The lack of attention and discipline is one important factor that keeps me (and countless others) from awakening. Especially when the weather is fine, i am easily distracted from my work of reading, writing, exercising, preparing lessons, tidying up, and other daily chores. I feel like going outside to enjoy the sunshine, white clouds, and cool breeze. Even if it's gloomy, i tend to be diverted. Instead of focussing on the task at hand, i look outside, daydream, get up, get something to eat, surf on the net, and so on. However, the path to awakening apparently requires you to do whatever you do totally, like a machine; eg. when you read you read and shut out all sense perceptions and thoughts beyond the actual decoding of the text and the immediate associations it provokes. (But would a machine have associations? And how do we manage them so that they don't lead too far, away from the activity?) It's a constant struggle. But that's not an excuse for avoiding the effort, for as my dear wife puts it, 'To raise awareness is the job of the aware who on his side has to focus on "being the change" in his own life'. And it's important to go about your task with determination, not half-heartedly. 'Try not. Do, do. Or do not. There is no try', says Yoda to Luke, who is supposed to lift his X-Wing out of the swamp. Obviously, trying includes the expectation of failure. It means that from the outset you don't invest yourself fully, that you doubt you can achieve something. And that in itself reduces the probability of you attracting the cosmic energies needed for the achievement. (Paulo Coelho describes this beautifully somewhere in The Alchimist.)

(Illustration: 'Living Consciously' by Diana Calvario)

Awakening includes self-realization. Become your true self. Discover and grow completely into the uniqueness you represent, the one form risen from formlessness that has never been before and will never be again. For that to happen, you must focus your energies on unfolding  the leaves of your soul, like the tree sprouting out of its seed and striving towards the light, never minding what others are doing, never trying to imitate or criticize its neighbours, never craving what's outside except when it serves to create what's inside.

But how? Am i supposed to achieve this on my own? I'm not a tree, after all. I'm a conscious being with a neocortex, drawn to all possible temptations, constantly lured by artifacts, constantly threatened by addiction! How can i resist the urge to purchase and consume things i don't really need? Why do i support an economy based on the superfluous? Are not my consumer decisions the most powerful tool for helping evolve both myself and society as a whole? And can i free myself from this materialism while living among its worshippers?
I suppose i must meditate, give more instead of taking, live in the present moment, enjoy what i have, and create more myself.

(picture by Daroy Lin)