404. Awareness In Every Moment

Awareness is a continuous achievement. To see clearly is not just to notice something once, but to continuously notice it over and over again. Awareness is never merely knowledge filed away somewhere in the back of my mind. Being aware means allowing for need to be actively seen in every moment of experience.

I might know that the root of suffering is found in attachment to intentions called desires, aversions, and beliefs. I might know that this suffering can be brought to an end through freedom from attachment. I might even know that compassionate action to meet needs will reduce suffering and create joy for myself and others. But merely knowing these things cannot help me achieve liberation from suffering or the creation of joy.

Liberation is possible only if I can see in every moment how attachment produces suffering in my actual experience of life. And even if I can see how attachment operates in my experience of this moment, I must also be able to see how it operates in every other moment. It is precisely when I fail to see that attachment can form again that I start to manipulate my attention and actions toward specific ends rather than leaving them free for creative and compassionate action.

I must continuously observe how attachment produces suffering in me and in others. I must continuously notice how needs go unmet because I am distracted by attachment. It is only when I am capable of seeing these things in every moment that I will regularly feel the necessity of compassion. And it is only by feeling this necessity that I will always act to meet needs, to eliminate suffering, and to create joy for myself and others.