When we notice what we are, we may find that some is unfamiliar to us, and some is very familiar.
Noticing what we are
When we notice what we are, we find ourselves as capacity for our field of experience. We are what the world – as it appears to us – happens within and as.
What’s not familiar
If we are used to taking ourselves as this human self, as something particular within our field of experience, then this is a kind of reversal.
We find ourselves as capacity for the world as it appears to us, including this human self and anything connected with it, instead of being something particular within this field of experience.
For us, this turns everything upside down and inside out, and that’s new.
At least until this too becomes familiar to us.
What’s familiar
At the same time, there is something very familiar here.
One is that the content of our experience doesn’t necessarily change. Our senses still take in the same type of information about the world. Our sight, taste, smell, and so on is still the same. (In some cases, some of it can change, but that’s for another article.)
Another is that what we are is also familiar to us. It’s always been here. We just haven’t consciously noticed.
Why is this important?
The only reason I write this is that it can help clear up – or bring us to question – some of the misconceptions we have about awakening.
We may have an idea that what we find in awakening should be remarkable and unfamiliar, and not trust a genuine noticing because it doesn’t fit our ideas.