Reference: “All It Is” Chapter 6: “Awareness”
Sunday, January 1, New Year’s Day
Walton: Good morning, my New Age groovey guru. It is a New Age Year starting today. Did you stay up late last night waiting for any grand cosmic celestial explosions?
David: I may have had visions of sugar plum faeries dancing in my head. But not too much else. Could have been the spicy food, or the carbonated night-cap I sipped on. But today, I am ready to rock and roll this planet into shape!
Walton: There will likely be other types of images dancing in your head by the time we are done with today’s lesson. I can only hope that they are as delightful as last night’s nocturnal visionary visitors!
Here’s my plan for the near future of these mid-winter tutorial sessions: Today, as an overview of coming events, I will briefly share a PTP outline which states that there are three, and only three, systems that make up absolutely all activities in which humans engage themselves. Three parts of “ourselves” to put it lightly, for now. I will briefly introduce you to the first, and most important one, today, and cover all three by the end of the week.
In order, the Chapters you should be reading for your nightly homework are titled: Awareness, Energy, and Awareness PLUS Energy. Following those three chapters, you will see, individually, details about each of the Three Systems: the Awareness System, the Sensory System, and finally the Belief System.
The week after that, we will put all those individual pieces of the puzzle together.
Be warned that there will be exercises all the way throughout this process. This isn’t just some “sit down and yack” sessions we will be having. My process of sharing the whole PTP paradigm will always be this” “Explanations, Examples, and Exercises.” Today begins A New Year, and we will begin co-creating a New You! Can you handle that possibility?
David: Do I need to take notes?
Walton: Do you trust your memory?
David: Sometimes.
Walton: Then, sometimes take notes, sometimes don’t. You WILL need to become familiar with each new chapter every night. And, as I instructed when we first started out on this project, you probably will want to jot down any questions, comments, opinions, and other such blatherings and gatherings for our discussion the following morning.
David: Okay, I guess. I’ll just start by listening to you. Then, if it gets complicated, I’ll grab the journal notebook, which you were ever-so-sweet to provide for me!
Walton: Dandy, Andy. As I alluded to earlier, the first one, System #1, is the Awareness System, or AS. I like abbreviations. To me, initials are more efficient when using the terms quite often.
System #2 is….
David: Hey, wait a minute! Aren’t you going to tell me what the Awareness System is?
Walton: I just did. I told you that it was first.
David: But that doesn’t tell me exactly what it is? Just when it is!!
Walton: You are so fussy sometimes. Maybe a spoiled child? Obsessive-compulsive? Whatever it was, you might have to initially trust me on this: I do have a plan, man! You get them in the order they need to be getted, or gotten. And the second one to “git” is System #2 – the Sensory System.
David: I bet I know what that one is about!
Walton: Well, good. That saves a lot of time. Let’s call it a day, then, shall we?
David: Huh? No, we’ve just gotten started!
Walton: I thought so. And now I am going to just get started for the third time. Patience, my precocious prince. . . .
David: Sure thing, my perpetually prevaricating professor!
Walton: Humph. Fourth time.
The first system, or part of the human being, is the Awareness System, or AS. The second part is the physical Sensory System, or SS. And the third part of every human is the Belief System, or ….”
David: Wait a minute! I got this one!! It’s the BS, right?!?! The BS?? Oh, man! That makes a lot of sense! That is what the event a few nights ago was all about, right? Getting me to look at my belief system, and seeing it as a lot of BS! Am I correct?
Walton: Ummm, sure, again. So anyway, recent memories aside, let’s get started with a description of the essence of Awareness itself. Then you can see what role it plays in the life of our very own little essence of “bee yes”, David Lee.
We’re going to begin with an exercise in simple Awareness, rather than an explanation.
David: Nifty.
Walton: Glad you think so.
If you did happen to have read the Awareness chapter last night, you might remember the first words of that page, “Awareness is the very simple source at the core of any form of creation, including the human organism. Non-physical and non-measurable. Awareness is the attentive observer of everything else that the human defines itself to be.” For now, focus on those few words, “… the attentive observer.” I would like to start with an experiment in which you might already begin to see the difference between the three human systems, by focusing primarily on your current skill level of being Aware. Nothing else. In order to experience Awareness, I would like you to simply do this not-so-complicated chore: observe something.
