We’ve already begun to address awareness. And really, this is probably the most direct component of the GATE that deals with existential concerns in the conscious mind. Your simple (and I stress ‘simple’) awareness of the questions and confusion is a significant step in the right direction. Use your genuine awareness to pay attention to your entire experience of your questioning. . .do you have any physical manifestations? How do you feel when thinking in certain ways; what about when you don’t think, and instead just sit with whatever sounds occur?

You may notice some patterns about which physical pains go with certain types of anxiety. And likewise, mindfulness of the source of anxiety may help to relieve it by acknowledging it, then behaving differently. Just this kind of ‘mindfulness’ begins to lead you in new directions where you can make new choices that lead to new situations that feel more balanced and healthy.

Using genuine awareness to change your experience of life and death is a process of change . . . you very well may have flashes of understanding, and those flashes will become more and more clear, longer lasting, and more common. As long as you strive to maintain a genuine awareness of your questions, instincts, limits, etc. you will likely find that your progress looks like the stock market—there will be ups, downs, peaks and valleys, but overall, a definite progression for the better.

I would like to offer a note of reassurance and encouragement here, as many people feel intimidated by genuine awareness: As you begin to look deeply into yourself via meditation and mindfulness, you may find that to the degree that you are not accustomed to facing your reality without disguising it (i.e.. without the egoic mind), you will find that life may seem to feel more intense and possibly more fearful (some will not experience it like this at all—please feel free to share your experience by posting a reply). This seeming amplification of the discomfort is a normal experience, though it may not feel so good, yet. Be honest about what you are experiencing, but letting go of judging the experience a ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ Once you face fear without judgment, you are able to use it to help guide you towards truth. Remember, all of the fears that you begin to notice have been there all along, just hidden in the unconscious mind where they can wreak havoc on your conscious experience. In order to use fear to your advantage in finding peacefulness, you must first find it, embrace it as an ally, then let go of the judgment of the experience. Like all other emotions, fear is only there to guide you, not paralyze you.