---

Out of habit, and to varying degrees, we have allowed our thinking to be at the helm of how we perceive and navigate through our lives. In other words, we live as if we, and life itself, actually are what our thoughts, concepts, beliefs and interpretations define and describe! This layer, or filter, of mental activity keeps us one step removed from directly experiencing life – from being!

Here’s the good news: There’s no need to stop thinking! There’s no need to get rid of our thoughts! Besides, if any of this really worked, we’d have done it already! There’s only the need to be able to recognize that any thought is really a temporary movement of energy within awareness.

When this is seen (directly experienced) from the perspective of being focused in awareness with equanimity, there is a sense of inner freedom, peace, compassion, well-being and wholeness.

Focusing in awareness is taking a break from relying on thought to interpret and define who/what we are, what’s going on, and what we need to do about it. Being focused in awareness allows direct experience of whatever is occurring, without the overlay and filtering of thoughts, beliefs, concepts and interpretations – all of which color what is in the moment with memories of past experience and/or imaginings of the future.

To truly live in the present is to be focused in awareness – it is being, without needing to think about it! This doesn’t mean you don’t use your discriminating mind – you do, when it is needed, and you use it as the miraculous and marvelous tool that it is. But it is no longer mis-taken to be who and what you are!

Course Content

The first four weeks of this course are devoted to building and strengthening the “tool” of focusing in awareness with equanimity. We start with experiencing what it feels like to sit still and quiet, and focus on sensation within the body (on breath or on “inner body energy,” as Eckhart Tolle calls it), without engaging in habitual reaction to distractions. During these first four weeks, it becomes increasingly clear how our own thoughts and feelings, especially self-judgment, rise up as habitual distractions. But, as we strengthen our skill for using the tool of focusing in awareness with equanimity, we see/experience that all thoughts and feelings, just as all bodily sensations, are temporary phenomena, rising and falling away within changeless awareness.

The last four weeks of the course are devoted to strengthening our capacity for focusing in awareness through practical application of this tool in everyday life. With practice, we discover that we are capable of maintaining an inner sense of focus in awareness that allows us to be, fully “present” with whatever is occurring – an interaction with a “difficult person,” a demanding situation, or even our own negative self-talk. And we find that the same situations, people and even our own habitual thoughts, that used to create stress in our lives, are now experienced with a sense of inner peace and freedom.

Each of the eight, 75-minute classes in this course contains practical instruction, direct experiencing of focusing in awareness, and open, honest sharing of our progress and obstacles. There are weekly assignments aimed at keeping us in the groove and supporting our effort with accountability. (Ralph participates in the course with you, including doing all assignments, every class and each week.) Ralph will post a weekly recap of each class, as well as some additional comments and/or instruction, and occasionally an audio segment from the week, on the blog site for this course: focusedinawareness.blogspot.com. (You can go to the blog now and read/listen to segments from the last two course sessions.)

Focused in Awareness Course

Fall, 2010 Schedule to be announced

To register, email Ralph, or call: 262-573-7107.

Minimum Registrants: 5

Testimonials from previous participants of this course:

“This class has made me focus on the patterns. I think sometimes we don’t realize the patterns; we just automatically get stuck in the behavior and don’t realize there’s a pattern. This class has brought that to me in more ways than one.”

---

“After the second class I realized how judgmental I was; I’m judging me and everything, you know? Every thought I had – I can’t even have a thought without placing judgment on it. And that’s gone away quite a bit; it still comes up but not as often as it did then.”

---

“Thank you so much for the encouragement. I have been slacking on my meditation somewhat. However, I've used the "tool" of breath to save me from countless hours of over-dramatizing (in my head of course).”

---

“Since participating in this class, I recognize that hiding or replacing the emotions does not help, it just sets me up for another “emotional issue” further down the road. I recognize that the emotions need to be allowed, to be felt but felt with equanimity and that I am not a “bad person” for having those “bad emotions.” And also important is that there aren’t really “bad emotions,” they just are, they happen naturally! I recognize that I can learn and grow from allowing the emotions to just be and to be felt. I have experienced first-hand that the emotion can actually dissipate after 90 seconds if you feel it fully. I just need to continue practicing it, the hardest part of all!”

---

“I think perhaps that some of the things I am experiencing are just so subtle that they are difficult for me. The watching of the emotions instead of reacting to them is difficult and just will take practice. At times, I will instead want to “talk things out” with friends. This again creates some drama and “stories” about a situation, but at the same time, it is helpful for me to have an outlet to talk to about something that has occurred that is stressful to me. I think from what I understand, if I can talk about an issue but still not allow myself to get “caught up” in the drama and stories, talking to friends can still be a positive outlet, correct? I think that is what I need to learn next – how better to apply the teachings to the real world, where lots of things are going on at the same time that need immediate reactions, that tend to quickly take my attention away.”

---

“I was just deleting from my email the quotes I had sent to a friend who is in a different place than I am. He has converted to Roman Catholicism – something I grew up with but no longer resonates in any way with me. The quotes resonated with him. I realize now that I was not looking at him with equanimity because I was judging his involvement with Catholicism as somehow "beneath" where he should be... I am learning and growing... Thank you for teaching this class, Ralph.”

---

“I received an email last week that sent me through the roof! I was in the process of writing an angry response when I remembered what we had said in class about the 90 second rule in emotions. I realized that I was feeding my anger and not letting it subside. I stopped and returned to the email later. I still wrote to her that I thought her response was inappropriate, but it was a more reasoned approach.”

---

Watch my YouTube videos about being focused in awareness: youtube.com/focusedinawareness

Ralph Lewis: A retired Corporate Engineer, Trainer and Technical Writer, Ralph now consults, facilitates workshops and teaches the Focused in Awareness Course. His path of cultivating the capacity to be focused in Awareness over the last 30+ years has led him to learning from and working with Eastern and Western teachers. He especially resonates to the non-dual teachings/sharings of Scott Kiloby, Jeff Foster, David Carse, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Candice O'Denver, Tony Parsons and others. Focusing in Awareness and letting go of the thought-based, separate sense-of-self as a way of life has prepared Ralph for sharing his insights, processes and experience with others who are turning their focus toward Conscious Awareness.