' Awareness '...

Be clear about what awareness is. Take a moment to pick two objects within your view in the room. Make sure the objects are at least three feet apart. Let’s say it’s a lamp and a door. When you are looking only at the lamp or only at the door, there is focused attention. For the most part, attention is directed primarily at the object while the surrounding objects seem vague in the periphery.

Now, instead of focusing on one of the particular objects, notice the space that holds or allows both objects but is focused on neither object. This is a gentle space that simply allows. It isn’t focused on the lamp or on the door. This space just recognizes itself as that which allows those two objects, and all other objects in the room, to just be as they are. This is spacious awareness. It is what knows the present moment directly. This is what you are.

When these reflections invite you to notice thoughts, emotions, experiences, states, or other objects or movements, it is not an invitation to place focused attention on those objects or movements. It is an invitation to recognize this spacious awareness and see that these things are appearing and disappearing in it. As you become comfortable knowing that this awareness is what you are, it is realized that the objects or movements in awareness are not separate from awareness.



-Kiloby, Scott. Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment