Here we are talking about awareness.
Awareness is the essence of meditation.
As I mentioned before, awareness is with you all the time.
You don't have to look for awareness.
You don't have to make a new awareness.
It's with you all the time.
But, the problem is, we don't know this.
We don't recognize our own awareness.
This is a Buddhist meditation technique,
but everyone can practice it.
You don't have to become a Buddhist.
But, this meditation technique I'm sharing with you,
comes from a Buddhist lineage.
So, the awareness is...
Now, you are listening to me talking, right?
That is awareness.
You are curious about the meaning of this talk.
That is also awareness.
Without awareness you cannot pay attention to this talk.
Without awareness you cannot see me.
You might think,
“Oh, I don't understand what this guy is talking about.”
That's also part of awareness.
Or you think, “Oh, I understand.”
That's also awareness.
"I don't understand at all!" That's also awareness.
Any thought, emotion, motivation, or feeling,
everything is related to awareness.
So, the background of all these thoughts,
even negative thoughts and hatred,
the thought or feeling of anger,
Jealousy.
Depression. Panic.
Anxiety.
Guilt. Low self-esteem.
The background, or essence,
of all these thoughts and feelings is awareness.
Awareness is there!
The problem is that we are not realizing our own awareness.
So, now, the practice is to realize this awareness.
That's all!
There's no issue whether you have or don't have awareness.
That's not the issue, because you already have awareness.
Not only do you have awareness, you have complete awareness.
It's not that just a part of awareness is with you,
and then, if you meditate well,
awareness becomes more and more full, bigger, and more complete.
It's not like that! It's complete with you now.
This awareness is also very pure.
Normally, we give some examples.
Awareness is like space.
Thoughts and emotions are like clouds.
Space is always pure, clean, and profound.
It's completely open.
It cannot change. Space is unchangeable.
It's so nice!
Because of space we exist. We can move because of space.
And anything is possible because of space.
So, space is very, very important!
Yet, it's almost like we don't feel space.
It's kind of like we are taking it for granted.
Not many people pay extra attention to space.
But, what we normally see are clouds,
storms, hurricanes, and tornadoes.
We see mountains, we see oceans,
we see the earth, we see people, and we see the universe.
All this, the universe, the earth, the storms,
are like thoughts and emotions.
These storms, these clouds,
exist in space, and dissolve back into space.
All these thoughts, everything, appear within awareness.