Being. Human.
Being. Human.
4/12/2015
You can shift your understanding of yourself and others. Right now. In this very moment. Something is here that notices that you're reading these words. We could call it your attention. Attention is spacious, clear, or kind of like a flashlight that lights up anything it’s pointed toward, or on. We could say that attention’s job is noticing. Attention notices. Everything. Attention knows what you're feeling as you're reading this, and it knows there are thoughts that may be arising in affirmation or rebuttal to what you're reading.
But the attention that notices, is not itself separate from everything that's noticed, nor is IT affirming or rebutting what's noticed. Attention simply is. Attention simply accepts. Attention simply allows and simply receives everything. Attention is simply and unconditionally already and always present. Attention knows when you're awake, and after you've rested at night - that knowing of attention registers whether your sleep was active or restful. Everything that you think of as you (feelings, thoughts, sensations, body) is constantly changing, and yet noticed by attention. What then are "you" in relationship to "attention," if attention is constant - it doesn't come and go? Can it be that there are two parts of you? That part that’s Human. And the part that doesn't change - that’s always Being?
By way of both our logic and our direct experience, we can experience both our human-ness, and a dimension of ourselves that’s simply being. The human part of you is all the individual, unique life experiences that you've had, have and will have; your individual physical reality, and your thoughts (including judgments, opinions, preferences), feelings and sensations.
And then there’s the part of you that is. That part of you is more like a verb, than a noun. Attention, always attending. Be-ing, not a being. All the time. Not separate. Not other than, not in opposition or contrast to other beings. Rather, a direct, ongoing, clearly here part of "you” that just is. Always. All ways. Inseparable from everyone and everything else.
What if you give your attention to Attention, in addition to what needs attention in your ongoing, everyday life? Why don't you experiment and see what happens? Perhaps you'll discover you're not only a human being, but that we're all Being. Human. The implications and possibilities that flow from that discovery? Nothing short of astounding.
© Barbara Veale Smith, 2015. All rights reserved.