Awareness

(An edited transcript of the mp3 entitled Awareness on the Listen to Satsang page)

I invite you to take a moment to just sense the awareness in this room. Just sense the awareness right where you are sitting and the awareness all around. Very simply, awareness is a kind of brightness that lights things up, that notices things. This is simple awareness. Awareness doesn’t stop when you or I stop talking or doing something. No matter what is going on, awareness is here noticing whatever is happening. It might be scanning around, noticing this thought and then that thought, noticing this sensation and then another. Just notice the simple ordinary awareness that’s here right now.

Everything you’ve ever sought, wanted, or desired—all the peace, joy, satisfaction, fulfillment, and richness of existence you’ve looked for your whole life—is here right now in the flow of awareness. If you were going to hide these things, awareness is a really good place to hide them because it’s the last place anybody would think to look. We never think to look in our ordinary experience, and yet peace, joy, and love are all here in awareness, either in expression or in potential. This limitless reservoir of love, of Presence, of joy, of satisfaction is always right here whether you’re tapping into it or not, whether you’re noticing it or not. It’s just here.

This simple awareness also has a capacity to be shaped. It can be directed. So if I say something about elephants, your awareness starts flowing to ideas about elephants. Or if I point to the ceiling beams, your awareness goes there. All we have to do is think about something, and awareness flows to that.

Awareness has the capacity to be shaped by anything you or I say. In fact, everything that happens shapes your awareness. If there’s a sudden loud noise, that noise will shape your awareness. If someone talks to you, that will shape your awareness. Everything that’s happening right now in the room, every subtle movement, every chemical reaction happening in your body as a result of what you ate recently is all shaping your awareness. On even subtler levels, the feeling state of others nearby is affecting you right now. It’s shaping your awareness and having an impact on you.

This is natural. Part of the potential of this awareness is that it has an incredible capacity to take on shape. That’s how creation happens: Awareness, or Presence, gets shaped into form. This includes subtler forms of shaping, like thought.

This shaped awareness doesn’t feel limitless—on the contrary. For example, when awareness is shaped by a physical pain, it gets very narrow, especially when you’re lying in bed and the lights are off and nothing else is happening. It’s amazing how a stubbed toe can suddenly fill your entire awareness. So when awareness is shaped, it doesn’t seem so limitless because it has a shape—it has a form, a container. An experience, a thought, or sensations add a limited quality to the experience of awareness.

In gatherings like satsang, we do something unusual. We talk about the awareness itself. What’s the nature of it? What’s it like? And yet, awareness isn’t something you can really be aware of. You can’t really be aware of awareness because awareness is not a thing. The best you can ever do is to catch a sense of it, to sense some of its qualities, or at least be curious about it. You can’t fully catch awareness in awareness.

Yet, anytime I mention awareness, that shapes awareness, and everybody starts looking for it. Where is awareness? Is it under the chair? Is it behind the door? Awareness goes off looking for awareness, and so awareness is shaped by this concept of awareness. Once awareness takes on any shape, even the shape of the concept of awareness, it becomes smaller. Anytime awareness takes on a shape, awareness is naturally smaller than its total potential.

Even then, everything that really matters, everything that really satisfies and fulfills us is already right here and now in this awareness, no matter how awareness is being shaped, no matter how small awareness has become. That’s the startling thing. Everything that matters is here even when awareness is being shaped.

Everything shapes our awareness, but words and concepts are the primary ways humans shape consciousness. For spiritual seekers, ideas about enlightenment shape their consciousness, including the possible idea that enlightenment means the end of the shaping of awareness. Because our awareness is constantly being shifted and shaped by everything that happens, the range of experience that is possible shows us how flexible awareness is. Awareness is shaped, but the shape is temporary, and so the awareness itself is not harmed. The recognition that awareness cannot be harmed is even more valuable than a profound but temporary spiritual experience.

This recognition allows the deeper realization that it doesn’t really matter what shape your awareness has. In fact, if you could be in an expanded state of consciousness all the time, you would never discover that it doesn’t matter what shape your awareness has, because your awareness would never have a shape. Without any shape to awareness, awareness is totally silent, totally still. If you were to stay in an expanded state of consciousness, there would be no way to find out about awareness. What good does all that awareness do you if you never use it to dip your toe into the full range of experience?

The important question is: What is awareness like right now? That’s where you’ll discover this limitless abundance. That’s the gift that’s being pointed to right now—it is the opportunity to discover the truth of your awareness just as it is right now, because when you find out that awareness is complete just the way it is, then it doesn’t matter anymore how it’s being shaped. It doesn’t matter what thought is arising right now or if no thought is arising right now. Those are just the particulars of how the awareness is being temporarily shaped. It’s natural that your awareness is being shaped right now because it is always being shaped.

The opportunity is to find out that it doesn’t matter how awareness is being shaped. Find out if there is really anything wrong right now with awareness? Does it really matter if it’s chasing after something or confused or happy or sad or sleepy or awake? Does that stuff matter when you have a limitless supply of awareness itself? Especially when all of the love, peace, and joy you have ever wanted are already present in the awareness that is here right now.

Without any shape to awareness, it's just totally silent, totally still.

There's no contrast?

There's no contrast. There's no way to find out about awareness if you stayed in cosmic awareness. Would you know anything about awareness?  What good does it do you to have all that awareness if you never use it to dip your toe into some strange illusion?

The important question isn't where can we get to, or what can we get from satsang?  It is not that important to find out what new strange, different experience or more expanded spiritual experience of awareness you can have.  The question is, what's the awareness like right now?  That's where you'll discover this limitless abundance.

So that's the gift that's being pointed to in satsang; this opportunity to discover the truth of your awareness just as it is right now, because when you find out about that awareness and find out that it really is complete just the way it is, it doesn't matter anymore how it's being shaped. It doesn't matter what thought is arising right now, or if no thought is arising right now. It's just not that important to this question, What about the awareness itself? That's just the particulars of how the awareness is being temporarily shaped. It's natural that your awareness is being shaped right now, because it is always being shaped.

The opportunity is to find out that it doesn't matter. Find out, is there really anything wrong right now with awareness?  Does it really matter if it's chasing after something, or confused, or happy or sad, or sleepy, or awake? Does that stuff matter when you have this limitless supply of awareness itself? Especially when all of the love, peace and joy you have ever wanted is already present in the awareness that is here right now.