Q: “How do I become a tracker?”
A: “By deepening your Awareness”
Q: “How do I do that?”
A: “Tracking is a good way to do
that”
Q: “Hmmm. What exactly is Awareness?”
A: “Yes”
Language is a beautiful thing. It
enables us to communicate thoughts, emotions, facts etc. We can use
language both ambiguously or not. Lyrical or factual. We can take
words literally or read between the lines. But sometimes we falter.
Sometimes we get questions we simply can not word the answers for and
it sucks. Especially if the question is by a student for the teacher.
I get that a lot. The above Q&A is
a common one for me as I teach tracking and Awareness. One could
raise serious doubts about a teacher that claims to teach a subject
he has a hard time defining. In general I think that holds true but
in this particular case it is just the nature of what is asked. Every
time I get this question I have to think (and laugh) about the 'The
Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe and Everything' from The
Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams. The answer to
that question, it turned out, was forty-two. The problem was that
although the question had a simple no nonsense answer, it became
obvious that we did not know what the answer meant because we do not
know what the question means.
Taking away the context awareness
simply means knowledge or perception of a situation or fact. That is
why I always capitalize the word when I use it in the context of our
natural Awareness. This natural Awareness is a vitally important
concept in the philosophy of my classes but, as noted before, pretty
hard to describe in words. So how can I teach something that is so
hard to describe?
Those of you that have taken a class
with me will know that I do not actually have to teach Awareness. We
all have Natural Awareness but we do not all use it to the same
extend. What I do teach are ways to have you experience Awareness.
You will gradually understand what it is and be able to train it
without ever needing to find words to describe it.
This would be quite an unsatisfactory
article if I did not at least try to give an idea of what Awareness
is. I know that I will fail at it in one way but also that, because
you all have Natural Awareness, I may succeed in activating it just
enough to get you to form your own idea about it.
Imagine a new born baby and how it
perceives the world. Literally everything it perceives is new. The
world to the baby is just a blur of colors, light, sounds, smells,
tastes and tactile impressions. Over time we start to categorize all
things we perceive. In particular we start to separate all other
things from ourselves. The ego self is developing. We start to
connect things we perceive with thoughts and those thoughts will
eventually become beliefs. When we have enough beliefs we are no
longer perceiving entities but judging ones.
Almost all of our beliefs are based in
fear. The fear of death, the demise of the ego self, is the most
powerful driving force in our lives. Yet, at the same time, we
intuitively know that the self is not separate from all other things.
That in fact we are all one and the same. We have the ability to feel
what an other person feels and because of that we will even give up
our own life to save a loved one. The ultimate sacrifice. So strong
is our connection. We have empathy. We have love. We also have empathy for our pets
but here we are beginning to falter. It is unusual for a person to
have empathy for a tree or a rock. What is the difference? Where
does the connection break up? In our beliefs!
In our lives we form beliefs that serve
and further us. In our current culture, connectedness with trees,
animals and rocks does not serve the ego self. These beliefs make us
judgmental too. A “tree hugger” is not often a term of
endearment. It has distinctly negative connotations. The term
contains a judgment based in beliefs that are often forced upon a
person by society and its norms. It does not serve the person at all
to ignore them.
It seems we are torn between two
forces. One is the need for the ego self to act and react in a way
that serves it the most. The other is our deeply felt connection with
everything around us and a universal love. The latter has resulted in spirituality and
religion. Again the ego self managed to separate something!
With the above in mind I can try to
give some idea of what Awareness is. Awareness comes with questioning
your beliefs and finding (tracking!) the source of the thoughts that
created them. Many of them are sourced from the sub conscious
(intuition!). Awareness comes with changing back from judging to
perceiving. Perceiving the whole of reality without separation or
judgment. Awareness comes with embracing empathy, intuition,
creativity and harmony. We can all do this! We needed to do it to
survive in the wild. We still need to do this but we have forgotten
how to and, instead, let our ego selves run the show. Because of that
we are missing out on an awful lot of life.
Oh, so what is tracking then? Tracking
is being mindful of relevant things in your Awareness!
If anything, it seems that the answers
can be found only in eternal questioning. That is why I am a tracker!
Peter Friebel
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