David: Just look at it?
Walton: Yup. Just look at it.
David: Well, duh. I mean, how hard or enlightening can that be?
Walton: This time, I expect you to use a little more aware attention than you usually do.
Whatever you choose to look at, seek to obtain an impression of it as simple energy patterns or signals consisting of amplitude and frequency. You are familiar with the composition of waveforms, I take it. This simple observing is very difficult at first, because most humans are used to categorizing things immediately as concepts, such as named colors, musical sounds, mathematical shapes, or artistic images. If you are successful at breaking down any image so that the concept no longer exists in your Mind, leaving only the raw, unfiltered and uninterpreted sensory perception, you will begin to re-sense true Awareness. Not totally, but close, to start with.
David: Can you clear that up a bit for me?
Walton: Look out at the world with your eyes. See something specific. Then list the shapes, colours, intensities of light, sizes, while ignoring the idea that the thing you are looking at has a name, a label, a limiting concept attached to it.
David: Well, then let’s get this mind expansion thing going here! What shall we examine first this morning, doc?
Walton: I want it to be something random, something normal, something easily available. How about ….. that hymnal right there? In the pew rack, right in front of you? Grab one, lift it out, and let’s take a good look.
David: Got it. Now what?
Walton: I’m going to toss a series of questions at you. I’ll pause for a few moments between each one. Take your time. You do NOT need to respond verbally, or comment in any way for now. Just follow directions and see where your senses, or your thoughts, lead you.
I’d use the same questions for most anything we want to perceive. No big deal about the questions themselves. The big deal will be with your response to them. Ready?
David: Sure. Give your questions a toss, boss!
Walton: Let’s start with what at first appears to be the obvious, and I will pause for about five seconds between each question:
- Is it solid, liquid, gas, or plasma?
- Is it segmented into pieces, or is it one item?
- What are the words on it, if any?
- What do those words mean? Why do they mean that? And how do you know for certain that those words mean what you think they mean?
- What colour do you think it is? How do you know that it is that colour? What defines a colour?
- Can you FEEL the colour, or just see it? What is the impact, if any, of the colour on your eyes?
- What is the weight of the thing? How do you decide if it is heavy or light to lift and hold up? Heavy or light compared to what?
- What is the “raw” feeling or definition of weight, in and of itself?
- What about the things inside the item? When you open it up to any page, can you just see a white background, and patterns of black scribbles, or do you have to see words and notes?
- Could it be that the background is actually the black text, with a field of white coloured on top of it?
- As far as size, how do you decide where the book ends and the non-book space begins? Can the book actually be larger or smaller than its apparent physical boundaries? What is size? How is it determined? In comparison to what absolute category of measurements?
- What about the book right next to it, the one that has the words “Holy Bible” etched on the front cover? Does a very similar book with a different title make a very similar impression on the senses? Colour and Light? Weight? Texture? Smell?
- Can you get past your beliefs and pre-conceived concepts about things to really experience what you are holding and sensing? Would altering the object, like ripping out a few pages, have any energetic effect on either the book or yourself?
- If so, that might be your awareness waking up. If not, try to compare your first impression with your revised impression. Is there one? Is that energy detectable and measurable?
David: Well, I followed you okay when you asked the first couple of questions. But it got more confusing when you asked about the meanings of things, or the names and labels of things. I’m not used to thinking of a book as a collection of beliefs. For me, a book has always just been a simple item that had a color, a weight, and maybe a smell.
Walton: Good simple start. Keep going.
David: You do have a point when you say that we are not always fully aware of the stuff that is around us. It’s not normal for a person to think about how you determine the weight of something, or how you decided that the weight or color or site or sound was in any particular category. It is like we only live on the surface of things, and it is too much work to worry about getting any deeper than that. I could see why the majority of people on this planet would ask “why bother?”.
