Awareness and Consciousness

Consciousness and awareness are the same when awareness is totally identified with and attached to that which it is aware of. To separate the two is the artful practice of yoga.

How to strike the balance between living 2/3rd internally in our day to day life and 1/3rd externally? Regulate the breath throughout the day. Keep the spine always straight. Always sit up straight. As soon as the spine is bent, awareness is externalized. We are living two-thirds in the external area of the mind and only one-third within. As soon as the spine is straight, our awareness is internalized. We are living two-thirds within and only one-third out.

This is what differentiates a normal man from a mystic, a mystic lives 2/3rd within.

Now, if we are sitting in a movie, and we are realizing that we are going through moods and emotions but we are not the moods and emotions that we are going through -- all we are doing is being entertained by our senses -- then that's the mystic. He is enjoying life and what life has to offer. He is even remembering in past lives when he had similar experiences that the players are portraying on the screen, and he has empathy with them. He is living a full and a vibrant life, and yet when he walks out of the movie house, or walks away from the TV, he has forgotten the whole thing. He doesn't carry it with him. His awareness is immediately right where he is currently. That's the power of the great eternity of the moment.

It will help for us to make a mental picture. Let us now try to visualize awareness as a round, white ball of light, like one single eye. This ball is being propelled through many areas of the mind, inner and outer, and it is registering all the various pictures. It has, in fact, four eyes, one on each side of it. It is not reacting. The reaction comes when awareness is aware of the astral body and the physical body. It is in those bodies that reaction occurs. We are aware of the reactions in these bodies, for the physical body and the astral body are also part of the vast, vast universe of the mind.

Ahimsa

Nandinatha sutras explain the exceptions to ahimsa

Exceptions To Ahimsa
Siva's devotees, when unable to observe ahimsa perfectly, may claim three exceptions to preserve one life over another. But these must be used sparingly, reluctantly, after the noninjurious options have been tried. Aum.

1. Self-defense And Law Enforcement Siva's devotees faced with imminent danger may elect to injure or kill to protect their life or that of another, or to defend the community as a soldier or a law officer in the line of duty. This is ahimsa's first exception. Aum.
2. Preserving Life And Health Siva's devotees may elect to preserve the life and health of a person or animal under their care by forfeiting the life of organisms, such as worms or microbes, that pose a threat. This is the second exception to ahimsa. Aum.
3. Predators And Pests Siva's devotees may elect to protect the home, the village and the nation by eradicating predators, pests, bacteria and disease-carrying creatures that threaten health or safety. This is ahimsa's third and last exception. Aum.

Noninjurious Solutions

Siva's devotees uphold the principle not to kill even household pests, but to stop their entry, not to kill garden insects or predators, but keep them away by natural means. This is the highest ideal. Aum Namah Sivaya.

Torn between past and future

As more intense experiences favorable or unfavorable start coming unpredictably and all of a sudden, the mind which was earlier living the the "now" starts oscillating between the past and the future. In other words it gets excited. It forgets the fact that the past is just a dream and the one purpose of it is to make us learn and the only sane thing to do is to apply its teachings in the "now". The mind based on past successes gets excited and tries to desire more and set tougher goals as it has intellectually been trained to do so. It fantasizes about future that the grass is greener elsewhere. It is never in a position to accept the beautiful "now" moment where it is perfectly all right and has no reason to worry. During this process it ends up forgetting past mistakes and the learnings it had carried from it and ends up doing the same mistakes again and again, until awareness realizes this.

After experiencing near-success-miss-due-to-fate sort of experiences, the ego gets hurt and frustrated. More experiences of this sort come on to it. Some injustices happen and the frsutrated ego due to these extreme experiences ends up forgetting all past learnings, the intellect takes a back seat and the ego tends to turn towards the distractions of modern world and old habits of thinking to gain solace. In other words it assumes the older personality. I had a glimpse of this happening recently in my life and i have to try hard not give in myself to these frustrations. These are highly magnetic states of mind that impress the subconscious strongly. It takes a lot of persistent hard work and time to get de-magnetized from these states.

Due to all this the 'calm' gets spoilt and it becomes so difficult to bring awareness to the present. More profound meditation is the key to quiet the mind and its passions at this stage. --- Life puts you off-centre in many possible ways --- u end up struggling and centering yourself. i have seen this pattern happening over and over again, that it doesnt surprise me anymore :-)

Thus we are the creators of our own destiny, we are the ones who fasten the process or slowen the process, its entirely up to us. With awareness and will in the present, we fasten our own evolution, with awareness diversified and torn between past and future, we repeat the same mistakes over and over leading to slowing down our own spiritual evolution.