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“What is the title of your book?” Every time I told my friends that I wanted to write a book, they were all curious as to what kind of book I would write. My background was in the sciences, not literature, so this statement was baffling to them. My current profession is as a community liaison with a Home Health Agency, and I am also acting for TV series and commercials. Life is strange and wonderful. Who would think that one day I would pick up a pen to write an article about awareness.
Awareness, simply put, is knowing the existence of all things and beings. This knowing comes from enlightenment. It also comes from an awakening. Imagine a person who is unable to see the existence of all things and events around him because he is blindfolded. Once he is awakened or enlightened, it’s as if the blindfold has come off and everything can be seen clearly. This “knowing” is neither from knowledge nor from wisdom. It’s from enlightenment.
Knowledge come from someone else’s experiences, whereas wisdom comes from our own experiences. Both knowledge and wisdom are from the past, and they are accumulated and repeated. Knowledge and wisdom may serve practical purposes, but because they come from the past, they may not be applicable to our present lives.
On the other hand, awareness comes from inspiration and is not restricted by the past. It comes from within and is not from memory or experience. It comes from our instincts — it’s our reaction at that very moment. It is living in the moment — living now. Therefore, it can be applied to life now. For most, these moments of awareness and inspiration come and go. They fail to take act on their instincts. This is a missed opportunity, as those actions may result in miracles.
Most people work hard, using the knowledge and wisdom that they acquired from books or school. Yet, they complain that they are unable to get the results they want. Why? Because their energy is misdirected. The answers are there, but the seeker can’t find them when he’s blindfolded. Instead of searching for guidance within, people often search without (outside themselves). That’s why they don’t get the results they want.
The Chinese words for knowledge, wisdom and awareness are each made up of two characters — 知識 , 智慧 , and 覺知, respectively. It is quite fascinating that every word contains “knowing” (知). For the first two words (知識 knowledge, 智慧wisdom ), the character “knowing” (知) is in the first character. But it appears in the second character in the word for awareness (覺知 ). That tells us that “knowing” (知) comes after “feeling“ (覺) which consists of “seeing.” In other words, we can “see” when we allow ourselves to “feel” – that is, to be inspired.
The simplest, best example is the story of the origin of the song “The Rose.” One afternoon in 1977, Amanda McBroom was driving on a highway, when suddenly this song came to her. At that moment, she rushed home and composed the song in just 10 minutes. McBroom was able to react instantly to inspiration. The song has become world known, changing her life forever. (For more information, see the article “How ‘The Rose’ Came to Be” Amanda McBroom’s The Rose)
Achieving the zero limit of life is not difficult, as long as we have “awareness.” Presuming that we do not ignore the feeling (inspiration), and do not hesitate to take action in the moment, we will also have the same miracle that Amanda McBroom experienced.
