Reflection II — The Expanded Self

*The boundary in relationship*

Life as a Passage of Awareness

The 16th-century playwright William Shakespeare, in *Hamlet*, posed a question that has echoed through time:

> "To be, or not to be — that is the question:

> Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

> The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

> Or to take arms against a sea of troubles…"

This is not simply a question of existence.

It is a question of how one meets life itself—

whether to endure,

to act,

or to respond differently to what unfolds.

And elsewhere in the play, the reflection turns inward:

> "This above all: to thine own self be true."

Taken together, these ideas open a broader frame:

Not just to be or not to be—

but how we are being within what we experience,

and whether that way of being is true to ourselves.

---

If we begin there, something shifts.

Life is no longer just something that happens around us.

It becomes something that is experienced.

Something that is felt from within.

Something that is, in essence, individualised.

And that experience does not sit still.

It moves.

It unfolds.

It carries the sense of a passage—

a journey that is not fixed,

but continuously in motion.

What moves within that passage is awareness.

What is noticed.

What is felt.

What comes into view, moment by moment.

So, life is not defined only by events,

but by what becomes known to us

as awareness moves through them.

This movement gives rise to what we understand as time.

There is what has been—held as memory.

There is what may come—held as thought.

But life itself is only ever encountered

in the present moment,

as awareness passes through it.

And this experience is always grounded.

Always somewhere.

Always localised in space—

in a place,

in a moment,

as it unfolds.

---

So, what begins as a simple question—

to be, or not to be—

opens into something quieter, but deeper.

Life may be understood as an individualised experience

gained through the passage of awareness across time,

localised in each moment of space and time,

as it unfolds.

---

But there is another layer to this.

Awareness, while universal in its potential,

is not always actively used.

We may register something through the senses—

feel heat on the skin,

hear a sound,

notice a shift—

and yet take no action.

Awareness can be present…

without being engaged.

There are also limits to what is accessed.

Even the basic senses—touch, sight, taste, smell, sound—

do not operate identically from one individual to another.

They are shaped over time—

through habit, attention, and experience.

With deliberate focus, these senses can be extended.

Training can sharpen perception,

expand sensitivity,

and alter how the world is received.

So, what we call experience

is not fixed—

it is, at least in part, developed.

And beyond the familiar senses,

there are further capacities often spoken of—

intuition,

a sense of knowing,

forms of perception that reach beyond the immediate.

These too, while available in potential,

often remain submerged

unless they are consciously cultivated.

So, the passage of awareness is not just movement—

it is variable in depth.

Sometimes shallow.

Sometimes attentive.

Sometimes expanded.

Which suggests something simple, but important:

Life is not only shaped by what we encounter—

but by how fully we engage

with what is available to be experienced.

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Expressed in poetic terms,

it might be offered as quiet advice:

> "So, dear one, choose carefully, what you want to be

> For your reality will follow that, most assuredly

> Time is but a string of moments, the 'now' that provides the space

> To choose how you greet that moment, either with a smile —

> or a frown, set upon your face."