Leo Foresta

Awareness is a popular notion among the alternative fringes.

But awareness of what?

Of the hidden forces behind the workings of global society, with their obvious elements of conspiracy? – yeees, this is a significant part of awareness, but probably not the most important.

The key part concerns our metaphysical vision of existence.

Which is awareness that the visible world is only a limited layer of existence, that the non visible interacts in subtle ways with the visible, that nothing in “all there is” exists as  separate from the “rest”, that nothing happens just by chance, without meaning or purpose.

Once you become very conscious – not just intellectually, but also physically, emotionally, spiritually – that the visible and invisible realms are inseparable and constantly interacting, your relationships with people, creatures and events begin to take a new dimension.

How does one reach such awareness?

There are probably as many routes to awareness as there are individuals.

As far as I am concerned, the journey started from a mainly materialist perspective. Such was the dominant thinking mode of my baby boomer’s youth marked by an almost unreserved belief in progress through science.

There was also, of course, organised religion.

Mainstream speech pretended that the two concerned totally different things and that there was no point in trying to reconcile them. Partitioning of reality into completely separate domains was (and still is) one of the principal hallmarks of Western thinking.

But today new facts are laid before us to enlarge our thinking, if we are prepared to pay attention.

On the one hand it is now pretty clear that the basic functioning of society is predatory and destructive, that it has been so for a long time, and that the process is approaching a climax with unprecedented consequences. A fundamental change of mentality and vision has become a matter of collective survival.

On the other hand the development of fundamental physics shows that science is very far from truly understanding universal reality whilst at the same time strongly suggesting that we live in a vacuum filled with energy and information. Matter is only a level of perception of flows of energy organised by information.

Furthermore, theories and models of fundamental physics play with the ideas that time might be reversible, or might only be a perception by an observer, that it is possible for an elementary particle to be present simultaneously in two different spots in the universe, and that there might be more than one universe, perhaps even an infinity of universes.

In short, it is becoming quite plain that our reasoning intellect, with our level of logic, is simply unable to grasp the infinite, eternal reality, and that all it can do is to develop fairly  simplistic models which have limited usefulness, let alone validity, and should in any case be used with the greatest humility.

Whilst such metaphysical consequences of advanced science are now being explored more thoroughly than in the days of blind narrow scientism, many are also revisiting the teachings, metaphors and symbols of ancient traditions, and experiencing the effectiveness of various practices in line with a holistic, non materialist, “energy” based approach of reality.

In fact, we are opening up again to the power of intuition, an essential natural faculty that had been atrophied in most us by the materialist belief system which Western society had imposed on almost everybody.

It is remarkable and quite exciting to note the deep convergence between advanced science, ancient traditions and contemporary non conventional practices.

That said, however, most of the time we are still stuck in our perception of reality experienced as “this” visible world, and subject to its irritating material and psychological constraints and limitations. Our consciousness appears trapped in what modern metaphysicians call “low vibration levels”.

Many people awakening to consciousness wish to free themselves from the enslavement of “low vibrations”. They try to achieve this through meditation, prayer, trance, shamanic practices or drugs. Often disappointment awaits them, and sometimes even depression.

The lesson, I believe, is that whilst life “down here” is only an experience our eternal higher self is going through, we can’t opt out of the experience. We have to go all the way to its natural end and extract the full learning it is meant to give us.

At this point, awareness has to broaden further, to encompass acceptance and trust and distance itself from ego and fear.

This is no intellectual exercise. It is a personal experience. It involves every cell in the body, every conscious thought in the mind, every emotion, desire, fear. Everything that constitutes you or me, which no science or philosophy can fully define and specify, is involved in experiencing enlarged consciousness.

In this a key notion to bear in mind is that of the continuum of existence. There are no absolute boundaries, neither in space, nor time, nor in any other conceivable dimension. Existence is oneness, infinite interactions, yet with perceptions of separate identities. It’s incomprehensible, beyond our logic. All we can do is travel as far as our logic goes, reach the brink, peer down and then jump. Trust the unknown, as the little inner voice of our intuition tells us to.

Those who dare go to the brink beyond which ordinary logic is no longer any use enter a new dance with life. The dance with the invisible Partner.

This is not faith as in organised religion where dogmas are downloaded into your mind and you are meant to sheepishly follow. This is natural connection with the invisible. The stuff of genuine mystics, shamans, healers. And these may be very ordinary people, unpretentious, definitely unpretentious.

And now a last challenging bit: evil.

Whilst the genuinely awakened people do their utmost to align their whole being on the universe’s absolute love, non judgment, compassion and harmony, it looks pretty clear that some partly aware characters opt for a “deal with the devil”. And that might be what lies behind the almost incomprehensible harshness and grotesque arrogance of today’s ruling world elite.

But this shouldn’t unduly worry the really aware. At Source, there is only pure undiluted love.

Can we be sure of that? Yes, but only once intuition has been allowed to reach a sufficient level, for this is beyond the reach of the reasoning intellect on its own.

To conclude, awareness is more than a non materialist world vision, it is a mode of thinking, feeling, acting, and interacting with every aspect of life which is totally different from the ordinary mode in today’s mainstream culture.

Fear not, observe and smile.

Love,

Leo

Copyright © Leo Foresta 2013