occupy awareness

8/3/2019 Occupy Awareness

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Occupy Awareness

by Scott Kiloby

Pic Wendy Annibell

I am sure you’ve heard about the ongoing series of demonstrations in the Wall Street

financial district. What is Occupy Wall Street or (OWS) for short anyway? A paradigm

shift or “blame-game” perhaps? In a nutshell, it’s a growing worldwide movement loosely

based upon social and economic inequality. Some consider this movement highly

controversial.

Maybe, to some who are reading,this articlewill seem “controversial.” But, as they say,

“the proof is in the pudding.” The realization I’m pointing to can only be known once we

recognize the open, relaxed, non-separate way of being of what is known as non-duality.

Occupy Wall Street, along with the frustration and desire for change that lots of people

are experiencing these days, is a prime example of how the belief in separation can be

seen as the root of human problems.



What is the belief in separation?

For starters here is a simple metaphor: the painter and his painting are inseparable.

Translated, this means that the consciousness we are carrying around, which is the belief

in being separate people, determines the world we see. The painter “me” is inseparable

from the world I see out there.

The Occupy Wall Street movement is certainly shaking things up, while attempting to

provide a much-needed balance in our world. It appears that lots of people are “fed up”

these days with corporate greed and the appearance that the rich keep getting richer

while the poorer keep getting poorer. It’squitenatural to want change when this is

believed. And it’s also quitenaturalto look outward into the world, believing that the

problem exists (solely) out there. In some sense, it does! In the appearance of life, there

are people and organizations who are acting from a sense of lack, fear, and greed—taking

more than giving. It’s much like any addiction. The taking begets more taking, ad

nauseum.

Pic Aaron Bauer



Let’s look at it a different way.

Many times in my meetings I get questions about the financial state of our world. And

almost always, I can sense in the questioner fear or anxiety below the surface of the

words. Yet the focus of the questioner is in pointingout there, in the world (in the“painting”), as if the solution lies solely there.

We can take all sorts of practical steps to change our world, and even improve it in many

ways. But if we are not in touch with the fear, anxiety, frustration, lack, and greed within

each of us, then in some ways we areonly boxing our own shadowswhen we point

outward to Wall Street. If the painter—me—is experiencing fear, frustration, anger or

anxiety but only pointing outward towards the world, the question is this: what am I

looking to accomplish through that pointing?

What I find time and again when the question of Wall Street pops up is that this outward

pointing is the perfect opportunity to goinward. By bringing someone’s attention—the

bare observation of naked awareness—directly to the frustration, anger, fear or anxiety he

or she is feeling, this inseparability between the painter and his painting becomes crystal

clear. Although we don’t always see it that way, we are looking for relaxation and well-

being. We are looking to rearrange the world (the painting) so that we can finally relax

and not have to feel this frustration, anger, fear or anxiety.

When I suggest to the questioner that true transformation of the world starts with theself (or inner voice), it can appear controversial, counter-intuitive, and even repulsive at

first. I’m inviting the questioner to Occupy Awareness first, so to speak. This means to

rest without viewpoints over and over, throughout the day, letting all the afflictive

emotions that arise with those viewpoints be as they are, without trying to understand,

neutralize or get rid of them. When we begin to do this, insight begins to arise

automatically. We see that our bodies, when they are troubled by these afflictive

emotions, cause a sort of automated response in the mind. That response shows up as a

pointing outward into the world in some attempt to change that world so that theemotions can relax. However, that outward pointing only goes so far.



For any transformation to happen, it is helpful to see through the sense of self that is

identifying so strongly with viewpoints, no matter what they are. As these viewpoints are

relaxed, over and over, we start to feel energy in the body very directly. That energy is

allowed to come and go, bringing about a natural healing in our experience. This is a

deep and profound healing precisely because it deals with the very source of suffering,

the ego or self.

As we relax as awareness (or Occupy Awareness), the sense of being a person cut off from

a hostile world “out there” begins to soften and relax. Insights and clarity begin to pave

the way automatically. We lose the sense of an us v. them attitude and this frees us up to

take a more comprehensive perspective of our world, illuminating the way in which the

painter is inseparable from his painting.

As we begin to relax and heal, the world and the sense of inherent “others” also begin to

relax. We start to move and act in the world with a fearless, compassionate love andpeace. This is not a love and peace that just sits quietly as the so-called others “destroy

the world.” It is not by its nature passive at all.

We can continue trying to point outwardly, believing that the problem is solely out there.

Yet this blinds us to the direct experience of what is happening in our own bodies and

minds. If we look inward, the fear, lack, anger, frustration, and anxiety that we are feeling

as separate selves actually creates a sort of addiction for goods or for other vices that we

believe will satisfy our suffering. And so, in a very direct way, we created Wall Street by

not experiencing and healing our own afflictive emotions.

The painter is inseparable from his painting. So, as we change, from the belief in being a

separateperson, into a more fluid, non-separate, non-referential way of experiencing, the

painting (the world) begins to change automatically. Everyone we meet is then affected

by the change within us. Deep change is very contagious. We don’t settle for Occupying

Wall Street or any other street for that matter. We occupy every moment with this new-

found openness and direct experience of non-separation. The world cannot help but

change at that point simply because the world is a reflection of our own consciousness.



Pic Wendy Annibell

Furthermore, do not take this as an invitation to stop protesting or speaking your mind

about what you perceive in the world. The recognition of the inward freedom that I am

attempting to demonstrate here in no way outlaws taking practical action to change

things in our relative experience. I’m merely offering you, the reader,an invitationto

look in a different way, seeing that what we have created as something out there is a

reflection of our own, interior experience as humans. As that interior experience begins

to be illuminated more and more, it’s quite natural for an outward expression of that to

take place. We are only ever tending to the world we created through our own thoughts,

feelings, sensations and perceptions.

Why not start in our own backyard?

livingrealization.org

http://livingrealization.org/

http://www.livingrealization.org/

http://livingrealization.org/

http://www.livingrealization.org/

occupy awareness

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