Enlightenment is being aware, yes, but enlightenment is also much deeper than being aware.

Basically, “being aware” means finding consciousness, awareness, which also has been called “awareness which is aware of itself”. When this awareness is found, it marks a permanent break of the identification with ego and the beginning of identification with this awareness itself. It feels like this awareness is “the real you”. Some people feel like they don’t have any sense of identification at all at this point, which is somewhat premature. That’s basically self-realization, but it is not yet enlightenment.

When this awareness is present effortlessly throughout all daily activities, that’s what Adya calls the state of “abiding awareness” and what Ramana dubbed Sahaja Samadhi (effortless Samadhi).

But this awareness in itself is also a percept of the mind. It’s the same as identifying with your Being, which is incomparably deeper than ego. At this point, there’s still ego. The identification with it is broken, and it’s broken for good, but it’s not gone. But then the path to enlightenment begins.

This awareness, or the identification with it, to be exact, is what’s needed for the rest of the ego to dissolve, that is, for the rest of suffering, restlessness, pain, tears and fears to arise and be accepted from this place, because this awareness doesn’t differentiate, it accepts everything. Both Adya and Spira talk about it. Adya actually wrote a book about what happens after this awareness is found, it’s called “The End of Your World”. Spira speaks about it as “the light of consciousness” which illuminates the rest of conditioning.

When it becomes particularly deep, this awareness as the percept of the mind starts to dissolve. The identification moves to what’s been described as “transcendental awareness”, or awareness which isn’t aware of itself. This is much deeper, one realizes his non-Being. By this point, most of the suffering is transcended and emotions almost don’t arise. As Osho said, “once you find your Being, your Being starts to hurt you”. Until you jump from Being into non-Being, that is. In the case of Ramana, it was described as his “second death”. At that point, the ego truly surrenders. You have accepted death itself.

For what is being aware of awareness? Nothing. To realize you’re nothing is to accept death, from which comes the greatest freedom, the absolute freedom. Osho had a fun way of putting it, he once said: “In witnessing the witness, the ultimate ecstasy is created”. Awareness is the witness of the ego. When the ego is sufficiently small, you start to witness awareness itself, and only at that point you become truly nothing, dissolve into the void.

Later still, it is seen that Being and non-Being are one. That’s The Absolute. Then even awareness which isn’t aware of itself disappears from the mental landscape and you become completely ordinary again, just like you were before, no difference. Just serene and equanimous, but completely ordinary, not “enlightened”, not “aware”.

So, the process is basically realizing your Being, realizing your non-Being, and then realizing The Absolute. Or, in common language, you can say that first you think you’re ego, then you realize you’re Life itself, then you’re realize you’re also Death, and then you’re realize that you’re both and neither for life and death cannot exist without each other, and are just two sides of the same coin.

And thus, at the end of the process, awareness cannot be found. I know this sounds very weird, but I confirm it with my experience. Other people say the same thing. For example, Osho used to say that a completely enlightened person becomes completely unaware. He said, “if you wish, you can call it ignorance also”. Ego is forgotten, awareness is forgotten, enlightenment is forgotten. One has relaxed totally. UG once said “the moment you’re aware of your awareness, you’re not aware”. I think he was referring to the same thing. Finally, I think it was in the “Autobiography of a Jnani” where I read this gem: “A jnani cannot be said to be conscious. But neither he can be said to be unconscious”. I know this sounds like a direct contradiction, but it’s not, really. It’s just framed this way deliberately, because only when you complete the journey, you will understand it.

The truth is, one doesn’t need this spiritual language to describe what’s going on. In reality, the moment you become “aware”, you actually just become aware of your ego. That’s all that is, really. You’re always “aware” of your surroundings, that’s unquestionable, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to function. But you’re not aware of your mind. So when you find that awareness, that’s the first time you become aware of your mind and the ego. And then the ego-mind starts to dissolve into it. And at the end of the process, this awareness cannot be found no longer, it served its purpose, simply because there’s nothing more to be aware of. And the awareness of your surroundings (you see stuff and you know what you see) has always been there and it will always be there. So that’s why a completely enlightened person cannot be said to be aware, and yet he is aware. He’s just like he was before it all started, completely innocent in ignorance. Like small children are, like animals are - no baggage. A dreaming person is not aware of his mind and its deep unconscious patterns, one undergoing the transformation is aware of himself and is becoming more and more aware by uncovering and surrendering more of the mind’s conditioning, dissolving it into the light of awareness, whereas for an enlightened person, there’s nothing left to be aware of, his mind is empty, his ego is gone, and in this way, he is similar to an ignorant person and they are outwardly indistinguishable, and even he can no longer tell the difference between the two.

So, paradoxically, it starts with the present moment and it ends with the present moment. It’s just that at the beginning of the journey, the present moment includes self-referential thought, emotion and personality, and in the very end they are all absent, so there’s nothing but the deepest serenity and the pristine purity of the 5 senses. And all of the profound spiritual experiences (including oneness and no-doership), various awarenesses as percepts of the mind, various Samadhis and bodily sensations (kundalini) arise and fall on the way.

And that’s why focusing on the present moment and allowing all your internal experience is the most important thing in the whole journey. Be as you are. It will not necessarily unfold in such easily identifiable linear fashion, but the destination is still the same. Peace, contentment and equanimity.