The Holosync Solution TM

"The Dance of Awareness" by Bill Harris

My friend Ken Wilber likes to say, "Awareness, in and of itself, is

transformative." What does this mean, though? And what is
awareness?

I have found that most people don't really know what spiritual teachers
mean by "awareness", and this term is thrown around without any clear
definition. Awareness is more than just "knowing" something. You
might, for instance, know that from time to time you have certain
dysfunctional emotional reactions that keep you from being happy,
peaceful, and successful in the way you would like. This knowledge,
however, does not keep you from repeating these emotional reactions.

Biting into the strawberry of awareness...

In fact, most people involved in personal and spiritual growth have
read so many books, been to so many seminars, and have had so
many hours of therapy that they could write a Masters thesis about
their "stuff." However (as you probably know) this knowledge rarely
creates positive change, which many people find to be very frustrating.
Since this type of cognitive knowing is not transformative, it can't be
the awareness spiritual teachers talk about. In fact, you will not
recognize the type of spiritual awareness I'm talking about until you
have it, just as you couldn't know how a strawberry tastes until you
actually bite into one.

The awareness spiritual teachers talk about involves seeing how

everything goes together to create you, what happens to you, how you
behave, what you feel inside, everything else that is going on around
you, and how you affect the rest of the universe. It involves seeing all
the interrelationships that make up the universe and how they interact
in an infinitely complex matrix of cause and effect. When you can see
all of this with awareness, you see the consequences of each possible
action you might take, and in this way you'll know just what to do in
each moment to create what you want. You become like a chess
master who looks fifteen moves ahead, except you're playing multi-
dimensional chess.

The 4 stages of awareness

I have noticed some very interesting things about the development of
conscious awareness, including the realization that awareness comes
in several distinct stages. I'm going to describe the process by dividing
it into four stages.

In the first stage, a person creates their reality entirely unconsciously.

They do so by internally processing what comes in through their
senses in a way that creates how they feel (plus other internal states,
such as motivation), how they behave, and who and what they attract
into their life. Because in stage one this processing system--what I call
the Internal Map of Reality--operates unconsciously, outside a person's
conscious awareness, such a person is aware of what stimulates them
(what they see, hear, smell, taste, and touch) and they are aware of
the end result (what they ultimately feel inside and what people and
situations "happen" to them).

It isn't "out there"

This inability to see anything other than the initial stimuli and the end
result (but not the intervening internal processing) gives the illusion
that the stimuli "out there" create their internal states and feelings and
the various happening of life. When seen this way, it seems as if life
just "happens". One seems to have some influence over what
happens, but it is limited. Often, such people experience feelings and
situations that they do not prefer. In no way do they suspect that they
are creating their experience of life through what they do inside. Why
would they? What they do inside is invisible to them.

"Most people are running on autopilot..."

Such people are little more than automatic response mechanisms.
Their Internal Map of Reality is running on autopilot. If such a person
had kind and loving parents who nurtured them, provided positive
mentoring, and instilled resourceful beliefs, values, and ways of
dealing with life, they may have an Internal Map of Reality that allows
them to create a lot of what they want.

If, however, they had neglectful or even abusive parents who offered
little in the way of support and mentoring, and who caused them to
experience a lot of fear about life, their Internal Map of Reality may
create a lot of unpleasant and unwanted experiences, both internally
and externally. Of course, this is a spectrum. I have described the two
extremes, and there is a lot of room in the middle.

Though the results of these two extremes are quite different, these
people have one thing in common: their Internal Map of Reality is
running on autopilot. Such people are unaware of the creative part of
themselves, and as a result they are not directing their Internal Map of
Reality.

Waking up...
Some people, however, begin to wake up. Someone teaches them that
they are creating their reality, or they discover it on their own. They
discover that what they do with what comes in through their senses
powerfully creates every feeling, every internal state, and every
behavior, as well as who and what they attract and are attracted to.
They learn how their beliefs become reality. They learn that their mind
is a powerful goal-seeking mechanism that creates or attracts
whatever it is focused on. They learn that everyone has the ability to
create whatever they focus on, but that they have been doing all their
focusing unconsciously and unintentionally.

