The Three Qualities of Awareness
About 2,600 years ago, when Siddhartha Gautama (the
soon-to-be Buddha) sat down under the bodhi tree, his resolve was to realize
his true nature. Siddhartha had a profound interest in truth, and the questions
“Who am I?” and “What is reality?” impelled him to look even more deeply within
and shine a light on his own awareness.
As a Zen story reminds us, this kind of inquiry is not an
analytic or theoretical exploration. One day a novice asks the abbot of the
monastery, “What happens after we die?” The venerable old monk responds, “I
don’t know.” Disappointed, the novice says, “But I thought you were a Zen
monk.” “I am, but not a dead one!” The most powerful questions direct our
attention to this very moment.
To practice this same sort of self-inquiry inspired by the
Buddha, we can quiet the mind and ask “Who am I?” or “Who is aware right now?”
or “Who is listening?” Then we can look gently back into awareness to see what
is true. Ultimately, we find that there is no way for the mind to answer the
question—there is no “thing” to actually see or feel.
The point is simply to look, then to let go into the
no-thing-ness that is here. The question “Who am I?” is meant to dissolve the
sense of a searcher.
Yet, as you might discover, this isn’t what happens right
away. First, we find all sorts of things we think we are, all our patterns of
emotions and thoughts, our memories, the stories about who we take ourselves to
be.
Our attention keeps fixating on elements of the foreground.
Maybe we’ve contacted a feeling. But we keep inquiring. “Who is feeling that?”
we ask, or “Who is aware of this?” And the more we ask, the less we find to
land on. Eventually, the questions bring us into silence—there are no more
backward steps. We can’t answer.
The discovery of no-thing, according to Tibetan Buddhist
teachings, is “the supreme seeing.” It reveals the first basic quality of
awareness: emptiness or openness. Awareness is devoid of any form, of any
center or boundary, of any owner or inherent self, of any solidity.
Yet, our investigation also reveals that while empty of
“thingness,” awareness is alive with wakefulness—a luminosity of continual
knowing. Rumi puts it this way: “You are gazing at the light with its own
ageless eyes.” Sounds, shapes, colors, and sensations are spontaneously
recognized. The entire river of experience is received and known by awareness.
This is the second basic quality of awareness: awakeness or cognizance.
If we let go and rest in this wakeful openness, we discover
how awareness relates to form: When anything comes to mind—a person, situation,
emotion—the spontaneous response is warmth or tenderness. This is the third
quality of awareness: the expression of unconditional love or compassion.
Tibetan Buddhists call this the “unconfined capacity of awareness,” and it
includes joy, appreciation, and the many other qualities of heart.
When Siddhartha looked into his own mind, he realized the
beauty and goodness of his essential nature and was free. The three fundamental
qualities of our being—openness/emptiness, wakefulness, and love—are always
here.
Gradually, we too can realize that this wakeful, tender
awareness is more truly who we are than any story we’ve been generating about
ourselves. Rather than a human on a spiritual path, we are spirit discovering
itself through a human incarnation. As we come to understand and trust this,
our life fills with increasing grace.
Enjoy this talk on the Blessings of Awakening
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