Q&A: 'YOU DON'T NEED TO LOCATE AWARENESS'
Awareness isn’t something acquired or observed - it’s the formless presence already here before all thought, experience, or identity.
It is not a state, not a feeling, not a thing at all, but That makes knowing possible. While experience is fleeting, layered, and nameable, awareness remains silent, changeless, invisible and indivisible. Trying to grasp 'it' misses the point; resting as It reveals all.
Objection 1:
“If awareness can’t be seen or grasped, how can I even know it’s real?”
Response:
Because you are it. The fact that you can ask this question points to awareness already functioning - a silent knowing. You cannot see it as an object, as it is the Seeing itself.
Objection 2:
“Isn’t awareness just another subtle mental state?”
Response:
No. All mental states arise in awareness. Awareness isn’t something that changes - it’s That which allows change to be noticed. Thoughts, feelings, moods, and sensations come and go, but the noticing of these does not.
Objection 3:
“If I can’t feel it or describe it, what’s the use of it?”
Response:
Its usefulness lies not in utility - but in truth. Once you recognise awareness being what you are, suffering rooted in identification dissolves. It’s not about feeling something - it’s about ceasing to identify with a this or that.
Objection 4:
“It sounds too abstract. Isn’t this just philosophy?”
Response:
It’s actually fundamental reality, direct experience, not some philosophy of the mind. All experiences occur within its Knowing, but we overlook what’s constant in our attempt and keep chasing that which changes.
Objection 5:
“Isn’t this the same as being mindful or present?”
Response:
Mindfulness is a practice. Awareness is prior—even to the presumption of a 'someone' who practices. You don’t need to generate presence; just recognise the indisputable presence of presence.
Objection 6:
“I still feel like a person experiencing awareness.”
Response:
That’s the subtle illusion. That termed ‘person’ appears in awareness - not the other way around. Look closely. Can you actually find the boundary where some 'you' ends, and awareness begins?
Objection 7:
“Sometimes I feel it, but then I lose it.”
Response:
Awareness is never lost - only attention moved. What notices the feeling of gain or loss? That noticing hasn’t gone anywhere. It’s not a state that comes and goes.
Objection 8:
“It seems passive. Don’t I need to do something with it?”
Response:
Awareness doesn’t need 'someone's' doing - it’s not an activity. An impulse 'to do' arises within it. The deepest insight isn’t in doing anything, but just realising that you are It.
Objection 9:
“Is this just a clever way of escaping life’s problems?”
Response:
No. It’s the very opposite. It’s the end of escapism. Awareness meets everything directly, without filters, without resistance. The idea of ‘problems’ is simply an idea appearing within the open field of Awareness.
Objection 10:
“But I’m still suffering in this life - doesn’t that mean I’m not resting as awareness?”
Response:
Suffering arises once you identify with what awareness witnesses. Resting as awareness doesn’t remove sensations - it removes the false belief that you are fundamentally what is suffering.
In Conclusion:
You don’t need to find awareness - it’s not elsewhere. It’s not earnt nor added. It’s that which is aware when one is seeking, questioning, doubting, and longing. It doesn’t change with mood or thought. It’s not improved by effort nor diminished by confusion. It simply is.
The invitation is not to chase awareness as an object, but to stop and notice what has always been here - a silent, endless, formless, whole.
Resting as that is not escapism - it is fully participating in reality, without some 'someone' clinging to what passes or resisting what is. Nothing more is needed. Nothing has ever been missing.
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“That which is, is always present. It is not known by effort, but by being still.” ~ Ramana Maharshi, Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi
Awareness is not found through doing, but through abiding in silence.
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“There is nothing to attain, for you are already that which you seek.” ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj, 'I Am That'.
The seeker is itself the sought - stop seeking, and that becomes clear.
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“Awareness is not something you become -it is what you are before becoming anything.” ~ Rupert Spira, Being Aware of Being Aware
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