We are all baby ducks
You may think it matters what happens. But what if the only thing that matters is where you are experiencing from, where you are looking from? What if you could experience all of life from a spacious, open perspective where anything can happen and there is room for all of it, where there is no need to pick and choose, to put up barriers or resist any of it, where nothing is a problem and everything just adds to the richness of life?
What if this open, spacious perspective was the most natural and easy thing to do? It may sound too good to be true, but we all have a natural capacity to experience life this way. The only requirement is to look from the Heart, not just figuratively, but to look from the subtle energetic center located in the center of the chest instead of looking out from the eyes and the head—and not just to look, but to listen, feel, and sense from the Heart.
In some spiritual traditions, we are encouraged to look in the Heart, and yet what does that mean exactly? Often we are so used to looking and sensing through the head and the mind that when we are asked to look into the Heart, we look through the head into the Heart to see what is there. Usually, we end up just thinking about the Heart. But what if you could drop into the Heart and look from there?
How would your life look right now? Is it possible that there is another world right in front of you that you can only see with the Heart and not with the mind? In what follows, you are invited to explore this radically different perspective and to find out what is true and real when the world and your life are viewed from the Heart of Being.
It may both delight and shock you to find that so much richness, wonder, and beauty lie so close and are so immediately available to you. But don’t take my word for it. See for yourself if your experience fits with this simple, yet profound, way to shift in awareness to a more complete view of your life, your world, and ultimately your true nature as that openness, wonder, and beauty.
As an aside, some people are more visual, some are more auditory, and some are more in touch with feelings or physical sensations. One or two of these modes are referred to in the exercises that follow. Feel free to translate and use whatever mode is most natural to you. For instance, you might find it easier to listen with your head or Heart rather than look from your head or Heart. You may want to experiment with the other senses also.
Your nature as awareness
Right now as you read these words, who or what are you really? Are you the body, mind, and personality? Or are you the spacious awareness or aware space that these appear in? What you are is this space. It is a remarkable space that is alive and aware. You could say this is what you are made of: You are aware of space.
Exercise: Take a moment to sense behind your eyes. Turn your attention to the space behind your eyes. What do you sense there? If you only refer to your experience at this moment, what do you find in the space behind your eyes? Does this space have the capacity to experience sensation? Is there awareness in the space behind your eyes? Don’t worry for now about what this awareness is like or what you are aware of. Simply check if you are aware of anything right now, anything at all. Suppose you let go of any ideas about what awareness is supposed to be like or what is supposed to happen in awareness. In that case, you can begin to explore this simple miracle of awareness going on behind your eyes.
That aware space is the real you. It is what you are made of, what you exist as here and now. It also turns out that everything that really matters in life is found in this aware space. This is where love, peace, joy, compassion, wisdom, strength, and a sense of worth are found. These are qualities of your true nature as aware space. These are qualities of the real you. Everything you might ever need, including everything you need to know, is to be found in that big presence behind your eyes.
I invite you to play in this spacious awareness. If you wanted to learn about the nature of water, it would be helpful to play in it whenever you had a chance. So if you want to find out about this aware presence that you are, you might want to explore along as we splash around in the space of awareness. One bit of good news: It doesn’t matter at all for the purposes of our exploration of what you are aware of. It doesn’t matter what you are experiencing.
It doesn’t matter if you are happy or sad, healthy or sick, rich or poor, enlightened or suffering, expanded or contracted. However, the only place you can play in awareness is where awareness is right now. So as you explore awareness, you need to refer to whatever is happening right now… and now… and now because that is where awareness is found.
How awareness is imprinted
Realizing your true nature as awareness would be incredibly simple except for one thing: This awareness that you are can be shaped. Just like water takes on the shape of the container you pour it into, the awareness that you are is shaped by your thoughts, feelings, desires, hopes, dreams, worries, sensations, and experiences. It is shaped by everything that happens.
Sometimes this shaping is so strong that it seems the awareness has gotten very small and that you have gotten very small. This is not really a problem as the awareness itself is not harmed, and it can always expand again. This awareness is not only temporarily shaped by experience but can become imprinted onto an experience or an object in awareness.
You may have heard of how baby ducks become imprinted in the first few hours of their lives: They will follow whatever or whomever they are first aware of, usually the mother duck. However, they can also be imprinted on anything, including a scientist who is studying them, in which case, they will follow the scientist around.
Excerpted from the book LIVING FROM THE HEART.
This excerpt has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Download this book on Boostlane:
https://boostlane.com/p/mercie/3294832/living-from-the-heart/
