We have two kinds of awareness.
One is normal awareness,
and the second is meditative awareness.
What is normal awareness?
Everybody has it.
For example, "Be aware."
"Watch out!" "I know." "I am angry."
"I am happy." "I am not happy."
"I see something over there."
"This flower is nice!"
"I love flowers!"
"I do not like flowers because they give me allergy."
"I do not know if this is a good flower or a bad flower."
This you already know.
This is normal awareness.
We all have this normal awareness,
but the important point here
is that you do not recognize awareness as awareness.
Normal awareness is totally facing outward.
Your awareness is chasing outer phenomena.
What are outer phenomena?
They are form, sound, smell, taste,
physical feelings and sensations,
thoughts, emotions, etc.
You are always chasing after outer phenomena.
You do not recognize that there is awareness.
For example, when you listen to a sound,
this is just a small example,
when you listen to a sound,
what you hear and what you experience is only the sound.
You do not recognize the awareness that listens to sound.
So there is only sound.
But if you recognize awareness —
you have come here to learn meditation —
when you listen to a sound,
you know that you are listening to a sound.
You can recognize awareness there.
In this case,
you have a sense of freedom,
because your mind
does not only rely on these outer phenomena,
like form, sound, smell, taste, sensation,
and even thoughts and emotions.
If you do not recognize awareness with outer phenomena,
then your mind always observes.
The observer observes
and chases after different situations and phenomena.
You also cannot see yourself.
You do not have a center.
It is almost as if your mind is like a flag in the wind.
When the wind blows to one side, the flag goes one way.
When the wind blows to the other side, the flag goes that way.
It is always like this. It moves and moves and moves.
There is no freedom.
There is no. . . how to say?
The flag is always moving because of the wind.
The flag does not have any control by itself,
“I want to stay like this.” There is no control.
Wherever the wind blows, it goes in that direction.
Your mind becomes like that,
following different phenomena.
You see something and think, “I like that."
You see something else and think, "I do not like that,"
or, "I do not know if I like that."
That is why, if you see something nice, you think, "Great!"
If you see something not so nice, you think it is bad.
And between these two you get confused.
It is the same for sound, smell, taste, sensation,
thought, and emotion — with everything.
If you recognize awareness,
for example, when you listen to a sound,
there is the sound,
but at the same time there is awareness,
which is very pure, clean, calm, and peaceful.
It is like. . . how to say?
It is transparent, like water.
This water is pure, clean, calm, transparent,
but if you pour sand into the water and stir it,
it becomes. . . how to say?
It does not become so nice, it gets dirty.
So, how can you separate the sand from the water?
Just leave it,
and the sand will automatically settle down,
and you will see that the water is already very clean and pure.
Your mind is like water.
When you use sound as the object of meditation,
you just relax,
and your awareness is resting on the sound.
Then, automatically,
your awareness becomes calm, pure, and clean,
and you will recognize your awareness more and more.
You can rest your awareness on a form.
You can rest your awareness on a smell, taste, or sensation.
The benefit of this
is that your mind becomes more calm and peaceful,
and the special result of this
is that your mind will become pliable and workable.
It will no longer be like a flag in the wind.