I want to explore a specific characteristic of awareness: awareness is creative Awareness not only reveals what was previously unknown, but it can also change it.
I am referring primarily to subjective experience, but this statement may apply to the external world as well.
I invite you to simply become aware of your breathing. If you diligently watch your breath for a few moments, you will see that simple awareness of the breath will change the way you breathe.
I also invite you to sense any tension in your body. Once you find that place, just bring awareness to it. Let your awareness be soft and gentle. Hold your attention on that tension in your body. Put your awareness right inside those tight muscles. You may discover that the tension diminishes, or even disappears.
Awareness can be healing. I have witnessed, experienced, and listened to many individuals who found that practicing awareness can relieve tension in the body, resolve conflicts in the mind, and, in many cases, facilitate physical healing. It can lower blood pressure, resolve eating disorders, and overcome compulsive behaviors.
In psychotherapy, awareness is essential. It can be a powerful catalyst for transformation.
Dr. Carl Jung articulated an important psychological principle. This principle can be stated as follows: your attitude toward any part of the unconscious will determine how it appears to you and how it expresses itself in your life.
For example, if you fear or hate some feature within yourself, it will appear to you as evil—and perhaps even demonic. You perceive this feature as evil in itself, but it appears that way simply because that’s what you believe about it.
As you become more aware of this supposedly evil part of yourself, it will begin to transform. As you accept and understand this element, it will gradually become an ally rather than an enemy. That which you fear or hate the most within yourself can become your greatest strength.
An example: Let’s say that you have been taught by your family of origin that anger is bad. Anytime someone expressed anger they would be punished in some way. Or perhaps one of your parents was a rageaholic and acted out anger in harmful and destructive ways. In both cases, you will likely repress your anger because you believe that it is dangerous.
If you continue to repress anger, then you will be fearful and/or judgmental of anyone you see who expresses anger. If your repressed anger should appear to you in a dream, it will present itself as something that is evil or dangerous—perhaps as a monster or a criminal.
You can begin to see that anger is not bad in itself, but that it appears bad only because of your history and your beliefs about it. You begin to understand that anger is like fire: it can save your life, or it can destroy your life depending upon how it is used. You will eventually experience healthy anger and express it appropriately. When this happens, anger will appear less menacing and you will see it as an ally rather than an enemy.
When anger is met, accepted, and integrated into the psyche, it manifests as power, which includes the ability to set boundaries, to recognize your needs, and to fill those needs in an appropriate way. It also creates the ability to meet the anger of others in a skillful way.
This process works for any part of yourself that is repressed, e.g., grief, sexuality, vulnerability—all of which can lead to greater compassion, creativity, and a sense of aliveness when integrated.
All of this depends upon your willingness to look beyond what you think you are and to be open to all facets of yourself—known and unknown.
In the world of science, there are indications that awareness may even influence physical reality. We take it for granted that reality exists whether or not we are aware of it. The Danish scientist Niels Bohr was the first to point out that quantum mechanics challenges this traditional outlook.
In the world of quantum mechanics, you enter a strange land where you don’t simply observe reality, but your observation itself seems to create the reality that you see. The Bohr principle of quantum mechanics implies that there is no reality until that reality is perceived.
The reason for this paradox—at least at the atomic level—is that there is no clear dividing line between you and the reality that appears to exist outside of you—reality depends upon what and how you choose to observe.
How this applies to the larger dimension of the life in which you live is not yet known. Perhaps it still applies but in a more subtle way.
The intention of insight meditation is to see clearly into the nature of reality. In this practice, one seeks to discover reality directly through personal experience. Awareness is like a solvent that dissolves all that is not real. Once you experience what is real, you will never be the same.
