Dowling - Radical awareness: 5 practices for a fully engaged life

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

Radical Awareness: 5 Practices for a Fully Engaged Life 2014 by Catherine Dowling.

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First e-book edition 2014

E-book ISBN: 9780738743790

Cover art: www.iStockphoto.com/9712604/ IakovKalinin

Cover design by Lisa Novak

Editing by Andrea Neff

Interior art by the Llewellyn Art Department

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Llewellyn Publications

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Manufactured in the United States of America

The only boundaries to our horizons are those we draw ourselves
We half-heartedly and piously settle for less.
There is no fire in our bellies to make us shout at God.
Instead of storming heaven like privileged warrior-children ,
we hang around behind the shadows,
wondering if the Lord of the castle is in a good mood.

~Daniel Oleary, travelling light

To

John and Mary Dowling

for gifts beyond count, including the love of books

Contents

List of

: the five practices

: What Is Oneness?

: The Five Practices

: The First Practice: Radical Awareness

: The Second and Third Practices: Living in the Present with Trust and Openness

: The Fourth and Fifth Practices: Growing from Adversity into Oneness

: spirituality in action

: Experiencing Oneness: Breathwork and Other Techniques

: The Circle of Effect: How We Shape Our Own Lives

: Breaking Free from Fear

: Stop Thinking Like a Victim

: Breaking the Bonds of Anger

: Roles and Images: Freedom from the Expectations of Others

: Values: Finding Our Own Simplest Truths

: Finding True Love

: Letting Go with Ease

Exercises

Introduction

Damians life changed forever one spring morning in the middle of a country lane.

Two years earlier, his wife of thirty years had left him. Over the years, people had come and gone from his life, jobs had lasted a while and then ended, friends marriages seemed happy and then dissolved. But Damians marriage endured. In a world of constant change, the relationship with his wife was the one fixed point he could depend on. Then it, too, endedand with it went everything that was solid and sure in his world. Damian floundered, scrambling for anything that was certain, anything he could trust to last, to be what it appeared to be.

In the early months of his divorce, medication gave him relief from the pain. A therapist recommended by his doctor helped him tame the anger and anguish that threatened to tear him apart. But two years on, Damians mind still raced incessantly, screaming for he didnt know what for. He told friends he wanted a cliff to jump off of. He didnt mean it literallyhe wasnt suicidalbut it was the only image he could come up with to describe the incredible frustration he felt with his life.

His therapist suggested meditation, and so he had spent the previous six Saturday mornings in a wellness center struggling to master a range of meditation techniques. Six wasted Saturdays, in his opinion. The meditation teacher talked about letting go of mind. Damian couldnt understand the concept and he couldnt get past it, no matter what technique they used.

That weekend the topic was walking meditation. After instruction and practice, the teacher told the class to go outside and find a place to walk alone. Damian chose an overgrown lane that ran past the back of the wellness center. He followed the instructions carefullywalk slowly, feel every step, notice whatever came to his attention but dont think about it, just notice it. As he walked, he felt every tiny movement of sinew and bone. That was new. Hed never been aware of his body like that before. Then he noticed the grass, each silvery blade moving independently, glinting in the pale morning sunlight. Primroses studded the grassy banks of the lane. Their delicate yellow petals seemed more vivid than usual, their leaves a deeper, more textured green.

Theyre incredible, he thought, then grappled with the instruction not to think.

On the path ahead of him lay a small leaf glistening with moisture from an earlier rain shower. Damian picked it up. The leaf rested lightly in the palm of his hand while he stared at the exquisite lacework of veins magnified by the crystal mound of a raindrop. He felt an overwhelming tide of love well up inside him.

He looked up at the tree the leaf had fallen from. Its limbs stretched into the sky, green with young leaves. Damian felt himself merge with the tree. The sky beyond its branches washed over him, through him, saturated him. He loved the sky, the tree, the leaf. He trusted them, became one with them. They cradled him in a world without past or future, in a single, sure point of absolute stillness.

What Is Oneness?

What happened to Damian that Saturday illustrates some of the classic elements of a mystical spiritual experience of union, or oneness : the expansion of awareness so that he noticed every detail of what was happening inside him as it happened; the falling away of conditioning and limitations (in Damians case, his need for surety in life); expansion into nature; pure, immediate, raw, direct experience of the moment. All of this led to a feeling of intense aliveness, freedom, and love. But the key element was the experience of oneness with everything, with the sky, the tree, the leaf, life itself.