fact melts away the fear…
Meta-cognition: ‘Awareness of Awareness’
by meditative - January 9th, 2012.Filed under: Insights for Mindful Intelligence.
A fascinating aspect of being human is our capacity to watch our own minds- to be aware of our awareness. This meta-cognitive state is like being two places at the same time as we are capable of experiencing thoughts and feelings while simultaneously watching ourselves experience those events of mind. It is this form of somewhat removed or detached observation (i.e. like watching clouds pass across the sky) that allows us to monitor what our minds are doing.
This meta-cognitive process of ‘awarenessing’ (i.e. awareness of awareness) also helps to regulate how we perceive and respond to activities of the mind- how we ‘see’ our thoughts and feelings- how we relate to them- and discerningly how they may or may not serve us in the present moment. To penetrate our thoughts and feelings with awareness is to see them as they are- as events of mind. It is this inherent ‘wisdom’ of awareness that may lead us to question the factual nature of what we think to be true- and to not always believe what we think. It can also help us to gain clearer insight as to how these activities of mind directly relate to what is actually experienced.
Over time and as we refine our inner capacity for awarenessing, we come to realize the sometimes faulty nature of our perceptions- and that they are not always reliable or trustworthy. Our capacity to discern the accuracy of our perceptions is fine tuned through our observational (i.e. mind-watching) skills of abiding attention & concentration. With practice, we can begin to clearly identify the trends for certain thought patterns as well as the more subtle cues and messages associated with our emotions.
Continued exercise of awarenessing allows for a more flexible modulation of our ‘free attention’ so that we can maintain ‘observational distance’ from our thoughts & feelings. It is this observational distance that helps us to cultivate the ‘clear seeing’ of 20/20 ‘mindsight’- as well as the ability to see with some precision how the mind tries to control our perceived ‘reality’…
Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.