haveWe have all had the experience of looking for something mislaid, perhaps our keys. We’re sure they were left on the kitchen table but they’ve disappeared. We search everywhere but they’re nowhere to be found. Eventually, giving up and sitting down, exasperated, to have a cup of tea we discover the keys. On the table all along, but somehow overlooked and thereafter assumed not to be there.

haveThe keys were not lost so hunting for them was pointless. The search for awakening is similarly futile. Most of us have heard and read more than enough times that we are what we’re looking for, but can’t deliberately let go of the belief that the holy grail of unity, of enlightenment must be something other, something extraordinary that is hidden but can be discovered given sufficient vigilance, seriousness and dedication. Unfortunately there always seems to be some lack in our commitment, some failing that constantly trips us up and reinforces the idea that we’re inadequate and that realisation is only for the very special few.

haveNothing could be further from the truth. In fact, nothing is hidden so seeking will never succeed. There were no ‘lost’ keys. All our years of effort inevitably come to nothing. In my own case it was 40 years before the penny finally dropped. The difficulty is caused by misinterpretation. From earliest childhood the notion has been reinforced that there is someone called ‘me’ located inside our heads looking out at a separate world. And we have arms and legs, thoughts, an internal monologue and our reflections in mirrors to ‘prove’ that we exist. They happen and they are mine so I must be real. Actually there is no separate ‘me’. It’s only an idea, a label used to identify what is assumed to be a central location within the body from which everything is experienced.

haveHowever, all experience must be conscious, nothing whatsoever can be known out of consciousness and moreover consciousness has no “location”. Actually it is consciousness that is mislabeled as ‘me’, for the idea ‘me’ appears in consciousness along with all else that is known and from which there appears to be a sense of separation. Consciousness is the knower (me), whatever is known and the process of knowing (seeing, feeling, thinking, etc.).

haveBut now we’re in danger of looking for consciousness which in thought is just another label and not a particularly helpful one either. It’s abstract and nebulous. There is a sense of presence of course, of being, of aliveness that is reading these words, seeing this page, thinking thoughts, hearing sounds, feeling sensations, knowing all that is known. It can’t be found because it isn’t an object. It is constant, unchanging, so familiar and ‘ordinary’ that it is overlooked in the search for something extraordinary. It is the elusive obvious, consciousness, and it’s what we are.

haveWhen the label ‘me’ falls away all that remains is ‘clear seeing’. Little old ‘me’ is revealed as all and everything—presence, being, awareness in which all of life just happens. All that was previously believed to be either outside the body/mind or inside and personal is now unified. There is simply whatever ‘is’. Any ‘experience’ is possible, nothing need be different. Life remains ‘ordinary’ yet when the strain of maintaining the false sense of separateness, ‘me’, dissolves, then what remains is tender joyfulness, wonder, unconditional love. This is awakening, realisation, liberation. The search is over.