I need to explain the term awareness first.
Let us split it up the term. There are two things here .
1) aware
2) ness.
ness always signifies existence or presence of something.
When we are in the happy mood we say there is happi-ness signifying existence of happy feeling.
So the ness part signifies the state of being.
aware part signifies the knowledge of .
aware(Knowledge)-ness(Being)
So together it signifies knowledge of being . or knowledge(chit) of existence(sat).
Here is the crucial thing to understand about awareness. The knowledge of your own existence is not apart from your own existence.What i mean here is this. When we know something it is usually about an object which is apart from us.Say you say i know anatomy. Here the known(anatomy) is different from the knower(me). When we speak about awareness there are no two distinct things. The existence is the known and the knower is the me
So i am knowing about my own existence. Knowledge and existence has to coexist.
What is even more crucial to understand is that all experience starts from this knowledge. So it is the mother of all experience. The fact that "i exist and i know it " is the mother of all experience and from it springs a world. It is so ingrained that we never question it or feel it. Since it is so very given, it is not a thought in our mind.
Whenever you are having an experience say for e.g. you are watching a movie, your sensory perceptions are arriving and your mind is interpreting it and you experience the movie. But you never think about the fact that you exist and you know about the fact that you exist. This is not considered
as part of experience. It is sort of taken for granted. Your experience of the movie is only the sensory impulses of the movie and the thoughts in your mind.
As a result the mind grants objective reality to the movie, since the mind itself is not sure it exists always.
The world out there seems real only from the perspective of a fleeting identity called the mind. In order to lent credence to the experience, the mind grants objectivity to the outside world. In any change something must be unchanging. Since the mind is changing it lents credence to the world as real.
Let us include in that experience the fact that "i know that i exist" as also part of that . So what happens now.You must say "I know that I exist and I know that there is an experience of a movie going in my mind."The movie instead of just existing in my mind has become part of a wider perspective that it is in awareness.(Knowledge of existence).
The movie is no longer real object independent of me. It depends on me for its survival. In fact it is part of me. If i dont exist the movie also cease to exist.Here you might say, how can you say this. Even if i die the movie exists. The I , we are referring here is not the false self of body-mind.
We are speaking about the continuous consciousness presence the one and only self.
So we are never having separate experiences in the world , even though we feel so. All experiences are in the self. Experiences are not out there.
They are in the self. You are not moving towards the outward objects so to speak to have experiences.The objects come to your awareness . They appear in your awareness.In fact they are dependent on the awareness for survival. Awareness is the only content of experience.
All other things like the objects the body mind etc are just in awareness.
This is the reason why Shakaracharya said "Brahman satyam Jagan mitya".
From the real perspective of the self which is unchanging ever presence, it is the only thing that is unchanging and the world is the transient reality .
Look around your room. See some object say a picture. What do you see?. Can you see the fact that your awareness( knowledge of existence) is witnessing the seeing experience. If not, think about the process as two.
1)You are seeing the picture
2) Your awareness is witnessing the process of seeing the picture.
Usually we dont experience the second one because of the mind clouding the experience with interpretations.If we can develop the trait of seeing this process also, slowly we would begin to see our true view of experience.
Close your eyes and visualize how the experience was. You started seeing the picture and you were aware of this experience.The real you was the witness of the experience of seeing.
Just like this in real life when you are in a sad situation . Try to stand back and see this as two.
One the mind interpreting the situation in terms of thoughts, and second the real you witnessing your own mind doing this task of thoughts.Once you are aware of this, the gravity of the situation fades and you come to the real perspective of experience.
Otherwise the mind would force you into accepting the situation as real. In the presence of the self, the sad situation is only a fleeting one.
If you rely on your identity to be a fleeting one, your unhappiness can never end as there are so many situations which can be considered as sad.
While you rely on your true identity all such experiences are transient and the real you stands uncluttered and uninfluenced by the so called experiences.
When you watch a child play and if the toy breaks, you never experience sadness while the child does. Why?. You know the fleeting reality of the toy. You can stand back and analyse the toy is only a transient source of happiness in life. For the child, the toy is the reality and hence its misery.
"When you think everything is someones fault you will suffer a lot . When you realize that everything springs only from yourself, you will learn both peace and joy"
-----Dalai Lama
Let us split it up the term. There are two things here .
