PRESENT MOMENT AWARENESS VS. THE THINKING MIND
Energetic Inquiry is a practice of focusing awareness on the moving energy, i.e., felt sensation, in one’s body. Over time, as I’ve engaged in Energetic Inquiry, I have had many realizations. One realization is that I can indeed hold my present moment awareness on felt sensation. These two actions—1) focusing my awareness and 2) feeling sensation—seem to occur simultaneously. During the practice, I am, therefore, aware in the present moment of felt sensation.
Although, when I first began with Energetic Inquiry, I was mostly watching the energy in and around my torso, I eventually noticed that there was also moving energy in my headspace. Awareness itself seemed to have some sensation around it— in my forehead. Often, while observing the sensation in my forehead, I notice a tugging feeling at the point where I sense my awareness emanating. Over time, I have learned that I can: 1) continue to watch the tugging until it subsides, remaining in awareness, or 2) give over to the tugging sensation and enter my thinking mind.
In the last year or so, as I have participated in various guided meditations where I am asked to watch my thoughts, I have noticed that I cannot. I cannot hold awareness and engage my thinking mind at the same time. It’s as if I must pause my awareness to enter my thinking mind, and then resume my awareness once I am done thinking. Of course, I am aware of what my thoughts were, but I don’t seem able to watch them in the present moment. I simply can’t hold awareness and have thoughts simultaneously.
This idea—that I can’t use my thinking mind and remain in present moment awareness—seems to be reinforced by Eckhart Tolle in his book The Power of Now. In the book, he says that enlightenment is “simply your natural state of felt oneness with Being.” Then, when asked to explain Being, he says, “You can know it only when the mind is still. When you are present, when your attention is fully and intensely in the Now, Being can be felt, but it can never be understood mentally. To regain awareness of Being and to abide in that state of ‘feeling-realization’ is enlightenment.”
Energetic Inquiry, then, is a tool that helps me learn what it means to abide in the state of “feeling-realization” and to maintain the state of presence for longer periods of time. For an explanation of the practice, please go to the “Energetic Inquiry” page found on this website.
As I’ve mentioned above, don’t forget about the felt sensation in your headspace when engaging with the practice. See if you can glimpse what it feels like to be aware vs. to think. Just remember, it is a practice and will most likely take time and repetition to fully realize the nuances of the energetic shifts.
And, of course, the observations above are based on my personal practice of Energetic Inquiry. You may have a different experience altogether, and that’s okay. It is part of the reason I am writing this blog: my intention is to share my ideas and experiences, to accept feedback, and to grow in understanding together.