Naturally present to life
I’m getting a view of the “new person.” Hopefully inspired.
I’m a growth-movement guy so my view is skewed towards human growth. Please factor that in when crafting your own vision.
For me, we become a “person” when we can be and choose to be present to our world and ourselves. Being present means being consciously aware. That is, aware that we’re aware and responsible for it; most importantly, aware of ourselves as we move and unfold our beingness in the world – and responsible for it.
All of us were present to life as very young children. Innocence is untainted presence to life. It’s life without guile or regrets. It’s our “natural” (sahaja) state.
The “new person” for me is one who’s present, who has a presence, who has the willingness to be self-aware and to present or express what is seen and heard, thought and felt here, in this moment, in neutral terms and from their own particular standpoint
I also have a personally-biased vision of the “new adult.” For me, the new adult is a “person” who uses their awareness and their will in socially-beneficial ways. They’re aware of others. They’re in service to themselves, yes, but to others as well. They’re committed to life working out for all of us.
For me, a person becomes an adult when their viewpoint (1) takes in others and (2) consistently intends to assist them, rather than disempower them.
I have to tell you. This is a higher bar than I consistently meet. I’m not entirely there yet. I still have my vasanas, my detritus.
But it’s what I’m aiming for.
One of the pastimes of the “old person,” to extend the metaphor, is that we weren’t present to life. We were asleep. We lived in a dream world, each in our own dream. We busied ourselves building that dream and selling it to others and that’s all our lives became about.
People like us were not available to life. We have a past and a future but no present, where life occurs.
Meanwhile, the dream either comes true or it doesn’t, but we missed out on friendships, intimacy, love regardless.
We were in a bubble in which no one else mattered but us. We were definitely in service to self, however we might have represented the situation. Since we had no real connection to others, there was no one else to serve except “me and mine.”
This is how we managed the denseness of Third Dimensionality and for some it may continue to exist as an aspect of habitual thinking or conditioning.
The price we paid is that we blocked our own awareness. We fell deeper and deeper into unawareness and we weren’t even aware that we weren’t aware. Consequently we didn’t grow in critical areas.
I don’t want that for myself. I want to grow in those areas. I want to be present to life. I want to express myself and take in your expression. I want to love.
Having said that, time restrictions mean that I have very few friends these days. I have to closet myself (lonely as it is) if I’m to achieve what I want to get done.
I have to focus in and remain with it, day after day. As will you soon as well, if the time of your service has not already arrived.
The principle applies whether few friends or not. It’s an evolutionary step forward to go from a lack of awareness to awareness, from disloyalty and manipulation to personal responsibility, and from hiding our manipulations to being willing to call ourselves on them.
I want to evolve. I want to grow. I want to love. I don’t want life to pass me by. And I’m going to choose being present over invitations to submerge my awareness in a river of unconsciousness. I want to be present to life.
Footnotes
(1) Saul through John Smallman, July 30, 2016.