An excerpt discussing how to cultivate awareness through three central practices: inquiry (asking guiding self-questions at different timescales), meditation (quiet, reflective time to notice internal reactions and gain insight), and prayer (both traditional petition and nontraditional intentions to find needed qualities). The speaker emphasizes that admitting feelings of incompleteness is a practice of integrity and the gateway to personal wholeness and growth.
If I was interested in cultivating more.
Awareness.
What kinds of things might I start integrating into my day to day life?
There are really three central practices and depending upon the type of person you are, you'd probably naturally be acclimated towards one or two or three of the practices. One of them is what I call inquiry and many others have called inquiry, which is asking the questions to ourselves that are most important, that would guide us to be most fulfilled or satisfied. And so those questions can be oriented towards the moment, towards the hour, towards the day, or towards the month. And so there's a subtlety to those questions we can ask. How could I really take care of myself right now? And that might guide us to a momentary action. Or it might be that we're in a trend of time where we have finals coming up and we have a tendency not to study. And how do I take care of myself this month? Well, I do need to focus on studying. Or it could be that we're in a relationship that's on the rocks and that's having a hard time. And it would be how do I dedicate myself to become more sensitive? And who are the resources that can help me while I'm in this challenged time. So inquiry is one central practice. The other practice that some people are inclined towards is meditation, or just being silent and having quiet time. For some people it's formal, some people it's more informal, but it's where you go either to a place in nature or you go and sit on a cushion, or you go and sit on a chair somewhere and. And you intentionally are quieting yourself down enough to where what normally isn't obvious becomes obvious, your own emotional reactions become more obvious. And also how you can help yourself spontaneously you can start to have insights. Just because you're not so consumed in your ordinary daily life, you're not so busy, there's a little bit of light and sunshine that can come into your life, into your heart through the silence. And the third one, which I really use the definition in two ways, one traditional, one non traditional, is prayer, which the traditional definition is pretty well understood. Praying to some kind of a higher being or God for qualities and character development and intelligence to really respond in a more compassionate way in our lives. And the more non traditional way of using prayer, which I really encourage for anybody that's inclined is may I find the quality that I need to bring a better state of life for those around me and to myself. So it might be if I'm frightened, I can find courage. Or it might be if I'm sad, I might be able to find some ways to bring a little bit more happiness towards someone else or myself. So all three of those practices are ones that any of us can cultivate, but it takes an awareness to even want to cultivate them that you aren't fully satisfied that there's some part of you that's unfulfilled. And so the beginning of any of these practices is having the integrity and the honesty to admit something inside of me feels like something's missing. And that in itself could be called a practice, a practice of integrity or honesty to admit that I feel incomplete, empty and unfulfilled. And instead of that being viewed as a negative thing, it's viewed as something that really is the gateway to develop our lives.
So paradoxically, allowing ourselves to feel incomplete is our wholeness creates our wholeness.
It gives us a chance, our optimal chance to really move in a direction, to discover what wholeness means to us.
