Stop all physical activity
and sit naturally at ease.
Remain silent and let sound
be like an echo.
Do not think about anything. Look at experience beyond thought; open minded like space.
Let go of control and stop and rest at ease in that state.
Awareness without projection is the greatest meditation.
Train and develop like this and you will come to the deepest awakening.
Tilopa
1. The fundamental (Mis-)Interpretation of our Perception
If there is one presumption that runs like a red thread through our human culture than it is the idea that every perception and experience is divided into two elements – the subject and the object – that together seem to create our world and all earthly experiences, feelings and emotions. This is why we then express ourselves as such, “I know that this should be different”, “I am disappointed”, “I see that tree over there.” This is how we express our experience of the world – separated into a seer and the seen, a knower and the known, an experiencer and the experienced and a perceiver and the perceived.
The separation into a subject and an object are two inseparable aspects of the same belief – the belief in separation or – in other words – a world of duality. While the Yogis and philosophers tend to explore the subject, the scientists tend to explore the object. However, as ultimately, they are both just one side of the same medal all investigation that is based on separation will ultimately have to leave one dissatisfied and not resulting in any true revelation.
2. The True Nature of our Being – Some initial Inquiry
Let us start to look deeper into the true nature of what we are. What is the Self (in capital letters) or the self in the first place? What is or is there anything we can say or know for certain about the “I”, our Self, the “subject,” the one that claims to know or has a so-called experience?
Probably the first (and ultimately the only) thing that appears is that the “I am” obviously is present. It is the “I am”. The I am is present or, to be more specific, it is presence (also called Awareness) itself. If there was no presence nothing could be reading and being aware of these written words. In other words, this “I am” or the “I” is that that is aware of being aware of the act of reading or in other words it is the Awareness of being aware. Everything else (that what is read for example) is a perception, an experience, a feeling, sensation, emotion, a thought and so forth that is appearing in front of this “screen” of Awareness.
But what is this Awareness? This “screen”-like phenomena that is aware? In the teachings of Non-duality this Awareness is often referred to as the “presence of that which is aware”. Or in other words it is the one (and in this sense also the only) quality of our Self where the subject and the object, the being and the knowing are recognized as one.
This might sound quite technical if not even confusing but let us take a closer look at this quality of Awareness, the I (am). What do we recognize about it within our awareness? If we look closely enough, we will recognize that “I am aware of readings these lines, my thoughts about it, my feeling and emotions connected with it, my interest or non-interest in continuing to continue reading it. The sounds, noises and probably even smells and other sensations around myself and even within my being.” So ultimately that all is the Awareness that is referred to in this article. The “I” is that which is aware of all and everything there is, without being sucked into any of it. And that is – being said once more – why it is all there is (“is” in the sense of the only phenomenon that simply “is” without any further attribution) as a constant phenomenon without ever being altered, affected or destroyed by whatever it is aware of. And as such it can never be grasped or even fully perceived and described as the words and descriptions itself are taking place “in front” of it, they are an experience or perception within it. Yet, being aware of that God-given framework we can still try to approach the phenomenon of Awareness by describing it with analogies and pictures (while honoring and being aware of the limitation of any ultimate truth in these humble attempts).
Under these provisions Awareness (or the I) might be best described as an open, empty space (or space-like) to which or in which the objects of the body, the mind and the outer world appear. And just as any empty space cannot be agitated by the appearance or activity of any object within it, so the open, empty space of Awareness cannot resist or be disturbed by any appearance of the mind, body or outer world, irrespective of their particular quality or condition.
This inherent absence of resistance and potential “disturbance” is what is often referred to as the source and (constant) experience of fulfilment, love and happiness; or even more directly pointed out, this imperturbability is the peace (and not a mere experience of a peaceful state that is conditioned upon the absence of disturbances). As such this happiness and peace are never dependent upon the condition of the mind, body or the outer world and are omni-present in and as the essential nature of Awareness under all conditions and in all circumstances.
Thus, happiness and peace (or love – any by nature approximate description will work here), as well as being and knowing, are essential to our true nature.
The revelation of the infinite and eternal nature of our Self, is not a sophisticated or even a new experience or revelation. It is simply the recognition of our ever-present and unlimited being – its recognition of itself – as the one that is. In that sense it cannot even be found because it has never really been lost. If at all it can only be apparently “overlooked” or “forgotten” (and even this – as we will see later on – is not really the case as the entire idea of forgetting and remembering, losing and finding, being stuck and liberation is for the imaginary of the separate self (or Ego-mind structure) which takes place in the realms of thinking and feeling, whilst Awareness is at rest in itself enjoying the peace, happiness and freedom of its own ever-present and unlimited nature.)
3. The apparent Forgetting of our True Nature as Awareness
If all of our being actually is Awareness, how is it even possible that we keep overlooking it? And how does this lead to the (untrue) perception of our being of a separate entity (or self)?