Walton: Why bother, indeed. That is the mantra of the trance-ant. Why bother taking any time to define things like that when you can just go through every day staying asleep, and not using the energies that you have built-in to examine life any closer? If you think you got frustrated with this first exercise, then let’s try something else to dig a little deeper. Let’s go outside.
David: Outside? Really? Isn’t it a bit cold out there today?
Walton: What do you mean, too cold? How cold is it, exactly? How do you determine cold versus hot? How did we ever first get started measuring cold and hot temperatures? Are these measurements some kind of absolute truth? Or is cold and hot just another relative collection of beliefs that each and every person can determine for themselves? Or are you just a cold-weather wuss?
David: No wuss! See, I’ve already got my thickest sweater and multi-layer zip-up Bass Pro parka and fur hat and ski goggles and long woolen scarf and thick leather gloves and long underwear and snow-shoveling boots on. Let’s take a walk on the aware side of town. There’s a town common just a block away. We could head there.
Walton: Perfect. Since we are a couple of uncommon men, let us lead uncommon lives!! Lead on, young warrior! To the world of the Common Man!!
However, I must state that you now look more like an abominable snowman. Some of us no longer need such a heavy load of materials to keep warm. Be that as it may, I will accompany you outside to the town common, just down the block. Let’s go, sasquatch!
David: I had to go and put my “big foot” in my mouth, didn’t I!?
Walton: As we head out, on the way, I will explain the next event. It is another kind of awareness-building exercise. I will present you with the following task: take a walk around a small area, and count things, any things. You will begin by simply listing the names of those things using numbers, but then you should begin to examine the counting process itself, considering things like “What in the world am I doing this for?” You might also ask “Is that thing counted as one, or two, or more individual pieces of a group?” Or this question “Can I stop soon?” or “I wonder how high I can count with this.” The questions coming from your belief-centered brain may be endless.
David: Is the purpose of this exercise the same as the one we just did, or something else?
Walton: It is typical to get stuck on the first one we tried at the church, so the second counting exercise will help bust things up a bit more, and maybe in a different way, and hopefully provide a clearer focus for you. A bit more awareness expansion.
During the first experience, you no doubt switched from brief moments of direct observation over to belief judgments concerning that observation process. For example, the idea of ripping up Hymnals and Bibles may have bothered you a bit. However, in a day or two, we’re going to talk more about the back and forth process of “believing versus perceiving” of those ideas.
For now, let’s keep it simpler, and try a bit of observing and counting. No weight, no size, no colour, no density … and if you should get distracted by the monkey mind, return to the task of simply counting things. Numbers only. No attempts to clarify, or classify. There is no right or wrong way to do this, except to not do it.
David: Do I count anything at all?
Walton: Yes, it is just that simple. As a matter of fact, the vast majority of the exercises I have you work through I designed to be simple. You shouldn’t have to go through complicated processes to learn how to simplify things. When we talked about proof earlier, that was a complicated thing. When we discuss beliefs and concepts, those are complicated things. My hope, for now, is to wake you up, awake and aware, and not much more than that.
Once again, I will start making a very quick list for you, to demonstrate how this is done. When I’m done making my quick observations, it will be your task to expand that list.
For example, I see a statue, gardens, bushes, trees, bricks, cracks, snowpiles, lights, leaves, benches, sidewalks, curbs, signs, dog poo, cigarette butts, words on dedication bricks, words on the statue base, words on signs, and several nearby buildings & businesses. Count not only the items themselves, but how many parts some of them may have. I see one short gray sidewalk, consisting of 20 identical concrete squares. Got it? I can also detect some smells and sounds. So don’t forget to count and list them too.
David: And if those smells just make me hungry because I haven’t had any breakfast yet, don’t be surprised if I wander off to the coffee shop.
Walton: Don’t worry about that either. We will be getting our jumping joe java fix in a while anyway! Or spikey mikey mocha, your preference. I’ll even provide a “good boy” biscuit for my clever counting canine!
Also, remember my earlier recommendations. When you count what you think is a single thing, ask yourself if that one thing is also a collection of several things, and each one needs to be counted individually. For example, is a car a single thing, or a collection of separate things that have to be considered individually? Collections of things may be considered one thing, or many, based on the person doing the counting. Also, think about things that are close up and far away. Distance. Where does this boundary begin and end?
