Thoughts that occur that are harmless, passive as it were and do not create this illusionary “I” could be:

I am thirsty, I am hungry, I want a walk, I like the sun.

Damaging thoughts that do create the sense of “I” could be:
I am unworthy, I am the contents of my mind,
The world is a dangerous place.

Automatically on thinking these thought there will arise a feeling that will give these thought a greater reality:  a reality that you feel. There are composite thoughts and root beliefs, but it all comes to the same thing: Thoughts depicting and creating who you believe and feel yourself to be.

Now who are you when you are not thinking? Obviously the same as when you are thinking. So what happens?  Simple: you believe that what has arisen in the body as thought and feeling to be who you are. This is also a thought and it of course validates itself merely because you believe it to be true. This is the process of identification that creates the illusion of “I”.

The body-mind construction is totally innocent, but we torture it daily with this childish mistake. Stop thinking, stop everything! Just for one moment. What is left? You are left, but it is not an illusionary “I”, it is life itself. And it has, and never will be, identified with anything.

Awareness on the other hand is the empty living field of Who one is. Consciousness arises in Awareness. It is timeless and all encompassing. It can be likened to the Now, which one could say is the body of Awareness. It has no beginning, and there for it has no end; it has no specific location; it has no boundaries; it is the true infinity.

So, can it be experienced you may ask? No, of course not. It can’t be pointed at; you can not say that you have found the Now: likewise you can not say that you have found awareness. You can be aware of being consciousness, but no conscious of being Aware. Put another way: you cannot see your own eyes, but try seeing without them.

Awareness can be known even though it defies measurement, definition and the experienceable.
How can it be known? There are a few basic observations one can make, though observation is the wrong word. Insight might be a better word, or realisation even (the act of making something real).

So, why not realise it Now? Realise the following without using the analytical mind that merely wants to categorize and experience.

A few fundamentals:

Not only do you know, you Know that you know. The Knowing that knows is Awareness.
If I cut off your arm, have you become less?
You have not become less. It is The Awareness that you are that tells you this.
Do you arise in you body, or does your body arise in you?

If you can accept that there is a greater knowing that knows consciousness and that you there is something that has not become less if one of your arms is removed, then you can also see that you body arises in Awareness and that Awareness will continue after the body has fallen away.

So, your body arises in who you are. What a releif. You are AWARE. You are boundless, infinite and without the limitied idea that you exist betwix your ears. You are free, irrespective of your experiences.

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