The Big Wheel: The Awareness Slice

The Awareness Wheel is a laboratory for experimentation and discovery of our body-mind and its use of the net—the network of stored impressions that clouds direct perception. Rather than trying to stop the mind, we see it as playfully creating our world. The body is no longer exploited as a puppet of our mind’s agenda, but as a beloved space to be inhabited. Our examinations and practices in this slice help the mind and body release old patterns that are no longer useful and harness their energy and power.

We can’t do this alone. With mentors and community members, in gatherings and help sessions, we use the collective to feel safe and to keep ourselves honest.

In a spirit of gentleness, we are led through a series of questions that help us get to the core of what makes up the Net. We become clear about how our blind spots impact our lives. We look honestly at our deeply ingrained patterns and see the fears from which they arise. We see more clearly who we are not, and practice holding these realizations in the light of who we really are—our True Nature.

As our stories loosen their grip on us, we are invited to explore the mechanism that created stories in the first place—our ego. We practice with paradox, symbols, and creativity to free ourselves from rigid, linear thinking and our old perception of our being as a self-sufficient, lone agent. Usually practiced in our gatherings, this work is playful but surprisingly profound.

Felt experience grounds this work in the body, the storage space for long-held tensions and unspoken stories. We use movement, energetic, and intuitive practices to release attachment to inner strife.

Each step of the Awareness Wheel leads closer in. We loosen our attachment to stories and drama, blur the barriers of our perceived sense of self, and ultimately arrive at concept-free awareness of our senses and physical nature. Through all of this, the Awareness Wheel shows that inner exploration need not be harsh or frightening; it can be safe, illuminating, and wildly rewarding.