Awareness Is Freedom: The Adventure of Psychology and Spirituality

Ivtzan

Introduction

In this book, theoretical knowledge and practical exercises are combined in a way that inspires self-growth, and enhances awareness. As your awareness expands, you will develop the ability, and find the inner-space and the time to stop automatic conditioned reactions. Once you engage in this process and devote yourself to it, you will discover that your life has completely changed, and you have become more alert, sensitive, caring, alive, and connected to your own self and to others. The teachings put forward in this book are pyramid shaped, to assist you in achieving this deep transformation. The first couple of lessons lay the foundations for the journey to come. With each additional lesson we move closer to the pinnacle of this spiritual journey: freedom. The book is structured as a coherent journey that begins with recognising the illusion and the shackles that hold you down. It then guides you gradually and teaches you how to let go, abandon the illusion and release the shackles. It is recommended that you read the lessons by their order of appearance, as each lesson introduces ideas that fundamentally enhance the understanding of the following ones.

Lesson 1 introduces and explains the meeting point between psychology and spirituality, and the important role they both play in our journey towards freedom. It also discusses the ego and its influence. The exercises you will be asked to perform will show you how to recognise the concepts instilled in your ego, and the way these concepts interfere with your everyday life.

Lesson 2 introduces the practical skill that leads to liberation: meditation. We discuss the meaning of meditation, its effects, and its relevance for the spiritual journey. The practical exercises will assist you in exploring the mind’s tendency to fluctuate, and will teach you an important meditation technique.

Lesson 3 focuses on your thinking experience. We discuss the difficulty arising from obsessive thinking, the difference between aware and unaware thinking, and ways to nurture one’s aware thinking. In this lesson we also begin to understand the meaning of non-reactive attention and its power to break existing patterns. The practical exercises encourage you to develop new relations with your thinking process, and foster awareness so as to detach yourself from your thoughts.

Lesson 4 discusses the idea of Ego Formed Self and the way you adhere to it. It explains why it is an illusion, and how it creates a gap between your awareness and your life. Focus is placed on an alternative experience, that of an Authentic Self, and the issue of enlightenment is explored. The practical exercises proposed in this lesson aim to develop your awareness, deepen your practice of meditation, and reveal unknown depths of your reality.

Lesson 5 describes the neutral aspect of life, and shows that every moment is an open space distorted by personal perceptions that are injected into it. In this lesson, the practical exercises invite you to recognise situations where your mind distorts neutral moments, and acknowledge the resulting emotional effect.

Lesson 6 deals with the spiritual concept of presence and discusses a variety of meditation techniques that invite presence. By getting acquainted with different meditation techniques, you will be able to determine which of them is best suited to you. The practical exercises introduce you to eight meditation techniques; you will be asked to choose one of them and practice it over the week.

In lesson 7, the issue of impermanence is introduced. Understanding impermanence is essential as it helps you realise how futile attachment is. This lesson also explains the difference between dependent and independent emotions, and the effect each type has on your personal journey. The practical exercises will uncover your outlook on change, to allow for a more accepting attitude towards the inevitable changes in your life.

Lesson 8 explains the connection between your thoughts and emotions, and the way they revitalise each other. A link is then shown to exist between emotions and bodily sensations. This understanding extends the ability to attain meditative awareness, and provides an important tool for growth. The practical exercises bring these concepts together by means of a new meditation technique. They create an experiential link between the events in your life and the thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations that accompany them.

