📚 Watts Alan – The Universe Experiencing Itself
01. The One Thing Everyone Should Learn

05. The Role of Awareness

A reflection on awareness as the ground of all experience — not a tool or effort, but the open space in which life unfolds, revealing unity between the observer and the observed.

2018-12-19 • 3 min read

💭 Join the Discussion

0 comments

✨ Your comment will be reviewed before publishing

🤔

Be the first to comment!

Share your thoughts and start the conversation

The Role of Awareness

> "You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself."

When people hear about awareness, they often imagine it as a tool — something the mind can control, sharpen, and use.

But awareness is not a tool.

It is not something you switch on and off.

Awareness is the ground in which every thought, feeling, and sensation appears.

It is the space in which your life unfolds.

---

Awareness Is Not Effort

Many believe awareness is about effort.

We say, “I must stay mindful. I must concentrate. I must focus.”

But real awareness is not about straining.

Think of it like your vision: you do not try to see. You simply open your eyes, and sight happens.

Awareness is the same.

It is not created by effort. It is revealed by relaxing.

---

The Observer and the Observed

Modern culture trains us to live in constant judgment — to measure, compare, and control.

We are taught that we are the observer, standing apart, watching life happen like a film on a screen.

But awareness shows us something different.

The observer and the observed are not two.

The one who sees and what is seen arise together, as one movement.

When you hear a bird singing, it is not you separate from the sound — it is the event of hearing-bird-song.

Awareness is the unity of both.

---

Awareness in Daily Life

In today’s world, it is easy to lose awareness.

Scrolling through endless feeds, chasing deadlines, drowning in notifications — your attention is constantly pulled outward.

You forget the simple fact: everything you experience, no matter how digital, still happens in awareness.

The screen, the scrolling, the endless stimulation — all of it appears inside the same open space.

When you notice this, even the noise becomes a teacher.

---

The Gift of Awareness

Awareness is not something to achieve.

It is what you already are.

You are not a person who sometimes has awareness.

You are awareness, sometimes playing at being a person.

And the more you see this, the lighter life feels.

Problems lose their heaviness, because you are no longer trapped inside them.

You are the sky — not the passing clouds.

---

The Message

So the role of awareness is not to change life, but to reveal it.

Not to control, but to allow.

Not to divide, but to unite.

> "Awareness is not what you do. It is what you are.

And through you, life becomes aware of itself."