As we awaken in our moment-to-moment living, we begin to divest from our relatively dreamy and story-ridden preoccupations. With sustaining present-moment awareness, we may come to see how our conditioning and habituation can serve to confine our potentialities. Without the self-imposed limits of our highly conditioned minds, we can open up to our interiority and examine the true wonders of ourselves as human beings- as beings who have the wonderful capacity to be aware of who and what they are becoming.

In wondering- in observing and examining with curiosity to be awake to what we are directly experiencing in the here & now, our degree of inquiry becomes expansive, deep, and spontaneously fresh. In the quiet & stillness, and in the “space” of our open awareness, we can now pause between our stimulus and response. It is through our wakeful moments of calm presence that the clarity of our reality begins to focus in. Being wakeful can be truly revelational when we allow ourselves to patiently see, sense, and feel our direct experiences.

With wakefulness, the “pause” of our stillness is open and expansive to include all the “happenings” inside and outside of our consciousness. As a watchful observer in and of this process we relate, connect, and touch the flow of what is unfolding without indulging in it and allowing its content to carry our attention away from its observational focus. The energy fueling our storylines– and our mind’s perceptual reality is now diffused by a lack of egocentric reference. It is the same energy that has also been transmuted into our higher power of awareness- unavailable to feed the “automaticity” of our mind’s running commentary.

In awakening, we come to realize and sense directly how our self-constructed storylines control our lives- the images, associations, thoughts, projections, ideas, positions, emotions, etc. When enmeshed in these stories of ourselves, we tend to embody all the manifestations that arise from the power they unleash in controlling both our psychological and physiological being. Awareness can be a means to disconnect from this relatively automatic and reactionary process.

Mindfully attending, our awareness now has the power to lift the veil to what has been historically obscure. In the here and now- in awareness, we deliberately “pause” from the seemingly endless chain of mind habits. We curiously question and examine the images and ideas that energize our narratives. We recognize and acknowledge the hard-wiring of our memories and associations in stimulating our patterns for reactionary living. In this presence of wakefulness, we are whole and inseparable from our direct experience. We rejoice in the unadorned simplicity of our true nature… and it is here that we see ‘flashes’ of clarity and ‘light’ onto our objects of attention.

Seeing through the images and ideas of ‘self’, and how ‘self’ relates to others and other things… and vice versa… the world in which we inhabit inside and out takes on fresh, new meaning. Being wakeful, we are no longer asleep to the self-constructed ideals that limit the fullness and richness of our lives- yet can we truly be open and release the old patterns that enmesh us in obscurity and confusion? Can we discern the difference between the reality of our experience and our image-oriented projection onto it? Waking up, it is curiosity that moves our intention to penetrate the layers of commentary and confusion that veil our capacity for true “mindsight”… clear seeing & sensing without the streams of thought to morph our direct experience. With refined (skillful) mindsight, the pressure to conform to our image of “what is” begins to relax. All the conditions and conditioning to be, see, and perceive what is expected seems to dissolve away in the spontaneity of mindsight’s free attention and open awareness.

With truly being in the moment- we are presence itself- without the idea of “self” distracting our attention from the object of our experience. We exist in the movement and flow of the moment- observing & connecting to the essence of our object of attention without any judgment, grasping, or aversion. We are what we “see” as we are one with what is “seen”. The more we are able to sustain this quality of awareness (field of light) & attention (focused stream of light), the more transparent our direct experience becomes.

As we “stay with” our awareness, we watch our storylines unfold. The memories and associations vibrate in our bodies as their accompanying energies- via impulses- flood our circuitry with intent to capture our attention and move us away from our watchful observation. It is in this state of being that we are without limit or time. We simply “touch & go” with what is arising. We shift from the routine to spontaneity. We come to realize that our happenings don’t need to be translated with imagery or story. Some experiences may call for more immediate response and others simply continued reflection. When watched through the quietness, calmness, and gentleness of the “observing self”, changing conditions are seen for what they are… changing conditions.

With practice, the deeper our observation and concentration, the more self-sustaining it becomes. Awareness and transparency are energized by our innate capacity to attend- and to concentrate over and over again. As we continue to emerge with insight in our meditation, contemplation, or reflection, our intent grows stronger to see and deeply understand the nature of what is- cause and effect– the chain of things becoming. In the openness and expansiveness of our wakefulness, there is a shift within our problem-solving circuitry away from what is enmeshed in conditioning and compulsion to protect and preserve the “me”, myself”, and “mine” to a more flexible and adaptive circuitry that allows for a more inclusive & spontaneous field of observation and examination prior to a response or action.

Through our states of wakefulness, our conditioning is revealed unconditionally. Just as the nature of ‘truth’, it reveals itself on its own. It manifests freely and effortlessly for it is the way nature unfolds the reality of how things truly are. The question remains as to whether we have the patience and skill to allow the unthinkable- the unknowable and even the ‘ungraspable‘ to reveal its unconditioned effect?

Through contemplative practice, we can learn to live outside of our ‘subjective world’ in the cerebral field of conscious and unconscious experiences. As we become more wakeful, we strengthen our inner capacity to know the nature of things as they are by discovering our own minds. We learn to overcome our fears and resistance for genuine transformation by engaging in creative, flexible, and novel ways of exploring the mental activities of our own interiority. We immerse ourselves fully into our own beings- to be fully present, reflective, connected, and attuned to who we really are- how we think, feel, sense, perceive, engage, relate, react, or respond, etc. All of these inner capacities can be cultivated through a daily practice of reflection and meditation.

As we continue to cultivate and refine our inner capacities for awareness, observation, and concentration, we can penetrate and ultimately dissolve our entrenched and nonproductive mindsets. We can become more open and receptive to simply bear witness, to connect, and to attune to the internal states we have historically avoided or manifested intense emotional reactions toward. With the skillfulness of sustained mindful observation & reflection, we can awaken and deepen our capacity for self-regulation, empathy, and compassion. With sustained mindful intention, the workings of our minds and the circuitries of our brains can become more flexible and resilient as we emerge adopting an “approach-based” mindset openly curious to the novelties before us moment by moment. With a shift in consciousness from our highly conditioned mode of perceiving, we may come to “see” our subjective experiences- the workings of our minds- in a new “light”.

Developing our capacity to openly & objectively reflect on our inner world is a fundamental skill set of mindful intelligence. Reflection is at the core of how we relate and attune to ourselves and to others. As we refine our reflective skills and the mindsight to clearly see the manifestations and activities of the mind-body process, we become better prepared to be more flexible and sensitive to new contexts- and ultimately to promote and support physiological, mental, and relational well-being.

‘Awakening’ is a lifelong process accessible to all who find exploring and examining their own humanity to be both purposeful and meaningful. It is both a practice and a result- a discipline and a mindset of letting the process be the essence of being. To skillfully engage this process, we need to discover our own curiosity- to cultivate enthusiasm, effort, and dedication- and to reach beyond our conventional wisdom to remain fixed to where we think and perceive we need and want to be. Liberation from what holds us back is a ‘clear seeing’ of the patterned conditioning and habits of our own mind. Intentional curiosity and care brings us into a shifting state of consciousness where we learn to be within the space and expansiveness of our own minds- allowing free attention and open awareness to awaken a mindsight that will ultimately change our lives by transforming the way we “see” and relate to our subjective worlds. It’s our life… it’s our awareness… and its “power” to transform lies in our capacity to be skillful- to be mindful- and to be routinely wakeful in the attention we give our own being.

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