Transcription
Hello and a warm welcome to this video. Alex here. Today, I'll share with you how to stay aware all day.
A common way we try to stay aware is through strong discipline, or wondering if we need reminders pinned to every wall and mirror in the house. But the truth is, remaining aware in everyday life is about two seemingly paradoxical things. One is a simple practice that establishes you as awareness. The other is about going beyond the practice altogether and having a simple but profound shift in perspective. This fundamental shift has you naturally relax away from the mind chatter into deep, peaceful presence, completely automatically. I'll break down the practice, illuminate the shift, then explain how these two seemingly opposing elements come together seamlessly, so you can end overthinking and relax deeper and deeper into the ease of being.
The Great Sage Ramana Maharshi said, "Your own self-realization is the greatest service you can render the world. The mind is only a bundle of thoughts. Stop thinking and show me the mind. It will not be found. Remaining as awareness is itself liberation." And this is vitally important.
I remember I would try to think my way into presence and awareness. I would try to put up reminders everywhere to stay aware. And although I don't have any tattoos, I wondered if my first should be, "Stay present, Alex." All this just served to reinforce the idea that I'm a limited, separate person who needs to try really hard to stay aware and not get lost in thinking and worries. That was until there was a deeper revelation: I already am this awareness that I'm trying to get to and establish myself in. If I try to go anywhere else other than awareness, I'm going away from it. And wait a minute, I'm already here. Awareness is already what is.
I think there's this common experience, this bittersweet feeling of clarity whilst watching the video or being at the retreat, yet a mild anxiety about when we're going to fall back into mind identification. We find deep peace with guidance and meditation, but we dread how quickly we might react to work or to a life challenge.
Try this: stop thinking for a second. What remains? Awareness. You are simply being this. We could call a brief moment of simply being. We find this awareness, this beingness, is also present when there's thinking. Awareness and being, where is it? It's always instantly accessible and available. We don't need to go via a thought or reminder. We can always go directly here by simply relaxing and by being aware of simply being.
Brief times of awareness, repeated frequently, naturally get longer, join together, and form unbroken presence. Each moment of this simple awareness of being is like a precious gem, radiant and complete in itself. Every gem is unique and valuable, but when you place them together to form a crown, it becomes something even greater: a symbol of ultimate power and authority. Awareness is that ultimate power and authority. It's the fundamental basis for every single experience. Awareness depends on nothing. It is present even if all experiences were to disappear, like being in a float tank. But everything depends on awareness. We couldn't experience anything without it.
So instead of rigid disciplines and reminders, just try the simple practice whenever you remember throughout the day: briefly pause to be aware of simply being. Do this many times, and they will get longer and appear to come together as you relax deeper and deeper. The simply being this leads us onto the second thing: the fundamental shift that has us never forget our true nature as awareness.
Now, this is a seeming paradox. We are told that if we return to being over and over again, we'll be established as that. However, this seems to reinforce the idea of being a person who needs to practice being aware. The Great Sage Nisargadatta Maharaj said, "It is not what you do, but what you stop doing that matters." And that which we stop doing, in this case, is focusing down onto thinking and identifying with it. The truth at the heart of awakening is: you already are awareness. That's what we're awakening from, the belief in being just a person and believing all the thoughts, to reveal the truth of being infinite awareness, our true nature.
So if this is true, if we already are our true nature, awareness, what practice could take you there, considering you're already it? How could you practice being what you already are? Now, this is where the seeming paradox resolves itself. The practice of being aware many times until it becomes continuous and unbroken is what we could call a non-practice, or something you stop doing.
Nonduality teacher David Bingham put it in a really great way: "Thoughts are like invitations. They're invitations to step into that personal world and be that person in the thinking and go to that party that you always know ends up in a complete mess and people going home in tears." If you've been accepting the invitations all your life, the party hosts are going to keep sending the invitations. Even as you start turning them down, but as you consistently turn down the invitations to go to that party, eventually they get the message that you're not interested and stop sending them.
As we repeat simply being aware many times, we are turning down those invitations to be anything else than what we already are, and eventually, we remain aware of that and established in that. But the truth is, we already are this to begin with. We, you, already are this infinite being. The appearance of a person who's practicing being aware is an appearance within you. However, this doesn't necessarily mean you don't practice. If it appears to be helping, and it's not an instruction to think, "I'm already apparently awareness, so I don't need to do anything and everything's futile." It's the recognition that we already are awareness, and any apparent practices are the embodiment of that. Both are relevant at the same time.
Keep returning to your being over and over again, but also know you already are that. As you relax into being and rest as awareness, the moments of emotional reaction or appearing to be overtaken by the mind eventually weaken and lose their ability to cloud your awareness and clarity. Old thinking and emotional patterns begin to resolve and dissolve, and it becomes more natural to rest in inner peace and stillness. A great clarity and wisdom arises. Ideas and intuitions to solve challenges arise from the deeper intelligence within you, and a great new energy to play and create begins to flow.
I hope this video begins to illuminate things for you. Remember, you already are awareness, but the full integration and embodiment of that can take time. The videos can help point things out and give you glimpses, but having support and structured guidance can really help accelerate the full integration and embodiment. If you need guidance in doing that, I invite you to consider joining Awake and Embodied. Over there, we have a six-week Awakening and Embodiment Journey. It's a deep, guided exploration into your true nature, complete with processes to safely release uncomfortable emotions, so it's embodied too. We have weekly live meetings with meditations, Q&As, which all come together to help you actually break through and make those fundamental shifts and live as your true nature. Just follow the link in the description.