Awareness Teaching: The Fine Print
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You cannot attain Awareness
In my opinion, one of the most misunderstood teachings in the current non-dual scene is the teaching that you are Awareness. You often hear the refrain that there is nothing you need to do and no effort is needed to attain this insight . This statement is a true for a small number of people, but an intellectual understanding of this statement is very different from embodying this understanding.
As described in my previous blog post, awareness is not an object of experience, and cannot be found within the contents of your experience. Awareness is not something outside of you that you can experience, and hold on to as some prized object of spiritual attainment. Awareness is the subject of all your experiences. Understanding this means that most of our spiritual experiences are in fact creations of the Ego. There is no attaining Awareness. Attainment is for objects outside yourself, awareness is the subject.
Ordinary Consciousness is not Awareness
Another thing that we must discover for ourselves is that our ordinary consciousness is not Awareness. It is true that Awareness is the ground of being, and our experience of the world is a projection of awareness, but it is a folly to assume that our ordinary consciousness/Ego is actually this primordial consciousness or Awareness. Awareness is non-different from all our experiences, but without direct insight of this understanding it becomes intellectual gymnastics.
Unlike the current no-practice is required, and nothing to do non-dual teachings that we find on Youtube and satsangs, traditional teachings focused on a practical and direct experiential understanding of these concepts. An intellectual understanding that we are Awareness is a good first step, and it is also helpful to understand the logic of these non-dual teachings through metaphors like the Vedanta 10th man but an intellectual understanding of this logic is not enough to free one from the bonds of this world. Most people think that understanding the logic of Awareness is enlightenment, and they are free from bondage after this understanding, but this is a mistaken point of view.
There is reason why traditional non-dual teachings focused on 3 stages to solidify this insight. The 3 stages are, a) hearing the truth; b) contemplating the truth and c) embodying the truth. Hearing and contemplating the truth are just preliminary stages of practice. Embodying the truth takes a life time of practice and there are no shortcuts to the last stage of the teaching.
Relationship between Awareness and Ordinary Consciousness/Ego
One thing I found very helpful in my practice is creating a conceptual map of how Ego emerges from Awareness. Without a clear understanding, both conceptual and experiential, it is very easy to get caught in spiritual experiences, and fool oneself into thinking that awakening is some mind-blowing experience. That is why in most traditional teachings awakening is described in negative terms because awakening is the loss of your everyday perspective.
It is worth nothing that most “spiritual” experiences are actually artifacts of ego consciousness because our everyday consciousness is actually the Ego.
Primordial consciousness/Awareness is free of any constructs. Think of Awareness as perfectly polished mirror that reflects everything.
Below I have outlined a conceptual map of how our everyday consciousness/Ego is created from Awareness. Spiritual practice is realizing how our Ego/Self Identity is actually a projection of Awareness. If you follow this logic to the end, you will realize immediately that most spiritual attainments are actually another Ego trap.
Ramana Maharishi advocated a form of practice that he called counter-egoic effort. I will describe that practice in a later post but the point I want to make is we have to be mindful that we don’t make our spiritual practice about the Ego.
Please remember that this is a conceptual map to help with your practice. The steps are not linear and do not happen sequentially. Everything happens instantaneously when we become self-conscious.
1- Awareness: Illuminates and Reflects
Awareness is the foundation of all of our experiences, good and bad. It’s true nature is peace and happiness. The key premise in a lot of non-dual traditions is that Awareness is aware of itself, and reflects the objects of the world.
Awareness/Primordial consciousness is free and formless.
Awareness has qualities like a candle and a mirror. In the image below, you can see that the candle illuminates itself and also causes its own reflection.
Candle illuminates itself and creates its own reflection
2-Creation of Duality: Awareness identifies with the Body-Mind
In the second stage, Awareness identifies with the body-mind. In this stage we see the first semblance of duality.
Awareness, which was free and formless now identifies with the body and mind.
In the image below, you can see two reflections created. Awareness and body mind.
