This Inquiry Removes the Dichotomy Between 'Awareness' and 'I' - 1st August 2016

So, welcome to this exploration of who we are. They redo every day, actually. I feel that most of you, you can't get over the shock that you are no thing, or the fear that it might actually be true that you are no thing. And the mind already said that this no thing is so boring or terrible, and what's the point, is it? But this no thing is not the absence of phenomena in the worldly sense. Nothing means the absence of any phenomena; means there is nothing, isn't it? This no thing is the potential for all phenomena to happen, but it's much more than just the potential for phenomena. Don't worry about if you're not just using fancy words. I am just trying to tell you that there is a difference between the worldly understanding of nothing and that's why I say 'no thing.' It's not an accent issue. There's a difference between the worldly sense of nothing and that awareness, the non-phenomenal no thing, because it is this non-phenomenal no thing, awareness, which holds the potential for all phenomena.

See, the worldly nothing doesn't have any potential, doesn't have anything; it's literally nothing. So this is an important difference. Like what you are discovering about yourself is that, yet what was there prior to the Big Bang must have been the potential for the Big Bang, isn't it? So is that nothing or something? So although it is no thing, it is still that which is, in the phenomenal sense, full of this potential and yet not limited to just this potential to become something. Because if it was just this potential to become something, then once it became something, there would be literally nothing left, and yet you remain untouched. I wonder if any of this makes any sense? Yeah. So if it was just, if you were just the potential to become something, then once you became something, then literally there would be no awareness left. But awareness remains untouched, you see? That is why it is the unlimited.

And this, although to the mind sounds like very boring, torturous words, the reality of what you are is very beautiful to discover because you remain untouched through all of this phenomenal play. And this is what we are discovering very simply. It doesn't matter if for some time you're not sharing in this way about what you are discovering. The words are not coming in any way about what you are discovering. But it is not about the expression of the discovery, but actually the discovery itself. So we are coming to this discovery: I am aware now. I am aware of this awareness. What did this 'I' look like? Don't go to knowledge for the answer. Go to your looking. You that knows that you are aware, what does this 'you' look like? The 'I' that knows awareness, what does this 'I' look like? Again, don't go to memory, past concepts, intelligence for the answer. Stay with your looking.

Like, I don't want any answer, just look. Do you have a weight? Do you have a size? Do you have any attributes? Have a shape? Do you have a color? Do you have a past? Will you have a future? This inquiry into the 'I' of awareness is a very important inquiry because it removes the dichotomy between awareness and 'I' which the mind tries to create. No thing. What remains? Is your existence dependent on knowing something? If you drop all concepts, is 'I' here now? Thoughts will come to distract you or to give you an answer, and the problem really is not these thoughts coming because they are going now. How it is more important to notice the urge to believe them today. Don't even try to not believe them, just notice the urge to believe them. Just watching as thoughts come and go, our attention to them goes. Notice the urge to accept what they are saying. Observe how the mind will try to make conclusions, including that 'no thoughts are coming' itself is a thought.

What remains when you are empty of concepts? Who is aware of that which is heard through the ears? Who is aware of that which is seen through the eyes? Is it this same awareness which is aware of hearing inside? That which is aware of touch and taste? That which is aware even of the sense of presence, the primordial sense that 'I exist,' 'I am,' you?