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Open Eyes and the Promise of Inner Joy

9 minutes
Tim Olmsted recorded in a Joy of Living Level I Webinar. April 20, 2012.

Tergar instructor Tim Olmsted answers a question about practicing with eyes open or closed as part of an online Joy of Living Level I workshop held in April, 2012. Tim is assisted by Tergar practice leader Diane McQueen-Smith.


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November 8, 2012

3 responses on "Open Eyes and the Promise of Inner Joy"

  1. How can it be that awareness is always present? How are you defining awareness? Sometimes I’m on auto pilot and that doesn’t seem like ‘awareness’. Am I misunderstanding?

    • Dear Erica,

      I’m sorry to have taken so long responding. Awareness is ‘that which knows’. It’s simply that you can hear, see, smell, and that you know you are hearing, seeing and smelling. If awareness wasn’t present, you wouldn’t know that you were having an experience. The fact that you know that you’re on auto pilot, is also awareness. The training is to become ‘aware that you’re aware’. Normally, we get lost in our experience. the phenomenal world (including our thoughts), pulls us away from the sense of being aware that we’re aware. The training then is to come back to the awareness aspect again and again (through meditation), so that you balance the sense of awareness, with the perception of what arises within that awareness. I hope this helps. If not, let me know.

      Tim

  2. Thank you Tim…I remember you talked about this at the Abbey at one point, but it is refreshing to hear what you thought you already knew!!!
    Nice to hear your voice again!

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