“How much of the day are you aware – just basically aware of what life is presenting – rather than being lost in waking sleep, in being identified with whatever you’re doing, almost as if you didn’t exist?
To what extent do you blindly drift from one form of comfort to another, from one daydream or fantasy to another, from one secure place to another, in order to avoid the anxious quiver of discomfort or insecurity? How much of your energy is used to fortify a particular self-image, or to simply please others in order to gain approval, instead of devoting your energy to living a genuine life?”
– Ezra Bayda
At Home in the Muddy Water: A Guide to Finding Peace within Everyday Chaos
Via WhiskeyRiver
A person does not have to join a group or be a wise leader to work things out. Life’s process unfolds naturally. Conflicts resolve themselves sooner or later, whether or not a person knows how things happen.
It is true that being aware of how things happen makes one’s words more potent and one’s behavior more effective. But even without the light of conciousness, people grow and improve. Being unconscious is not a crime; it is merely a lack of a very helpful ability.
Knowing how things work gives the leader more real power and ability than all the degrees or titles the world can offer. That is why people in every era and in every culture have honored those who know how things happen.
“Being unconscious is not a crime; it is merely a lack of a very helpful ability” … those are words I have taken to heart. Too often in the past I’ve been annoyed with other people for not being aware of how things happen or the consequences of their actions. I excused it a lot in my kids, knowing they were kids and learning. I had difficulty excusing it in adults, however. I wondered how people could be so stupid, quite a lot of the time, actually.
One of my former good friends, Mike, used to say I didn’t suffer fools gladly. Very true. But I think I am a bit more forgiving now than I used to be. But the everyday, ordinary lack of awareness of how life progresses around you, the out of touch way so many seem to live their lives still bothers me.
I am pretty much aware of where every living thing around me is, without even thinking about it. It amazes me when my husband asks where one of the kids are. I know where almost everything in my house is and can find it in minutes, even if the house is a mess. I know dates, places, times I have to be somewhere, what the weather is like, how people are without asking, just from their expression. My husband is never aware of these things.
Ah, well, it’s just a helpful ability. Heh. To me, awareness of life and how things work is a central part of my life. I would hate to be without that helpful ability….
3 Responses
Awareness is, I think, the foundation of enlightenment. If you can’t SEE (in whatever sense we take that word to mean), then you can’t UNDERSTAND.
Sometimes, though, awareness is a double-edged sword. I often know things I wish I didn’t, yet I continue to ‘fess up to them because I know to deny them would be to shun my gift, and I’m not willing to do that.
When I think really hard about it, though, I find that I’m NOT envious of those who float, blissfully ignorant, though their lives. Sure, they don’t suffer the knowledge of things they can’t change, but neither do they celebrate the joy of being mindful and active participants in their own lives. That’s a trade-off I’m not willing to make for the sake of a little comfort, even now.
Yeah, know what you mean about the double edge sword. The hardest lesson for me to learn was keeping my mouth shut about some things instead of doing the “stop, wait, come back!” routine to warn people they were getting into bad relationships or that there were problems in their relationships, or that I saw things happening with a friend that they needed to pay attention to and they didn’t want to acknowledge those things. Sometimes people need to learn from their own mistakes…. being aware of other people often means I have to not fess up about some things. Lost several good friends learning that lesson… but perhaps you’re right that if we see it then it ought to be said, in spite of the cost to us personally.
Weeeellll, (she says, hedging), I’m not sure that if we see it it ought to be said. Some things are just observations and aren’t really necessary to put out there; I’m learning to discern the difference, but I’ve not quite got it down yet…