Those who are waking up in terms of their awareness also learn that
they cannot focus on something unless they value it. They also learn
that if they value something in order to avoid what they do not want (for
instance, if they value relationships because they don't want to be
alone, or value wealth because they don't want to be poor) they are
actually focusing on what they do not want. And, because the mind
creates whatever is focused on, the person who focuses on what they
do not want ends up getting it.

Furthermore a person becoming more aware learns that the mind

filters out most of what comes in through the senses. They learn that
what is filtered out determines what is left to focus on, providing the
raw material for what you create in reality. If you filter out the
possibilities, for instance, it seems as if there are none. If you filter out
all the kind people, you don't see any. And so on. How a person filters
what comes in through their senses has a huge effect on their life.

Above all, they learn that inside their head a very elegant creative
process is going on, moment by moment, and that with some work and
practice it is possible to consciously and intentionally direct this
process. There is, however, one important prerequisite: you must
develop the awareness to observe this Internal Map of Reality at work.
At Centerpointe, we use two tools to help you develop this awareness.
The first is Holosync. Holosync, by creating super-deep meditation,
rapidly develops increased conscious awareness. As this awareness
grows, you begin to see your own internal processes and how they
create your experience of life. As you see this, it becomes more and
more difficult to create outcomes you don't want.

The power to create anything you want

With several years of work you can master your Internal Map of
Reality. With this mastery comes the ability to be in charge of your
emotions and your other internal states, your behavior, and who and
what you attract into your life. Yes, there is some room for random acts
and events, but you find that your Internal Map of Reality, once
mastered, is so powerful that random events generally have but a
small affect.

This ability to see and direct your internal processes, and therefore to
create your life as you want it is really the same ability developed by
yogis. These abilities are referred to as siddhis, or powers, in mystical
literature. You develop what others see as a tremendous power to
manifest what you want, both internally and externally. You are
harnessing the creative power of the mind, a power that was always
there and already operating in every person. The only difference is that
now you are operating this power consciously and intentionally instead
of allowing it to run on automatic.

To some, these powers are the supreme attainment. However, this is

only the second of four stages. Some people, when they master the
ability to create what they want, have the realization that if I can create
reality this way or that way or any way I want, then it couldn't be THE
reality. If reality is that relative, that bendable, could it really be THE
reality?

Behind the curtain

This realization gives you a peek behind the curtain, so to speak. It
begins to dawn on you that there is a more fundamental background
reality out of which all mind-creative realities spring. This background
reality is a bit like the blank page that underlies the printed words you
read. It has no content, but without it there could be no written
message. Or, you could say, it is like the empty space necessary for
the existence of solid objects. It is the nothingness out of which
somethingness arises.

The Buddhists call this nothingness, this background, the Void. Some
people call it God, or the Undifferntiated Aesthetic Continuum, or the
Ground of Being. Whatever you call it, it is the reality underlying all the
conceptual realities created by the mind.

In fact, mystics have known for years that this background, this Void, is
the source of everything. In fact, it IS everything. And, what's more, it
is who you really are. You may create a conceptualization of who you
are, an mental identity, a persona, an ego, a Map of Reality, but who
you really are is this nothingness that underlies and connects
everything else. And, in fact, according to the mystics, this nothingness
is aware of itself, it is conscious. And, being conscious of itself being
everything, everywhere, forever, it is happy. It has nowhere to go,
nothing to fear, and nothing to get. As a result, it is happy, peaceful,
content, blissful.

The BIG question

When a mystic points out that you are this one infinite energy of all and
everything, you may be moved to remind them that you certainly aren't
experiencing it that way. Why, you ask, do I feel so bad so often if I am
this blissful and conscious energy out of which everything arises?

