It begins with the Witness…
Witnessing allows you to neutrally observe the automatic Patterns that run your life.
The Witness observes the inner experience with a sense of curiosity and even wonder – you become the explorer of the undiscovered country of your own psyche. This is an in-depth study of the design of you. (It’s important to note here that the space of the Witness is distinct from the internal voice of the judgmental critic that jabbers in your head 24/7!) Through a series of simple teachings and experiential exercises that are part of SPIRITOS Awareness Training, you develop the ‘muscle’ of the Witness, becoming more able to remain awake in a moment and not lose your Self in the swirling chaos of life’s inevitable triggers.
In a genuine moment of Witnessing, the curtain gets pulled back and you become fully present to the hidden mechanisms that create your occurring reality. These precious moments of clarity are the keys to your freedom. Reliably catching that brief sliver of time between stimulus [what the world throws at you] and response [who you choose to be in the world] is your access to living an aligned and authentically created life. Every time you Witness, the very act of Witnessing strengthens your ability to Witness. Witnessing has a cumulative effect just as lifting weights at the gym will, over time, strengthen your body’s muscles.
Despite how it may seem, your Patterns are not your enemy.
Your Patterns are brilliant creations of your younger self, invented and deployed in response to a crisis and refined over the years and evolving into your default way of surviving in life. Patterns are not bad – you have simply forgotten that you can choose any other way to be, leaving you with very limited options of how to ‘be’ in response to life. With the wisdom, resilience, understanding, ability to express yourself, and capability to set boundaries as an adult, you have access to creative and heart-aligned ways to ‘be’ in the world beyond the few simplistic survival Patterns that were available to you as a child.
As you wake up to your Patterns learning how to steer a more heart-aligned path in life becomes a practical and immediate concern. If you’re no longer travelling along the time-worn ruts of established Patterns, how do you navigate a life that is consciously aligned and uniquely true for you? Your mind is an amazing and useful tool, to be sure, but what guides your mind?
The truth is that the mind is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master.
The goal in Awareness Training is not mindfulness; it’s Heartfulness. Many are familiar with the traditional ‘training of the monkey mind’ within eastern-style mindfulness traditions – an extraordinary and useful practice but not Heartfulness.
Heartfulness is a stable state of conscious flow with the world; a delicate softening of the mind’s artificial distinctions between ‘me’ and ‘other’.
Heartfulness does not flourish by chasing after one fleeting ‘peak experience’ of oneness after another. It develops from the daily inner commitment to living a life informed and guided by our own unique sacred listening. The experience is of being fully present to our place in the glorious infinite dance of the cosmos - all while shopping for groceries, paying the bills, and living life.
Heartfulness is a state of being present that rests in and arises from the undivided field of attention. It’s not in the realm of the mind at all. Your mind can’t be used to access to this state any more than your eyes could be used to hear. You still have full use of your mind-that-knows and all its wondrous capabilities, but under the guidance of the sacred listening from the heart.
Developing a reliable way for you access your own sacred listening is the next step in Awareness Training.
Love, David