When this is seen, the search that has driven the mind outward comes naturally to rest. Thoughts and perceptions continue as before, but they now shine with the quiet radiance of their source – the transparent, untroubled light of pure knowing.

Being aware or awareness itself is the knowing in all that is known, the experiencing in all experience.

By mind , I do not mean simply internal thoughts or private images, but the totality of experience – thinking, imagining, feeling, seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, smelling and so on. The sights before you, the sounds around you, the sensations of the body, your thoughts, memories and images, the feelings that move through you – all of this is... See more

It is for this reason that awareness is the abiding source of peace and quiet joy in us. Not a peace that depends on circumstances, but the inherent stillness of our own being; not a joy that comes and goes, but the quiet fulfilment that is inherent in knowing itself.

As such, we could say that the mind consists of two elements: its known content and its knowing essence. The known content is always changing, appearing and disappearing; its knowing essence is ever-present and unchanging.

That is, everything we have ever thought, imagined, felt or perceived – every idea, every discovery, every relationship, every perception of the world – appears only as experience. However much we may struggle with the implications of this statement, we cannot legitimately deny it. Experience is all we ever know or could ever know.

When we look closely at experience, we see that everything we know, think or perceive takes place in the mind. It is within mind that the universe, as we know it, unfolds – every sight, sound, sensation, thought and feeling. Whether we are contemplating distant galaxies or the beating of our own heart, we are always encountering appearances within... See more

But does the mind give us a true representation of reality? Everything the mind knows is filtered through its own limitations, and must therefore appear in accordance with them, just as everything appears orange when we are wearing a pair of orange-tinted glasses. Once we are accustomed to the glasses, orange becomes the new norm. The colour seems... See more

Every scientific theory, every philosophical idea, every perception of the so-called external world, appears within the field of experience. We have never stepped outside experience to confirm that anything exists independently of it. Even the belief that there is a world ‘out there’, separate from and prior to experience, is itself an experience –... See more