We are rapidly approaching that late-year season of personal reflection that involves looking both backward at how we have spent our time and forward to how we might do things differently.
Unfortunately, like the venerable midlife crisis, this personal-growth activity is often diminished in importance by relegating it to common topical New Year’s resolutions, such as beginning an exercise program or reading a worthwhile book now and then.
These are not unreasonable considerations, of course. We often do need to take better care of our bodies and our minds.
But to those of us to whom life has revealed itself as a journey, the automatic reference to the simplistic resolutions we see year after year adds an air of stereotypy to an otherwise immensely important function, the way the image of a middle aged guy buying a Harley is used to explain away true introspection about the possible need for fundamental change midway through a person’s life.
In this regard, we might want to keep in mind that introspection and reflection are processes that sit at the far end of billions of years of evolution. Name something that tops either of them. Without such capacity for awareness we would join the chimps as evolutionary champions.
Perhaps we might honor this ability to look simultaneously into two time dimensions - the past and the future - at least as highly as the Romans did who awarded the process its own god, Janus.
The reason for this musing has to do with my personal recognition of the evolutionary nature of the change process in terms of the way we look at ourselves, our fellow beings, the planet, and our lives in general.
Let me ask a simple question: How many of you look at things differently now than, say, twenty years ago, or ten, or five years ago? (I am raising my own hand here.)
Now, how many of you are aware that most of the changes that have occurred have done so outside of your personal control? (I am again raising my hand).
And how many of you are amazed at how you see things differently? (Me, too.)
I will bet we could spend a whole day exchanging tweets about the sometimes incredible ways we have changed and how differently we look at things.
What is being described here is the unending evolution of consciousness with the incessant urge to higher and higher awareness that is fundamental to our human nature. This is something we really want to pay attention to, and evolution has provided us with a unique structure that allows us to do just that. We refer to that structure as the “self.”
Because of our more evolved brains, only we among all mammals have the capacity to recognize the individual we are as a “self.” Simply stated, the self is our sense of an “us” that is separate from every other being in creation and is what causes us to perceive the rest of the universe as background. It is the most highly evolved structure in creation and the only “thing” that is capable of true reflection and of recognizing its own existence.
For example, when we wake from sleep or a daydream, we know we were sleeping or daydreaming. No other living thing can do this. Also, we can sit here and breathe and be aware that we are sitting here breathing. And you can read this material and at the same time be aware of how the material makes you feel and what thoughts it engenders in your own mind. No other living thing is capable of doing this.
We have the ability to be aware of us being us as if we are both marching in a band in a parade while at the same instant standing on the curb watching us in the parade as we pass.
I say we have the ability to do this. The question for human beings always is how often we are aware of our own consciousness, that is, of the capacity of us being able to be aware of us?
It is not a coincidence that we tend to look backward and forward at this time of year. It is one way that the unending evolution of consciousness exerts its influence on the self to move awareness forward. We just happen to experience it in terms of a need for change.
Our ability to look both ways at once is a treasure. We can actively participate in its evolution by using our annual urge to reflect as a reminder of the incredible mechanism behind it, and by honoring awareness all on its own without having to tie a particular resolution to it. We do this best through a regular practice of being quiet and still.
This is not just a new year; it is the next leg of our journey. If we will just pay attention, all of the changes that we need to move us forward on the consciousness path will come effortlessly to mind.
Happy New Year
