Articles >> How to Become Conscious in Everyday Life - The Little Prince Series

The development of a more conscious, more deeply aware, or in Eastern terms more mindful way of moving through our day is something that happens as we self-confront-a term I first became familiar with probably eighteen years ago.

Or to use another term frequently employed by the teacher Adyashanti, we embark on self-inquiry.

I like both these terms and use them interchangeably because used in this way they balance each other. Let me explain what I mean.

 

In the story of the Little Prince, as the pilot who has crashed in the Sahara Desert continues to converse with the little fellow, the details of who he is emerge a little at a time.

The pilot asks the Prince directly where he comes from and about his life, but he gets no answer. In fact he comments that it's as if the Little Prince doesn't hear his questions.

There is great insight in this statement. Remember that the Little Prince represents our essential being, which initially is in a fledgling, undeveloped state.

 

We have a vast potential to manifest an aspect of the divine in a way that only we can, but it takes time to develop such a solid center so that we actually live from this center.

What the Little Prince is teaching us is that information isn't what's important. We can use information, such as how to fly an airplane as the pilot does, but it won't make us conscious.

The self-inquiry that deepens consciousness can't be addressed to the mental level of our understanding or be answered at that level.

 

It's for this reason that the Little Prince isn't interested in just imparting knowledge about consciousness. This is why he doesn't answer the pilot's questions about who he is and his origin.

As the relationship between the two develops, the pilot gathers what he needs to know in order to become conscious in his everyday life from "words dropped by chance," so that little by little everything is revealed to him.

Conscious living isn't something we can just get answers to and go out and do. It isn't about knowing something in our thoughts and then trying to do it.

 

Consciousness has to be lived into in everyday reality as situations arise that invite a deeper consciousness. In other words it's an experiential matter.

Self-inquiry isn't psychological analysis. Simply knowing and understanding what happened to us in the past, examining all the drama of our life for its root causes, solves nothing in terms of being able to live consciously. Information doesn't change things.

I went to a variety of therapists over the years in my earlier life seeking answers, but all the information about myself that I gathered didn't bring real change. I just tinkered with issues instead of resolving them permanently.

Not that talking with a counselor can't be helpful; in my case it was extremely helpful because this therapist understood what it is to live consciously.

 

But it wasn't analyzing my past in order to understand my present behavior that empowered me to change.

What changed me was becoming aware that in my essence I wasn't the person who was acting the way I was.

Self-inquiry means confronting ourselves as issues arise, in an experiential way, not merely seeking understanding at the level of thought.

 

Changing our thoughts is powerless to change our life at any deep level, only at a surface level-something so few seem to grasp.

When an issue arises in life, do I sit with it and allow myself to feel? Not analyze, but feel.

Can I just be with what is arising? Not suppressing, but not venting either.

Let me just stress that this is very different from acting out in emotional ways. Experiencing feelings and venting emotions are not the same.

 

We can vent all we want, but it won't change things. We'll just get better at venting. In other words, by expressing rage we just learn how to express rage even more. We don't solve the rage.

It did me no good at all to understand how my grandmother, my father, my teachers in my early school years, and others reinforced reptilian behavior in me. Analysis changed nothing.

 

What changed me is what the Little Prince is beginning to teach us, which is that we've grown up in the grip of the boa constrictor and become someone we really aren't. Our real self is very different. This is what begins to change us, as we confront this really whenever an everyday situation places it before us for our attention, as we'll see more clearly tomorrow.