another. She demonstrated impeccable awareness; integrating the smallest details into the broader flow of nature’s rhythms- the hidden discipline in the familiarity of a daily routine.
In Transcendental Rebirthing Certification Training as we are reminded of the importance of holding a state of discernment, safety and tracking- always tracking- broadening our awareness to include every being in the room, monitoring their breath, their body language, listening to the space itself- always maintaining a constant state of wide awareness. We are called to never lose our awareness in the story of the being who comes to let go of all the stories of who they thought they were, to become the being that they truly are.
Awareness the hidden discipline in familiarity-
Do you have it?
Did you ever have it?
Can you feel how it can take you deeper and wider, even more than before?
For more information http://www.beyourbrilliancenow.com
