Empty Knowing
Conocer Vacío
A gentle investigation into what remains when you look behind your sense of "I" and find only open, empty knowing.
Empty Knowing
You notice the already existing sensations.
You just instantaneously, no time needed,
no effort needed,
no movement needed,
you just instantly notice sensation.
It's already present,
it's already available.
For example, the breath.
It's a constant stream of sensation.
Skin,
feet, hands.
The knowing behind sensation
And then there is something that, metaphorically speaking, is seeing.
It's the knowing,
the experiencing,
the seeing.
So if I were to ask,
do you notice breathing?
And you will say yes.
What knows the breathing?
What is aware of the breathing?
We can say awareness is aware of the breathing.
Or you could say, I am aware of the breathing.
In reality, there is just the breathing.
Sensations, and they are just known.
There's no vocabulary that is correct for this.
When we say "I, I'm aware of breathing,"
most likely this "I" we're referring to is thought.
Looking for the one who knows
So notice the breathing.
What is aware of the breathing?
And it's the sense of subject,
what we refer to as "I."
Notice what "I" points to.
What it points to right now is actually, truly, completely empty.
It is this empty knowing.
And "knowing" is just the improper word.
It kind of implies there is something that knows.
You keep noticing the breath.
What knows the breath?
And this sense of "I," I am aware of the breath.
This "I" will appear as a very fast moving series of images,
memories,
concepts.
Describing the self
Any description of this "I,"
if you describe the breath, you can say tingling, movement, and so on.
Any description of this "I"
will be concepts, images, memories,
dreams, desires, fantasies, emotions.
But all of that is being known as well,
just like the breath.
That sense of "I" is being known.
My parents, my family,
my education,
my friends,
my trajectory, my journey,
my work,
my issues,
my gifts, my pains, my joys.
All of that is known by something.
Actually, not something. It's just known.
What remains
This knowingness we can refer to as beingness, awareness.
What's important is that it's absolutely empty.
It has no shape,
no form,
no texture.
Any shape, form, or texture is known by this knowingness, by this beingness.
We look at this and deepen in this seeing.
We are in a sense polishing,
clarifying the sense of "I."
The question: who am I?
What am I?
What is this "I"?
Seeing through the thoughts.
The thoughts which are how this "I" constellates.
"I" as memories,
"I" as images,
"I" as man or woman,
past,
imagined future,
pains,
joys.
All of that is known,
so it cannot be "I,"
the true "I."