And it will be okay if you take a few minutes during your counting process to wonder how you are actually doing the counting, what or who is doing the counting. Also, you might consider what kind of numbering system for counting are you using, and is there an upper limit to your account?
David: That sounds like a lot of deep doo-doo to me. Too much brain strain.
Walton: Remember what I said a few days ago: you will always gain from the pain when you train to strain the brain in the rain while living in Maine. It is never in vain to go insane.
And while you are at it, you might even take a moment to reflect on where our numbers came from in the first place. Are they real? Are they beliefs? Are they some kind of truth or proof? Where did the base-10 numbering system come from? I am going to wait for you over here on this single granite-block seat for a few minutes. A lovely park bench on which to rest my laurels and my not-really-weary bones! Let me know when you have either had enough, or if your brain has had a slight gentle mental explosion experience. And don’t forget to have some fun!
{David wanders around the town common for a while, just muttering numbers and lists to himself}
Walton: Welcome back, King of the Counting Common. Let’s head back to the church now. Maybe grab a bit of that previously promised warm mocha chocolate magic.
David: My mind is numb from numbers. It was interesting how everyday items that we see one way began to change their nature, their very purpose, as I looked at them, as through a microscope, dissecting every little piece. Like working a jigsaw puzzle backwards.
Walton: When we get to the development of the Belief System, you will begin to see how the jigsaw puzzle was first create, and constructed. We are indeed working backward, as the academics would say, “de-constructing the construction.” This type of exercise gives you more experience with the phrase I mentioned earlier: “Believing versus Perceiving.”
So, has your nimble brain received enough of a rest to try out our last and final exercise for today?
David: It all depends on which rabbit hole we are going to jump into next. So let’s “leap into that great void.”
Walton: This next exercise considers this question: Who is the real observer and counter and evaluator? Like with computer software: what is the role and function of the computer itself? What is the nature and content of the code input into that machine? What or who is the programmer of that code?
David: Before you start with all the the computer code stuff, I missed my wake-up coffee this morning. Where’s my cup of your special sauce hot mocha “Java”. No, keep it up. Pour more, por favor! Get the electrons firing again.
Walton: Done. And begun!
This next series of questions are designed to detect the difference between your Awareness of something and your beliefs about that thing: Begin to experience the difference between Thinking about something (belief work) and simply Feeling something (Awareness work.) Believing or Perceiving. Your body’s five senses, collectively referred to as the Sensory System, may be picking up the Energy data from various “Things,” (like waveforms of light, sound, smell, et cetera). But your physical senses are not the primary source of perception! Maybe you would say that “I” am the source of your investigation of things, but any directions that I share with you, you could always choose to do by yourself.
While you experience any activity, ask yourself: Is this a physically-related, sensory experience, or am I interpreting it into familiar concepts, including some sort of judgment? When you read a book, for example, do you see little black lines on white pages, or do you immediately and quite automatically turn those symbols into words, phrases, sentences, thoughts?
All words, actions, activities – everything can be subject to this same simple analysis. Aware perception or interpreted Belief?
David: Well, that is some pretty deep stuff, so it might take a while to get it all. But I am hearing quite a few familiar references. So keep going!
Walton: Along with responding to this final exercise for the day, I would like to ask if you noticed anything special or unusual about the two drawings on the “Awareness” page that you read for last night’s homework.
David: I do remember them. But they seemed very simple. So I did not attach any great significance to them. Why do you ask?
Walton, First of all, everything I ask is part of the plan, Stan! The top illustration had an eyeball above a series of violet colored lines. Remember that?
David: Yes, easy enough to recognize. And the one below it had the same picture with a bunch of colored shapes. And you typed in the words “I am” on top of them. What was that all about?
Walton: It was about a major difference between PTP and most other “enlightenment” philosophies. Many writers say that Awareness and Consciousness are the same thing. In this program I make a distinct attempt to differentiate those two terms.
