Awareness of Breath

Who are we?

Ekhart Tolle, author of A New Earth, says "we are not our minds nor our bodies. We are essentially an awareness or observer of our experiences."

"When we listen to a thought, we are aware not only of the thought but also of yourself as the witness of the thought."

A new dimension of consciousness comes in with meditation and the breath, an awareness that we are not our bodies, nor our minds, nor are we the beliefs or experiences we have had, but the experiencer of those things.

It's a little bit of a play on words, and hard to get the mind wrapped around, however it can be observed in meditation when the consciousness becomes an entity in and of itself. In meditation the body rests, it breathes, the mind listens and the awareness of the experience is separate from both. It is in this separation where we are able to see ourselves as we truly are and separate ourselves from the experiences, the emotions and the pain that we have had and become aware of the growth and understanding the experiences bring to us.

This is a buddhist principle of non-attachment, a state in which a person overcomes his or her attachment to desire for things, people or concepts of the world and thus attains a heightened perspective. Letting go of control and allow things to come and pass. You are not the owner but the caretaker. Seeing things as they are and not through the paradigm of experience or ego (our own attachment to things).

See if you can begin this week with an expanded awareness. If you can detach from the body's experience and the mind's experience and become the awareness of what is happening.

Take a breath, allowing the breath to take the awareness to the outside, noticing now what's happening and letting it go. Each breath becomes an opportunity to shift perspective.

Always in love and light.

Namaste,

Alison