{"id":1286,"date":"2012-06-18T06:30:32","date_gmt":"2012-06-18T10:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/awakeintheworld\/?p=1286"},"modified":"2012-06-17T09:59:05","modified_gmt":"2012-06-17T13:59:05","slug":"awakening-to-whats-present","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/2012\/06\/awakening-to-whats-present.html","title":{"rendered":"Awakening to What’s Present"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In the middle of an interview with bestselling author, Sarah Susanka, an alarm beeped.\u00a0 She\u2019d just come out with her book, The Not So Big Life: Making Room for What Really Matters <\/em>which focuses on time and self-transformation.\u00a0 She pulled the alarm off of her belt and reset it.\u00a0 \u201cThis is my fifteen minute exercise,\u201d she said.\u00a0 The alarm exercise helps to cultivate awareness and draw the mind to pay attention to the present moment, she explained.\u00a0 It acts in the same way that meditation functions, but the buzz or vibration reminds the practitioner to stop and pay attention to how she feels, what\u2019s going on around, what\u2019s happening inside on deeper levels. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Meditation is one of the best ways I\u2019ve found to develop awareness.\u00a0 My experience with meditation began with training at Lerab Ling in the chilly air of the mountains in the South of France under the gentle instruction of Tibetan Lama, Sogyal Rinpoche.\u00a0 We sat under a large white tent as the Mistral wind whipped around and Rinpoche reminded us to bring the mind home.\u00a0 This meant to be right here in this damp, cool place and not let my mind wander off to craving for chocolate croissants and espresso.\u00a0 Someone struck a bell and the meditation period started.\u00a0 I squirmed and so did many of the hundred or more people until the bell rang out again.\u00a0 It took many years of practice before I realized that bringing the mind home simply meant being here, now.\u00a0 Easy to say, not easy to do.
\nAt first meditation seems more like a struggle than a pleasure.\u00a0 But a wise teacher suggested I treat the mind like a little child and gently prompt it back to the candle flame I aimed to focus on.\u00a0 After some time and a good bit of patience, the mental chatter lessened and the sense of expansion grew.\u00a0 The real challenge is how to maintain this expansive, openness throughout the day.\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard teachers say that real meditation begins when we become fully conscious of each and every moment \u2013 that is when we pay full attention to each luscious fork full of food and we fully concentrated on the muscles, aware if the surroundings when we walk or exercise.\u00a0 This kind of meditation in action is the desirable state of joyful being where peace spontaneously arises.\u00a0 Bringing conscious awareness into conversations, looking into the other person\u2019s eyes, and thinking before speaking help to integrate awareness into each instant.\u00a0 Perhaps being conscious of what we say and do might transform both of these and create a better environment and a better world.<\/p>\n

Back at Susanka\u2019s the beep buzzed again.\u00a0 We both paused and enjoyed being silent for just a moment.\u00a0 In the rush of daily life it was a pleasant gift.\u00a0 As Susanka continued to experiment with the alarm and awareness, she developed new ways to use it.\u00a0 \u201cYou start to notice that you get conditioned and you can literally turn this thing off without being aware you\u2019re doing it,\u201d she said.\u00a0 The automatic gestures, the repetitions that we tune out are a way of tuning out to life itself and not being awake. “You can start to be aware of how frequently you have not noticed and turned it off automatically,\u201d she said.\u00a0 But the real aim is to be conscious now.\u00a0 \u201cNow it\u2019s like the day is perforated with moments of real presence.\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing how much more you really start to show up.\u00a0 That\u2019s the real key to this exercise,\u201d she said.\u00a0 Susanka\u2019s exercise takes me back to the tent in France and rings a bell as a constant reminder to wake up and deeply appreciate the only time we have \u2013 the present.<\/p>\n

Bio:<\/strong> Debra Moffitt is the award winning author of Awake in the World: 108 Practices to Live a Divinely Inspired Life<\/a>. A visionary, dreamer and teacher, she\u2019s devoted to nurturing the spiritual in everyday life. She leads workshops on spiritual practices at the Sophia Institute and other venues in the U.S. and Europe. Her mind\/body\/spirit articles, essays and stories appear in publications around the globe and were broadcast by BBC World Services Radio. She has spent over fifteen years practicing meditation, working with dreams and doing spiritual practices. More at http:\/\/www.awakeintheworld.com<\/a> and on Facebook at: http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DebraMoffittAwakeintheWorld<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the middle of an interview with bestselling author, Sarah Susanka, an alarm beeped.\u00a0 She\u2019d just come out with her book, The Not So Big Life: Making Room for What Really Matters which focuses on time and self-transformation.\u00a0 She pulled the alarm off of her belt and reset it.\u00a0 \u201cThis is my fifteen minute exercise,\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":409,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,26,125,3],"tags":[346,796,345,798,797],"class_list":["post-1286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration","category-meditation","category-oneness","category-spiritual-practice","tag-awake-in-the-world","tag-cultivating-awareness","tag-debra-moffitt","tag-sarah-susanka","tag-waking-up"],"yoast_head":"\nAwakening to What's Present - Awake in the World<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Awakening to What's Present - 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