Please don’t start this until you’re really in the mood, because this is going to be an experiential process, not just something to read or think about. For example, I’ll be asking you a series of questions. They’re very easy, obvious questions, but for this to work, you can’t just read the question, you have to stop, even if just for a couple of seconds, and consider the question. Please take your time. It’ll be worth it.
Ok, I’ll start right in.
First of all, how is it that you are aware? How is that happening? Did you manufacture or create your awareness? What, exactly, is it anyway? What is it made of? Of what does it consist? Does it really make any sense that signals running around in our brains can cause awareness?
Notice that our awareness has no shape, no size, no extension. It doesn’t really seem to be a pinpoint. And yet it doesn’t seem to have any size beyond that either. It seems to extend to whatever it is that we’re aware of.
Notice that it really doesn’t seem to be a substance of any kind. It doesn’t seem to be made of anything. And yet it is more real than substance because without it we would never be aware of substance.
So it confounds the entire idea of materiality. Matter is so prominently substantial, and yet without insubstantial awareness all the substance of matter would be pointless.
Notice how absolutely gentle awareness is. Unless what it is aware of has something to do with force, awareness itself is absolutely gentle.
Notice how everyone’s awareness, when considered without regard to anything one might happen to be aware of, is exactly the same for everyone. Though we might think that what we’re aware of might be special, awareness itself is never special.
Now notice how our very existence would actually have no meaning at all were it not for the fact that we’re aware of existing. Notice how we can’t even be aware of anything existing without awareness, because we can’t be aware of anything existing without awareness without being aware of just that.
And now, notice that it actually in fact is the greatest thing we could ever know, because without it we wouldn’t be able to know anything. Notice that it actually in fact is greater than any other experience we could possibly have because without it we wouldn’t be able to be aware of any experience.
Of all the magnificent phenomena in the entire universe. Of all the astounding miracles you could ever imagine. None is more magnificent or astounding as our own, living awareness. Just consider for a moment how much of an astounding miracle it actually is that we are aware
Notice that if we weren’t awareness in the first place, we couldn’t imagine ourselves to be something other than awareness. We have to BE awareness before we can think we’re something else. That being the case, what’s the point in thinking we’re something else?
And now consider this, can there possibly be anything more true than awareness. Just try to imagine something that is more true than awareness. Everything we can possibly know about Truth could not be known unless there was awareness in the first place to be aware of it.
Amidst everything else you may believe about yourself, the one thing that is most certainly real about you is that you are aware. No matter how much what you’re aware of may be fantasy, your awareness itself always remains a reality.
Notice that the ego uses the phrase “my” awareness, as if it were your real self and awareness were something it made and owns. The greatest catastrophe in the world is how we allow our ego to deceive us about the true nature of our awareness.
Now, say to yourself:
There is no doubt that I am aware and that I am being, and this incontrovertible reality of my awareness owes none of its reality to any beliefs. I am clearly awareness regardless of whether I have any beliefs about awareness or not. All the problems I used to have were all due to identifying with the fraudulent sense of self that constituted the ego. But now that it is clear that awareness is the only real self I have, I no longer believe the ego is who I am, thereby dissolving my commitment and allegiance to the ego, which is, as a result, gradually evaporating.
Now, Say to yourself, I AM. That’s a meaningful sentence, is it not. And you are certain of it. You have no doubt about it. But now ask yourself, Who do you believe the I is that is saying I AM? Notice the sense of self that believes it is the I. Be aware of that sense of self. Notice that you are aware of that sense of self. Now notice that it is awareness that is aware of that sense of self. Now notice that awareness is the knower and that sense of self is what is being known. Now notice that you have to be awareness itself as the knower in the first place before you can be aware of seeming to be that sense of self that is known. So notice now that what you really are is awareness and not the sense of self that you thought you were. So now identify yourself as awareness itself instead of that sense of self that you thought you were. Now feel what it feels like to be awareness itself. Make awareness itself now your sense of self, knowing yourself as awareness. Awareness aware of itself. Awareness being aware of awareness itself as awareness. Awareness aware of awareness is what the pure “I” is.
Awareness aware that what it is is that it is is I AM THAT I AM.
So, say to yourself, I am that I am. Keep saying to yourself I am that I am letting its meaning sink in deeper and deeper. Now as you keep saying to yourself I am that I am begin to deepen your experience of what those words mean, that what you are is that you are. Now as you keep deepening your experience of the words I am that I am, let the words gradually begin to fade away until you are no longer saying I am that I am but are only experiencing the awareness of what those words mean.
Now rest silently in that awareness for a few moments. Notice what purity and stillness there is in this center of yourself. Notice how clear it is that this is indeed what you truly are. Notice how easy and natural and effortless it is for you to identify as this awareness that you truly are. Notice how easy it will be to shift to awareness as your sense of identity any time you choose to do so.
Well, that’s it. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for trying it out.
Much Love,
Ben Gilberti
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Jul 26, 2010 
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