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Namah Remember Me

one another for an illusory enviable life, with practice begets progress. By making the
loving, mutual support in our sorrows and effort to come back to awareness each time
our joys? And how can we remember all this we stray, we cultivate a powerful tool: choice.
not just for a brief moment, but live within Awareness empowers us to choose the fate of
this compassionate place every single day? each thought, whether we ultimately absorb
it as truth, reject it as false, or allow it to linger
It starts by stopping. Whether triggered by in indecision for the time being.
one’s own alarm bells, or something of a less
voluntary nature, it’s important to come to Even if we make a choice that does not serve
a full-stop. This creates a clear-cut visceral our highest good, being aware of the choice
sense of change. A period of quiet should we make in the very moment we make it
follow. A space that is ample enough to opens space for self-compassion. When we
bridge the initial discomfort and the urge to can watch the mad pageant from a distance,
flee back to the numbing fray. That fray, while we become the outsider, observing with
painful in its own way, is also tempting by impartial empathy. Often compassion wells
virtue of its comfortable familiarity. up without warning, softening our harsh self-
judgment and intolerance and allowing one’s
Open-minded awareness true nature to gingerly emerge. Awareness,
when practised kindly and diligently,
A sense of open-minded awareness is inevitably begins to develop in the wild
integral for this cocoon of time to give birth. world of daily life, where it can be used as a
Meditation is certainly a most auspicious coping tool in lieu of all the other addictive
approach, yet it is not the only path. Countless substances or habits we use to fill the space.
people have come to me, already resolved With time and dedication, we find ourselves
for a negative outcome, and said, “I’m not in the same sensorial barrage, but not of it.
good at meditating. I can’t keep my mind
blank.” While that statement begs volumes We are not alone
of response, I return to the point of open-
minded awareness. This simply means being This new sense of detachment or ‘otherness’
open to whatever happens during that quiet should by no means be construed as being
time — in our bodies and our thoughts — alone in the endeavour. Knowing that we
even if it’s non-stop obsession on a particular all experience similar fears and anxieties
detail. To be aware of that obsession and to greatly diffuses the sense of shame and
observe it as we might an insect crawling trepidation. When we can imagine that we
innocently on our windowsill is all our inner are surrounded by multitudes of solidarity,
self asks. it goes a long way to buoy our determination
to move forward. Getting closer to our true
However, our tendency is to criticize nature involves separating the virtual wheat
ourselves for our so-called weakness or (the pure kernel of who we are) from the chaff
imperfection in these early attempts at self- (all the ingrained habits, thought patterns
enquiry. This only bolsters our sense of failure and beliefs that restrict our growth). This
and keeps destructive patterns in place. But is achieved by finding the courage to turn

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