To awaken is a wide-ranging concept which begins with its common usage, to awaken from sleep. A person might or might not remember much that has occurred through the several hours of sleep, yet sleep is very full of mental, emotional, and physical activity. As such, awakening from sleep ends those rich -though only partially remembered- events of consciousness and one begins one’s day. Yet, the habits of consciousness that we live from during daytime are same habits of consciousness that play out in our dreams, and display as restful or restless sleep.
Recognizing a thought arising, or noticing the usually not noticed of an emotional pattern, or recognizing the sense of self as it changes through the day are also types of awakening. We are often asleep to how our minds work, why we think what we do or believe what we do. In this case, asleep has the meaning of unexamined, not really any different than how few people are trained adequately to examine their mind or consciousness while dreaming. For the majority of human beings, the dream goes along with the mind and consciousness swept along with it, unquestioning.
One of the many sub-techniques of contemplation and meditation practice is examining a belief, thought, or arising emotion. This begins with noticing it, then questioning it. One of the initial gifts of this process is that one discovers that the initial label given to an emotion or arising sense of some sort is not usually correct. I call this “dropping in.” For example, while a few friends and I were having an in-person retreat, we played with this idea. One person said, “I don’t understand what you mean by ‘dropping in.’ “Fair enough,” I said. “What’s important is the feeling you’re having that has been labeled as not understanding. Just pause with the feeling for a moment.” She did.
She recognized that under the label
- (so quickly named, stated as if true and moved on from as if that controlled the feeling) was hesitation.
- Under hesitation was vulnerability related, at first to not having a sense of control of her thought or reality,
- then opening into realizing that as she softened and opened, a full spectrum of vulnerability, control mechanisms, sense of self, sense of capability, and the limitations of being a human being -constantly learning and opening- all opened inside her.
- She awakened to the moreness that lay behind the label. We all can, too.
All of the gradations of awakening, up to full omniscience and its compassion, begin with and grow from these two processes:
- awakening from sleep and everything those hours include – most significant being one’s consciousness floating along unaware;
- and pausing to examine and question that which is accepted as real and/or that which is robotically identified, named, categorized, and left unexamined and unexplored.
A great fullness lies waiting. May all beings awaken.
