Being present fully. Who is? Zen masters who have done years of training in meditation and deliberate consciousness? Athletes and performers who have done years of practise, endless hours of rehearsal and perhaps hundreds of hours on stage or before a camera?
In one of her fascinating mystery novels, Patricia Cornwell’s lead character Kay Scarpetta reflects on the consciousness of a murderer. A consciousness that works the environment – notices every person around himself, the awareness levels of the individuals he is studying – who could help him, who could hinder him, in his quest for the next kill, or his quest in manipulating and using anyone to forward his goals. Scarpetta muses how unaware most folks are in comparison. How we don’t notice people around us, or the details of the setting we’re in. How much more present a serial murderer is, than us plain folks.
That’s scary, huh? Do any of us enter a public place or a workplace on the leading edge of awareness – scouting for someone to exchange a positive communication with, someone to help, or ask for help? Do we scan the crowd for persons of peaceful or cheerful demeanors with which to resonate, enjoy, and move on? Do we notice? Are we ever fully open to the scenario we are in, drinking in every tiny vibe of “Yes!” from the movements, mannersims, expressions of individuals in our immediate landscape, be it the mall, the bus stop, the parking lot, the office tower lobby?
So do we have to be a murderous predator to even contemplate that degree of awareness?
It strikes me that the opposite – serenity – might be an equivalent presence. I’ve experienced serenity after meditating, after exercising, after performing especially. There were moments of a real high, of extended perceptions, a sense of seeing every face in an audience. Also a sense of hearing every individual in an audience breathing individually from the stage. (No, I was not on some chemical or herb.) An open, receptive consciousness, taking in astounding detail.
Not so much extending perceptually out into the environment scouting for certain things, but BEING the whole area of perception, wrapping around it in a way. And therefore knowing what was there.
So my train of thought kept going with the idea that if we non-predatory individuals walked through life via a presence, our presence, opened and extended in this way, that we would notice more of a like consciousness anywhere we go. Or just look at. And we, being in this frame of mind, would be Being more.
In most busy, crowded, public places I tend to shut down. I know where I need to go, what I need to do, and then I want to get home, or to my next quieter place, or next commitment. So it’s like the goal is to NOT be there!
Now the thought hangs – what have I missed? Who have I missed? I will never know – but possibly now I will remember, once or twice a month, to wake up in my environment, really Be There and take it all in, look for what I think of as good in the environment, anything good. Not as in a delusion or fantasy – but with bold, sharp-edged awareness.