Guide

You are Awareness

If you don’t have even an inkling of what I mean if I tell you that you are Awareness, you should start here. It’s important that you have at least some kind of understanding of what I am referring to. Especially since Awareness is not a concept in the way that I am compelled to use it. Language forces us to use one concept to describe another, but in this case I am not really pointing at a concept, so you need to at least keep in mind that the concept of “awareness” is not the actual “Awareness” that I am going to be referring to. It’s just the closest word in the English language that kind of points toward who you and I really are. If you want to replace Awareness with something else that you like better (like consciousness, awakening, enlightenment, etc.) go ahead and do so, but be careful not to chose something you know a lot about conceptually. The idea is to choose the closest concept that you can without it being too well defined. You want a bit of ambiguity so that you don’t just make Awareness into another concept – but actually recognize Awareness for yourself (as yourself). This sounds really crazy if you are completely new to the idea that you could be something that is not a “thing”, but this whole site is basically an attempt at a guide to help you demonstrate for yourself that this is the case.

Recognizing that we are Awareness

I have read enough to believe that there may be many different ways to recognize that we are Awareness, but since I have decided to only write about what I know from first hand experience I won’t put too much effort into identifying them here.

The way I have found to recognize our true nature is through an intellectual and experiential approach. There is apparently also a way to recognize yourself through a love and acceptance approach, but I am only just beginning to understand that aspect of our nature, so I don’t feel comfortable writing about it here.

The approach that works for me is a multi-faceted one, but one of mostly negation. By proving beyond any doubt that something I think is true is not actually true based on my actual experience. Taking each and every thought & perception and breaking it down until I can see that in my own very honest experience everything is (from a pure Awareness point of view) a kind of illusion of the mind. In this way, I can find core beliefs that I can prove are false and by realizing them as false, let them go. By letting go of core beliefs I am open to experiencing reality as it is instead of as the veil of conditioned thinking or ego-mind.

What does awareness “feel” like for me?

First and foremost – there’s an immediacy or “right now in this infinite moment” nature to being Aware. Not in a moment by moment sense, but in a timelessly immediate sense. There is no feeling of time and the realization that everything is happening in this infinite moment (and ONLY in this infinite moment) makes everything ever more present. Time is just a concept (from a pure awareness point of view) and three is no beginning or end to it. It is always this moment and all of time exists within it. You can only read these words in this moment – you can only re-play them in your head in this moment – you cannot replay them later – unless “later” is this moment.

There’s no real distance or separation. Everything is one happening all-at-once. From an Aware “point of view” everything just is and I don’t exist as separate from it – I am as much every object as I am a self. In fact I would describe it more like everything is just made of Awareness itself and the objects in awareness are as real as a thought or feeling is real in a manner of speaking.

The “I” or “me” that I have identified with my whole life is seen for what it is – a very complex set of concepts that “I” have practiced and believed in to the point of feeling that “I am” those concepts themselves instead of the awareness that all of those concepts arise in. So there is no “I” to experience awareness – awareness is all that there is at the very core. “I” did not find awareness, I am awareness, so “I” did nothing to find awareness I just shifted my perception to recognize what I have always been.