Awareness identifies with body-mind: Duality is created
3-Multiplicity: Two mirrors can cause infinite reflections
In the next stage, this duality now creates an infinite amount of reflections. Awareness and its projections reflect back on each other endless and create the illusion of the world. If you look at the image below, you can see that you can create an infinite amount of reflections from just two mirrors.
4-Ordinary Consciousness/Ego: Awareness identifies with multiplicity
The multiple reflections create the illusion of world. Awareness is now identifies itself with the multiple reflections and is unaware of it’s pure nature.
Infinite reflections from just two mirrors
How to Practice?
Best Practice: Do Nothing!
The question then arises, if this is our present condition, what should we do to practice? You can see from the above explanations that any form of practice is actually reinforcing the separation of Awareness from it’s original source.
This is why in a lot of spiritual traditions we are often told to do nothing but just sit. In Zen, this is called Shinkantaza, sitting without expectations. Ramana Maharishi frequently exhorted his disciples to do nothing but sit still. Unfortunately for most of us, doing nothing is not something that is a viable practice. The human mind needs something to keep it occupied. Sitting still and not doing anything is not something most people are capable of doing.
Other Practices
Self-Inquiry or Self-Attention
My personal practice, is to just focus on my subjective felt sense of being. By focusing on this feeling intensely, the mind after a while stops looking at outside objects for happiness, and focuses on the subjective sense of feeling. At a certain point, the mind locks on to this awareness and recognizes the self-reflexive nature of awareness.
This is the first step in the path, not the end as some western seekers have made it out to be. Remember, desire for fame, being called a great teacher, adulation from students, money etc. are in most cases projections of ego. Great masters like Ramana Maharishi, Ramakrishna, Sadhu Om, and countless others never charged money from students or talked about their attainments. Attainment is for the ego, not Awareness. Awareness is unborn, unconditioned and free from mental constructs.
Step 1: Changing the direction of attention
Like I have said before, the first step is changing your direction of attention from objects to the subjective sense of feeling “I AM”. This practice, allows one to understand the self-reflexive nature of Awareness. Once this Awareness is understood and awakened, the next step is to bridge the separation.
Step 2: Bridging the Subject-Object separation
Once we are aware of this non-dual awareness the next step of practices are focused on the apparent separation between subject and object. These are complex practices and cannot be described easily in a blog but the basic premise of these practices is dropping the body-mind by various methods. Zen Koans are one way, in Dzogchen and Vedanta there are another set of practices that have a different flavor.
Summary
This is a complicated blog and even though I tried my best to simplify these concepts I understand that it might not be obvious to many people. Awakening is not easy but in my personal experience it is worth it. I also want to say that understanding these concepts will not free you from suffering. There is a reason why the Buddha never spoke about theories of consciousness. He focused on the pervasive unsatisfactoriness of our life that is directly seen in our everyday consciousness. Our consciousness is the same consciousness that was present during the times of the Buddha. The human condition is the same.
To end I would like to quote one of my favorite philosophers, J Krishnamurti about daily practice.
Verbally we can go only so far: what lies beyond cannot be put into words because the word is not the thing. Up to now we can describe, explain, but no words or explanations can open the door. What will open the door is daily awareness and attention - awareness of how we speak, what we say, how we walk, what we think. It is like cleaning a room and keeping it in order. Keeping the room in order is important in one sense but totally unimportant in another. There must be order in the room but order will not open the door or the window. What will open the door is not your volition or desire. You cannot possibly invite the other. All that you can do is to keep the room in order, which is to be virtuous for itself, not for what it will bring. To be sane, rational, orderly. Then perhaps, if you are lucky, the window will open and the breeze will come in. Or it may not. It depends on the state of your mind. And that state of mind can be understood only by yourself, by watching it and never trying to shape it, never taking sides, never opposing, never agreeing, never justifying, never condemning, never judging - which means watching it without any choice. And out of this choiceless awareness perhaps the door will open and you will know what that dimension is in which there is no conflict and no time.
J Krishnamurti: Freedom from the known
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