Building Your Foundation of Self: The Tool of Awareness
The latest from the Self Talk podcast
Self Talk with Rachel Astarte, Episode 134
You are awareness. Awareness is another name for you. Since you are awareness there is no need to attain or cultivate it. All that you have to do is to give up being aware of other things; that is, of the not-Self. If one gives up being aware of them then pure awareness alone remains, and that is the Self.
—Ramana Maharshi
Transcript [Edited]
Awareness is the act of consciously placing our attention.
Awareness is the first tool we use to build our Foundation of Self. We’ll discuss how to use that tool later. Before we do that, let’s define our terms—always a good place to begin.
Awareness is the act of consciously placing our attention.
Just that. Awareness is the act of placing our attention on something outside of us or within us with consciousness. When we do that, you could say we have metaconsciousness, or awareness of being aware.
Let’s try a simple metaconsciousness exercise together.
Look at something next to you—say, a pen, a book, a mug of tea, or a chair.
Got it?
By looking at that item, you have placed your attention on it. You have become aware of it. You are practicing awareness in this moment.
In this case, the subject on which you place your awareness is the item you’ve chosen to look at.
Okay, back to the text, here.
Notice how other things around you fell away from your awareness. You directed your attention to the one thing, which necessarily meant that the other things did not take priority. It’s not that you couldn’t see them in your peripheral vision, but your awareness did not prioritize them in that moment. You did not actively bring them into your consciousness.
So, one more time, focus again on what you chose before. Keep the focus, but begin to notice other items closely surrounding it. Notice how you can keep focus on your object but still allow for those peripheral things to come into consciousness.
You have a main focus, the item you chose, and a lighter awareness of the things around it.
Three Types of Awareness
There are many types of awareness. For our purpose—how awareness relates to building a Foundation of Self—we’ll look at three: Awareness of Self, Awareness of Interconnectedness, and Awareness as We Practice (as in, doing our inner work).
Awareness of Self
Awareness of the self has two parts, awareness of the mind and the body.
Mind
When we think about self-awareness, we have to ask, “If I am aware of myself, of whom am I aware?” In other words, “Who am I?”
Spiritual teacher Ramana Maharshi taught about this in his book Who Am I? You can download it here for free. It’s available in 39 languages.
Ramana Maharshi taught the method of self-inquiry—to bring awareness to the true self, not the ego self.
Self-inquiry begins with the question, “Who am I?” As the layers of those definitions of self get peeled away—such as our physical descriptions, our titles, and labels—we see a universal Self, the True Self, at the core of our being—pure awareness.
We can call the True Self the capital ‘S’ self. While the ego self—the self that is defined by those physical traits, titles, and labels—is the small ‘s’ self.
In this way, we actually have two mind-selves to be aware of—the True (eternal consciousness) Self and the false (ego) self.
We strive to stay in the state of the true self, unbothered by the false self. This is part of the foundation we speak of when we refer to the Foundation of Self. But until we reach that point, there will be a lot of interplay between these two versions of self.
Remember that we don’t judge! One is not better than the other; they work together to create a whole human being, which we’ll get to later on.
Body
Now, let’s discuss body awareness. Body awareness doesn’t mean body assessment, as in looking at your body; it’s more like looking from within your body through sensation.
The felt sense of the body is called interoception. We most commonly associate interoception with body sensations like needing to sneeze, being hungry or thirsty, or having to use the bathroom.
Interoception also allows us to feel the sensations emotions elicit in us.
We don’t think our feelings; we feel them.
To bring awareness to our bodies, means that we feel into or “drop in” and pay attention to what’s going on within our physical bodies. Just like you did in that first exercise, when you selected an object to bring your attention to, except now we get quiet and bring our attention to what is going on inside our bodies.
Let’s try that. For 30 seconds, drop in and simply witness what is going on in your body. You’re not trying to change anything, and you’re certainly not judging what you sense. You’re simply witnessing, like a reporter on the scene.
30-second Drop-in with Tibetan Chime
Now, take a moment to notice how you feel. Note the connection you have between the inner self and the outer world.
Awareness of Interconnectedness
The concept of interconnectedness brings in the awareness of our spirit.
Again, we return to Ramana Maharshi and his teaching of the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, which asserts there is no separation between the self and the universe; they are the same.
All is energy, communicating with itself.
We as individuals are part of the greater whole.
It’s helpful to remember this as we interact with other people and the world around us. We are all part of the same family, originating with the Big Bang and radiating outward into all forms.
