773rd Week: “I Am Loving Awareness” – Ram Dass

With the recent passing of Ram Dass, I am even more aware of something I read in his most recent book, “Walking Each Other Home”. A practice he took on and used every day touched me when I read the book, and I have taken it up as a regular practice of mine. I would like to share it with you. At the moment, I can’t remember if he used this mantra in conjunction with his breathing, but he constantly repeated the words “I am loving awareness.” I mentally say it to myself on the out-breath.

What touches me powerfully about this statement is how it automatically orients me to my heart awareness, which is something that our world desperately needs at this time. I’ve mentioned many times that we affect our environment all the time, whether we intend to or not. As you move through your daily activities, where you place your attention impacts both your internal quality of life and the quality of our collective human consciousness. You cannot not radiate into our human collective the quality of your inner life.

For this week’s practice in conscious living, I invite you to notice what happens if you mentally repeat “I am loving awareness” a number of times as you engage your daily activities. I’ve no doubt mentioned before that many years ago, when I was part of a metaphysical school, we were taught to remember ourselves as Spirit four times a day: in the morning, at Noon, at dusk, and at bedtime. What I learned then was that having to do this four times a day developed a habit of more easily remembering the focus of the practice. The repetition can be applied to anything and doing it four times a day increases the probability that whatever you focus on with this kind of regularity will more likely be remembered.

As part of this week’s practice, also notice what happens in your body and in the quality of your awareness when you orient to your heart awareness and perception, which—as   I’ve also written many times before—has a different quality of understanding and interpretation of what we encounter and experience along the way. Notice your physical sensations, the quality of your emotional experience, the tone of your thoughts, and your overall quality of experience as you practice with “I am loving awareness.” 

As with all these practices, there’s not just one way to do. Instead, there’s an opportunity to see what works for you. It also represents an opportunity to add more heart-centered awareness to our human collective, to help support healing in all of us. Also please remember to bring along curiosity as your constant companion and to pat gently on the head any judgments that may arise, allowing them to simply move on through.