The stimulation of awareness is, in my belief, the single most fundamentally important aspect of ourselves we need to develop.
Through awareness we ask questions, we learn, we develop our own thoughts, we become educated - wise even. The lack of awareness is the root from which all problems arise. War, environmental problems, disease, suffering, fear... all of these negative aspects of our existence can all be solved, resolved or at least understood [and thus accepted and healed] through the knowledge that awareness implies.
In 2005 when I mapped out all the things I could possibly work towards accomplishing, all of it had awareness at its core. This left me in a dual condition. On the one hand: happy, cause I found a single common core-pattern in all of my life's ambitions which implied a single [higher] goal, but also confused because I had no idea how to really stimulate "general" awareness in others.
Awareness is so abstract a thing, I was left thinking "how does one make others become more generally aware?". What I thought I knew, was that the desire to be aware must come from within, you can't make someone aware - or can you?
Some things you can learn, call them "building blocks", or "guiding principles". With these guiding principles you then can filter and extract new information. In terms of awareness this implies:
With these building blocks, further knowledge can be obtained. Clearly parallel sets of building blocks would make sense in many other areas such as ethics, truth, rights etc.
Awareness also intimately dances with general wisdom, as the two are intertwined. At some point I will cover wisdom [in a post], when it has matured sufficiently.
After these thoughts I had on purpose I went on my trip around the world, and again later I was once more confronted with purpose. I thought a lot about having a higher purpose, and was back to trying to pick a single focus [something I've really never been a specialist at].
Not having "anything" to do for months except traveling, meeting people, seeing beautiful places and enjoying life leaves you just desperate to get a shovel in your hand, and have that feeling again like you are productive, useful, active, creative... after 6 months of doing nothing I was so eager to "work" I can't understand why anyone would think that we even need to have laws that say people "have" to work - unless of course the reason you have those laws is because you want to have people do things they don't want to do... hmmmmm...
Anyways, back in the present here in 2008, a year which I have resolved to make into a year focussed especially on this very thing: "productivity" the year is turning in ways I had not expected - and this is keeping things rather interesting.
Since the beginning of this year I have been striving to improve my blog by focusing more on the sharing of knowledge and information, and less on my own personal daily activities and psychology.
While this shift has been very beneficial to me [and hopefully for you too], I feel now that an insight into this process is now necessary for fruit.
In a few weeks time I shall be returning to the U.S. of A. - and if you were surprised to hear this was my decision, I can also tell you that I myself am still surprised I am going back there. Initially I felt an intuitive pulse, something that told me "this is where you need to go next" - and I followed that voice, primarily because I felt that there was "something" which I was going to learn/grow or become from this next phase that could only be found in this place - though at the time this internal message was conveyed to you [and myself on the conscious level] as simply "intuition" or a "hunch".
Recently though I felt a need to rationally map out the reasons why it makes sense to go there, and at that moment I really felt the power of "post rationalization", so to speak.
Let me just say that my opinion on the subject of "rational thinking" has been maturing to quite a degree over the last time since I wrote my previous blog entry on the subject: a primer in rational thinking. We make decisions based on what we think we should do; either because of a choice [or "lack of choice"] in our patterns, or because of a choice that breaks those patterns.
So a list that objectively states all the pros and cons for why you should choose A over B is never going to be objective if you write it [and meaningless if anyone does it for you] because you already know what choice you want to take before you make the list... in other words, you will [unconsciously] skew the list purposefully to match your pre-made decision.
[btw I don't believe in a subconscious beyond your conscious anymore, but that's another post]
Psychological manipulation through "addiction methods", "priming" and "loss mechanisms" are real - and I agree with that - but only awareness will help you to break out of that cycle, awareness and conviction to break a pattern, break the hypnotism - which, I do admit, does require strength, as well as continual questioning...
So I am still confused as to why I am repeating my past pattern of bouncing between the States and Europe... is it itchy feet? an unbreakable pattern? or a higher mission? or some other reason? I disagree with the political state of the country so strongly - why on earth am i going there?
I do have faith that my personal path is leading me the way it is meant to go, but sometimes I really gotta wonder...
Thom Hartmann was right when he said in his book: the last hours of ancient sunlight that we need to adopt the culture of civilizations that have already existed sustainably for the last 200,000 years on earth - just as Steve McIntosh is right when he said in his book: integral consciousness and the future of evolution that we need to adopt all the positives of all levels of previous cultures. But more important than looking for pieces of culture in the history books, more essential than all of that is: knowledge.
