be careful that you don't mistake a blank state of mind for the presence of awareness presence
of awareness is that which knows both a blank state of mind and a chattering state of mind
so be careful that you don't rest your attention on on a blank state on an empty state it's not in
other words it's not a focusing of your attention there are meditations in other traditions where
you focus your attention either on an object or a sound or a blank wall or an empty space
that's a different approach this is not to do with the focusing of attention on anything
it's to do with a relaxation of attention to be knowingly this open empty presence of awareness
it's a defocusing or a softening of the focus so if your attention is fixed on anything it's
only possible to attend to an object to just make sure that's clear you try now to attend
to something that is not an object or to direct your attention to something that
has no objective qualities it's not possible it's only possible to attend to an object so that is
the difference between what is often considered meditation in a progressive path and this is not
a criticism of those kinds of meditations it's Justin I'm just making the distinction between
them this is not a focusing of the attention on anything even on a blank state or an empty
mind it is a it is a resting or a falling back of the attention into its source it is
abiding knowingly as the presence of awareness that's not something we can do with the mind
but we don't have to do it because we are already that which is aware of our experience in fact that
this this meditation is the the only meditation there is that truly requires no effort at all to
direct your attention towards an object requires a subtle effort this approach to meditation is
the is the relaxation of that effort but you're looking with your attention you're trying to
find something in your experience further back than awareness you can never find out yes you
said something in your question about I want to define something further back don't look with your
attention for the presence of awareness attention can only be directed away from awareness towards
an object that is the purpose of attention when awareness wants to know something other
than itself it rises in the form of attention and directs itself towards an object but that's what's
attention is for attending to object attention means comes from ah and tend Airy to stretch
towards tend area means to stretch so attention is the stretching of awareness towards an object
but awareness doesn't have to stretch itself towards itself if I were to ask you now relatively
speaking stand up and take a step towards yourself what would you have to do now if I said take a
step away from yourself even then you you can't really do it in other words attention never really
leaves awareness but awareness is it's like that in the sense that it only needs to rise in the
form of attention and stretch itself towards the object whether the object is of thought feeling
a sensation or a perception but to know itself it doesn't need to rise in the form of attention it
just remains resting in itself in other words to be awareness is to know awareness they are
the same experience for awareness they are the same experience being ourselves and knowing our
self is the same the same experience so don't try to know or find the presence of awareness you can
only know or find that which is apparently not awareness so it's not I mean what I was what I'm
trying to do is recognize something that you are suggesting and so is that already too much to be
doing I mean and I and if it is I don't know how to do if I would not ask you the question are you
aware what would you say yes okay now where do you go to find that answer you go to an experience yes
the experience of being aware so now I ask you the question again are you aware but this time don't
answer it in words allow the question to take you to the experience of being aware and stay there
how far did you have to go to find the experience of being aware it is very not
verified it's not it's not buried in the depths of our being it's not out of sight it's not hard
to find or hard to know it's right there as soon as we're asked the question am i aware
yes it's right there it's close you don't have to go very far and just keep going there keep
visiting it keep resting there resting your attention there rather than wandering with
your attention in the realm of objects thoughts and perceptions but don't look for something
think of a this is a slightly strange metaphor but think of awareness like a disease that you
can only know by its symptoms you can't actually know the disease itself so what
are the symptoms of awareness peace and happiness okay um somebody's friend of
mine a Sufi friend of mine many years ago went to a Sufi teacher in in London called
I really Tweety she died many years ago some of you will know about him when he
went to the first meeting he asked her what can I expect from our meetings what can I
expect if I if I stay around you and she said I will infect you with my happiness
it's a kind of infection we don't know we can't see it we don't know when we've been
infected but we we see the symptoms of it the symptoms are not the thing itself there
the way they reverberates in the body mind so don't look for an experience