Exploring Awareness, April 7, 2019

Exploring Awareness
Sunday, April 7, 2019
At KECC

Three participants attended this afternoon meeting designed to invite them into an experiential exploration of what it means to be aware. We began by listening to a short introduction to meditation by Eckhart Tolle, who focuses on being fully present with our thoughts and feelings as well as with our inner sense of being and our surroundings. This was followed by a clip of Eckhart’s partner, Kim Eng, guiding us into a mode of sensitive attention to the sounds and sights of nature, including our own bodies and minds, but without labelling what we observe. She also suggested asking the question, “Who is aware?” from time to time during the observing. After the audio guidance, we went outdoors for a twenty-five minute walk on the beautiful property while continuing to be engaged in this type of looking and listening. The experience was very enjoyable in itself, especially with the lovely cherry blossoms in full bloom, and was also found to be very supportive of looking at the movements of thought and feeling in oneself with an unusual sense of spaciousness and non-identification. This produced a relaxation in which there was a heightened sense of our natural and effortless beingness.
The morning and afternoon sessions combined, for those who were a part of both, to awaken a peaceful and joyful quality of awareness.