The Nature of Awakening • What IS Awakening?
Awakening is a process, not a destination or an arrival.
It is the recognition, the realization, the remembering that what you are, what I am, what we are, is not our conditioning, not our trauma, not our unresolved emotion, not our patterns, not our personas, not our masks—none of that.
Awakening is the direct realization that what you are, what I am, what we are, is simply awareness dancing in form.
Forgetting and Remembering
Awakening is also forgetting—getting identified with the mind again, getting stuck in it. Sometimes awakening is that too: the forgetting.
And then awakening is the remembering.
Liberation and Joy
Awakening is the inherent joy present in every moment.
It is liberation from our internal state being dictated by external circumstances.
It is the knowing, the access to the inherent joy of being in every moment, no matter what unfolds externally.
Seeing Humanity Clearly
Awakening is the recognition that nobody is bad. There may be bad or painful behavior, cruelty, harm—but inherently, every single human is awareness, a manifestation of the One. Underneath all conditioning, we are that, in our individual expressions.
Wonder and Awe
Awakening is the wonder and awe that unfolds in witnessing the miracle of life:
“Oh my God, the autumn leaves.”
“Oh my God, the first snowfall.”
“Oh my God, the painting on the wall.”
“Oh my God, the taste of my hot water with fresh ginger in the morning.”
It is the slowing down, the savoring, the enjoyment of this miracle that is life, in every single moment.
The Cosmic Play
Awakening is the ability to laugh at oneself and recognize the great cosmic play—the ridiculousness of it all.
It is no longer taking ourselves so seriously, because it is a play. It is a play. It is a play.
The Unfolding Journey
Awakening is a journey.
For me, it came in glimpses—a huge, big opening glimpse—and then right back into conditioned mind and hell. Yet there was a knowingness of what life could be like from awakening.
Those glimpses began to return, more frequently, until they became the default. And still, there is forgetting. Still conditioning arises.
Awakening is a process, an unfolding.
Awakening and conditioned behavior can arise simultaneously, because awakeness is always there. It always has been, always will be.
The Ever-Present Awareness
Conditioning and identification can obscure awakeness, but they never remove it.
I see it in myself: “Oh, where’s it gone?”
It hasn’t gone—it’s just obscured.
Awakening is us.
It is not for the special few.
It is for all who yearn, all who seek, all who know.
The Call of Awakeness
Awakening doesn’t make anyone better or different, because awakeness recognizes awakeness.
If awakeness is always here, it recognizes itself in another.
Awakeness is calling us.
Awakeness is the interconnectedness of all life, of all beings.
It is a recognition of all our relations.
Meeting Life Fully
Awakening is liberation.
Awakening is freedom.
Awakening is meeting life as it is—feeling it all.
It is feeling the grief fully when it arises.
It is feeling the fear, guilt, and shame fully when they arise.
Awakening is meeting life in its imperfect perfection.
Awakening is.
Awakening is.
Awakening is.
Summary + Key Takeaways
- Awakening is an ongoing process, not a final destination—it unfolds through cycles of remembering and forgetting.
- It involves recognizing awareness as the true self, beyond conditioning, trauma, or persona.
- Joy and liberation arise from realizing that inner states need not depend on outer circumstances.
- Human behavior may be harmful, but at the core, every person is awareness manifest.
- Awakening brings awe, laughter, and humility—a lightness that sees life as play.
- Forgetting doesn’t negate awakening; it only obscures it temporarily.
- All beings are capable of awakening, as awakeness inherently recognizes itself.
- True awakening means meeting all of life—grief, fear, guilt, shame—all of it, fully.