This misperception is a result of the “structure” that unlimited Awareness finds itself once entering into a physical form and having experiences and sensations based on the five senses, feeling, emotions and so forth governed by the realms of time and space. It can best descripted with the analogy of reading a book or watching a movie. Once the movie starts certain objects seem to appear on the screen, we start to perceive actions, sounds, feelings, hopes and other excitement that take place in our body-mind structure and – if the movie is fascinating enough – we will be caught enough within the movie while forgetting that it only takes place on a screen (and even the screen only being a metaphor of unlimited “space”). Whenever our attention is caught on the movie (or in short: an object) our perception becomes limited to this rather limited “reality” within the screen instead of being aware of the Awareness (the one which actually is aware of the screen as well as the movie) which does require an act of un-focusing from what is actually happening in the limited reality of the movie.
The forgetting or over-looking of our true nature as infinite Awareness and the resulting appearance of a separate, limited self takes place in a similar way. In our natural (and therefore uninterrupted) state of pure Being, sensations and perceptions are appearing on the screen of Awareness and are all known and felt to be equally as such which is made out of and is perceived of Awareness. In this pure state one wouldn`t “loose” the perception of being the space-like screen (or Awareness) and everything happing within that screen is simply seen as a perception – nothing less and nothing more. The Awareness doesn`t “loose” it`s awareness of being Awareness (actually Awareness never really “looses” its awareness but – as a metaphor – this will description will do for now).
With becoming too much entangled and identified with whatever is happing within the screen – the movie – one`s Awareness (and therefore one`s Being) seems to shrink or contract from its open, free, ever-present, unlimited nature and become instead the object or person with which thought has identified it. In short, the true and only self of ever-present, unlimited Awareness seems to become a separate, limited self.
This apparent contraction of the true nature of the Self as Awareness is sometimes (particularly in Buddhism) called “ignorance” because it is affected by the ‘” ignoring” or misinterpretation of our true nature. In the Christian bible the same concept would similarly be referred to as the “Fall of Man” as a description of the first human being (the one who has eaten from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which is used as a metaphor for entering a state of perception of good and evil) that – by entering the realms of duality – forgets about its true nature of infinite Awareness.
Yet, whatever metaphor we might prefer, the main question is, who or what is it that ignores or forgets its true nature? Certainly not Awareness itself. Like the screen, Awareness always simply is, it never disappears nor is it ever changed in its nature by its experiences or perceptions. And as Awareness is all there is as a reality, nothing else – not even a self (in small letters as also sometimes referred to as Ego) – could actually be blames for a forgetfulness or for getting lost. Therefore, the “ignorance” or the “fall” of our ever-present and unlimited self into a separate, limited self never actually takes place, just as the screen never actually becomes a person, object or building just because of their appearance within the screen. The separate self is only a separate self from the illusory point of view of a separate self and ignorance is only ignorance from the point of view of ignorance. From the true and only point of view of Awareness, there is no over-looking, veiling or forgetting of itself. It never ceases to be, nor does it ever loose what it is, pure and loving being of existence itself.
4. The (illusionary) Perception of a Separate self
With this apparent overlooking of the true nature of Awareness and its illusionary perception as a separate entity, this limited self seems to come into existence (at least to some degree), just as a “real” landscape seems to come into (a sperate) existence when the screen is overlooked. Not only that this apparent veiling of our true nature seemingly creates a “new” reality, this creation of “reality” comes with a heavy price to pay: the love, peace and happiness that are the natural condition of the Self, the Awareness (or the screen if you wish) is veiled as well. It is for this reason that there is and always will be a deep pain in the heart of the separate self - the pain of separate existence. No wonder that most people spend all of their time and energy for trying to ease and/or numb the pain of this separation through substances, objects, activities and relationships.
In short, the imaginary separate self is always seeking peace, happiness and love in an outside object, an other or a worldly experience. However, the separate self can never find peace, happiness and/or love because it’s the overlooking of its own – and therefor natural and somehow “internal” – quality that could never we satisfied with anything other than itself.
This longing of the separate self is like the drive of the moth that seeks a flame. The flame – as a symbol for light, warmth and love – is all that the moth desires and yet the one thing it could never have. This is why the moth is constantly circling around the flame, being attracted my its light, yet noticing the danger to its own existence once getting closer to it. It becomes like a dance between the flame and the moth where the latter is moving back and forward, experiencing the irresistance of it yet while somehow sensing that the merging with the light will lead to its death. As when the moth touches the flame it dies. That is the moth's way of experiencing the flame, by dying in it. And that is also how the separate self finds its way back to peace, happiness and love - by dissolving and/or dying into the light.
