Online series with Jackie McInley, November 15, 2025

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The dialogue session began with questions around being watched by others which includes an impression of self-consciousness. This led us to consider the difference between self-consciousness and self-awareness. When we say we are watching ourselves or others, is there a sense of a “watcher” present? Are we judging ourselves or are we attempting to figure out how to be better than what we are? Pushing our questioning further: is there a fear of somehow getting it wrong or “contaminating” our observation with our conditioned mind?

Do we have an invisible or unconscious drive towards wholeness, perhaps without an acknowledgment of our innate fragmentation? If this is innate, then how can there be freedom from this deeply conditioned state? Is our immediate attention whole? Is there an interest in noticing our inattention? Can there be complete attention to whatever psychological movement occurs?

The usual state of the mind is inattentive, and yet this mind appears to be in a state of knowing. Is attention then, a state of not knowing?

 

  • Jackie McInley