Yesterday I was in a downtown department store, and as I watched the movement of people within it, each bent on his or her own particular agenda, I recalled an exercise that I had followed in the past in regards to understanding Unity awareness.

I introduced the intention to see all movement as happening in one “substance.” (All movement is seen as Citi.) In this way I was aware of the eternal and the transitory simultaneously.

We can live, move, and breathe in this world while remaining aware that all are One. This is also “entering the Void with the eyes open”– the theme of Assignment 2.

I am coming to the understanding that in Assignment 3 I am to be a living, moving component in the ever-changing world while at the same time having a singular focus. Whatever art I produce must be part of the dance. Oh boy! I didn’t expect this. I prefer to be a sidelines observer in life, the one taking the photos of everyone else in motion.

Oh! But I also understand that being a “mover” is just the flip side of being the observer. What changes everything is being the Witness– whether observing from the sidelines or moving in the crowd,  the challenge is to be Conscious.

Whatever action I am taking– whether moving a pencil or brush, or looking through a lens, I must be aware of myself taking that action. I must perceive myself as part of the moving, breathing whole.

There is a video online of an artist working in a tea house. He takes his brush, dips it in the tea, makes shapes on the paper. He then takes his pen and draws within the wet tea shapes with it. He appears to be Present, perhaps inspired by the Japanese tea ceremony. I can view this again as an inspiration.

Move with awareness.  –Gurumayi Chidvilasananda