The answer is actually very simple. When you create a reality with your
mind (as all humans do), you obscure this background reality, just as
you miss the page when your attention is on the writing. But quiet the
mind, and remove your attention from the "reality" it creates, and this
more fundamental background reality--the "real" reality--appears. The
Hindus use to analogy of a mirror to explain this. The mirror, when
covered with dust, cannot reflect who you are. But when the dust (the
creations of the mind) is wiped away, the reflection comes of itself.

The first stage of awakening to who you really are, then, is one in
which your mind unconsciously and unintentionally creates your life,
depending on how your Internal Map of Reality was constructed. The
second stage is mastery of this mental creative process, which allows
you to intentionally create your life in any way you want. The third
stage is the realization of the Supreme Reality beyond the mind, the
source of all Love and Peace and Bliss.

The shift from stage one to stage two, and then to stage three,
requires increased conscious awareness. Some of this awareness
comes from meditation, hopefully with Holosync, which dramatically
accelerates the process. And, some of it comes from your desire to
look inside to watch carefully and discover how you create your reality,
to watch with curiosity to see how the mind creates the illusion of the
separate self.

This direct perception of reality without the filter of the mind is

variously called self realization, enlightenment, satori, moksha,
nirvana, Christ Consciousness, and by many other names. To some,
this is the supreme attainment. But there is one more stage.
Stepping out of the world of the mind
In the third stage, you have stepped out of the world of the mind. To
see the reality behind that created by the mind, you have to take your
attention off the things of the mind: the desires, the aversions, your
various roles and identities, and the ways the mind splits reality into
different bits, categories, events, and things. You discover that theses
distinctions happen only in the mind, but never in reality.

All such distinctions (handy as they might be) are arbitrary and
conceptual. Just as the number 3 cannot do anything, just as the
border between Oregon and California is nothing but an imaginary line,
just as you cannot hand me a basket of "up", concepts cannot do
anything. They are real only to the mind. When you leave them behind,
when you take your attention away from them, then and only then will
you see the underlying oneness of everything.

However, as long as desires, aversions, and the idea separate things

and events (including the idea of a separate you) attract the mind, you
will stay in the world created by the mind. Once you remove your
attention from such things, the underlying reality beyond all such things
is revealed.

As I said, there is a stage beyond this. In this fourth stage, you go back
into the world of the mind. This time, however, you do it knowing full
well that what the mind creates is an illusion, in much the same way
you know that a movie or a play is an illusion. Because illusions can be
fun, you step back into the game, but this time you know it's just a
game. For that reason you can enjoy your part, regardless of what it
is.

It's okay to play Hamlet, but you don't have to be Hamlet

If you are playing Hamlet, but you don't know it's just a play, it really is
a tragedy, because everyone dies in the end. But if you know you're
just playing Hamlet, you can have lots of fun no matter how the plot
unfolds. When the play ends, you will stop being Hamlet and go back
to who you really are, the actor. In the same way, in stage four you can
play your part, no matter what it is, because you know that behind it all
you are that one energy of everything, that background void, and that
ultimately you are beyond all beginnings and beyond all endings.

In Buddhist teaching, this is the stage of the Bodhisatva, the being

who, instead of dissolving back into the Void when he or she attains
enlightenment, stays to help other beings wake up to who they really
are. The Bodhisatva plays the cosmic game of the mind because he or
she knows that it really is just a game, and because he or she looks on
all those still caught in the game with compassion, nudging them in
various ways to wake up to who they really are.

Is there a reason for all of this? Some say there isn't, and perhaps
there doesn't need to be a reason. Reasons, after all, are part of the
world of the mind. A very famous enlightened teacher, Swami
Muktananda, once said: "Life is a meaningless energy going nowhere,
for no reason." This doesn't mean life isn't significant, but rather that
no reason is necessary. Life happens for the fun of it. It dances along,
going wherever it goes. When you dance, there is no goal other than
the dancing itself. No reason is necessary. I invite you to increase your
awareness of who you really are, and to join in the dance.

Be well.

Bill Harris, Director