The Refuge of Awareness

So the refuge is not in a teacher or in the scriptures or in a monastery or in a religious tradition or Vinaya or anything like that--but in awareness. Awareness is so ordinary, so natural to us, that we ignore it, we overlook it all the time. So, this is where we need continuous reminding, awakening, reflecting, so that when tragedies and so on happen we can use those very things as part of our training, as part of the path of cultivating the Way. This is the fourth Noble Truth.

You only need the confidence to reflect, to be aware, not of how things should be but on what you are actually experiencing, without claiming it, without adding to it in any way. Thus, when I feel sad, if I think "I am sad" then I have made it more than what it is. Instead, I am simply aware of the sadness--which is pre-verbal. So awareness exists without the arising of thought. The habit tendency is to think, "I am sad, and I don't want to be sad, I want to be happy." Then it becomes a big problem for us. Awareness is not a special quality that I have more than you. It is a natural ability which we all share. The practice is in using this natural ability and in being willing to learn from it.

---Luang Por Sumedho---