You Are the Sky

You are the awareness that watches it all unfold. The silent witness. The space in which all experience appears and disappears.

Thank you for listening!

Take this reflection into the silence, and I'll see you next time.

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Transcript

The dust settled around the Buddha's feet as his questioner approached. The man had traveled far, drawn by stories of this awakened one who sat beneath the fig tree.

"Are you a god?" the seeker asked. His voice trembling with anticipation.

"No." The Buddha's voice was steady, certain.

"Are you a saint?"

"No."

The questioner's brow furrowed. If not divine, if not holy, then what? He leaned forward, desperate for understanding. "Then what are you?"

The Buddha smiled. "Awake."

But what did he mean? Not enlightened, that word carries too much baggage. Not perfected, perfection belongs to marble statues, not living beings. Not divine, divinity suggests separation from the human experience.

And certainly not "woke." That modern term has been turned into a political weapon that misses the point entirely. Awakening doesn’t mean adopting the right opinions or signaling virtue to your tribe. It's not about being more enlightened than your neighbor or collecting spiritual merit badges.

The Buddha's awakeness transcends left and right, progressive and conservative. It's the recognition of what remains constant while all political winds shift and change.

Awake.

Awake to a truth that shatters everything you think you know about yourself. You are not your racing thoughts when worry spirals through your mind. You are not your aching body after twelve hours hunched over a desk. You are not your emotional storms when anger flares or sadness crashes over you like a wave.

So what are you?

You are the awareness that watches it all unfold. The silent witness. The space in which all experience appears and disappears.

The ancient Yogis mapped this territory with surgical precision. They discovered that we exist in layers, like rings in a tree trunk. Your physical body forms the outermost layer. Dense, visible, constantly changing. Your emotions create the next ring inward. Fluid, powerful, often overwhelming. Your mind occupies another layer. Rapid-fire, endless, often contradictory.

But at the very center? Your true self. Pure awareness itself. A center of consciousness. Unchanging. Eternal. Free.

All those outer layers are not you. They're instruments in your orchestra. Sometimes you create beautiful symphonies with them, moments of joy, clarity, love. Sometimes the notes clash and discord fills the air. Anxiety, anger, confusion.

But what the Buddha understood beneath that fig tree, the revelation that changes everything is that the conductor remains untouched by the quality of the performance.

When you realize this, really absorb it, you stop declaring "I am angry" and start recognizing "anger is visiting." You cease claiming "I am anxious" and begin noting "anxiety has appeared." This is awakening. Knowing yourself.

Because you are not the weather. You are the sky through which all weather passes.