The waking consciousness is largely influenced by our mental content reacting to the world situations. That content reflects our conditioning and the habitual neurology associated with it. In other words, we function more like a robot whose reactions are controlled by the vast store-house of memory and the emotions associated with the ‘I’, ‘me, and ‘mine’. Many problems arise because of this mechanical response to people and circumstances. Most human beings remain unaware of this robotic response and that is how unhappiness prevails in the individual and in society. This situation influences the field of religion too, leading to such jingoism as ‘my religion is superior to your religion’. Conflicts at home, at the work place and in several social interactions are a result of this unconscious response in daily living. In short, the ego thrives because of the unawareness in allowing our mental content to respond. Human beings have lived this way for centuries and so the habit has gone to the neurological levels. However, freedom from slavery to such mechanical responses is possible and it can bring in freshness to the individual and the collective.The following paragraphs deal with some suggestions on how self-awareness can be brought into our daily life so as to avoid the robotic responses caused by unawareness. Once we are aware of our mechanical responses, we take our attention into ourselves and it begins to dissolve the robot.
The Bardo
There are times during our daily lives when our consciousness is not obscured by thought. With the noisy mind in action, such moments are few and far between. However, there are two occasions during a day when consciousness is less obscured by mental noise. On those occasions, there is a gap across which the mind jumps so quickly that we don’t notice the pure awareness existing in that gap. These are the moments immediately after waking up in the morning and those just before falling asleep. When we bring ourselves to focus on these periods (called Bardo), we get an inkling of pure awareness, a state of mind that is not dominated by thought .
Emanation of the ‘I’
During the inwardly directed attention, one can see that the ‘I’ is a product of thought and that it has no intrinsic substantiality. It is the assumption of that substantiality that causes problems. J. Krishnamurti’s oft repeated statement “The thinker is the thought” is relevant here. Self-awareness can take us to the breeding ground in the mind from where the ‘I’ emanates. True Self can be discovered only when the ‘I’, the false self, is no longer masquerading as the real one. In the absence of the ‘I’, universality is felt in all happenings of our life, as it happens after going through a NDE. Obviously, such a perception brings about compassion towards everyone and everything. The Bardo period can be particularly helpful in being aware of the emanation of ‘I’.
There are many such avenues for augmenting self-awareness. People who show interest in that direction very soon sense the dissolution of the robot at least to some extent. Their life becomes imbued with calmness while they do not emotionally depend on any belief or system to sustain that calmness. They move into a state of inner harmony and natural spirituality. One would no longer be driven by society and its rat-race. Those interested in the fundamental transformation may visit the website http://spirituality.yolasite.com