awareness

As investigated in nondual or mahamudra meditation practice, awareness is both the 'field' in which all of experience occurs, and the 'substance' (very loosely) out of which that experience is formed. It is 'like space', but not space (certainly it doesn't have a fixed geometry).

We are always experiencing awareness, in the sense that all experience arises in awareness, and is awareness. But through meditation it's possible to get a more direct sense for the 'field' of awareness. This sense can arise out of do nothing practice, or can be helped along a bit, by consciously relaxing the mind every time it grips onto a thought or experience (NameRedacted's 'dropping the ball' technique), or through visualization practices like ocean-and-waves practice in the Pointing out the Great Way teachings.

I find the relaxation technique the most profound, because it demonstrates that this isn't something we have to construct. It's not something you have to work at. You can't lose it. It doesn't require effort to see, or to get the view right; rather, it's what remains when we drop all effort.

Seen meditatively, the field of awareness is observed as

• vast and spacious, boundless, formless
• timeless, unchanging, always right here
• totally unruffled, unperturbable, "the ultimate equanimity sink"
• never tired, always effortlessly awake, clear and crisp
• nonlocal, not centered anywhere in particular
• inherently knowing --- awareness is aware of all sensations that arise in it. There's no need for a separate 'witness'.
• warm, compassionate, "it likes you"

These qualities are always there, in a sense, but it can take practice to notice them; it helps to have them pointed out.

At the same time, from the 'event perspective', the field of awareness is always moving, lively, a magical display.