Exploring our True Nature

The intention behind this article is to briefly touch base with an extremely broad topic that can go very deep, into endless discussions. Nevertheless, here we just want to bring a few points to the surface again. As readers, please feel free to expand the discussion in the comments section.

Cutting straight to the point of this article, we shall bring something forward which we have pointed out in some earlier articles. We shall discuss the foundation of existence, which is awareness. Not the idea of awareness, or a memory of awareness, no. Awareness itself is what we are talking about here. Awareness lies at the base of existence for everything, and for us as readers too. Everything else, such as the mind, emotions, thoughts, they depend on awareness.

This awareness that we are speaking of, it not just some dull light that occasionally shines in the back of our minds. No, this awareness we are talking about, is awake, aware, it is bright, knowing, loving, and fulfillment itself! - if we were ever to try and describe it. Now, if awareness lies at the base of all of existence, if we cannot exist without it, then surely, what we are at our core can be nothing other than this very same awareness. Consider this...

It is our sacred birthright

Discovering this is not some holy privilege. It is not limited to be discovered only by a certain caste, religion, or culture. No, this is our sacred birthright, all of us! One of the means we can experience a state of pure awareness, is through meditation. Again, this does not mean that we have to meditate on a certain deity, a certain idea of God, or within the philosophical guidelines of a specific culture or belief. We can all simply quiet the minds and focus on the awareness that seems to be in the background, coming to realize that it lies at the core of everything.

When we realize this, we shall understand that this was so obvious all the time, and we may not believe that we were overlooking the most obvious 'thing' all along! Yet, what we want to point out here, is that this is nothing exotic, as some of us may think. We have this idea that when we experience what some label 'Self-realization' that something magical is supposed to happen. We have this expectation, don't we? This may not be entirely true. Why so? Let's explain in a bit more detail.

Awareness is at the core of all of us. It is who we are. It is  - for a lack of better words - fulfillment itself, peace itself, love itself. 'It' is an absence of desire, an absence of unhappiness and dissatisfaction. It is an absence of suffering, and therefore we clearly want to distinguish between awareness and the mind. Fulfillment and peace is our basic nature. It is who we are, and it should be nothing out of the norm.

Upon realizing this, a lot of mental activity may happen which we can label as 'magical'. We say this because having a 'Self-realization' shatters many mental illusions, and it brings about a whole new perception and understanding of life. Therefore, we may feel that it is 'mind-blowing' due to what happens in the mind, but even this is not to be taken as a rule. It may take a while for us to mentally comprehend what happened, and to work with this experience in order to shatter the mental illusions we have. For some, we may have the experience, but mentally we do not understand what to make of it, or what it means. Again, it points out a difference between the mind and awareness. A difference between the mind and our True Nature. Awareness does not depend on the mind or understanding of the mind in order to exist, unlike the mind depending on awareness.

A two-step process

Once we have this realization with understanding, we do not want to stop here, saying that we know that awareness lies beneath everything and that we are this awareness. This is only one part of it. The second part of the path, so to speak, would be to explore this awareness. Or, stated in another way, we can explore our True Nature. 

What we may want to to, is to 'rest' in awareness, or to 'abide' in awareness. Through meditation, calming the body and the mind, bringing our attention inward, and just being in awareness. In this state, we can explore the qualities of ourselves, or of awareness. We can explore the peace, the fullness, the wholeness of it. Yet, we do not explore it as a separate individual, as a separate 'I' that is doing something. Instead, there is just an experience of peace, of love, of happiness. There is an experience, without a separate experiencer.

The more we rest in this, the more it becomes our natural state of existence. It begins to shine through the cracks of the flawed ego and the busy mind, and with time we start to experience more peace, more love, more awareness. Even on a mental level, we realize that thoughts are happening, but there is no thinker.

With this sense of fulfillment and resting in awareness, we live less in thoughts and ideas, which can be quite dull and grey in comparison to actual experience. We can become more sensitive to our surroundings, and our experiences can be profound, deep, and blissful! It brings us to a different level of reality, still participating in the Divine Play, but doing so in peace, in joy, and in love.

Like a flower blossoming naturally, we too can flourish without effort, when we let go of the ego and simply be in our natural state.