awareness

Awareness is that precious resource that allows you to be alert to the world-at-large, to be conscious and free. The unaware human perhaps has 1/20th or less the cognitive processing as the enlightened master.

Your brain forms the adaptive immune system of your body. If you have racing thoughts, unresolved questions, you need to resolve them otherwise your health and awareness will suffer. You will "catch a cold", for example. If you have a clouded mind, you have already let too much infect you. You need to leave your situation and go meditate in the woods.

Meditation is one of the more powerful methods, but simple cognitive attention should be sufficient in most cases. The PhD, for example, usually has her or his mind in order so that it can sort out every cognitive-perceptual input that comes their way. (When they don't, they should be let go -- they have not been the "doctor" of their own philosophical ecosystem.)

Meditation in Nature is perhaps the best environment to clear cognitive debris. The natural landscape provides sounds that are in harmony with your mind`s multi-millenial history and won't grate against it. If it does, stand and take it in for a moment until your body recognizes it, otherwise the problem is your ego.

Simply sit on a nice bed of grass or dry leaves and breathe, calmly and deeply. A sunny day by a brook or forest with a breeze is ideal. You can close you eyes or keep them open. Sit in special ways or not. When you really need to decompress, take off your shoes and socks and lay down on the Earth. It has a large capacity to ground you.

Once you've cleared you mind, you may need to rebuild it. What are the biggest questions that will help you? Who are you? Where did you come from? Where are you going with your one life? What's important? Children, animals, trees, the Divine, and values like Truth, Beauty, Justice, and Love. These should be important. Everything else should build on this strong foundation.

I'll make it easy for you: you didn't come from any primate and we started with perfection so we can return things to perfection. Don't waste time and don't avoid it either (like that uncomfortable relationship you have?). If you want things to turn out parsimonious however, you should follow the path of enlightenment.

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One of the paths for disciples.