04/19/2025
"Awareness isn’t something we own; awareness isn’t something we possess. Awareness is actually what we are." ~Adyashanti
Awareness is not something we can own or possess; it is, quite simply, what we truly are. This teaching from Adyashanti invites us to look beyond the ordinary sense of self—this idea that "I am someone who is aware"—and realize that awareness itself is our deepest essence.
Most of us are accustomed to thinking of awareness as a tool or faculty we use to experience the world, as if we are an individual "me" who has awareness. But this is a fundamental misunderstanding. Awareness isn’t something we have; it’s what we are. We are not the thinker of thoughts or the experiencer of experiences—we are the space in which all thoughts, sensations, and experiences arise and pass away.
When we identify with the mind or the body, we feel like a separate entity, isolated from the world. But if we look closely, we find that everything we perceive—every thought, feeling, or perception—appears within awareness. And that awareness itself is boundless, timeless, and without center. It is not confined to any single experience or individual self. As Adyashanti says, "Awareness is not a possession, nor is it something you achieve or attain. It is always here, now, and it is what you are."
The paradox here is profound: the more we try to "become" aware or "gain" awareness, the more we reinforce the illusion that awareness is something outside of ourselves, something to be attained. But awareness is not a goal or an object; it is the very foundation of our existence, the open, unbounded field in which all of life unfolds.
This insight calls us to turn our attention inward, to stop looking for ourselves in the shifting contents of experience and to recognize the awareness that has always been here—effortlessly present, awake, and alive. To see this is to awaken from the dream of being a separate self, and to realize the truth of what we are: not a person who is aware, but awareness itself, free and infinite.
Adyashanti often speaks about this in terms of a radical shift in perception, where we come to see that, "True freedom is found when we realize that we are not the content of our lives but the context in which all content appears and disappears." This realization cannot be grasped by the mind, for the mind is itself an appearance within awareness. It requires a surrender of our need to define or control, and an openness to simply be what we already are.
So, ask yourself: What is it that is aware of these words right now? What is it that knows your thoughts, your feelings, your very sense of self? Is it something you can possess, or is it the vast, limitless awareness in which all things appear and disappear? This is the doorway to awakening—the discovery that you are not who you think you are, but the awareness in which all thought arises and dissolves.
By resting in this recognition, you begin to see that awareness has no beginning or end, no boundaries, and no limitations. It is not yours, but it is you. And in that realization, all striving falls away, revealing the peace and freedom that have always been here, waiting to be noticed.
Supporting Quote from Adyashanti:
“Enlightenment is not about becoming divine. Instead, it’s about becoming more fully human… It is the end of trying to be special. It is the realization that we are nothing and everything, all at once.” — Adyashanti, The End of Your World.
In this light, consider that your deepest nature is not something to be achieved or owned, but something to be recognized—an ever-present awareness that is the ground of all experience, the unchanging essence of who you truly are.
- Adyashanti
