Awake-ism: The Heartmind of Buddhism

“Awake-ism,” in Buddhist teacher Nichtern’s view, means to be aware, open, and compassionate. He looks at Buddhist thought as a useful psychological, philosophical, and ethical system that anyone can make use of. We can all agree that living an awake life is a good thing. His advice for living in these times is to maintain our awareness as we move between very personal spaces and collective spaces. Many enter meditation in order to reduce stress and become more mindful. Hopefully our practice will deepen and lead to forming a healthy relationship with our self. It can also point us toward taking responsibility for our own “heartmind” and how we react to things. Nichtern describes ”heartmind” as an entwinement of our head - the cognizing, logical, reasoning intelligence - and our heart - the feeling intuitive, emotive intelligence. He exhorts us to turn our heartmind into our home - one that is safe - and encourages us to welcome our emotions whatever they may be and then let them go. It is about having a relationship with our own mind. He speaks of a transformational activist as one who practices a kind of holistic approach. It is the balancing of three levels of awareness: the personal, the interpersonal, and the collective. He says it is “like looking at each day and saying: did I do my personal practice, did I show up to relationships in a way that was empathetic and compassionate, and am I staying in touch with the larger community and society that I live in? ” (hosted by Justine Willis Toms)