How do you know if you're aware?

For man, the most important thing is life, complete with an outer belief system of opinions, prejudices, educational and cultural training, and unique family backgrounds -- but all of those are only accidental factors of life. They've become necessary tools for survival and living within society -- but none of them really define who we truly are.

When we strip away all of the easy definitions, like job, religion, sex and so on, which only narrowly define "us", who and what are we, really? If we lose our job, will we also lose our self? If we convert to another religion, do we, as spiritual beings, actually change? If we have a transgender operation, do we change our self on the inside, right along with how we changed on the outside? It may seem so, if we're overly attached to these flimsy definitions of who we are. In spite of outside change, something always remains the same. Since our outsides are so prone to change, then doesn't it make sense to look within—to our true self? But what are we on the inside? What in the world are we?

Awareness helps to answer that, although awareness is not an answer, it's actually the biggest question of all. See, awareness demands no belief in anything. Instead, it insists on doubting everything we always took for granted as being true , up to now. Awareness points out the areas of our lives where faith in our self has been silenced by the rigidity of all of our learned beliefs. Awareness is simply paying attention to our life as it unfolds, here in this moment and in this world. It's recognizing our true self, before the thinking, opinions, and beliefs tried to take control. By knowing our true nature, we're able to lessen, or even rid ourselves of, everything that separates us from our true experience in this lifetime as awakened souls. As we become more intuitive (aware) within our self, with others and the world, the world and self will eventually begin to act as one, and we'll finally see there isn't a problem, except in our own thinking.

Think of it this way, awareness is like a great intuition with "home" -- the universe. It's knowing, maybe without even knowing how you know -- but you do know. You've finally become aware and you begin to remember where you came from before you came here and even before that. Awareness is present when you swerve out of the way of a speeding car without even thinking. Awareness is there when you cry at a movie, because you feel the suffering of another person. Awareness is there in the flow of your thoughts when you are creating, and awareness is in the breathing that keeps you alive. Awareness never forgets about us -- it's we who have forgotten to be aware. We only have to look within to find our awareness -- trying to find awareness or its meaning from outside ourselves would be like, well, like pouring water into the ocean to make it wet.

We have only to wake up and stop sleepwalking through our wonderful reality.