Awareness Games: Playing with Your Mind to Create Joy

Take a breath or two, notice who is noticing that sensation, and then note your experience. Whatever your mind settles on—an external object, an internal sensation, a thought, a feeling, a memory, or so on—get clear on it. Then restate the experience in three forms: first,8 “I am aware of [state the content],” and then, after a pause, add “I am not

Notice your surroundings coming in through your senses, your thoughts passing through your mind, and any emotions that arise in your heart creating feelings of comfort or discomfort within. These three inner experiences are the arena in which your consciousness plays the game of life on planet Earth.

Here is another way of finding inner space: Become conscious of being conscious. Say or think “I Am” and add nothing to it. Be aware of the stillness that follows the I Am. Sense your presence, the naked, unveiled, unclothed beingness.

When I first began to practice this sort of shinay technique, I discovered that when I tried to avoid a particular sensation, it increased. But when I learned to just look at it, whatever discomfort I felt became more tolerable. Being a curious child, of course, I had to know why this shift occurred. Only after watching the process for a while did