1) aware
2) ness.
ness always signifies existence or presence of something.
When we are in the happy mood we say there is happi-ness signifying existence of happy feeling.
So the ness part signifies the state of being.
aware part signifies the knowledge of .
aware(Knowledge)-ness(Being)
So together it signifies knowledge of being . or knowledge(chit) of existence(sat).
Here is the crucial thing to understand about awareness. The knowledge of your own existence is not apart from your own existence.What i mean here is this. When we know something it is usually about an object which is apart from us.Say you say i know anatomy. Here the known(anatomy) is different from the knower(me). When we speak about awareness there are no two distinct things. The existence is the known and the knower is the me
So i am knowing about my own existence. Knowledge and existence has to coexist.
What is even more crucial to understand is that all experience starts from this knowledge. So it is the mother of all experience. The fact that "i exist and i know it " is the mother of all experience and from it springs a world. It is so ingrained that we never question it or feel it. Since it is so very given, it is not a thought in our mind.
Whenever you are having an experience say for e.g. you are watching a movie, your sensory perceptions are arriving and your mind is interpreting it and you experience the movie. But you never think about the fact that you exist and you know about the fact that you exist. This is not considered
as part of experience. It is sort of taken for granted. Your experience of the movie is only the sensory impulses of the movie and the thoughts in your mind.
As a result the mind grants objective reality to the movie, since the mind itself is not sure it exists always.
The world out there seems real only from the perspective of a fleeting identity called the mind. In order to lent credence to the experience, the mind grants objectivity to the outside world. In any change something must be unchanging. Since the mind is changing it lents credence to the world as real.
Let us include in that experience the fact that "i know that i exist" as also part of that . So what happens now.You must say "I know that I exist and I know that there is an experience of a movie going in my mind."The movie instead of just existing in my mind has become part of a wider perspective that it is in awareness.(Knowledge of existence).
The movie is no longer real object independent of me. It depends on me for its survival. In fact it is part of me. If i dont exist the movie also cease to exist.Here you might say, how can you say this. Even if i die the movie exists. The I , we are referring here is not the false self of body-mind.
We are speaking about the continuous consciousness presence the one and only self.
So we are never having separate experiences in the world , even though we feel so. All experiences are in the self. Experiences are not out there.
They are in the self. You are not moving towards the outward objects so to speak to have experiences.The objects come to your awareness . They appear in your awareness.In fact they are dependent on the awareness for survival. Awareness is the only content of experience.
All other things like the objects the body mind etc are just in awareness.
This is the reason why Shakaracharya said "Brahman satyam Jagan mitya".
From the real perspective of the self which is unchanging ever presence, it is the only thing that is unchanging and the world is the transient reality .
Look around your room. See some object say a picture. What do you see?. Can you see the fact that your awareness( knowledge of existence) is witnessing the seeing experience. If not, think about the process as two.
1)You are seeing the picture
2) Your awareness is witnessing the process of seeing the picture.
Usually we dont experience the second one because of the mind clouding the experience with interpretations.If we can develop the trait of seeing this process also, slowly we would begin to see our true view of experience.
Close your eyes and visualize how the experience was. You started seeing the picture and you were aware of this experience.The real you was the witness of the experience of seeing.
Just like this in real life when you are in a sad situation . Try to stand back and see this as two.
One the mind interpreting the situation in terms of thoughts, and second the real you witnessing your own mind doing this task of thoughts.Once you are aware of this, the gravity of the situation fades and you come to the real perspective of experience.
Otherwise the mind would force you into accepting the situation as real. In the presence of the self, the sad situation is only a fleeting one.
If you rely on your identity to be a fleeting one, your unhappiness can never end as there are so many situations which can be considered as sad.
While you rely on your true identity all such experiences are transient and the real you stands uncluttered and uninfluenced by the so called experiences.
When you watch a child play and if the toy breaks, you never experience sadness while the child does. Why?. You know the fleeting reality of the toy. You can stand back and analyse the toy is only a transient source of happiness in life. For the child, the toy is the reality and hence its misery.
"When you think everything is someones fault you will suffer a lot . When you realize that everything springs only from yourself, you will learn both peace and joy"
-----Dalai Lama
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