Mindfully Conscious

Everyone who is alive is at least semi conscious; this is basically true for all beings. Where humans differ from other species is in the ability to be truly mindful of being conscious…

A friend shared a story about a dog he has as a pet. It seemed the dog actually liked this person. He would hold the dog and it would fall asleep in his arms. It would lick his hand and take food from it. One day as the dog was eating out of a bowl, this person took the food away before the dog was finished. The dog bit and scratched his hand, so much for liking the individual. The dog knew his food was being taken away, but it ended there. There was no mindfulness of who was actually taking the food, his food was being taken away and the dog didn’t like it. This is how a lot of humans react to situations, they like people as long as they don’t take away what they like.

To go beyond this mindset there must be awareness of it. This is where we as humans differ. Other species don’t have this ability to be truly mindful. If you look around it would seem most humans don’t have this ability either. What will have to transpire at some point in your life for this to change is truly being conscious of being mindful; noticing what arises when what is liked is taken away or just naturally changes. This is key if one isn’t going to be drawn into labeling what’s changing. Suffering comes from not being mindfully conscious of being controlled by what’s liked. When there’s mindfulness of what arises, one can be conscious and mindful of it, but not attach to it thus one is free. What you like will still be taken away at times, but hopefully you won’t bite or scratch when this happens…