Be Present (Receptive Awareness)
by Ivan Tay
Receptive awareness is very close to the idea of a witnessing consciousness. Resting in receptive awareness is an antidote to our efforts of building and defending a self. As this capacity develops and we begin to trust it, the assumption that there is “someone who is aware” falls away. Self-consciousness falls away. Sometimes this is called an experience of non-dualistic awareness: the distinctions between self and other, inside and outside, perceiver and perceived disappear. There is no one who is aware; there is only awareness and experience happening within awareness. Part of what we learn to do in practice is to steady our attention, to develop a simple, receptive awareness. In here, we do the awareness of different parts of the body as a witness