Awareness is universal and all inclusive of everything in any kind of universe we are considering. However, there is a big difference when Energy is shaped by that universal Awareness. When Energy forms to any degree into a collected mass, it becomes Something. Some Thing! And that something is now measurable and observable and nameable as if it had a unique identity all of a sudden. It is a now-limited Thing.
Before, the universe of Energy was just unconnected and uncollected particles or waveforms. But once there was a mass created, those collections of Energy became separate Things. Capital T. They became something that existed in a unique form. “I Am.” “It Is.” “They Are.” And all of the forces of mass and gravitational push and pull were features of those new creations.
There may not have been any kind of logic or symbolism into what they became. But once something identifies as being in existence, a separate thing, it is no longer just raw disconnected energy. It is a conscious entity. Consciousness. And Consciousness is NOT raw Awareness. As the paragraph states, Consciousness is “the first level of collected, directed, and accumulated energy which defines an individual” being.
Consciousness requires, or consists of, Sensory System input and a electro-neural processing system to put observed data into a semi-functional pattern, a Belief System!
David: Could you provide a few, fairly simple examples for me?
Walton: Why, of course, you wandering wonderer! Let’s start with examples of Consciousness. Are humans conscious?
David: Well, they pretend to be, at least.
Walton: Can they detect Things, Energy, around them?
David: With 5 senses available for that task, I would hope so.
Walton: Can any animals have a Conscious awareness of Things?
David: Maybe not as much, because of a reduced number of, and quality of, their senses.
Walton: Can even insects and lowly bugs and tiny amoeba detect Things?
David: Yes, right before we attempt to squoosh them!
Walton: Yech. Now, let’s jump another level. Can plants detect, or be aware of Things in their environment?
David: Yes, indeed! I have heard more and more about plants responding to specific stimuli in their environment. Kirlian photography can “see” and measure these reactions.
Walton: Let’s get smaller still. Can particles respond to other particles?
David: Yes, of course. They do it all the time, in thousands of ways.
Walton: Do objects in outer space respond to other objects in outer space?
David: If there is a mass, and therefore a tiny degree of the force of gravity, then a response can occur.
Walton: Let’s, for a moment, jump back up to Big Picture. So is Consciousness limited to human beings? Are we the only energy forms that can detect other energy forms?
David: I guess not. And there may even be lifeforms in other worlds that aren’t even carbon-based, like us, that could demonstrate consciousness.
Walton: Can galaxies then perhaps just have a higher, or different degree of Consciousness? Is the planet Earth, and its limited human inhabitants, the exclusive and only source of some degree of Consciousness? Could it be that the very smallest Things as well as the very largest Things all have a trait called Consciousness? Could we truly be “entertaining angels unawares”, maybe even daily, moment to moment? All shapes, location, sizes, construction, and so forth?
David: Can you sum that all up for me now?
Walton: Yes, you can! Read some of the stand-out words on the Awareness page!
David: “Awareness is non-physical, non-measurable, … the attentive observer ….. not a divided entity, but rather a unified essence.” All it does is “attentive observing.”
Walton: When you ran those exercises with me earlier in the day, you shifted from seeing and detecting things from a large perspective, and then a small perspective, then a broken-up perspective. Now, if you can, pretend you are observing all these material things from a sub-atomic perspective. No solids, no specific senses, no distance, shape or size. Just observing Energy in its simplest form. No intent to shape it. Just observing it. Particle by particle. You become a telescope AND a microscope!
David: Yea, Wow!
Walton: Wow, and how! When you have the ability to see All Things as just collections of energetic particles, or waveforms, you will Be the Observer. Simple.
And if and when you can “see yourself seeing,” then even Consciousness will become an energy-based production of that observing process. Boom. Blow your tiny mind!
David: I just hope when I get that “Awake and Aware,” my tiny mind won’t really mind.”
Walton: Just like the example and illustrations at the bottom of that page, you Be the Squirrel watching the squirrel watching the Squirrel. Just don’t go nuts on me!!
David: Once again, “turtles all the way down,” right?
Walton: Very good! Squirrels and Turtles, all the way up, and all the way down!
*****