Inner Awareness

... Most of us think that awareness is a mysterious something to be practiced, and that we should get together day after day to talk about awareness. You don’t come to awareness that way at all. But if you are aware of outward thing-the curve of a road, the shape of a tree, the color of another’s clothes, the outline of the mountains against the blue sky, the delicacy of a flower, the pain on the face of a passer-by, the ignorance, the envy, the jealousy of others, the beauty of the earth-then, seeing all these outward things without choice, you can ride on the tide of inner awareness. Then you will become aware of your own reactions, of your own pettiness, of your own jealousies. From the outward awareness, you come to the inward; but if you are not aware of the outer, you cannot possibly come to the inner.

When there is inward awareness of every activity of your mind and your body, when you are aware of your thoughts, of your feelings, both secret and open, conscious and unconscious, then out of this awareness there comes a clarity that is not induced, not put together by the mind. And without that clarity, you may do what you will, you may search the heavens, and the earth, and the deeps, but you will never find out what is true. ~J.Krishnamurti