What is Awareness? Spoiler: It’s Not Yours

Awareness isn’t your personal property.

Like a toddler claiming ownership of the sky, spiritual seekers clutch at consciousness. They meditate, they contemplate, they journal about “my awareness” as if they could stuff infinity into their back pocket. Meanwhile, awareness watches this comedy show without buying a ticket.

The cosmic punchline? You’re the joke, not the comedian…

…and awareness? It’s the stage.

The Great Awareness Heist

Everyone wants to steal awareness for themselves.

“Rest in your awareness,” the gurus croon, selling you oceanfront property in the Sahara. You nod wisely, pretending you know what that means while awareness itself laughs at the absurdity.

It’s like fish discussing water ownership while swimming in it. The ego, that master thief, tries to pickpocket the infinite, stuff the formless into its grimy little hands. “Mine!” it squeals, like Gollum with his precious.

But awareness can’t be stolen because it was never missing. You can’t possess what you already are…

…any more than your eye can see itself.

The Screen, Not the Movie

Picture this: You’re watching yourself panic.

Your thoughts are having a meltdown, emotions are staging a coup, and sensations are rioting. Total chaos. Yet something watches this disaster movie with perfect equanimity.

That’s awareness – the screen that remains unscratched whether it’s showing horror films or romantic comedies. The ego watches the movie and thinks it owns the theater. It doesn’t even own the popcorn. Awareness isn’t experiencing your life; your life is a fleeting appearance within awareness, a shadow puppet show in an infinite light.

The screen doesn’t care what movie plays. It just is…

…while you’re busy critiquing the plot.

The Boundaries That Aren’t

Find the edge of awareness. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Still looking? Of course you are. It’s like searching for the corner of a sphere or the beginning of a circle.

Your body has boundaries, your thoughts have limits, but awareness? It’s the space in which boundaries appear. You think awareness lives in your skull like a hamster in a cage. Plot twist: your skull is in awareness, along with the hamster, the cage, and your adorable belief in personal consciousness. The walls you’ve built are made of smoke.

Awareness doesn’t end where your skin begins. Your skin begins where awareness allows…

…and ends where it doesn’t care.

The Effortless Disaster

Stop trying to be aware right now.

Seriously, cease all awareness efforts this instant. Notice something hilarious? Awareness continues without your permission, without your help, without your spiritual gymnastics.

It’s like trying to help gravity pull things down – unnecessary and slightly embarrassing. You’ve been frantically pedaling a stationary bike, sweating bullets to go nowhere. Awareness happens with the same effort the sun uses to shine: absolutely none. Your attempts to cultivate it are like teaching a fish to swim.

Being aware of being aware is the universe’s way of pranking itself…

…and you fell for it.

The Recognition That Ruins Everything

So what’s left when the jig is up?

Not understanding, not attainment, not some special state of cosmic consciousness. Just the recognition that you’ve been looking for your glasses while wearing them.

The separate self seeking awareness is like a wave looking for water – adorable but pointless. When this hits, really hits, the whole spiritual circus collapses. No more seeking, no more finding, no more you. Just this, whatever this is, knowing itself.

The joke’s on you, but you were never there to hear it…

…just ask awareness.

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