The Fullness of Being Your Self

Instead of being aware of your experience, be aware of your self. Imagine removing experience’s content – thoughts, feelings, sensations, perceptions – leaving you, awareness, all alone. It’s like falling asleep while remaining awake. In this state, is anything lacking? Would you describe your experience as emptiness? No – only the mind calls awareness ‘empty’ with reference to objects, like someone seeing a blank wall where a painting once hung. In your experience of your self there’s no emptiness or void – you’re full of your self. You experience your self as presence, with no lack. You’re complete, lacking nothing. This sufficiency is the common experience we know as happiness – not a gleeful state of mind but your very nature. You can say four things with certainty about your self: ‘I am’, ‘I am aware’, ‘my nature is peace’ and ‘my nature is joy’ – a causeless joy derived from your inherent fullness.

Instead of being aware of your experience, be aware of your self. Imagine removing experience’s content – thoughts, feelings, sensations, perceptions – leaving you, awareness, all alone. It’s like falling asleep while remaining awake. In this state, is anything lacking? Would you describe your experience as emptiness? No – only the mind calls awareness ‘empty’ with reference to objects, like someone seeing a blank wall where a painting once hung. In your experience of your self there’s no emptiness or void – you’re full of your self. You experience your self as presence, with no lack. You’re complete, lacking nothing. This sufficiency is the common experience we know as happiness – not a gleeful state of mind but your very nature. You can say four things with certainty about your self: ‘I am’, ‘I am aware’, ‘my nature is peace’ and ‘my nature is joy’ – a causeless joy derived from your inherent fullness.