Environments of Awareness
The core element of the Unfettered Mind network is what I call an "environment of awareness". The primary function of an environment of awareness is to transform conceptual understanding into experiential knowing so that practice becomes alive and active in our lives.
An environment of awareness is any situation in which one or more people are directing attention into the mystery of knowing. This effort creates a field, which opens the possibility for others to experience impermanence, compassion, emptiness, or any other quality in a way that turns these concepts into living experiences. An environment of awareness may be a meeting between teacher and student, a local practice-study group guided by an experienced practitioner, a group that meets to work together on practice or to study a specific subject, a four-day retreat, or a teacher-training program.
We need to practice and we are individually responsible for our practice. We may choose to practice on our own or with a friend, with a group, or in individual retreats. We may do formal practice once, twice, or several times a day.
We also need to learn and we learn primarily through interaction with others — a teacher, friends and colleagues, groups, etc. We need to learn the Buddhist teachings that support practice, and we also need to learn how to learn, how to know from whom we can learn, and how to develop constructive relationships and interactions.
The third component is living the practice. This is where the rubber meets the road. When we are awake, our behavior is not determined by reactive patterns, but by our perception and response to the direction of the present. It’s different, and we can’t expect to engage this work and not have it effect how we actually live.
This approach is not for everyone. In this path you need or need to develop a high degree of responsibility for your practice and path as well as for the relationships through which you receive training and guidance. You need to have an unflinching willingness or a passionate relationship with awareness that will take you into the dark, the mystery of life itself. You need to be creative and pragmatic, drawing on both the wisdom of tradition and the needs of the moment. You also need to embrace a strong ethical sense based on awareness itself, responding to the direction of the present, whatever that brings you.
Next: Examples of Environments of Awareness>>>
