Authentic Expression & Bare Attention

by Joel D Zenie

Bare Attention is Reality uncluttered by the activity of a thinker who interprets and imagines according to past conditioned influences that have shaped perspective. This Attention clears perception and opens up the path of the Real, of What Is, not to become docile or resigned to human limitation, but that in humility there is an openness and connection with Peripheral Reality, so one is expressing harmony (or grace) in action, and altruistic/compassionate action at the highest level. To spend a lifetime clinging to the conditioned and biased personal view, to the past, not questioning one's own conditioned mental process, is to limit oneself to a narrow, mechanical, small minded and inauthentic way of thinking, feeling and living.

Attention to what is does allow for the desire to creatively express Self, allowing the inner to manifest as the outer, and with artistic appreciation that goes beyond the purely left-brained scientific, empirical, and often sterile observation of the outer perceptual reality. What we call objective truth is really a subjective story, a projection of mind, some of it individual and most of it a collective hallucination of consciousness. Previous conditioning has created the perception of "what is now" and it is essential to honor this as well as recognizing the need for changing it, not by discarding reality (what is) in favor of an ideal (what ought to be) but by acting in harmony with life as it is actually happening, in alignment with here and now. It is the only effective win-win good for ALL concerned way of acting spontaneously, authentically, creatively and artfully in the world... from the inside out.

The question that arises now is whether it is okay to put the love of Self (including close family, partner, friends, etc) first, after many years (as a western world raised individual) of having been disconnected from the really precious part of being alive, and not just as another physical human body (with a little egoic mind) looking to survive and make a success of itself in "the outside world". It seems that the transition to inwardness for many of us seeking to awaken spiritually is a full time occupation, sometimes a struggle and other times an infatuation... this individual life I call authentically my own is a new and exciting discovery, with much evolution and self expression to unfold.

While keeping this mindful awareness intact, which is attentive to surroundings, people, and the world at large, and has an interest or openness to peripheral connection, I still find it is a bare undeniable fact of existence that nearly all my time, interest and attention goes to my self and what I call *my life or life path*. Because I believe this to be true of most everyone in the world today, everyone who is human, I raise the question as to whether this self-absorption is a most necessary and natural evolution with regard to where so many of us are inwardly and also living within the conditions of the outside material (modern, western) world.

It is my perspective that as open as I am to understanding and accepting Universal Truth, the world I live in and the path I trod today is a very much an INDIVIDUAL Truth that is sometimes in perfect harmony with the Tao or Way of things and other times troubled, turbulent, full of turmoil. Either way you look at it, light or dark, it is the only Way that I know to simply Be who I really and truly Am, following the guidance of this Heart's Desire, and living in the Clear Light of Spiritual Illumination.

As Mohandes Gandhi famously said you have to "be the change/love you want to see in the world". Our first and foremost responsibility as spiritual human beings is in being true to Self, and living each moment from the Spiritual Heart of Being.

Aha! News ~ Insight for 2-20