This is what quantum entanglement shows us. Or Einstein’s “spooky action at a distance.” Very simply, two particles separated by great distances communicate, which researchers tested by measuring the spin of one particle. They then repeated the measurement on the other distant particle and noted that its spin correlated with the first. (Fascinating stuff.)
When we practice self-inquiry, peeling away the layers of our false self, we begin to experience that unity clearly.
We understand that the true self we are exists in others as well. We all carry and have access to that eternal consciousness—from your mail carrier to the mycelial network underground.
Awareness as We Practice
Now, let’s talk about awareness as we practice inner work. As we discussed in the last episode, nonjudgment is the lifeblood of the Foundation of Self work, while awareness is the first tool we use.
That means we pay conscious attention to what is happening in our lives. We notice when we feel out of alignment because the feeling of misalignment is an indicator that we need to course correct and realign ourselves.
Sometimes, your first indication will be awareness in your body. Someone cuts you off in traffic, and your stomach lurches. Your face flushes. You feel agitation in your upper belly—your solar plexus energy center, the seat of self.
At other times, it may be your mind that first alerts you to being out of alignment. Perhaps a friend, partner, or parent has tuned out while you tell a story. Your mind says, Hey. They’re not listening to you. That’s wrong.
That’s awareness.
Sometimes our awareness of misalignment is not triggered by someone or something outside ourselves, but something within. Usually, it’s the voice of the small ‘s’ Self, or ego self. The self that is concerned with the minutiae of day-to-day life.
The small ‘s’ self often functions from a place of fear. Will I be liked? Will I say the right thing? What do others think of me?
This self-talk is clearly not our true selves talking. Our True Self—the self that is pure awareness, the I that is I, the Witness—is eternal and therefore isn’t bothered by these issues.
As we do deep inner work, it’s essential to practice nonjudgment.
We may look at parts of ourselves we want to change or realign and have a tendency to judge them as bad. This “othering” is not helpful. It shames us and stops our growth in its tracks.
Likewise, as we practice tools like awareness, we may unconsciously slip into old unhelpful behavior patterns. It happens!
Consider this: The fact that you are aware that you slipped into old patterns is itself awareness. It means you’re using the tool correctly.
Be patient. Don’t judge yourself. Instead, note where you lost your way, and learn from the experience so that you can avoid it in the future.
Let’s say I work in a place where I’m often talked over or interrupted. I’ve been working on speaking up for myself, calmly and clearly calling it out when it happens: “Excuse me, I was speaking. I’d love to hear your thoughts when I’ve finished.”
But one day I’m in an impromptu team meeting and I’m tired. I speak, but then a colleague cuts me off. I slip into my old people-pleasing habit of being quiet and letting others talk. After the meeting, I’m feeling agitated and I can’t figure out why.
Then it hits me. That person cut me off again! What happened? I was doing so well speaking up! Why is this still happening?
Soon after, the judging thoughts come in. Am I doing this wrong? What’s the point?
If I practice nonjudgment, I can look at this situation from a clearer perspective. The capital S Self perspective: I was tired and I let that one get past me. That’s okay. I’ll get it the next time. I’m proud of myself for listening to my body’s agitation and finding the source of it so fast. In the past, I would have let it ruin my day.
Awareness of All Our Selves
Remember that when we bring nonjudgment to our inner work, we don’t declare the small ‘s’ self bad and the capital ‘S’ self good. They work together.
The small S self allows us to experience life in a fully human way. The capital ‘S’ Self holds this experience and reminds us not to get attached to those temporary thoughts, feelings, emotions, or behaviors.
Think of the two Selves dancing together. The fully human self and the divine self. It’s what Indian mystic Osho referred to as Zorba the Buddha.
Zorba is the titular character in the Nikos Kazantzakis novel Zorba the Greek. Zorba is passionate about life. He makes his own rules, loves drinking, food, dancing, and women. He’s all here.
And of course you know about the Buddha, who was pretty much the opposite of that—nonattachment, transcendence...
The message is to be both—in this world but not of it.
Why do we want to do that? Because we are ambassadors of Source.
Our true nature is eternal. Our energy—and everything is energy—contributes to collective consciousness and the quantum field. We are generators of energy.
You are a generator of energy.
You create the world you live in by the way you choose to live it.
Next time, we’ll look at the third and final core principle of the Foundation of Self, Gentleness.
Until then, be gentle with yourself.
xo RA
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