Awareness: Man's greatest power

You often hear the term "awareness" being used in every context and situation. Unfortunately, however, this term is often used completely inappropriately.

We tend to use the expression “I am aware of it” to mean that we are aware of it, that we have memory of it, but awareness is something else.

In fact, it is a state that must be reached through awareness itself! There are no other faculties that allow one to develop awareness. It is a muscle that develops itself.

Below, we will try to clarify these statements further by analyzing, to the extent possible in a single article, everything we know about awareness.

What is awareness?

The biggest mistake people make about awareness is confusing it with identification. We could say that awareness is the container of identity, but it's not just that.

Being aware is understood as being aware of certain internal or external processes, but it is not easy to encapsulate awareness itself.

In fact, it is not those processes, it is not that specific thought or state of mind, but it is the container within which that thought or state of mind takes shape.

The problem then in defining awareness is that the content is confused with the container and this fatal error is difficult to resolve through logic.

Especially nowadays, when certain particularly elaborate concepts are nipped in the bud because we are convinced that the material world reflects our identity.

Awareness could be defined as the “raw material” of the human being, something that escapes definition and cannot be weighed or measured.

The effects of awareness can be observed and measured, but it, in and of itself, cannot be encapsulated in a definition, in words, in numbers. Awareness is achieved.

The power of awareness

Awareness is what distinguishes humans from stones, animals, trees... they too exist, but they lack awareness. This is why we must think of awareness as the raw material of humanity: it is what distinguishes us from the rest of creation.

However, there are different levels of awareness: think of it as a ladder, or a mountain if you prefer. The higher you climb, the greater your awareness will be.

The closer you get to the summit, the more complete your overall view of the landscape; the lower you remain, the narrower your view and the more restricted your field of vision. This is why many masters speak of awareness as a path.

According to many Eastern traditions, in many cases, several lifetimes are needed to reach full awareness, as if each lifetime served only to elevate oneself a little higher than the previous one on the ladder of awareness.

We can therefore say that, potentially, awareness is innate in humans. But as previously stated, it is a state to be achieved, level by level.

Unfortunately, however, there is also the possibility of taking the opposite path, that is, descending from the mountain of awareness to increasingly lower, degrading levels.

Here we would open a broad discussion on free will or predestination, on reincarnation, on the difference between moral choices and the plane of consciousness...

It's best not to delve into this type of discussion, as it would fill thousands of pages. However, we can use a famous quote from the Buddha to further explain the concept and introduce the following considerations:

"Awareness is the path to the deathless, lack of awareness is the path to death. Those who are aware do not die, those who are not are as good as dead."

Divine belonging

As long as you remain within the mind, within dualism, within the perception of the material world, you are at a dead end: there are no real solutions in this state. There couldn't be any because the problem was created by the mind.

Whatever problem we face is always conditioned by the mind and it is not possible to find a solution within the problem itself.

We're likely to blame our problems on others, the context we live in, or our own identity. In reality, to solve the problem, we can only draw on our sole resource: awareness.

In fact, it is greater than any problem and transcends all phenomena. Thanks to it, therefore, it is possible to find the solution to any obstacle, since it is higher and beyond time.

It is therefore evident that awareness does not belong to the body, nor to the psyche, nor to the realm of emotions. It is something spiritual, linked to the highest and most subtle consistencies.

Consciousness doesn't die with the gross body; it lives in absolute timelessness and has nothing to do with our biological life as we commonly understand it. We could say it participates in it as an external observer.

According to ancient religious traditions, a divine seed exists within man, an immortal part that must be developed and which is constituted by a different consistency. It does not enter into matter or time.

If a human being aims to develop this sacred part, if he concentrates on defending it and giving it space, he will ascend to higher states of consciousness. Otherwise, he will move toward lower levels.

It follows that true happiness, in this dimension, is possible only through this task: increasing one's level of awareness. Detachment from matter, therefore, and absolute concentration on man's ultimate goals.

The more you exercise this gift, this muscle, the higher you will be able to look at life's experience, and from that point, your view will only bear witness to the correctness of the path you have taken.

It's interesting to note that awareness always starts from the individual and then transcends him: it is in fact the individual who feels this part as his own, but as one rises in level, one realizes that awareness is unique, collective, universal.

Having reached this level of awareness, we realize that our human experience is only a gross manifestation of our True Life as subtle beings, but we do not belong to this physical world. We are not earthly. We belong to the Other.