Topic: Evolution of awareness

[goggle-eyed dandelion]

We see that although the individual is moving forward from day to day, and from experience to experience, he nonetheless brings all his day’s experiences, and ultimately the whole of his life’s experiences, into one coherent whole. In other words, regardless of whether man is aware of it or not, his life is not merely a string of separate and unrelated events, but is instead the product of bringing all his past experiences to bear upon the present, and in this manner he is constantly ‘knitting together’ the fragments of his life. This ‘knitting together’ quite automatically deepens, or intensifies, the man’s sense of awareness, in that his awareness becomes keener and sharper.

This fact is particularly interesting when we look at instances in which a man’s view of the world becomes smaller as he shortens the radius of his perception. Whenever this happens, the man in effect intensifies his evolving awareness considerably through concentrating it within a much smaller area of perception. The reason for this is that the man, at that moment in time, is incapable of coping with bigger view of the world, and therefore his experiences are not having the impact upon him as they should be. Not having enough impact, the experiences of such a man can be shrugged off as not being of any real significance, and consequently, if the man did not concentrate his awareness, he would simply continue indulging in all manner of pursuits and actions which drain him of his personal power. Therefore, in all such cases it is in fact a saving grace that the man’s awareness becomes concentrated, for in this way he has a better chance to achieve the depth of vision he will need in order to make the necessary adjustments to his perception.

However, if such a man stubbornly refuses to use this intensification of awareness wisely, and continues to indulge in those habits which brought about the intensification in the first place, then without even realising what is taking place, the man’s view of the world will once again diminish in order to achieve an even greater intensification. If this process is allowed to continue, such a man ends up with a view of the world which is so small, and a level of awareness which by now is so very intense, that his perception of life will inevitably become self-destructive. This is analogous to focusing a beam of sunlight through a magnifying glass. Once that focus reaches a critical intensity, the sunlight will begin to burn whatever happens to be on the other side of the magnifying glass.

ANY PERSON WHOSE VIEW OF THE WORLD HAS BECOME TOO SMALL HAS INTENSIFIED HIS OR HER AWARENESS TO THE POINT WHERE IT IS SELF-CENTRED. ONCE AWARENESS IS SELF-CENTRED, IT RAPIDLY REACHES A CRITICAL LEVEL WHICH BECOMES THOROUGHLY DESTRUCTIVE TO THAT PERSON.

The principle of inclusiveness is also at work in the life of the warrior, except that in his case it has the opposite effect to that described above. By being awake, and by living on the edge at all times, the warrior is capable of meeting his challenges impeccably in the moment. Every challenge met with impeccability yields personal power, and having more personal power warrior is able to intensify his awareness. This intensification obviously allows the warrior to see ever deeper meanings in occurrences within his daily life, and these deeper meanings in turn ultimately lead him into seeing the interrelationship of life. In other words, because warrior’s awareness is constantly becoming keener and sharper, it also becomes more inclusive as it expands outward to encompass more and more life around him.

Theun Mares ‘Cry of the Eagle’ pp. 276-278

[mayflow]

Tokusan was studying Zen under Ryutan. One night he came to Ryutan
and asked many questions. The teacher said: "The night is getting old.
Why don't you retire?"

So Tokusan bowed and opened the screen to go out, observing: "It is
very dark outside."

Ryutan offered Tokusan a lighted candle to find his way. Just as Tokusan
received it, Ryutan blew it out. At that moment the mind of Tokusan was
opened.

[Michael]

puff!

[zenandnow]

nice quote erik.