The awareness of awareness

Have you ever noticed yourself noticing? Observed yourself observing? It's what I call the 'Awareness of Awareness' and it's one of the most disturbing, and most liberating, experiences one can have.

Imagine yourself sitting in a forest. All around you are the sights and sounds of the wilderness: the wind rustling in the leaves of the trees far above; the stream flowing, slipping, crashing around rocks and banks; birds overhead, sometimes unseen, cawing at one another; a dry twig cracking as a nearby animals inadvertently steps on it; a person sitting against a tree, still and silent, taking it all in.

You are part of the environment, not separate from it, and you experience yourself as such, if only for the briefest of moments. And in the exact moment you notice yourself noticing your noticing, it's gone. Like a whisp of air, the dream is blown away, and you're left with neither the noticing, the noticing of noticing, nor the noticing of noticing of noticing.

/pk