Now awareness, I'm sure you've heard of it if you been around these boards for a while. Some Shadow Jedi always rambling on about being aware and observing things. If you haven't heard of it, you will be hearing of it soon enough. But just what is awareness?
Awareness is many things. The awareness that most Shadows will tell you of is the state of mind awareness. The Force is massive and all encompassing for all life. In this sense, to be aware is to understand your relationship with the force. Being part of the flow of the force, we are interconnected with all life. This is the humbling nature of awareness. We come to realize that we are not great on a comparative scale. When we enlarge our view of ourselves in the force, we are blinded by our own body. We become so large that we can no longer see the little occurrences right under our nose. I'm sure you have experienced this before, whether you have been biased toward a certain person because of attachment or would not listen to your peers because of preconceived ideas and then realized you were wrong afterward. State of mind is necessary to becoming aware. You realize that all things cause tremors in the force, no matter how small. Everything I have just said is extremely important to awareness. However, it does not some up the idea. To become fully aware, you must also incorporate the simple things. This is what I like to call "just being." Just be aware. Notice that your teapot is simmering and know what that means. Notice that the leaves turn color and fall in autumn then die in winter and return to life in the spring. Notice the beauty and love in the eyes of your soul mate. If you are continually pondering the nature of the force, you will forget that you are a part of it. It will be what you want it to be. If you want the force to be some mysterious guide that always hides just out of your vision, then that is what it will be. Life is all around you! Bask in its flow. Cherish it and find meaning in all of its beauty.
The first key to being aware is to take a step back and look at yourself. How can you be aware of the outside world if you are not aware of who you are? This is one of those times where unlearning comes into play. Many scientists believe that when we are born, we enter the world with a certain amount of knowledge engrained in our brain. It is a very similar process when people come to the Force Academy. We all have our views. Some of them are firm beliefs that we will hold onto by whatever means necessary. Others are less rigid beliefs. These are the beliefs that we are uncertain of. Someone we respect may tell us something that we don't agree with, but we think it must be right because they said it. Or it may be a belief that runs contrary to the accepted norm in the world. The goal of any good shadow student should be to have an open mind. This does not mean that you should give up all of your rigid beliefs. It just means that you should be willing to be sensible in your learning. We do not call you radical changes in your beliefs. In fact, we want you to be yourself no matter what, but if you find that there is a need for change, you should not be afraid to execute that change. It is when you reach this state of open-mindedness that you really start to know yourself. You put yourself to the test, and you pass or you don't. If you pass, great; you have accepted yourself. If you fail, that's okay because you have realized the error in your ways and are willing to work to try to become better. Either way, you start to have a real idea of who you are, and that is when you have the first chance of really being aware.
When you get to this point, it is important that you keep the same open-minded view! Just because you have accepted yourself, does not mean that your beliefs should now be set in stone. Many never find the acceptance that you have, so you should be proud but remember how you got there. Remember that many do not progress from this point. They actually regress. They start to nourish their self-esteem feeling especially good about themselves for achieving self-awareness. They become arrogant and eventually find themselves back where they were in the beginning. Now don't worry about this too much. I am not trying to scare you away; I am simply trying to emphasize how important it is to be open-minded. Everything starts with an open-mind, without it, there is no chance of success in the shadow path.
I think one of the greatest ways to understand external awareness is to remember that we are insignificant beings compared to the power of the force. We, humans tend to put our sole focus on all of the big things. Such as "he hit me," "he said the Earth is round," or "she calls herself a Jedi." We are blinded by the "what" and the "when" and lose focus on the "why" and the "how." When we step out of our personal comfort zone, we can start to understand why people react the way they do. We may be able to see that when this person is criticized, he reverts into himself refusing to listen to reason. When this person is in a bad situation, she is more willing to barter in exchange for help and protection. This may be a bit disconcerting at first because you have been focusing on being aware of yourself up until this point. It is much easier to strengthen your internal awareness because you can hear your thoughts and see your dreams. Thankfully, we cannot hear the thoughts of others! This does make it more difficult to be aware, however. In order to do this, you must try to let go of your bias. Remember how I said in the beginning that we are all equal in the force, and this will become a little bit easier for you. I am not saying to squelch your emotions. Far from it. I want you to be aware of your own emotions, and then step back and try to look at others through the force. After you have stepped back, and seen the person for who they are, you can go back to your emotions, or you can change them accordingly. Having this knowledge of others, of course, gives you the advantage, and you will be able to help them, manipulate them, or do nothing as you see fit. When you understand all of these things, you will have only taken your first steps down the path of awareness.