Radical Grace
January – March 2007

Awareness and Presence

by The Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault

In her book, Wisdom Distilled from the Daily, Joan Chittister tells the following story in her chapter on “Monastic Mindfulness:”

  One day a traveler begged the Teacher for a word of wisdom that would guide the rest of the journey.
  The Teacher nodded affably and though it was the day of silence took a sheet of paper and wrote on it a single word, “Awareness.”
  “Awareness” the traveler said, perplexed, “That’s far too brief. Couldn’t you expand on that a bit?”
  So the Teacher took the paper back and wrote: “Awareness, awareness, awareness.”
  “But what do these words mean?” the traveler insisted.
  Finally the Teacher reached for the paper and wrote, clearly and firmly, “Awareness, awareness, awareness…means Awareness!” (p. 68)

In this classic wisdom parable, Chittister certainly makes her point about awareness being the foundation of the spiritual life. But she also reveals the inherent circularity of trying to get a handle on what it is…or how to grow it.

To our usual way of looking at things, awareness is an attitude, and we equate “building awareness” with the process of widening our understanding of and sensitivity to an issue. Building environmental awareness would mean paying more attention to how our wasteful lifestyle choices—for example, gas-guzzling SUVs, disposable packaging, consumerism—affect the quality of the entire ecosystem. And all this is good and necessary effort. Much of the work of a wonderful organization like the Center for Action and Contemplation (and its publication, Radical Grace) is to focus awareness over and over again on the lives of those marginalized in our society, to issues of injustice swept under the rug. This was the sense, too, in which Chittister developed the topic in her book. As she forcefully observes, “Awareness of the sacred in life is what holds our world together and lack of awareness and sacred care is what is tearing it apart.” (p. 69)

So perhaps I’m being curmudgeonly when I maintain that, from the point of view of Wisdom, attitudinal awareness, even in service of the most worthy of causes, is not awareness. It’s too mental. And mental awareness will always, inevitably, “morph” into judgment, selfrighteousness, and burnout. Awareness in the true spiritual sense is not an attitude and it cannot be carried in the mind.

Adapted from Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault’s book The Wisdom Way of Knowing (JosseyBass, 2003).

The Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault, an Episcopal priest, is the principal teacher and advisor to the Contemplative Society. Rev. Bourgeault’s books include Mystical Hope, The Wisdom Way of Knowing, and Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening.

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