A Borderless Field of Awareness

We begin by resting our attention not on the content of experience – that is, our thoughts, feelings, images, perceptions – but by asking, ‘What is it that knows, or is aware of, the content of my experience?’ In this contemplation it is we, awareness, that disentangle our self from the content of our experience and come back to our self. We become aware of being aware, or awareness itself. Now we recognise it is ‘I’, awareness, who is aware of the body, mind and world. We take a step back and see that the body and mind are not themselves aware. They are part of the content of experience that we are aware of. If we stay close to the evidence of experience, everything we know or experience takes place in awareness, in consciousness. And when we look for an edge to our experience, we find a borderless field of awareness.

We begin by resting our attention not on the content of experience – that is, our thoughts, feelings, images, perceptions – but by asking, ‘What is it that knows, or is aware of, the content of my experience?’ In this contemplation it is we, awareness, that disentangle our self from the content of our experience and come back to our self. We become aware of being aware, or awareness itself. Now we recognise it is ‘I’, awareness, who is aware of the body, mind and world. We take a step back and see that the body and mind are not themselves aware. They are part of the content of experience that we are aware of. If we stay close to the evidence of experience, everything we know or experience takes place in awareness, in consciousness. And when we look for an edge to our experience, we find a borderless field of awareness.