The Rest Stop
One of the early practices I suggest to someone in the Without a Net Program is to start practicing conscious contact. Contact with what? Consciousness!
It sounds esoteric, but it’s as basic as it gets. It’s the simple act of noticing your ability to notice. You can ask yourself: am I aware right now? Of course you are. It’s literally the most fundamental thing about yourself.
You are aware through your senses. Notice your ability to hear, feel, see. The objects of your sensation are interesting, but the act of observing with our senses is a power (nay, superpower) the we usually overlook.
I call the recommended practice The Rest Stop. Here’s what you do:
Like pulling off the freeway at a roadside rest stop, you step away from whatever thought-traffic and brain-driving-and-striving you are caught up in (aka daily life) and you do four things.
Rest. It can be for 30 seconds or much longer. But as many times a day as you can, you stop what you’re doing. Your mind won’t necessarily stop automatically so next you:
Breathe. Breathe slowly, deeply, way down into the bottom of your lungs. Notice how your breath will relax any tensions.
Notice. Notice yourself being conscious, notice your breathing and your ability to sense your whole body. Without a label for your body, you will only notice a cloud of sensations. Keep noticing!
Be. Relax into the presence that you’ve created with the first three prompts. See? You are a being. You are here, in your own shoes. There is a peaceful sense of grounding and allowing that opens up. You can say, “I am.”
With no agenda, no pride in your special spiritual power, no beating up on yourself for not doing more or getting this right, you notice our existence. You’re just being a being, resting in our own presence.
The magic of The Rest Stop is that, with practice, you start finding something more than relaxation. It’s kind of a big deal because….
Inherent in consciousness is:
Freedom
Cultivated awareness results in freedom from the discursive mind, from the identities we carry around, and our opinions about the world. The little act of The Rest Stop is a bold statement to our ego that we are more than our ideas about ourselves. If you can, as you stop to be present, taste that freedom.
Joy
As you recognize the freedom built into presence, you can’t help but taste a sensation of gladness. The two go hand-in-hand. It’s a simple peace of mind, a gentleness, a contentment. Sometimes you have to search a minute for it, but it’s there. It’s already there.
Curiosity
As you stick with awareness, you will naturally be able to notice more. Allowing your attention to lead you deeper is called curiosity or wonder. Your attention will find things interesting and become more subtle. It’s inwardly expansive, and always fresh.
Reverence/Love
It might not come to light immediately, but with practice your awareness brings to light a stirring of reverence, or love if you prefer the word. Although the idea of adoration or devotion may chafe for some, it’s hard to deny some sense of veneration when the magnificent attributes of consciousness become available to us.
If these qualities of experience don’t come naturally, don’t “act as if” you feel them. Patiently watch for them; see if they are available to you. They may or may not be accessible at any given time. Knowing of the possibility of experiencing them can open them for you, but no matter what you’re encountering, try to meet it with a sense of exploration.
I wasn’t joking when I said awareness was a superpower. As your ability to cultivate it grows, it begins to saturate more moments of your life. We find it contains powers of transformation. It shifts your perspective away from limiting opinions to the glory of direct experience. It spontaneously enhances your abilities to navigate life more skillfully, through intuition rather than striving.
The Holy Grail is a symbol for the most treasured riches of life and this, awareness, is it. It’s not right at your fingertips. It’s closer than that! But it might as well be as illusive the Grail in the legend of King Arthur. There is something we have to do to acquire it.
The Grail isn’t found by reading about it. Like all great treasures, it’s found by embarking on a quest. This heroic road trip involves getting directions, following signs and living our life, but The Rest Stop is an essential part of it. Maybe the most important!
Step off the freeway, as much as you can. I’ll be doing it, too, and maybe I’ll catch you there from time to time.