As already mentioned, in each lesson you will be asked to perform exercises that are connected with the discussed topic. These exercises are tremendously important; students who have practiced them affirmed that they had a powerful impact on their spiritual journey and their life. We have to bear in mind that this journey for change and awareness requires much attention and dedication, and should combine equal shares of theory and practice. Practice must be based on knowledge. If the background, purpose, and value of an exercise are not clear, the exercise would be hard to perform with dedication. On the other hand, acquiring theoretical knowledge without applying it in practice would not bring about the desired transformation. Discussing a subject is an important starting point but it would come to nothing if it is not experienced in practice. Transformation will not occur by talking about change, but by actually making a change. The exercises are designed to create a personal experience that will sharpen your awareness and further your acknowledgment of your authentic self. You may read about the most profound theories and ideas, but they remain foreign and do not belong to you until you have actually applied them in your own life. Practice paves the way for you to own the ideas described in this book. It connects you to your ego concepts, improves your meditation technique, and develops your awareness and self-growth, to generate change. Read the ideas, contemplate their meaning, and experience the exercises – this is the triangle offered in this book to achieve the desired transformation.

The exercises are divided into Here and now exercises and weekly exercises. The first are on-the-spot experiments you can try while you are reading. They are intended to instantly illustrate the idea being discussed. Weekly exercises are assignments derived from the topic dealt with in the lesson. They go deeper and may take about ten minutes every day for a week to complete. Make sure to dedicate sufficient time and space to each weekly exercise, to be able to fully experience it and experiment with it. As you read this book, I invite you to change the exercises, dismiss certain ideas, and develop others. This is never a one-size-fit-all experience – reshape it to fit your own path.

In addition to the exercises, each lesson illustrates a psychological measurement tool (scale or questionnaire) that enables you to test your own levels of a concept related to the topic discussed. For example, in lesson 6, which deals with the art of presence and meditation techniques, it is suggested you complete a mindfulness questionnaire, which measures the level of your mindfulness in everyday life. All the scales and questionnaires selected for this book are psychometric evaluations that have been fully tested and validated in a variety of psychological studies. It should be kept in mind that these are merely quantitative measurements, which might not match your personal experiences in full. And yet, by contemplating your scores and their meaning in relation to your own experiences, you will find it easier to make the discussion of a certain concept a personal one.

While you read the book, you may wish to keep a journal and note down the personal insights you gain through reading and practice. If you come across an idea or an advice that seems relevant and important, write a few words about it in your journal. When you are through reading the book, you will have a documented illustration of your own journey. This will make it easier to make sense of your personal conclusions and your growth process.

Lesson 1: Psychology & Spirituality

Psychology

We begin with a simple definition of psychology and spirituality that will later serve as a point of reference in the discussion of these terms. The word psychology comes from Greek: psyche is the word for mind or soul, and logos means study. In other words, psychology is the study of the mind or the soul. Significantly, in the West psychology is only referred to as the study of the mind, whereas the soul part is completely ignored. Although psychology could have been the discipline that brought together the mind and the soul, the purely analytical approach adopted in the West was unable to accommodate the soul. Students reading psychology at the university often tell me that they are disappointed with their program. Many of them enrolled because they genuinely desired to better understand themselves and others, and to enhance their self-awareness and self-growth. To their disappointment, they find themselves spending long hours studying statistics and other aspects of psychology that appear to be less relevant to self-discovery. This gap between their original expectations and reality frequently causes frustration. I believe that all aspects of psychology are valuable, and that without statistics it would not be possible to conduct high-quality research; yet I am also convinced that failing to include the spiritual aspect of psychology in the curricula has put the psychology boat on a course that runs close to the essential questions of life but does not really touch upon them.

Psychology as we know it deals with the mind: the way we think, consciously form concepts, understand the world around us and make sense of it.

Spirituality

Defining spirituality is significantly harder and less clear cut, primarily because there are different approaches to spiritually, each generating a different definition. Sociologists, for example, are mostly interested in the impact of spirituality on social institutions, philosophers tend to focus on the philosophical implications of spirituality, and theologians are likely to ponder over the part of spirituality in the religious experience. In the present book, spirituality is regarded as a practical tool to achieve self-growth, because it paves the way for transcendence. It helps transcend the analytical functioning and cognitive processing of the mind, and makes room for other experiences. It might be easier to contemplate the spiritual experience from a psychological point of view: Psychology differentiates between cognition and meta-cognition. Cognition deals with one’s thinking processes while meta-cognition is defined as thinking about thinking. Imagine focusing your attention on an apple. You are using your cognitive faculties to become aware of the colours and aroma of the apple, but the experience rarely ends there: your meta-cognition immediately enters into action, and your mind generates thoughts in reaction to whatever is at the centre of your cognition at that moment (in this case the apple). Your meta-cognition may produce reactions such as wow, what a beautiful apple, I should have bought more or I hope it has no worms in it. Spirituality points the way to transcending meta-cognition, that is, staying conscious of the apple but avoiding a parade of thoughts and reactions to it. This implies a capability to fully immerse one’s awareness in the moment.

