“Since we are trained to look to our thoughts for self-definition, we continually overlook this most intimate experience of free, unthought, eternal awareness.”
The profound good news is that the truth of who you are is always inherently free. And since you already are this freedom, you have the full capacity to recognize yourself as that.
Most of us spend our lives not recognizing the truth of our inherent freedom. We spend our lives searching everywhere outside ourselves for what is fundamentally and already who we are in the core of our being.
When I use the word freedom, I don’t mean freedom from unwanted circumstances. I don’t mean freedom from your thoughts, your body, or your emotions. I don’t mean the freedom to do what you want whenever you want. I am speaking about a freedom that stands alone in its freeness. A freedom that is unconditional. A freedom that excludes nothing. A freedom that is always right where you are.
A common misunderstanding is that it is our thoughts and feelings that determine reality. As a result, we begin our search for freedom, or fulfillment, in our thoughts and feelings. If we are feeling good, we think we are good. If we are feeling bad, we think we are bad. If we are feeling enlightened, we think we are enlightened. If we are feeling ignorant, we think we are ignorant. Feelings give power to thoughts, and thoughts give power to feelings.
As you know, in a day, in an hour, or even in a minute, your thoughts of who you are and how you’re doing can change many times, so your task becomes to find out what does not change, what does not come and go.
Awareness never changes. Awareness is always here. Awareness has the power to recognize every thought and every feeling, and also the power to recognize when any thought or feeling is being suppressed. Most importantly, awareness has the power to recognize itself as awareness, eternally free, pure, and untouched by any thought or feeling.
Pure, unadulterated awareness is radiant—a sacredness, an unspeakable, immeasurable depth that is available for your recognition in each and any moment.
Awareness is not the property of your mind, your body, or your circumstances. Pure, unadulterated awareness is radiant, a sacredness, an unspeakable, immeasurable depth that is available for your recognition in each and any moment.
Awareness itself remains free regardless of whatever thoughts and feelings are arising in awareness. This recognition is the necessary opening of the mind that naturally unlocks the floodgates of your own inherent freedom.
I am inviting you, as you go about your day, to simply be aware of what you are thinking, and to be aware of what you are thinking about what you are thinking. Ask yourself this: Is this a fresh, insightful, creative, appropriate thought, or is it the same old worn out thought? If it is the same old thought, I guarantee you it has something to do with survival—food, money, or shelter. Or it has something to do with sex—wanting it or not wanting it or looking at other or self as a sexual object. Or it has something to do with power—a gain or loss in your perceived position in the herd. Once these thoughts are seen for what they are, they begin to lose their authority over your happiness.
You can choose to turn your attention back to the awareness of the thinking mind. Not the thoughts themselves but the pure consciousness from which the thoughts arise.
Because we are trained so thoroughly to look to our thoughts for self-definition, we continually overlook this most intimate experience of free, unthought, eternal awareness. To rest in awareness is to return to the truth of who you are.
