You don’t always have to imagine yourself hovering
somewhere in the air. Just to get a rough idea of what I’m talking about,
imagine a good driver, driving a car, who’s concentrating on what you’re
saying. In fact, he may even be having an argument with you, but he’s perfectly
aware of the road signals. The moment anything untoward happens, the moment
there’s any sound, or noise, or bump, he’ll hear it at once. He’ll say, “Are
you sure you closed that door back there?” How did he do that? He was aware, he
was alert. The focus of his attention was on the conversation, or argument, but
his awareness was more diffused. He was taking in all kinds of things.
What I’m advocating here is not concentration.
That’s not important. Many meditative techniques inculcate concentration, but
I’m leery of that. They involve violence and frequently they involve further
programming and conditioning. What I would advocate is awareness, which is not
the same as concentration at all. Concentration is a spotlight, a floodlight.
You’re open to anything that comes within the scope of your consciousness. You
can be distracted from that, but when you’re practicing awareness, you’re never
distracted. When awareness is turned on, there’s never any distraction, because
you’re always aware of whatever happens to be.
Say I’m looking at those trees and I’m worrying. Am
I distracted? I am distracted only if I mean to concentrate on the trees. But
if I’m aware that I’m worried, too, that isn’t a distraction at all. Just be
aware of where your attention goes. When anything goes awry or anything untoward
happens, you’ll be alerted at once. Something’s going wrong! The moment any
negative feeling comes into consciousness, you’ll be alerted. You’re like the
driver of the car.
I told you that St. Teresa of Avila said God gave
her the grace of disidentifying herself with herself. You hear children talk
that way. A two-year-old says, “Tommy had his breakfast this morning.” He
doesn’t say “I,” although he is Tommy. He says “Tommy”—in the third person.
Mystics feel that way. They have disidentified from themselves and they are at
peace.
This was the grace St. Teresa was talking about.
This is the “I” that the mystic masters of the East are constantly urging
people to discover. And those of the West, too! And you can count Meister
Eckhart among them. They are urging people to discover the “I.”
