BOOKS
tance” by Tara Brach. But
it’s worth the extra searching.
Dowling observes,
Awareness—of who we
are, of who others are—is
spiritual literacy, an essential skill for navigating life.
We all see life through the
filters of our beliefs and attitudes... With Awareness
we become conscious
of those filters and of the
difference between reality and our interpretation of reality. If, for example, I feel powerless
in a given situation, how
much of that powerlessness is generated by my
own assumptions and beliefs, and how much of it
is real? If I believe myself
to be unlovable, when
I look at others, do I see
rejection, even where no
rejection exists?
...
When we let go of beliefs,
experiences and attitudes that no longer serve
us well, we are freed to
enter a state of union with
the present moment. In
the present, we can engage with the gritty rich-
ness of life. We trust life,
or rather we trust that everything in life is an opportunity to grow. And grow
we must. The alternative is
stagnation.
Radical Awareness has
five components for Dowling:
• Awareness of our self
and reality
• Absorption in the present moment
• Trust
• Growing from suffering
• Experiencing
union
with self and life
When I first began readi