The power of awareness

 There is a Sufi story on the power of awareness. A king gave a golden begging bowl to a holy man to honor him, and a thief wanted to steal it from him. At night he was waiting for the holy man to fall asleep, but he already knew what the thief was up to and threw the bowl in the direction where the thief was hiding to prevent him from stealing it by simply giving it away. 

 

When the thief saw that he was so impressed that he went up to the holy man and ask him what powers he possess that it is so easy for him to part with the treasure. “Teach me your power”, the thief implored. The holy man told him that if he wanted to gain his powers, he should keep doing what he was doing, even if it meant to be stealing, but do be aware of what he was doing. 

 

Seven days later he saw the thief who was depressed. The thief told him that since he was conscious of his action, he just couldn’t rob anyone. For seven days he had not robbed a single item. The thief was obviously stuck and had a choice to make. Either to embark on a spiritual quest or return to his unconscious days. Once awareness is activated, he couldn’t do his old job.

 

That’s the power of awareness. There are some eternal eyes watching over us, with an equanimous mindset. Once we tune into this frequency, the ego’s automatism is gone. It’s still possible to jump on the ego’s bandwagon, but that’s an active choice now. Try it for a few days. Observe everything from this view, without judging and agenda. Go and observe this for yourself.