style="font-size:15px;"> This is another example of how one can set out to expand one's universe a little by learning a new skill, and find little side-benefits from the exercises adding extra value to life—a conversation overheard, a discovery of an interesting spectacle down the street that one might never have witnessed in normal consciousness.
Although I specify a particular way of doing these exercises for the sake of clarity, they are in fact very adaptable to everyday life once you get the basic principle. It is a way of listening—rather than a way of listening just to music.
THIS TOTAL AWARENESS, AM I MEANT TO GO INTO A SORT OF TRANCE?
If by “trance” you mean a turning inward, or you mean a narrowing down of the attention for economy of effort—like the times when you are so focused on driving that you are not aware of anything other than the road—then what we are exploring would seem quite the opposite of trance. And yet what we are doing can shift consciousness in the same way that a trance does.
If, instead of opening up his hearing to everything around, the writer above had been a security guard specifically listening out for signs of crime, would he have been more, or less likely to hear that conversation? It is an interesting question.
But I suggest that for most of our evolutionary history we would have had our senses wide open for all impressions. When walking in the wild, danger can take so many forms—a lion's footprint or the trembling of a branch, the hiss of a snake or buzz of a mosquito, a smell of rhino shit or of fire, and so on. This was confirmed by one of the participants who had been taught a similar exercise as part of the Kamana Program of the Wilderness Awareness School, described as “a mix of native wisdom and field biology”. He mentioned an interesting extension of the awareness exercise that you could experiment with:
One of the things they taught was to imagine each sense being a different animal: Owl for sight, Deer for hearing, Raccoon for touch, Dog for smell, Fox or Cat for movement. One then pulled it all together and became the Wolf. For me this helps.
So I reckon that human beings, like most animals, evolved to be hard-wired for wide open senses, and that modern living has narrowed down the threats so that we have gained a greater ability to concentrate, but that we do not practise open awareness sufficiently. That could explain why it feels so good when you do practise it. As one participant wrote:
Things seemed more beautiful and more weird—hearing sounds without taking for granted where they were coming from made listening a much more interesting experience…It had the effect of making me feel liberated, I suppose from emotions and attachment. Everything seemed new, it was a bit like being on holiday or waking up first thing in the morning, before you remember all the stuff you've got to do.
Another wrote:
I did find that focusing on the environment as fully as possible took the focus away from all the stuff going on in my head, leading to a meditative state. Even if I did struggle with maintaining TA, at least I learnt a way of clearing my mind and reducing anxiety that can be used in daily situations.
IF I CAN'T MANAGE THE WALKING EXERCISE, IS THE SEATED ONE OKAY?
Exercise 4, the walking awareness exercise, makes it much easier to get results because of the physical discipline involved in making yourself walk back every time to the point where awareness was lost. It is the better exercise.
The reason I suggested you start with Exercise 3—the seated sensory awareness—was to get you used to the idea, and to find how difficult it is to maintain high awareness and not fall into daydreams when simply sitting still. So it was good preparation for the more effective Exercise 4.
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