Spirituality is an invitation for a journey of transcendence that will transform your present illusionary self, the Ego Formed Self, into your Authentic Self. The discipline of spirituality regards what you perceive as your ‘self’ as an illusion that is an obstacle on your path to freedom. In lesson 4 we discuss the concept of self, understand the difference between the Ego Formed Self and the Authentic Self, and perform exercises that will lead you from one to the other.

In the West, an interesting shift is noticed in the way spirituality is perceived. The number of people who realise that their lives are incomplete has been growing. People understand that they have been evading certain aspects offered by life due to apprehension and discomfort. A growing feeling of oppression drives them to seek an alternative, a way to deal with these difficulties, break the boundaries and experience freedom. This is where spirituality comes in. Once they are willing to face meaningful questions, spirituality clears the way for growth. It enables them to transcend the limitations they perceive, with emphasis on perceive. In many cases, the restrictions that exist in life stem from individual perspectives, and from people’s concepts about their limits. Spirituality invites you to transcend your boundaries, and experience life with clarity and greater choice.

Spirituality has become increasingly popular because it is so relevant to our time. Look no further than the mushrooming of spiritual courses and retreats, nourished by frustration and difficulty. But the proliferation of spiritual books and courses does not necessarily guarantee quality. Many of the teachings on offer have very little to do with the spiritual essence of growth, and are merely by-products of the New Age trend. Concepts such as let go, live in the present, just be are tossed around, but their meaning remains obscure. Many individuals have been visiting spiritual workshops and retreats time and again for years, but have not succeeded in truly evolving and changing. To distinguish between an empty spiritual discussion and a meaningful one, look for their outcomes, find out whether or not change was achieved. An authentic spiritual process that touches upon essential questions about the true nature of one’s consciousness is bound to produce change. Your life, your experiences, your attitude, and your understanding of your self will all change. That is your indicator as to the fact that you are engaging with genuine work that is relevant and meaningful for you. It is also crucial to emphasise the words for you in this context. A spiritual journey is personal; transcendence and growth are therefore achieved using subjective tools. A certain book, teacher, or workshop might be highly relevant and meaningful for one person but useless for another. Learning to recognise the tools that are relevant and meaningful for you is an important aspect of the spiritual journey.

As already mentioned psychology and spirituality must combine to bring about growth. Growing means daring to go beyond your personal boundaries. We all conduct our lives according to our personal definition of self, which carries with it a series of boundaries and limitations. Growth means pushing the boundaries to expand one’s inner space. In practice, this implies that certain options, which were previously out of bounds, are now permitted and available. You have pushed your boundary, you have grown, and therefore you have the choice to say yes to certain things that used to be an automatic no in the past. This process frequently provokes two conflicting emotions: excitement and apprehension. While the adventurous prospect of going beyond your own boundaries and exploring new territories is exciting, it also provokes apprehension and anxiety. New experiences touch on the unknown, and most of us are intimidated by the unknown.

Religion vs. spirituality

The concepts of religion and spirituality are often confused, and must be clarified and told apart. Historically, the rise of secularism in the mid-1900s necessitated making a distinction between spirituality and religion. Earlier, a religious person was automatically regarded as spiritual, and vice versa. Secularism advocated disengagement from religion, and yet individuals maintained their inner spirituality, ascribing new and distinct connotations to it. Although religion and spirituality both search for that meaningful and