Being Aware of Being Aware

by Rupert Spira

The mind believes that awareness resides within the body and thus shares its limitations and destiny. Therefore, the mind believes that when the body is born, awareness is born; that when the body grows old and sick, awareness grows old and sick; and that when the body dies and disappears, awareness dies and disappears with it. However, when the character in a movie is born, the screen is not born; when the character in a movie grows old, the screen doesn’t age; and when the character in a movie dies, the screen doesn’t die or disappear. Likewise, when the body appears or is born, awareness is not born; when the body ages, awareness does not age; and when the body disappears or dies, awareness does not die or disappear. It remains in the same ageless condition throughout. Awareness never experiences its own appearance or disappearance, its own beginning or ending, its own birth or death. In order to claim such an experience, awareness would have to be present prior to its own appearance, beginning or birth and after its own disappearance, ending or death. The finite mind imagines that awareness disappears in deep sleep, but in awareness’s experience it is the finite mind that disappears in deep sleep, leaving awareness all alone. Deep sleep is not the absence of awareness; it is the awareness of absence.