Be Aware Without Thinking About Awareness

Limitations are irrelevant to the Awareness

There was a group of monkeys playing in the forest next to the small road leading up to the Himalayas where my dear friend Jagjot and I were trekking today. The monkeys, he pointed out, were being themselves. Playing, swinging from tree branches, and lightly hitting each other then running or jumping away in what appeared to be a kind of game. The adult monkeys were relaxing in branches while the smaller, younger monkeys played and explored nearby.

Jagjot and I were so engrossed in silent observation of the monkeys, we did not see a monkey approaching us slowly from the left. When this monkey walked right in front of us, we both startled and jumped back suddenly. The monkey saw this reaction in us and paused only briefly, then kept walking. Seemingly totally unperturbed by our quick movement and sudden shift in energy.

I thought about this as we continued our amazing trek down the side of the mountain, the layers of Himalayas visible into the distance. There was a thought: aren’t we humans so often focused on what seems to be going on at a distance, when there is something right in front of us that we fail to notice? I mean this in a lighthearted way, and yet there is a pointer there, for me, that I feel inclined to share.

My dear friend has been talking about Advaita for many years, much longer than I have been studying it. I listen to him telling about what he calls the “me” and how it can reduce our vision so that our limitless view appears obstructed. How appropriate to today’s sight, where one thing (a group of monkeys in the distance) became the focal point while another more immediate thing (the approaching monkey just one meter or so in front of us) did not register in our awareness until suddenly it was directly in front of us. And our startled reaction shows how our minds perceived the nearby monkey as having approached quickly, when in reality it had been slowly walking our way, and we had simply not noticed.

How does our awareness work? Before, I thought that awareness was something over which I had little control. Maybe I am now starting to see how awareness is far broader than I once imagined, with the help of personal experience and pointers from Jagjot and others who have dedicated years to Advaita teachings. Yet, the limited view can still appear now and then, which is a part of being human. It is not a flaw but a beautiful pointer back to myself.

I laughed at my own startled response to the monkey right in front of my face.

To be aware means to be sensitive, alive to the things about one, to nature, to people, to colour, to trees, to the environment, to the social structure, the whole thing; to be aware outwardly of all that’s happening and to be aware of what is happening inside. – J. Krishnamurti