99 steps to reclaiming your individuality Step #40

The principle of awareness:

It is often pressed upon us to reject the reality of the moment, and replace it with the illusion. The illusion is that we have lived long, suffered long, experienced hardship long, and at each step of the way overcome the hardship and forged ahead. Time like the Ego is the master illusionist, and sadly for most, they leave the theatre impressed with the show and forever trapped in the illusion. It is not a terrible fate per-say, but for some we just cannot shake the inner calling that there must be more to it. If you are one such person, then it would be wise for you to continue your search, for you will find no peace in the illusion, only the uncomfortableness of knowing that this reality (the illusion) is not where you belong.

Throughout history individuals have reiterated this over and over again, through philosophy, religion, poetry, song, ritual. each enlightened-one, dutifully it would seem, trying to be the light bearer for the next generation. But what is this awareness and where can it be found one may ask?  The mistake is in the implication that it can be found in time, when it exists outside of time. And secondly, the truth that it can only be accepted never fully understood.  It has no language, no variables, no matter no substance, at least by standards we are accustomed to. How do we acquire an understanding of it then? In the simple truth that you must evolve into awareness of it. Well this sounds like a cycle of circular redundancy then, you can't identify it, you can't quantify it, it's not understandable, but yet it is the true reality, that makes absolutely no sense at all.  One would then have to ask, sense, by what standard?  If we use the illusion as the standard, what are we measuring against? (eg:) I stand in front of a mirror, I see a reflection of myself, is the reflection real? Yes! But it is only a refection, it is not really me? Yes! So how can it be real?  It is real in the context that it is a reflection of yourself, not real in the context that it is another manifestation of yourself.  Likewise when we approach true awareness, we understand that, the manifest exists , and the reflection exists, but we can only ever understand the latter when we approach the mirror.  Then what are we, the manifest or the reflection? Neither! We are the observer.  Well we are when we are awakened from the dream.

For some or many, it is not important to them, who they are. For others it is a painfully long search that more often than not leads to a dead end or deception. This is truly sad.  The problem is that we are too focused on the discovery and not in the context of the discovery. We don't look up in the air for a school of fish, neither do we go fishing for a flock of geese. When we approach matters of conscious awareness we have to put our approaches in the right context.

To be truly at peace with oneself, we must acquire a vigilant honesty. A willingness to accept everything and anything, as a possibility with the determination to equally undertake to question and challenge its validity, in the contest to which it is being expressed. We must be willing to challenge preconceived ideas and notions in ourselves, because we will never expose the illusion around us, if we continue to delude ourselves. It is only when we see clearly, that we will clearly see the illusion. We will not do this by intellect alone,  nor by  awareness alone, but by understanding that we are the dreamer dreaming the dream, and the longing we feel inside is the sound of the alarm clock prompting us to awake.