Reflections on Awakening, part 1

After reading Eckart Tolle's A New Earth, and since i'm about to embark on an educational adventure in September (the creation of a pioneering primary school), i shall henceforth and  by means of this blog devote one paragraph per day to reflections on how to best promote presence and awareness in myself, my pupils, and my colleagues. I hope that i shall be able to muster the discipline needed for this exercise ... . :-)

The very first thing that comes to my mind when i think of awakening is my own lack of presence. Since my early childhood i have been a thinking person, imaginative, it is true, but also possessed by my mind, ruminating, wondering, hesitating, judging, ... All his life has he looked away ... to the horizon, to the sky, to the future. Never his mind on where he was, on what he was doing. (Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back). Nowadays my awareness is constantly clouded by thoughts of ecological breakdown, and i'm making myself unhappy with negative energy flowing from the destructive deeds of fellow humans which i seem to seek out from among all the information i receive.
So the first challenge to deal with before even considering teaching others is to develop my own daily routine of exercising presence and non-judgment.

(Illustration: Eternal Struggle by Daroy Lin)