However, as we have seen, the separate self is only a real self from its own illusory point of view. How can an illusion die if it is not real to begin with? And the answer is, it cannot! It can only be seen and recognized as to be utterly non-existent in the first place. If the separate self were real it would not be possible to lose it or to get rid of it because that which is real can never disappear. And on the other hand, that which is unreal, such as a separate self, object, other or world, never truly comes into existence. (Therefore, even the picture of the moth and the flame must also be seen as a metaphor as the moth doesn’t really exist in the first place).
Consequently, the so-called “search” for peace, happiness and/or love also has to fail from the first place, as search is referring to something that is something other than oneself, something that got lost, something that could exist outside and separate from us. The only thing that is required is to stop the search and turn it into an inquiry, the inquiry of our true nature, to cease to look for anything in the outside, even to stop looking for something that is inside of us. It`s actually the cessation of any looking, any activity and even the cessation of any activity (such as the attempts to stop one`s mind activity in the expectation to then find peace). All that is required is to – for the shortest flick of a moment – to relax the focus, to loosen the grip from the movie, to zoom out of the movie and “return” the awareness back to itself (which again can only refer to the “process” as a metaphor as Awareness cannot look back at itself – it simply becomes aware again of its awareness).
5. The Nature of the “outer” World
If there is one common misperception of the world that it is the idea that there is such thing as an outside word in the sense of an independently existing world which could show itself in an outside object and another (separate) being. As our knowledge can be seen as an experience of the “outer” world through our senses, feelings and emotions it might appear as something independent as it is senses or felt or in any other form perceived through us. Yet in fact, not even science has found anything that is independently existing as a separate object by itself, whatever is revealed through science (or simply our mundane experience) is a perception, which arises out of Awareness yet could never exist independently of it.
The concept of “matter” as the (separate) building block of the world is in itself a concept that might be useful for some practical reasons (it indeed does make life easier if we can communicate with our fellow human beings in a language that allows objects as something closed within itself as we can see for example in the sentence “Can you please pass me that book!”), yet we may never forget that nature of it as a mere concept that has nothing to do with reality.
The revelation of our true nature as pure (inseparable) Awareness puts an end to our perception of life as a separate experience and reveals a completely new way of perception of it. In the recognition of pure Awareness, we actually become aware of the nature of life as an open, silent, space-like “space” – an empty “screen” in which life is taking place by its mere perception which by nature is all-encompassing, complete, peaceful and loving.
6. The true Nature of our being – a deeper understanding
True knowledge is the experiential understanding that there is only ever-present, unlimited Awareness or Knowing. Nothing other than this is ever known even when it seems that a mind, body and world are known. This ever-present, unlimited Awareness, which is simply the intimacy of our own being, is the fundamental nature of the apparently inside self and its corollary, the apparently outside object, other or world.
All religions and spiritual traditions are ultimately founded upon one understanding. All there is is Awareness (or Consciousness which can be used interchangeably for the purpose of this writing), even though that the mind (in combination with the senses) seemingly perceives a world divided into a subject and an object and – at least for the non-Atheists – God.
In Christianity this is expressed in Jesus`s saying „I and my Father are one." That is, I, Awareness, and the ultimate reality of the universe are one and the same reality.
In Buddhism, "Nirvana and Samsara are identical." That is, the transparent, open, empty light of Awareness which is not made out of any kind of a thing - nothing - is the substance of all appearances - everything. Nothing taking the shape of everything.
In Hinduism, "Atman and Param-Atman are one." That is, the individual self, when divested of superimposed beliefs and feelings of limitation, stands revealed as the true and only self of eternal, infinite Awareness.
And in Sufism, "Wherever the eye falls, there is the face of God." All that is seen is God`s face and it is God that sees it.
All these phrases are conditioned by the culture in which they appeared but they all point towards the same unconditional truth - the reality of all experience or the nature of true Self.
Only this realization can dissolve the belief in separation. And the common name we give to this absence of separation, distance or otherness is simply love. It is that for which ultimately everyone longs – not just those of us that are interested in spiritual teachings.
This revelation of understanding and love strikes at the heart of the fundamental presumption upon which our world culture is founded, the presumption of duality – I, the separate (inside) self, and you or it, the separate (outside) object or other. It is this presumption with is the basis for all conflicts within ourselves and between individuals, communities and nations and all the psychological and emotional suffering that comes from it.
One that has observed that Awareness is not just the witness of experience but the substance itself, its root so to say, its nature will find him-/herself in an unveiled perception of love, peace and happiness. And for this to happen nothing even has to happen or to change, it simply is the loosening of the grip of attention and all the drama that comes with it.
Therefore, simply be, take a deep breath, relax and become aware of “your” awareness – it has always been there and will always continue to be there. And as Awareness is all there is – once you got back in touch with the true essence of Awareness you won`t be stunned anymore when hearing: this Awareness that “you” are experiencing is not in any way different from that of the Buddha or Jesus.
All there is, is Pure (WhiteLight) Awareness.