chapter 41 Awareness

If knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom, then know this: there is no self. I kid you not. The concept of the self is an illusion. Now I know that night be hard to shallow in one big chunk so I'm going to break it down into manageable pieces. Perhaps then you might be able to save yourself a bit of money on that trip around the world ( or to the top of that mountain) in search of yourself.

So here we go. First, let me be clear : there is no self, but that doesn't mean you're not real (obviously). What it does mean, however, is there is no constant self. No fixed, unchanging, permanent you.

Think about it for a minute. How do you describe yourself? You describe how you look: 'I'm tall with dark hair'. You describe what you think: 'I believe external events cause most human misery'. And you describe what you feel: 'I feel anxious about anything that is unknown, uncertain, or potentially dangerous'. Do you see? Not one of these things is permanent. Sure, some of them may stick around a lot longer that the others. They may even repeat themselves. But, to varying degrees, they're all changing. Simply put: you're a process, not a product.

Part two. Now that hopefully I've loosened the roots on the notion of a fixed, constant, permanent self, let me get back to the topic of this chapter: awareness. You see, there is another important aspect of ourselves but, no matter how hard we try, this one can't be described fully. It's the unchanging process of awareness.

Awareness is what makes us conscious of our surroundings and experience. Without it there would be no world. It's a permanent part us. So if you have visibly aged over the past 10 years but still feel like you're the same person, then perhaps it's because your awareness, the lens through which you view the world, hasn't changed. In s sense, awareness is who you are at most fundamental level. We can't see awareness in the same  way we can't see our own eyes. Awareness is the seer. We can't ever locate it. It doesn't leave a mark. It's not a thing. But in a sense, it's everything