Awareness Questions Practice

A guided practice from Awareness Explorers co-host Brian Tom O'Connor on questions that lead to awakened awareness, as well as simple phrases that can trigger an immediate state of presence.

Excerpted from Awareness Explorers podcast Episode 1, "What is Awareness?"

Transcript

This method is based on three questions.

And what I'll do is I will walk you through these questions.

I'll tell you what they are first,

And then we'll go into detail about each particular question.

So let's just take a moment and I would recommend closing your eyes if you're not driving and listening along and following inside and seeing where it goes.

So the questions are these.

One,

What is in awareness?

Two,

What is awareness?

Three,

What is aware?

So let's take those one by one.

The first question is,

What is in awareness?

So that simply means,

What am I aware of?

What are the contents of awareness?

What sights,

Sounds,

Smells,

Sensations,

Objects,

Thoughts,

Or emotions swim into my field of awareness at any given moment?

And by any given moment,

I mean right now.

What's in awareness?

Let's take an inventory.

Let's see.

There's the sounds outside and in the room.

Sound of a voice.

Maybe there's a breeze on my face.

Maybe there's a feeling of my body against my clothes and against the chair.

There's a taste inside my mouth.

There are colors and shapes and lights coming in through my eyes.

Or maybe the darkness behind my eyelids,

My eyes are closed.

There are thoughts running through my head.

There are emotions playing through my mind and body.

So that's what is in awareness.

It's an inventory of what's happening right now.

What are the objects of awareness?

What's in my experience?

Then the next question is,

What is awareness?

So you're asking yourself,

Okay,

I know what I'm aware of,

But what actually is this thing called awareness?

Look at it.

Try to find it.

I'm aware of it.

This is awareness becoming aware of awareness.

So it's a slight step back from the content of awareness to awareness itself by getting curious about awareness.

What is it?

What are its qualities?

What is its nature?

What does it feel like?

And the third question is,

What is aware?

Who or what is it appearing to?

Who or what is doing the awareing?

Is it my body?

But I'm aware of my body,

Aren't I?

So what's aware of it?

Is it my thoughts?

But I'm aware of my thoughts,

Aren't I?

So what's aware of them?

So this is the shift.

It's like a tiny backward step or a little turnaround from what's noticed to what is noticing.

So let's say your answer to the question,

What is aware turns out to be,

I am.

Good.

Then ask,

Who am I?

Or better,

What am I?

Or what is this me?

Then continue with more questions like,

Am I my name?

Okay,

Well,

Who has a name?

Am I my body?

Maybe,

But who has a body?

Maybe I'm my thoughts.

Okay,

Could be,

But who has thoughts?

And with these questions,

The idea isn't to come up with an answer.

The idea is to ask a question that triggers a shift in perspective from the foreground to the background.

Be the background.

Let the foreground be whatever it wants to be.

You don't have to fix,

Change,

Or anything in the foreground or in the content of awareness.

Just turn your attention back to what is aware.

And what is aware?

Awareness is aware.

Be awareness.

Reviews

A whole new approach to meditations. Asking questions was a great way to really open up my awareness. Credit to you and I feel enormous gratitude for your meditation. Please continue to serve others. You have a gift

Oh I loved this. Getting to be in one’s self and then seeing one’s self and then being outside of one’s self is what I experienced. It’s difficult and really heavy when trying to reach the third question but when not overlooking or thinking it comes naturally. Thank you for this. It helps calm my earthly being 🙏❤️

Thank you for your introduction to awareness.
Blessings with love

mind = blow! Awesome!

Fantastic concise inquiry into awareness itself. This is a great practice.