Practical Exercises to Enhance Conscious Awareness

I have to ask, is any of this clear? I am attempting to demystify the process of enlightenment that seems to have evaded many people by reason of the tedious and "religious" nature of it. The good news is that, in my schema, it has NOTHING to do with religion, nothing to do with rites and rituals, and does not require going to India for 20 years.

Enlightenment, the way I understand and experience it, is like waking up in the morning. The fact that I wake up does not mean I am never going to go to sleep again. When I raise my level of awareness beyond the state most agree is "awake", then I am "enlightened". Very simple and I will always find a very good reason to return the both the "awake" state, and the sleep state. I enjoy those states of consciousness, just like I enjoy the more "enlightened" one.

But let's suppose that I call myself an "enlightened master" or some other ridiculous title. The way I understand it, once I do that I am doomed to stay in whatever state of mind that I consider that. I cannot evolve and I try to bring you "up to" my level of awareness.

I think you can see how this complicates and stagnates the whole idea of "waking up" to new brain states of conscious awareness.

On the other hand, if I am not getting the simplicity of this process across to you, how do I do that?

Practical exercises to enhance conscious awareness:

1. Understanding the flow of life energy

Defining the direction and how this life energy if expressed and how it manifests.

2. Discovery of latent sensory systems

Do you recognize at least 12 human sensory systems and understand how they enable you to better navigate through your physical world? Imagine two ships, one with full instrumentation and one with only a compass and a sextant. Which ship would you rather sail?

3. Enhance knowledge of the physical world

Similarly if we are ignorant of the way the physical world (that we navigate through) functions, we are going to have a more difficult time understanding the interactions that surround us and create our experience.

4. Paying more attention

Developing and refining the sensory systems and using them in an efficient and focused way will enhance conscious awareness.

5. Exploration of conditioned awareness

How did we become conditioned? Parents, language, education, religion, the media all influence us and condition us to behave in a certain way. We must also consider the phenomenon of experience and how that conditions us as well over a span of life.

6. Expand understanding of conscious awareness

What is consciousness? If we cannot find a definition we agree on, perhaps we can just simply describe it and begin to develop those aspects that we define.

7. Present moment awareness

Most of us live in the past through regret and remorse, but also through reliance on knowledge and experience. We also tend to live in the future, not only through expectation and ambition but also in hope and ideals. Living in the present moment is actually very simple and requires two very important aspects, one is to embrace the present circumstance whatever it is, and the other is to begin to notice whenever you are not relaxing into the present.

8. Consider the brain state of "awake" and consider possible other brain states that may be far more aware

Most of us think that when we are awakened by our alarm clock and have our first cup of coffee, we are fully awake. This is a travesty of misunderstanding that keeps us all in a semi conscious state. We may be living in a dream of hypnotized awareness that can become a paradise or a nightmare.

9. Enlightening the unconscious

Most of either befriend of fear our unconscious, or are totally oblivious of it. It is far easier to make the unconscious mind fully conscious than any of us think.

10. Creative visualizations

11. Paradigm shifts

12. The Work

Byron Katie has developed a tool called “The Work” that reveals that the stories we make up about our interactions are based on something that has NOTHING to do with interaction or relationship. This is total self absorption and self consciousness.

13. Nudity and sensuality

Like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the mere act of taking off our clothes and NOT being ashamed is both enlightening and liberating. Modesty and good taste is very important, but shame and guilt about body image and sexuality is a burden on the consciousness and provides the ballast that prevents us from some of the higher states of consciousness such as bliss and joy.

14. Attention not concentration

15. Discover mental operating system

16. Reiki and Tantra

17. Reading mystical writings

18. Meditation: perceptual, mental, and behavioral

19. Becoming a student, finding a teacher

20. Enhanced expression, performance of arts, dance, music, sports

21. Sacred sexuality

22. Lucid dreaming

Awakening within a dream to the understanding that all experience is within the framework of the mind is a powerful exercise in consciousness enhancement.