You are what you seek
with Enza Vita

Q: I have been searching for over 20 years, and in that time I have read many great spiritual works and had great teachers. I know that awareness is the only thing that is eternal, however, even after all this time and with this understanding, I have not made the transition from an ego-centered unit to awareness...

Awareness is not an object. You cannot make the transition to awareness because you already are awareness. The only thing that is required of you is to stop identifying who you are with the many forms that awareness takes. As soon as you stop identifying with form, which is the “content” of awareness, then all that is left is pure awareness. YOU.

Everything in existence emerges from and falls back into this pure, immaculate, and incorruptible space; be it emotions like pain and anger, battles and armed conflicts, despotic dictators, all manifestations of weather including rain, wind, snow, and the clouds that float across the sky, as well as the people in our lives whom we cherish the most. The “you” that you think you are also arises in this space that you are.

There is an aspect of you that has accompanied you through all of your life experiences as your very nature. Can you identify what this is that is perpetually unmoving and always present? Wise men and women from time immemorial have talked about an “all-embracing ultimate reality,” which is none other than your very own ordinary present awareness. Try not to stray from this profound simplicity.

Just be aware of a sense of presence that is always here. Now, don’t think about what you have just read. Simply notice the presence that is seeing the world through your eyes now and is always seeing the world through your eyes. This seeing is timeless and never leaves you. What is looking, the watcher in you, is this pure awareness, this ultimate presence. The truth of who you are is that actual awareness, which has always been free. You are that freedom.

Q: I have lived in India for many years with many different teachers and meditating for a very long time but I still haven’t had the final realization ...

A: The final realization is what happens when we realize that what we are looking for is what we already are, the actual awareness perceiving everything right now.

Anything other than that is just a concept. In your own direct experience, when are you ever separate from this awareness?

Contemplate the thought, “I still haven’t had the final realization” and really examine what that I is referring to. Who is that I? As long as you hold on to these ideas, you are reinforcing the concept of yourself as a separate being that has yet to become enlightened, but this is just another illusion supported by your ego.

There is no separate entity to witness anything, and there is no central point of view. Everything exists eternally, without a centre. What you are referring to as me does not exist. It is a construct perpetuated by your mind. There is no I entity, and enlightenment is just another thought-constructed event, in the thought-constructed story, of a thought-constructed I. When the I is seen through, there is a total immersion in the present moment. There is no experience of anything, because the experiencer and the experience have become one.

All stories about enlightenment are just that, stories, myths, fairy tales dangled in front of you by the ignorant mind.

Enlightenment is simply seeing this truth so completely that all seeking (including seeking enlightenment) ends. All that is left is life just as it is, lived as it happens.

Enza Vita has studied for over 40 years with some of the greatest spiritual teachers of our age. Enza is the publisher of InnerSelf Newspaper and founder and director of the MahaShanti Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the awakening of all beings. Enza is also the author of the book Always Already Free and her latest book Instant Presence. Based on Enza’s own experience, Always Already Free and Instant Presence guides the reader from the seeking process through the integration of enlightenment into everyday life and reveals that spiritual enlightenment is not a faraway dream, but the ever-present reality always available here and now. For more information, visit www.enzavita.com or connect with Enza through her Facebook page