Awareness is often treated as something that must be acquired, developed or achieved. We are told to become more aware, as though awareness were an object that could be collected by the mind.
But before trying to become aware, it is worth asking: what do we actually mean by awareness?
Awareness and Observation
To observe is to notice what is taking place. A sound, sensation, thought, emotion or movement can be noticed without immediately deciding whether it should exist.
Awareness therefore need not begin with judgement. It can begin simply with seeing.
Awareness is not necessarily the effort to change what is happening. It can begin with seeing what is happening.
Thought and Awareness
Thought has an important practical function. It allows us to remember, calculate, communicate, plan and solve problems.
Psychological difficulty often begins when thought is treated as something more than a practical function: when memories and projections become the centre through which the entire world is interpreted.
Awareness can reveal this movement without requiring us to fight thought.
Have Awareness
“Have awareness” is therefore not a command to manufacture a special mental state.
It is an invitation to look directly.
Look at thought when it arises. Look at fear without immediately escaping from it. Look at desire, comparison, memory and expectation. Look at the movement of the psychological self.
The value of awareness is not in becoming someone who is permanently aware. Its value lies in seeing clearly what is taking place now.