Question: Some teachers say that the goal is to become aware of awareness itself, but I find this very difficult to understand, because you can only know that you are aware if you’re aware of something. So is the goal to become aware of the bliss of pure awareness?

Answer: It can be such a tiring exercise to become aware that one is aware. That is why I found Rameshji’s Teaching so practical, because he explained everything so clearly that it quieted the thinking mind of the ego. What is left after the thinking mind becomes quiet? The bliss of awareness, without having to be aware of being aware. Many spiritual seekers get frustrated on this point because the ego thinks it has to do something to be aware, so I am so glad you raised this question. It is the ego that undertakes the practice of being aware, whereas peace of mind is the absence of the thinking mind. The bliss of being, the Peace of being, is Conscious Presence, and I am Conscious Presence when my thinking mind is disengaged. Even when a surgeon is operating on a patient, the awareness is there. The working mind is engaged in the moment with the task at hand, and the thinking mind is set aside. It’s a simple and beautiful way to function.

Question: It’s the same as you talked about yesterday, that a lot of people say you need to love yourself. I also fail to see how you can love yourself, but you addressed that you can hate yourself (laughs).

Answer: You cannot love yourself because then there are two people: the one being loved and the one doing the loving. How can you say “Love yourself”? Many people don’t want simplicity. When I say many people, I mean the ego. The ego loves steps, processes, and complications. Maharaj would say that “Consciousness contemplating on itself is non-dual meditation”. He was pointing to something very simple. Throughout the day you are engaged in the outside world; all he asks you to do is sit quietly, close your eyes, just be aware of this basic awareness, which is always there but gets overlaid with all the activity of the thinking mind and its doings. For once, just sit and look within at that awareness. If thoughts come, let them come; thoughts will come and thoughts will go. There’s no individual doing something, it is just resting in being. If you’re sipping your cup of coffee, looking out of the window, just enjoying the view outside, whatever it may be, you are resting in being as long as the thinking mind of the ego is not taking you away from that moment.