Verifiable attributes of awareness

These are verifiable attributes of awareness:


Awareness is what knows, it is what's knowing, 
or what's looking, what's listening.

Awareness exists.  It exists undeniably.
To deny awareness exists would require awareness of its non-existence.

Awareness is self-evident.

Awareness is that which most feels like "what we are", 
as our innermost being, our most intimate self,
awareness itself, even more so than this body and mind,
as we are aware of the body and mind.

In space:
Awareness is formless, without exact boundaries or edges or limits as such.
Its exact source is non-local, non-locatable, not pin-pointable, space-like,
it seems to come out of nowhere,
yet it seems tethered to this particular body and mind.

In time:
Awareness is timeless, without an discernible beginning or ending.
It is always now.  
It is always in this immediate present moment,
precisely and exactly now.
In that sense, it is localized, locatable, pin-pointable
as this instant, immediate present moment 
in an apparent flow of time.

Awareness is always fresh and new,
like a constantly gushing spring of immediacy, presence, now.

Knowledge of awareness is first-hand.
Awareness of awareness is first-hand.



These are claimed attributes of awareness
but not readily verifiable:


Awareness can exist without any objects of awareness.

Awareness exists beyond this particular body and mind 
in time and/or space.

Understanding pointers as just pointers

A finger pointing at the moon
does not describe the moon,
it just points to the moon.

Pointers to "what's looking", pointers to awareness,
may not describe or explain awareness,
they just point to awareness,
as an invitation to turn your attention
to the direction of awareness itself,
to induce awareness of awareness.
"Be aware of being aware. That is all."

If we don't understand what we are looking at,
we can still look at it, can't we?
Maybe the understanding of what it is
will somehow come to us, or maybe the
understanding of the subject will never come.
Maybe the subject is impossible to understand,
beyond understanding. 

Is it possible for anything real
to be inherently beyond understanding?
Would that ever be 'okay'?  Or acceptable?
I don't know.

Maybe there is special value in being aware of awareness,
resting in that, not knowing 'what' it is,
or how or why it is, yet it undeniably is.
And furthermore it intuitively feels that it is itself 
essentially what we are, our innermost being.

It is astonishing.

All that is learned will be forgotten

"There will come a time when
  one will have to forget
  all that one has learned."
         ~  Ramana Maharshi


Learned pointers, such as:
inward, within,
innermost being,
what's looking,
awareness,
formless,
timeless,
stillness,
presence, beingness

They are all thoughts, learned concepts.

But they are pointers to Reality beyond
themselves, in which they as pointers appear and vanish.

Listen to the Silence

Listen to the Silence.
Listen to the Silence in your heart.
To hear the Silence
 you must be silent.
To hear the Silence
 you become the Silence itself
  and merge as One with the Silence.
You are able to do this
 because your true nature is silence
  and profound peace.
It is a Holy Silence.

Feel the Stillness.
Feel the Stillness in your heart.
To feel the Stillness
 you must be still.
To feel the Stillness
 you become the Stillness itself
  and merge as One with the Stillness.
You are able to do this
 because your true nature is stillness.

It is a stillness and peace 
that shines with the light of Awareness,
the light of Knowing, the light of Life, 
formless and timeless.