For me, this poem beautifully points to the expanded realm of consciousness that is made available to us as we enter into collective, or mutual awakening. Doing this simple, eyes open meditation practice with another person reliably takes us beyond the “barbed-wired entanglement” or separation, that we currently live in, into a shared reality that is truly “…a marvelous rich world of contact and sheer fluid beauty,” one where we know we are intimately connected.
Activating Mirror Neurons Through the Mutual Awakening Practice
Some people describe God as consciousness, or as high vibrational energy, and even as the “plane of possibility” (Daniel Siegel). However, the truth is that we humans don’t, or perhaps can’t, fall in love with concepts or abstractions. Through Jesus, Christians claim, God became a person “that we could hear, see with our eyes, look at, and touch with our hands” (1 John 1:1). In the Mutual Awakening Practice, we learn to engage with each and every person that way.
The Mutual Awakening Practice is done with another person, with eye contact, while speaking. The practice sweeps us into an intersubjective state where love is what is exchanged. Richard Rohr, a Franciscan Priest, says, “Jesus taught us what God is like through his words, his actions, his very being, making it clear that “God is love” (1 John 4:8,16).” With Mutual Awakening, we ignite that love between us such that we are inside of God/Love together.
A Breath Practice for the New Paradigm
After we learn the Mutual Awakening Practice and are able to enter into Shared-Unity, we can begin to bring Mutual Awakening into our daily lives more actively. For example, when we are consciously engaged in the activities of our daily lives from within the Shared-Unity — with our eyes open, our bodies moving, speaking or silent — our breathing is one way in which we naturally inhale and exhale Love. Breathing is a dynamic exchange of Love that continually nourishes our Shared-Reality.
As we breathe in (receive) Love fully and exhale (give) Love fully, we create an atmosphere in which we can all thrive. We wake up to the fact that we are always in, and contributing to, the endless slip-stream of Love. Cultivating our ability to exist inside this field of mutuality while we are engaged in the activities of our lives — thinking, eating, remembering, planning, sensing, relating, working — will take us into a new way of being together where Love is the natural exchange.