The A to Z of Being : Awareness

This is the first post in the new series, The A to Z of Being.

What is Awareness?

One might think of awareness as having knowledge of something. The train will arrive at 7:00 PM, therefore I am aware of the train schedule. Or, I am aware that both Sean Connery and Roger Moore played James Bond.

Or awareness might be thought of as a recognition of current experience based on the past. If you sit in your kitchen and a dog suddenly walks into the room, you are now aware of the dog. It wasn’t there before, but it is now. Therefore, you are aware of the dog that has just walked into the room.

There are countless other examples, but these seem to fit nicely into what most people use when thinking of awareness.

In everyday conversation, I may use the word in exactly the same way. I find nothing wrong with the definition as it is used in society. But in liberation, the word has a different meaning.

Awareness in Liberation

Awareness is what one might call non-experience. Things happen, climates change, people come and go, but there is no one to experience it. There is no self to attach importance based on preferential thoughts.

In awareness, everything is seen as it is, with absolutely no interference of thought, experience, or memory.

This does not mean that an event will not be remembered, or that one becomes numb or apathetic. On the contrary. When the mind is free of the constraining walls of the self, of belief, of prejudicial experience, then massive energy is available for living. This is not a stimulant type effect, similar to what one might experience from taking high doses of caffeine, but a natural release of energy formerly held in abeyance.

When one is aware, life and death are one constant movement, and the energy of creation (if one can call it that) is ever present. It is akin to life and death because every moment is the beginning and the end simultaneously. There is no point where things start or stop. It is, simply, what it is. (People speak of this and talk about “being in the moment,” or “the present moment.” I have used these words myself. But in truth, there is no present moment. There is no moment of any kind in awareness because there is no time to record anything.)

The inactive, one might say, becomes active, and the organism is finally free to express itself fully.

In awareness there is no notion of what is happening, because there is no conception or impression of something known. There is no one that is “being aware.” With no self to be aware, there is nothing that attaches to any particular experience. Everything comes as it comes, and while there may be memories of all of that, there is no center that attaches to anything.

Simply put:

Awareness is the non-existence of a center that perceives.

It is not an exalted state, or preferred way of living. It is absolutely natural and normal.

Completely New

Events may occur, but there is no entity there to experience them. With no entity, there is no experience. With no experience, there is no point of reference. With no point of reference, there is no reaction to memory. If memory does not interfere, things are seen as they are.

All awareness is non-experience. It is completely new.