But you – the fact of simply being aware or awareness itself – are inherently free of the agitation, sorrow, pain and conflict that characterise your experience. In other words, being effortlessly aware is already at peace, already free of all sorrow. It is already the peace, the quiet joy, the absence of conflict, that is, the love that you seek.

The eyes see everything, except themselves. Why? Because they are too close to themselves to be able to look at themselves. The eyes can only see something at a distance from them.

It’s exactly the same when you try to know your self. It is only possible to know something that is at a distance from you – in other words, in subject-object relationshi... See more

Enlightenment, awakening, self-realisation, liberation – these must be amongst the most misunderstood words in all the spiritual traditions, suggesting, as they do, some extraordinary, mystical experience.

There is nothing extraordinary or mystical about being or being effortlessly aware. Being or being aware is the simplest, most ordinary, most int... See more

The Simplicity of Meditation

Meditation is simply to notice the natural, effortless awareness that you essentially are, and to be that, knowingly. Everyone is always essentially that, but mostly without realising it. They are that, so to speak, unknowingly. Meditation is to remain as awareness, whatever arises. In other words, meditation is simply ... See more

Just as the screen, relatively speaking, remains the screen – sometimes with a movie playing, sometimes without – so awareness remains unchanged, whether or not there is experience. The content of the movie doesn’t affect the screen. Likewise, what you are aware of doesn’t affect your essential self – the fact of being aware, or awareness itself.

So, when you try to know your self, there is an absence of experience, an openness, an emptiness, just pure aware being without any objective features. That pure aware being – awareness itself – cannot know itself as an object. It can only be itself knowingly.

To know your self is to be your self knowingly.

In other words, in self-knowledge, there is... See more

You are not always thinking, but you are always effortlessly aware. You are not always feeling, sensing, perceiving, but you are always effortlessly aware. You are not always acting and relating, but you are always effortlessly aware.

Being aware is the constant, steady, changeless background of all continually changing experience. You don’t have to practice being aware; you are essentially that, naturally, effortlessly.

If you find yourself, through force of habit, lost in the content of experience, just come back to being effortlessly aware. Notice that this recognition of what you essentially are is always a coming back, a returning. It is never a reaching for your self. It is never a going towards your self. It is always a returning, a relaxing, a coming back.