Awareness...

If our attention were now to be drawn to the white paper on which
these words are written, we would experience the uncanny sensation
of suddenly becoming aware of something that we simultaneously
realise is so obvious as to require no mention. And yet at the moment
when the paper is indicated, we seem to experience something new.

We have the strangely familiar experience of becoming aware of
something which we were in fact already aware of. We become
aware of being aware of the paper.

The paper is not a new experience that is created by this indication.
However, our awareness of the paper seems to be a new experience.

Now what about the awareness itself, which is aware of the paper? Is
it not always present behind and within every experience, just as the
paper is present behind and within the words on this page?

And when our attention is drawn to it, do we not have the same
strange feeling of having been made aware of something that we
were in fact always aware of, but had not noticed?

Rupert Spira
The Transparency of Things
Intro p.xiii
Non-Duality Press