Awareness 101 (The Beginning)

By Terence E. Dean

This book though titled Awareness 101, is appropriate for all levels of religious/spiritual travelers. It begins in the very basic for the newcomer and ends at a place where even the seasoned would enjoy. Hopefully, it will shed some light onto the darkness of myths, ignorance and beliefs that surrounds this action called awareness. We ask and sometimes answer important and pertinent questions that are relevant to the demands of today's living. To where we see for ourselves the necessity of being aware. The book is written with familiar and common words that we all can comprehend with very few technological terms that sometimes causes a difficulty in understanding . Within the introduction we come upon the need to “heighten” awareness beyond everyday routine and habit. We will explore and inquire to see how this heightening can come about naturally and intelligently. Where awareness can be our instrument to better understand our self or in the words of the sages, to “Know Thyself”.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Terence E. Dean
• Release date: Aug 10, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310036187

Book preview

AWARENESS 101

(THE BEGINNING)

By

Terence E. Dean

Published by Terence E. Dean at Smashwords

Copyright ©2014 by Terence E. Dean

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage friends to download their own copy.

Special Thanks You: To Ursula without you this book would have never been possible. Also a thank you to all the friends and family that inspired this work. Esp..Roz and Silvia

Cover photo credit

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gemmastiles/6157627077Gemma%20Stiles

http://photopin.com

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1: Peace, Love and Joy

Chapter 2: Awareness 101

Chapter 3: The Newcomer

Chapter 4: The Magnificent and Incredible Mind

Chapter 5: The Beginning

Chapter 6: A Student

Chapter 7: Coming into Awareness

Chapter 8: Thought, Thinking and Self

Chapter 9: What Is This Thing Called Awareness?

Chapter 10: Awaken!

Chapter 11: The Repetitive and Redundant

Chapter 12: Observing, Watching and Listening

Chapter 13: Attention

About the Author

Chapter 1

Peace, Love and Joy

In what one would call the spiritual community, awareness or being aware, is proclaimed by many to be a necessity in living a fulfilling life. A fulfilling or rich life one of peace, love and joy. It's one where you can find a complete, happy and meaningful life. Within this proclamation though, is a standard of telling us how or a formula provided to produce this awareness. Techniques or practices done repetitiously and ritualistically until eventually obtaining the result you desire. Along with this also are many claims and testimonies of deep experiences offered for proof for those willing to sacrifice.

Whether their practices and methods to be aware produces the actual desired or just a resemblance of, comes under question. The author would dare not to speculate on this because it usually only leads to argument and disagreement where nothing productive comes out of it. Speculating on what others experience, how they feel about and perceive their lives is proven to be a dead end street. Because some people lose touch with reality trying to replicate a past experience. Others can get used to incredibly ugly and sick situations then they say they are happy or content. So trying to imitate, comparing yourself or get what others say they have could be a very stupid act. The experiences, claims and testimonies of others have very little meaning if you really look at it, anyway. They become a crutch that helps and validates the set pattern you already follow or accept. There is even less importance, especially when we take full responsibility for our own individual transformation.

What the author will not hesitate in stating, from hearing some of things communicated about awareness, much of it is rather childish and juvenile. Some well-known teachers and so-called experts in this area have some practices or methods that border on the art of illusion making. Systems you follow that are said to produce a heightened awareness or immaculate experience, which are to transcend our lives out of the mediocrity and mundane. Their goal is somehow to be achieved through suppression, repression or manipulation of mind and thinking. Thought and thinking being the maker of all illusion is pressured to create what it knows best. To capitulate and make the best of illusion, image or delusion is within the very nature of the brain. By doing what some of the authorities say to do and thinking what is pushed upon you to think, is a hurt to the human spirit. There would be no possible way to have peace, love and joy except in a dream world, this is injurious to the heart. It appears that this intelligent action of awareness has been turned into some kind of circus show. But, we shall not let the side show antics deter us. If we can look maturely, logically and reasonably at this movement, then possibly the truth of it may appear to us.

The author making such a comment on the distorting methods and ideas does not want to imply that he is some kind of superior expert. Nor suggesting that he knows more than them, has some special gift or any of that other foolishness. It is just some of the things practiced or their methods are imagination and fantasy. If you have ever been on a serious spiritual journey and experimented with what others say to do, many of these are much the same. Most of the techniques they give to practice, you have probably already tried doing at some time in the past. It is almost identical when they tell you to visualize, control thought and deny yourselves. They have just been repackaged to look different and then given another name.

Awareness is about awakening to the false, our conditioned state of mind and the habits in our lives. These are things that bind or block us from the freedom to live in peace, love and joy. Once you are aware of the false, conditioning and habits we can intelligently let those things go. The letting go of this old or false allows something new to happen. Our current state though is one of assuming, presuming or drawing conclusions regarding what we think is the positive. Which is just another trap of self, an alluring snare which catches many unsuspecting people. Where the trap is, if something sounds good and is pleasurable enough it has to be true, it serves to capture the seeker. When the so-called negative, the reality or our actual daily life is never even thought about and challenged. So, we ask, what is this thing called Awareness?

Approaching awareness in an investigative way means we have to begin as if we know nothing about it. Neither do we want to just accept what others have said or even the author’s conclusion on it, if he had one. Because all of us could be just be repeating something that we have heard or imagined. So, without the past influencing us, we will look at this question anew and with fresh eyes. Not even knowing what the word awareness means to begin at the basic level. Where looking the word up in the dictionary seems to be the best option. In the dictionary you see that there is profound meaning given to it. Attached to it are words like consciousness, cognizant and understanding. Which are cornerstones to our existence as spiritual and thinking human beings. Without any one of these processes, it would make us lower than the animals.

Just by the mere definition given, awareness or being aware, is very important to life. How important is it? Look at your life and just see the blatantly destructive and corrupt things we do while being unaware. We hurt people more often, jump to judgments and conclusions when we are cognizant of the fact.