Jnana is about connection.

I’ll admit, this final paramita has been difficult to practice. It’s more like preparation for jnana, rather than jnana itself. Because you can’t really do anything to make awakened awareness come to you. You have to wait for it. But what I’ve noticed is that you cannot possibly do this without focusing on connection.

Awakened awareness asks us to be fully present to our lives. To root down deep into the earth below our feet and raise up high to the air around us. It asks us to remain exactly where we are, and just see things as they are. Clearly, wisely.

This is so much harder than it sounds.

Today in yoga class, my instructor Anna told us that focusing on the past is depression, and focusing on the future is anxiety. Joy awaits us in the present. Calmness. Peace. (And maybe, one day, enlightenment and awakened awareness.)

We begin with presence. But it’s connection that keeps us aware. It’s connection that awakens us in just such a way that we really SEE the reality of the world. And it’s a world absolutely. filled. with. connections.

I’ve been writing a paper about centering prayer, so much of my week has been reading and practicing it. Centering prayer is part of the contemplative Christian tradition. Gregory the Great, a sixth century monk, said centering prayer is simply resting in God. In other words, it’s presence and connection. By focusing on connection with God, we may find that we experience the presence of God. But the prayer is worth our time either way. The preparation, you see, is the purpose.

So many parallels exist between meditation practice and centering prayer. Both ask us to bring our focus to one thing- our breath, or a sacred word. Enlightenment or presence happens when we detach from our thoughts, and from our goals, and simply exist, content in the moment. I love Father Thomas Keating’s description of detachment as “the nonpossessive attitude toward all reality.” Imagine how much better the world could be if we were trained to drop our egos like that. But above all, the goal for both is to benefit others. By dedicating ourselves to this practice, we seek to grow in service to others.

And that’s because these practices of meditation and centering prayer awaken in us the deep threads of connection all around us.

Jnana is about connection. What spiritual practices awaken connection within you?

Also: STAY TUNED for Friday’s post! It will be the final post for the Paramita Project, summarizing all ten! It’s been a wonderful journey for me to attempt to embody these virtues. I’ll be taking the rest of the summer off and will kick it back off in the fall with a new project.

This post is part of the Paramita Project, where I’m practicing one paramita each month for ten months. Read all my posts on jnana, awakened awareness, here.