How We Create Our Reality 

Pure awareness is perception without our interpretation or judgment. It means being present in the here and now, fully attentive, unadulterated, and clear. 

Imagine you are sitting in nature. All around you, it is green and bright. You might be sitting in the grass; it is pleasantly warm, and all you can hear are the sounds of nature—birds chirping, the wind rustling through the leaves, your own breathing.

A few clouds appear in the sky. In awareness, you perceive the clouds. Nothing else.

However, the more conscious we become in this moment, the more we interpret our sensory perceptions. In Buddhist psychology, our mind is also counted among the senses. It perceives thoughts, feelings, and intuitions, just as the eye perceives the visible and the ears perceive the audible.

So there is eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness, and mind consciousness. They all create the personal experience of the moment. A state of mind arises.

According to Buddhist psychology, how we experience life depends on the state of our mind!

Wholesome and Unwholesome States of Mind 

Wholesome states of mind are rooted in love, generosity, and mindfulness. From these arise clarity, serenity, insight, joy, adaptability, trust, prudence, and balance.

Unwholesome states of mind are rooted in attachment, aversion, and delusion. These, in turn, give rise to: envy, stubbornness, fear, doubt, shamelessness, greed, hatred, and distorted perception (delusion).

If we recognize the mental states that fill our consciousness, we can transform unwholesome ones into wholesome ones. To do this, we must slow down as much as possible to discern the individual colors that make up our picture. A moment of consciousness is thus like a painting composed of individual colors—the interpretations of our sensory perceptions. The colors of our sensory consciousness create our reality! 

Back to the clouds. We might think it could rain. Yet that wasn’t even in the forecast. We can probably forget about the walk afterward. It was obvious that things wouldn’t work out the way we’d hoped again…

Each moment is colored by our thoughts, emotions, and expectations. Whether we’re listening to music, looking out the window, visiting a friend, washing the dishes, lying on the beach on vacation, or sitting in a meadow surrounded by nature.

To put an end to the never-ending stream of thoughts, we must learn to take a step back with mindfulness. We learn to nurture what brings us joy and let go of what weighs us down.

Imagine you’re about to leave the house and you realize your keys aren’t where they usually are. What do you do?

You could now start cursing, yanking open every drawer, turning everything upside down, asking yourself why this always has to happen to you of all people, blaming your partner/child/dog/the universe for it, and then finally arrive at work frustrated, with or without the key, where you then take the opportunity to inform your colleagues about your bad start to the day. 

Or: What most of us do automatically and quite naturally is take a step back. Where did we last see the key? We search our minds mindfully for that moment when something was different from usual, and we therefore behaved differently, and consequently put the key somewhere else. 

Exercise:

Try to observe the interplay of these sensory perceptions right now. Shift your attention away from this text. Look up, and notice how the content of what you’ve read is being displaced by the sight of the things in front of you. 

Return to the text. Now direct your attention to your body. Is your breath flowing freely and easily? Are you breathing into your belly, or is your breathing shallow? 

Notice how the content of this text recedes into the background of your consciousness as you observe your body.

Exercise:

Choose a day when you find it difficult to feel joy. Slow down. Observe yourself as you perceive each moment. Notice how states of mind arise and how long they last. What thoughts, feelings, and expectations contribute to this? Take notes.

Next, choose a good day. One when it’s easy for you to feel your zest for life. Observe yourself here as well. Again, note the emergence of mental states. What thoughts, feelings, and expectations arise? How do you experience each moment?