Lesson 7 – Letting go of un-awareness beliefs

In the light of Awareness, everything false disappears and enhances the experience of being already Awake. Bentinho Massaro

Lesson 7 is a repeat lesson of the very similar Lesson 7, back in Enlightenment I, but this time designed to confirm your experiential understanding of Awareness, instead of Presence. I-I, instead of I-Am.

While it may feel like a bit of a chore to some of you to repeat the same lesson, I believe it is crucial for your conviction-gaining process that you expose any beliefs you might still have at this point regarding the truth of your already fully established enlightened (aware) nature. So please bear with me and give it everything you have one more time: spot, expose, and release your doubts regarding Awareness. It will benefit you greatly!

So, here you will review, in the context of Awareness, the Truth Exposure Exercise, which consists of:

  1. A simple question to help you discover your “not-yet-enlightened” beliefs
  2. Intuitive logic to extract the “core obstacle” from these beliefs
  3. The “Truth Detector Test”

You will see that going through this process to truth-expose your core obstacles leads to instant clarity of the fact that you are already pure Awareness and a deeper realization of the Always Already Present nature of Awareness ensues.

Nothing false can withstand exposure to the light of Truth.

Step 1 – Find your Not-Yet-Enlightened (or “not yet Aware enough”) Beliefs

Take a deep breath and relax your mind for 2 to 5 seconds. Just for a moment, give up your right to hold onto tension and thoughts, and come back to the recognition “I am Aware”. Enjoy for a moment…

Now, in the clarity of this moment, dig up as many of your not-yet-Awareness beliefs, your doubts about being Awareness in other words, as you can find, using the question below:

“What do I believe I need to change, remove, do, or become before I am worthy or capable of realizing/being Awareness?”

Action: Ask yourself this question now…

Five common examples of “not-yet-enlightened beliefs”

  • I still have thousands of thoughts and emotions every day; someone realized in Awareness would not have these.
  • I have to meditate every day in order to know what I am Pure Awareness.
  • My liberation is not up to me; it’s up to God. So I will suffer patiently until Grace sets me free.
  • Being fully realized in Awareness means I will (or should) never experience pain or suffering of any kind, but I still do.
  • My conditioning prevents me from feeling free. Awareness is supposed to feel free.

Now move away from the computer for a few minutes (20 minutes, max) to write down your biggest excuses as to why you believe you are not yet fully awake and aware.


Step 2 – Extracting the Core Obstacles from your Beliefs

To simplify your list, we’re going to extract the “core obstacle” from each of these beliefs. The core obstacle is the root of what the belief suggests is preventing you from realizing Awareness.

The imagined core obstacle is usually one of the following:

  1. A state of being
  2. A quality (of the personality)
  3. The presence of something
  4. The absence of something

The way to extract the “core obstacle” from a limiting belief is very simple and intuitive. Simply study the following examples and apply the same type of logic to all five reasons on your own list.


Example reason 1:I still have thousands of thoughts and emotions every day, which someone who is realized in Awareness would not have.”
The core obstacle: The presence of thoughts and emotions

Example reason 2:I have to meditate every day in order to know what I am pure Awareness.”
The core obstacle: The absence of meditating (every day)

Example reason 3:My liberation is not up to me; it’s up to God. I will suffer patiently until Grace sets me free.”
The core obstacle: The state before (or the absence of) grace

Example reason 4:Enlightenment/Awareness means I will (or should) never experience pain or suffering of any kind, while I still do.”
The core obstacle: The presence of (physical) pain or suffering (mental/emotional pain)

Example reason 5: “My conditioning prevents me from feeling free. Awareness is supposed to feel free, as it is The Free Agent.”
The core obstacles (there are two excuses in this case, disguised as one):
  • Conditioning
  • The absence of feeling freedom

Step 3 – The Truth Detector Test: 4 Questions

Got your core obstacles/beliefs/doubts ready to be put to the test?

Now, take one core obstacle at a time (from your own list), and get ready to truth-expose yourself by running it through the Truth Detector Test.

Use the following template but paste your own core obstacles into it. Write or type this out for yourself.

