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The center of consciousness

is the most essential thing to spiritual growth.

If you cannot sit consciously, you can't do anything.

You just become reaction to what's happening around you.

You're like a machine.

Somebody says something, you react.

You see something you react you see something you react this may seem natural and

spontaneous but in truth it's all pre-programmed and there's nothing natural or

spontaneous about reaction it is just reaction so the first stage in any spiritual progress is the ability to stay centered and be present

in between action and reaction.

You can't even begin to work at the core.

You're not even working at the periphery if all that happens is you react.

This work of keeping the center, keeping the consciousness, is begun in meditation, but it's really practiced in daily life.

It is possible to remain conscious every moment all day. From the time you wake up until the time you go to sleep, do not doubt that it

is possible to constantly, effortlessly, be aware of what is happening outside of you, what are the reactions that it is hitting and responding inside of you,

and you can see what impulses and urges would have driven you to say or do behavior of reaction, but you're perfectly capable of sitting there,

breathing, relaxing, and just being aware that this is the dance of creation. Things are happening,

people are saying things, things are going one way or another, and as they come

...