Lesson 14 – Unaffectedness
Hey guys! Welcome back again.
I hope you enjoyed realizing the subtle understanding that Awareness does not have any form whatsoever. It is such a beautiful, subtle realization, and I hope you enjoyed having some of that. It will become more profoundly clear and evident to you over time.
Today’s lesson is called Unaffectedness, which is one of the qualities, one of the core, innate qualities of Awareness. Awareness will always be unaffected. By now, this may seem like clear science to you, and if it does—if it is clear to you that Awareness is absolutely unaffected because it is empty, and therefore, cannot be affected by presences—that’s absolutely great!
Awareness is formless. It doesn’t have a form of its own, therefore nothing can touch it, and it will always be here, beyond appearances, beyond forms. It is spacious. You can always enjoy the spacious nature of Awareness, the expansive nature and freedom of I-I, Awareness aware of Awareness, and the Timelessness, which we will get into in the next lesson.
You will see that all these qualities generate a very, very clear sense of your well-being becoming unaffected, because your well-being is becoming identified with its true nature, which is already unaffected.
In a sense, Awareness withdraws its affection, or its identification, from the I-am-this and even from the I-AM-Presence-Energy and identifies with / as the I-Awareness—Spaciousness, Freedom, Emptiness, Timelessness, and Unaffectedness. Awareness does this through your reflection mechanism—through your ability to take those 2- to 5-second interruptions of the mind of illusion so that you start to see the clarity of sky-like, spacious, free Awareness.
Due to your commitment and your ability to recognize this over and over and over again for these brief periods of time (and in meditation settings for longer, more profound, more focused understandings of Awareness), you will start to gain, in your sense of well-being, the sense of being absolutely freed up—absolutely freed up from fear, freed up from feelings you are identified with, freed up from thoughts you are identified with. You will see that all of this is nothing more than a spacious fireworks display that does not affect the sky within which it is displayed. Boom! The sky is not affected, the space is not affected. Space cannot be affected.
Awareness cannot be affected because it does not have a form of its own. If Awareness had a form of its own, it could somehow collide with another form. But since it does not have any form whatsoever, no form that comes into being can ever harm it; something that has no form cannot be harmed. You cannot hit something, or be in conflict with something, or wrestle with something that has no form. It is impossible. Awareness is utterly formless, and therefore, completely empty and unaffected.
Learn to let your thoughts and emotions and tensions be, and give them away. Give them up. Give them back to the space within which they are always already perfectly rested and freed up. Free yourself up by letting your perceptions run free, run amok, run wild! And see that your Beingness, your essence, your formlessness, your changeless Awareness remains as the empty, free, timeless, spacious, formless, witnessing, perceiving Awareness principle of whatever occurs. See that it is itself completely unaffected by the forms and appearances, by the comings and goings of life.
Rest in the Unaffectedness of Awareness. Make that your priority for the next two days, at the very least. Start noticing that when you are having thoughts and emotions, they are nothing but appearances arising in free, spacious, formless Awareness. Notice that, because it is free, spacious and formless, it is not at all affected by your trauma, by your emotions, by your depressions, or by your joys. It is completely unaffected! It is the completely unaffected formless Ground of Being.
Even to call it “the Ground of Being” already sounds too much like the I-AM Presence Energy. We are talking very spacious here, very sky-like, very free, very free agency, very free Awareness. I. Spacious. So, let’s not call it the Ground of Being. Instead, let’s call it the Ultimate Free Agent. Let’s call it the Ultimate Free Formlessness that contains all of Creation and is never affected, that never even blinks, that never even flinches—no matter what appears.
Wouldn’t you like to regain this confirmation? Wouldn’t you like to enjoy feeling this way so powerfully that you could walk into any given circumstance and know it doesn’t matter if you become emotional? That it doesn’t matter if you start doubting Creation? That it doesn’t matter if you start doubting yourself or having doubtful thoughts? You are actually unaffected. You do not have to worry about your worries; you can let them all be free. You can let your emotional being be there completely. Instead of identifying with thoughts and emotions, identify with the Unaffected Spaciousness that remains in the body at all times, because it is outside of time.
It is so delicious speaking from and as unaffected formless Awareness, to unaffected and formless Awareness. It is very nice to see myself as you; to sense myself in you, as you—myself looking back at itself, creating this infinite mirror, looking at itself. Beautiful, clear, crisp, free, nothing, empty, spacious, deliberate, yet absolutely will-less, in a sense. Absolutely free, free will, but will-less, meaning without tension, without a need to push anything away—deliberate, yet free. Conscious, alive, awake, yet at ease and relaxed and calm, all at the same time.
Simply learn to tune in—again and again and again and again and again—effortlessly so. Enjoy the process of tuning in to recognizing the clarity of Awareness that is already here—the Spaciousness, the Freedom, the Formlessness, the Unaffectedness of this moment. Notice that you are already not affected. You can do anything, you can feel anything, you can think anything—and all this is nothing but fireworks appearing in empty, formless, spacious, clear, awake Awareness. You, the ultimate free agent, are always the ultimate free agent, no matter what happens.
Homework
The homework for this lesson is to emphasize Unaffectedness throughout everyday life. Take those 2 to 5 seconds at least 25 times a day—more if you want to. In fact, as much as you can—5 times, 50 times, 500 times… You can do that too—500 times, why not? Try it out 500 times today and tomorrow. Sincerely take that moment to recognize the pristine nature of the free, formless Unaffectedness of this moment.
Notice that you are already unaffected, even when you are having feelings. Feelings are simply appearing on the face, on the horizon, on the surface of the oceanic freedom of space, of Awareness. You are already unaffected, my friends; already undisturbed. You are already free.
So, practice these 2 to 5 second moments. If you wish to, and if you can, practice 500 times each day until you open the next lesson. Start to enjoy it. Start to feel the power of it, the freedom of it, the liberation in it, the relief in it, the ease in it, the deservability of it all.
I love you. We are awake. We are aware. Let us rest in that space until we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are the Unaffected Witness of the Universe.