I believe that a simple, universal "human" quality exists. When it comes to fundamental truths, words are here to divide as we define, not to unify. A universal "integrity of being" that is "spiritual" to the "spiritual", "logical" to the "mechanist", and "divine" to the "religious" etc.
Discovering this universal truth is a two step process - with both feet stepping - we need to unravel the false alternatives while refining the commonalities of this common essence we call "existence".
We live in an amazing time, a time where there is both amazing potential, and incredible danger. The world is facing serious problems, and the possibility of massive wars, famines and social-regression is very-very real. But there is also a growing wave of amazing consciousnesses-awareness here, we also are living at a point where true fundamental improvements can revolutionize how we live on this earth. The 'problems' we face are also 'opertunities' for us to change, to grow, to learn. And for that, the human psyche has one important tool at its disposal that can guide our future away from danger, something as simple as: education.
If oil prices went up and then your government said it was "some other countries fault" you would probably believe them - that is, unless you knew for a fact that oil prices were going up because there is simply less oil around... in which case they can't dupe you. This simple piece of knowledge would could then potentially shift public opinion to support green technologies and oil reduction instead of war and oil conquest [yes, it is more complicated than this, but every storm starts with a drop, see below].
This was an awfully long preface to a single link I wish you share with you. But every word I have spoken here tonight was within me for some time.
Without further ado, here is a link to a rather controversial documentary titled: zeitgeist*. There are three strong parts to this video plus a final conclusion which ties all three together very effectively.
Please watch and pass it on to those you know. Even if this whole video discusses facts which are fake [which I am nearly 100% certain it is not], the scenario it outlines in the end as our future needs to be publicly discussed precisely to make sure it never happens! If after watching this video you suddenly hear of such a plan... are you honestly going to volunteer?
No, you are not.
"Awareness", case in point.
* zeitgeist = "the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era"
2 comments:
I like what you said about awareness. For me, I prefer to focus it even more specifically onto internal awareness-- stop for a moment paying attention to the distractions around you and ask how you feel. Do something, and see whether it feels good or bad. Try to avoid things that feel bad.
Simple! And yet, like you , I believe that people acting towards awareness and then internal well being is the most powerful change agent on the planet.
Thanks again Bruce for your diligent readership and comments! I really appreciate the appreciation.
:)
Regarding internal-external awareness. What you write is very true, being "present" and not externally distracted, or busy with the past 'regrets/nostalgia' or the future 'hopes/fears' is of critical importance.
But once you have that foundation even somewhat stable, I do think there is also an important external component to the internal one. There needs to be a balance between the two as the internal universe expresses itself in the external - if we believe in co-creation, then the external is literally a manifestation of the internal. And thus we can use the external-manifestation as a tool to observe in the physical the unfolding play of the internal.
There is also a question of "where/what" we pay attention to, and how much general/alternative information we are open to, how much we remain skeptic, how aware we are of our "post-/pre-rationalization", how many "unique" thoughts we can form etc.
The ability to perceive things from more perspectives than simply your own personal-"feels good" compass is also really important!
Essentially, an internal "feels good" compass is no substitute for education!
The social/interpersonal/observational external awareness will also stimulate your internal one and vice versa.
Ken Wilber divides these domains into the: "I" domain, "we" and the "it" domain.
The "I" domain is your personal subjective experience, and the "we" domain is the interpersonal, or interpretive domain and the "it" domain is the observational.
According to his philosophy, they are all independent and yet still co-dependent. A weakness in one will result in a weakness in another.
Example: If you feel depressed ["I" domain], you can describe this as a function of brain chemical immabalances [the "it" domain], and you can describe this in terms of the social/interpersonal reasons for your depression [the interpretation "we" domain]. If you only ever focussed on the "I" domain, you would be less effective at getting out of your depression, as all three domains contain truths.
Finally, there is also a direct correlation between one's association with the self [ego identification] and one's level of psychological development. We see this belief in western-psychology as well as eastern-spirituality.
So in this analogy, the internal-awareness is essentially the building block upon which higher ethical functionality can be built which becomes more and more interpersonal-universal and less self-ego focussed as each person matures psychologically / spiritually.
And yes, awareness is really powerful! Let's all never stop learning...
;)
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