Insight and Awareness

The monk asks: Is there anything more miraculous Than the wonders of nature?

The master answers: Yes… Your awareness of the wonders of nature

Angelus Silesius

The Book of Angelus Silesius Cited in Meditations for The New Age

This insightful teaching expresses for me the central necessity of the spiritual life: self awareness or self knowledge. The capacity to be aware of ourselves, our surroundings and our mental and emotional processes through mindful awareness is essential to any path that offers awakening…

I can remember in seminary that the Protestant theologian Reinhold Neibuhr declared that the difference between humans and animals is our ability to be “self- transcendent.” As I remember this, it is to be able to step outside of our ordinary consciousness, and be able to observe ourselves thinking, feeling, or in action. Animals live in the present tense and while they do have memory, they cannot observe themselves and their inner processes. 

Additionally, I can recall that my teacher, Oscar Ischazo, stated that self-knowledge is the central teaching of consciousness studies, and that without self knowledge no genuine progress or spiritual maturity is possible, and the realization of the true self cannot be found or attained.

Awareness of being aware… the necessary training or the discipline of the mind to reveal itself and its inner workings; the structures of the ego, and the games/deceptions that are possible, as well as its capacity for awe, joy, wonder and other positive emotions are the lifelong quest.