Consciousness Means Being Conscious

“The world is not meant to make you happy. It is meant to make you conscious.

It is not here to make us happy.”

--Eckhart Tolle

In my recent blogs, I have been focusing on collective consciousness. Collective Consciousness is a challenging idea, especially when we think about having any personal effect on the consciousness of the world. Also, the whole idea of consciousness seems so abstract.

Then one morning, as I was brushing my teeth, I realized that I was not aware of what was happening in my mouth as I was going through the motions of brushing my teeth. I was not aware of the feeling of the brush on my teeth because I was thinking about what I was going to do that day. I was off into my head and not dealing with the reality of my teeth. I was in the world of “planning” and “imagining.”

I became aware that consciousness means being conscious. It means being present in the here and now of my life. When that happens, I feel at peace. That peace changes the consciousness (awareness) of all that is around me, of all that I encounter. That conscious watching myself do things and watching what is happening around me is bringing me, as Eckhart Tolle says, happiness.

So, now I am training my mind to focus on the things that I am doing. I am learning to focus on watching myself type these words, on figuring out what things I next want to say in this blog, instead of the impact that it might have on those who read it.

That is what yoga postures are about. When we do downward-facing dog, it is not time to worry about how I am doing it, but feeling the stretch in my hamstrings, or feeling the expansion of my hips and buttocks as I breathe. It is also bringing my awareness back to my breath as I move through my typing.

I find that can be more conscious than I previously thought I could. I can create a consciousness that will build the peace and joy in the world. Alleluia!

Namaste’