Awareness Is Always Here — So Why Have You Never Noticed It?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRglUQzLR9c

Video Summary

The word "awakening" gets used constantly in spiritual circles but almost never defined. Strip it back and it simply means this: waking up to what is actually real. Not a mystical experience, not a vision of light, not becoming one with the universe — those are experiences that come and go. Awakening is the recognition of what was already present during any experience. And the reason most people miss it isn't because it's hidden or rare. It's because attention has been flowing outward since birth — toward things, thoughts, screens, sounds — and nobody ever pointed it back inward.

Right now, if you slow down and stop following your thoughts, something remains. Not a thought, not an object, not a feeling — just a still, open presence. You can call it awareness, silence, consciousness — the name doesn't matter. What matters is that when you look for its beginning, you can't find one. When you look for where it ends, there's no edge. It has no form, no shape, no location. And yet it's undeniably here — it always has been. It was here in childhood. It was here before this sentence. It is what allows you to be aware of anything at all.

That's the thing most seekers keep overlooking: awareness isn't something you experience. It's what you are. Objects appear in it and disappear. Thoughts arise in it and subside. It never becomes anything — things simply appear within it. Like the fragrance of a flower that exists independently of the flower itself, awareness is the quality of being aware without needing an object to be aware of. You've already touched this. The question is whether you've recognised it as what you are. If this points to something you've glimpsed but can't stabilise — a Clarity Call is where we look at it directly together.

Full Transcript

So what do people really mean when they say awakening?

Good question. The word awakening — and a lot of other spiritual terms — are used again and again, repeatedly, but are rarely defined clearly. So let's take a look at the word awakening itself.

Awakening comes from the word awake. The opposite of being awake is being asleep. And there is no in between. You can call the dream an in-between state — between deep sleep and the waking state. But then you wake up from a dream as well. You wake up from deep sleep. What we as human beings experience — we take this to be real. So when we wake up from a dream to this, we say we woke up. Basically, we woke up to what we think and know and feel and experience as real. So the word awakening means: you wake up. You realise the reality of what's going on. Or the reality of who you are. Or the reality of everything around you.

Awakening does not mean having a mystical experience. If you've had a mystical experience — you became one with the universe, you were thrown into nothingness, everything was shining with light and you were the light, you were suddenly in the void — those are mystical experiences. That is not awakening.

It can be an awakening experience. But awakening is the recognition of awareness during that experience. If you did not recognise awareness at that point, then it's an experience that came and went just like every other experience.

So — if awareness is always present, why don't we notice it?

If it is always present, then it must be present right now. Let's take a look right now. If you just let go of your thoughts — let go of your mind, do not follow your thoughts. That means do not pay attention to them. Where attention goes, energy flows. And when you think and give something energy, you have a thinking process that leads to a thought.

So right now, just let go of your thoughts. Close your eyes if you want — it will give you less distraction. Just slow down. What's going on?

No sound. Silence.

And you'll notice that you can call it consciousness, awareness, or the silence. If you are absolutely still within, you'll find the silence — the awareness — expanding. And why is it expanding? Where attention goes, energy flows.

In this awareness, you can inquire right now. Have a look — when did this awareness start?

You'll find that it's always been. See if you can find a starting point. You can use the word silence, consciousness, awareness, nothingness, emptiness — it's the same one reality.

It has always been there, throughout your life. And take a look — can it ever go away? If it had no beginning, will it end when we open our eyes, or when we start talking?

No. It has no beginning. It has no ending. It has always been, is, and will always be. And even that is saying too much.

So you'll find that this awareness has always been present right from childhood — but we've never noticed it like we are noticing right now. And the only thing we've done to notice it is we've turned our attention towards awareness, towards consciousness, towards silence. We've turned our attention towards that which is not a thing, which is not a thought. And you'll find it — we can't name it, it has no form. Yet it is.

So awareness is always present no matter where you are. You need not go to a spiritual place for this. You need not leave your home for this. There is no difference between the awareness that is here right now and the awareness in the holiest of places — or the most evil places. Awareness remains the same.

Everything — holy or evil, and everything between — arises in this awareness and subsides back into it. The word is interesting: it arises or it appears. Not it becomes. Awareness doesn't become something. Things appear — and what appears must disappear. And what is real never appears. So awareness never appears. What appears are things and thoughts in awareness.

If awareness is always present, why don't we notice it? Because we are never taught how to slow down or do these things in school. Every child grows up learning the basics of how to live in life, how to make a living, how to think about the future, how to chase success, how to avoid pain. All these things are outside. Attention is naturally kept outside. And today, we have enough distractions. Every 10, 20 seconds — a notification, a sound, something pulling your attention out. When will you stop and pay attention to what is within? To what is the source of the attention itself?

That's why meditation practices are suggested — naturally, to slow down the racing of thoughts, slow down the attention going out, bring it within. If attention doesn't go out, it remains within. And you'll find it expands naturally.

So, to answer the question directly: if awareness is always present, why don't we notice it — it's because attention is outwards, towards things and objects. The moment attention is withdrawn inside, then you can pay attention to what is and has always been. Which is not a thing outside. Neither a thought in the mind. Yet it is that in which these things appear and disappear. That in which thoughts arise and subside. That which is unchanged.

Right now — what is aware of this moment?

That's the question. Right now. What is aware of this moment? It doesn't matter what time you're watching this, where you're watching it. Every time is right now. So right now — what is aware?

"What" has to be a thing. The answer to what will have to be a this or a that. It has to be an object — a thing with a name and a form. So let's find out experientially.

Close your eyes if you can. Let's pay attention to the silence — the silence that is there before we have a thought, before we even talk, before we have our next thought. Silence. Just for a few seconds.

In this silence, there is no thought. And if there is no thought, there is no thing.

What is aware of this moment?

If you try to find out what is aware of this moment — there is no thing that is aware. There is just awareness. I am aware — without an object.

To be aware of something, there must be an object. But the quality of being aware without an object — that is what we're calling awareness.

Imagine a flower that has fragrance. Now imagine that fragrance — the perfume — without the flower. Take an apple. Imagine the apple. And now imagine the quality of being an apple — the appleness of the apple. The quality of the apple, without the apple.

In the same way — we are aware right now of no thing, no thought. It is just the quality of being aware. There is no object. We are not aware of something. There is just awareness. The perfume of being aware — without an object, without a thought, without an image, without a sound.

All things as objects arise and subside in this awareness. You can become aware of objects — that's where attention goes. But if your attention doesn't follow those objects, they arise on their own in awareness and subside. They don't become. And if you open your eyes and look around — in the same way that images arise as thoughts, things appear around you and disappear. The awareness remains intact.

So — what is aware of this present moment is awareness itself. Aware of something would require an object. The quality of just being aware without an object — that is awareness.

And again, if you sit and look: this awareness has no beginning, has no ending, has always been, is everywhere. All thoughts arise in this and subside. You open your eyes — all objects appear in this and disappear in this.

Awareness remains as it is.