Everything you experience, from the sounds around you to your most intimate thoughts and feelings, stands in the foreground of experience. The fact of being aware, and its inherent peace, lies in the background, so continuously present that it is easily overlooked in favour of whatever appears within it.
Notice that being aware accompanies all experience.
We are normally so focused on the content of our experience – thoughts, images, feelings and so on – that we overlook the fact of being aware. It is like being so focused on the drama in a movie that we overlook the presence of the screen. So soften the focus of your attention from the content of your experience, including these words, and come back to the simple fact of being aware or awareness itself.
When I suggest noticing the fact of being aware, I subtly imply that it is you as a person who has the experience of, or notices, being aware. I do not mean to imply this. Awareness is who you essentially are; it is what you are before you are aware of any other experience.
So it is not you as a person who either has the experience of being aware or overlooks the experience of being aware. It is you, awareness, that is aware of yourself, and that sometimes loses yourself in the content of experience and, as a result, forgets or overlooks yourself. And it is you, awareness, that, as it were, comes back to yourself, remembers yourself.
I often illustrate this using the analogy of an actor, John Smith, who plays the part of King Lear. If John Smith loses himself in the part he plays, he is miserable and in conflict. As soon as he comes back to himself and recognises, ‘I am not King Lear, I am John Smith’, he is immediately at peace. The play still goes on. He does not need to stop playing King Lear in order to know that he is John Smith. John Smith can fully participate in the play. He can assume the character of King Lear with all the activities, thoughts and relationships that accompany that role, but he remains John Smith and, as such, at peace.
When I suggest noticing the fact of being aware, it is like asking King Lear to notice the presence of John Smith. That suggests that there is a person called King Lear who may or may not notice John Smith. Of course, that is not the case; there is only John Smith. But as a concession to King Lear, it is legitimate to say to him, ‘notice the presence of John Smith’. Later on, we realise it is not King Lear that either overlooks or remembers the presence of John Smith. It is all John Smith. He either loses himself in the part he plays, or he remains in touch with himself.
It is exactly the same with awareness. When I suggest noticing the presence of awareness, I am making a concession to the person that seems to be something other than awareness and that can either notice or overlook awareness. For those already familiar with this understanding, the concession is hardly necessary. So really, I should simply say to you, awareness, cease losing yourself in the content of your experience and come back to your self.
Let go of whatever you are aware of and come back to your being.
Everything you experience, including your most intimate thoughts and feelings, is, as it were, in the foreground of your experience. The fact of being aware, your essential self, lies in the background of experience. That is why I sometimes suggest taking a step back from the content of your experience and resting in awareness, as awareness.
Just as King Lear is always agitated and upset, and yet, even in the midst of his agitation and upset, John Smith is at peace, so the mind is always moving, changing and agitated to a greater or lesser extent, but you, awareness, are always at peace. Even in the midst of your agitation or sorrow, it is not necessary to have any agenda with the content of experience. The inherent peace of your true nature is always available.
Living in Peace, Living as Peace, my recording on remaining in touch with being whatever the world may bring, is an invitation to become intimate with the presence that lies beneath the changing circumstances of your life, a presence that is already whole, already complete and already at peace, and that no agitation of the mind, however persistent, has ever truly disturbed.
