Awareness holds the light in understanding our humanity.

Metaphorically,  awareness is like the sky- a backdrop for mind states to arise and fall- like clouds forming and dissolving with the will of nature. Clouds like our streams of consciousness are “empty” at the core. Their varying formations in what we “see” manifest from prevailing conditions and dissolve with changing conditions.

Regardless of how dark and turbulent the clouds- the sky behind always remains clear. The light has only been temporarily obscured by a passing veil of darkness. When the sky appears dark- when awareness appears obscure- it is only a visual distortion created by the moment’s emerging conditions. Turbulence will rise and fall, and eventually things will clear and settle… this is nature’s way.

When the sky is clear- we can see how open and expansive the canvas of possibilities. It is this same perspective when applied to awareness that we sense the freedom and space to allow our creativities to blossom- flow openly- and vividly. Like the forming clouds upon the sky, our mental formations of thought and feeling only scatter our sense of “space” when we grasp and identify with their content- otherwise they simply stream through awareness- “noted” within the process of observation. What they may reveal depends upon the perspective of the observer… “I am no more my mind state than the cloud is the sky”. What we think or feel isn’t the “whole” of what we are… to think” is “thinking” and to feel is “feeling”. These states of mind-body are temporal and ever-changing.

Awareness like the sky is colored by the emerging and manifesting conditions of what is becoming in the here and now. To see through arisings that appear to obscure or even occlude our canvas of possibilities, we remain grounded by the impermanence and impersonal nature of their phenomenology. It is this shift in attitude to be mindful that carries the right intention and disposition for “light of being” to penetrate our cloudiness – and to create space for movement from states of ignorance (i.e. unawareness) and confusion to states of awareness and clarity.

Both sky and awareness are always ready to receive… from the still of empty space… there arises the possibility to experience the wholeness of what is emerging and becoming. To be light and free expands our capacity to receive the shifting currents of change without aversion or attachment. Neither sky or awareness resist what is happening in their respective fields of just being as they are… open, expansive, and accepting.

It is truly amazing what can be seen when the sky is clear- even the subtlest of movements in objects that appear on the fringe of one’s horizon. The same is true with awareness as clarity of mindsight focuses even the subtlest of workings in the mind. So much quality of being that was once missed is now seen and sensed… experienced as if for the first time. It is this shift in perspective that has the capacity to be so transformational.

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