Template

  • Question 1: Does [core obstacle] stop (my) Awareness?
  • Question 2: Does [core obstacle] prevent me from recognizing that I am Aware?
  • Question 3: Does [core obstacle] prevent me from being aware of [core obstacle]?
  • Question 4: Which existed first, and is thus more fundamental, [core obstacle] or Awareness?

Now answer these questions on your paper or computer. Study the examples below to get a sense of how this works.

Question 1: Does [the presence of thoughts and emotions] stop (my) Awareness?
Answer: No, I clearly see (now) that I am Aware, even when tons of thoughts and emotions are present!

Question 2: Does [the presence of thoughts and emotions] prevent me from recognizing that I am Aware?
Answer: No. I just recognized that I am Aware, answering Question 1! And I still exist as Awareness now. I can recognize Awareness at will. Even when thoughts and emotions are present, I can still recognize the already perfect shining awakeness of Awareness!

Question 3: Does [the presence of thoughts and emotions] prevent me from being aware of [the presence of thoughts and emotions]?
Answer: No. I am obviously clearly aware of the presence of thoughts and emotions; otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to point them out as obstacles in the first place! So, no, thoughts and emotions do not block (my) Awareness from being aware.

Question 4: Which existed first, and is thus more fundamental: [the presence of thoughts and emotions] or Awareness?
Answer: Awareness existed first and is therefore more fundamental. How else could there be thoughts and emotions, if Awareness did not exist first for the presence of thoughts and emotions to then arise inside of? Thoughts and emotions cannot be present without the presence of Awareness, but Awareness can be aware without the presence of thoughts and emotions.

Again, apply these examples to your own list. If you haven’t already, do it now…

Explanation of Exercise

Hypothetically, if the answer to any of the first three questions above is “yes,” or if the answer to the fourth question is “the core obstacle,” then that would suggest you believe a core obstacle would be a true obstacle to Awareness.

Since an experience can never block the observing principle that is aware of that experience, if the answer to any of these questions is “yes,” or if the answer to the fourth question is the “core obstacle,” this simply means you have not investigated the matter deeply enough, and the belief is still suggesting that something is blocking the obviousness of Awareness.

This is great! It just means you have yet to discover a deeper nugget of real freedom in exposing those beliefs to the truth of Awareness.

You will find, however, that in most instances the answer to these questions is a clear and obvious “no.” This fact reminds us of the risk of taking this Truth Detector test too swiftly, and answering “no” out of habit, to each of these questions.

The key to success is this: every time you run a core obstacle through the Truth Detector Test, devote the time to take a relaxing breath and let go of your mind for 2 to 5 seconds. Slow down for a moment and take at least 20 seconds per question so you can really feel into each question and answer—allowing the truth to be clearly seen.

This is important because it will deepen your conviction in the freedom of what is always already here, and that’s what we’re going for in Self-Realization: Conviction.

This is the direct path: to become experientially convinced of the enlightenment that is discovered to be already here, rather than trying to become enlightened through certain alterations of the person, or through decades of practices based on the belief that enlightenment depends on a doing or an achieving, rather than on a re-alignment with what’s already here.

The direct path asks very little of you in comparison, and it gives you amazingly profound and swift realizations in return. What it does ask of you, however, is that you are willing to devote yourself to it full-heartedly and with a sense of excitement and optimism about the minimal “process” involved.

After practicing this Truth Exposure Exercise a few times with your doubts regarding the nature of Awareness, you will find that the whole process becomes more intuitive and automatic. Eventually, you will notice yourself spontaneously going through the exercise when a belief comes up, in a matter of seconds, without the need to write things down.

What is offered here is the ability to move from the not-yet-enlightened belief to clarity, in seconds, rather than through years of practice and alterations made to the body-mind.

Homework

Run your doubts through the exercises. Grab a notebook or use your computer to:

  • Write down your not-yet-enlightened beliefs.
  • Extract the core obstacle(s) from each of your five initial excuses for not being realized in Awareness yet.
  • Run your core obstacles through the “Truth Detector Test.”

Apply the test whenever you run into more excuses, between now and the start of your next lesson.

Got a question, or just want to share?
Discuss this lesson in the forums!

Discuss this lesson