Mindfulness Meditation in Professor Kim Joo-hwan's translation of "Inner Communication"
“Self-Exploration” by world-renowned meditator Rupert Spira
Who am I? Am I aware?

“Being aware of being aware is the essence of meditation.” Rupert Spira emphasizes that meditation is not about seeking special enlightenment or new experiences.
To reach the deepest, most essential inner peace and happiness, most meditations teach us to quiet the mind, focus the mind, and observe the mind.
Here, meditation is solely about seeing clearly the nature of the mind.
It shows that it is the only form of meditation that does not require directing the mind anywhere, nor does it require concentration or control of the mind.


The book begins with an exploration of the “nature of the self.”
It is a concise and insightful answer to the profound teachings of the Upanishads and the central questions of Indian Vedanta philosophy: “Who am I?” and “Am I aware?”
They say that true meditation is finding the real me, realizing my true self.
Through this “awareness,” I realize that my true nature is peace and happiness.
This book, which explores ourselves, will help us discover that the enduring peace and unexplained joy in life we ​​all long for already resides within us.

Spira's discussion is primarily based on Vedanta philosophy, but he also makes occasional references to Christian and Buddhist perspectives.
Rather than dealing with Vedanta philosophy itself, this book strips away mystical and religious elements, extracting only the core arguments and explaining them in modern, everyday language.
In doing so, it conveys the most spiritual message.
His discussion, which extracts only the essence of Vedanta philosophy through a distillation process, connects naturally with the teachings of Christianity and Buddhism.
He is not religious at all, yet he delivers a more spiritual message than any traditional religious leader.
At the same time, he presents a more specific and clear meditation method than any other meditation instructor.

---From "Page 8, "Translator's Note"

The experience of “I am aware” is the knowledge of the self of awareness.
Therefore, our knowledge of ourselves is the knowledge of ourselves through awareness.
The sun does not need to send its light in any particular direction to shine on its own.
Likewise, awareness does not require directing one's "attention," that is, the light of knowing, in a particular direction in order to know itself.
In fact, no matter which way the sun sends its light, it always illuminates something other than itself.
Likewise, no matter which way awareness sends the light of knowing, it only brings knowledge of something other than itself.

---From "Noticing" on page 57

The screen itself never shakes because of the content of the movie.
Likewise, awareness itself is never disturbed by the content of the experience.
Your thoughts may be shaken, your emotions may be in pain, your body may be aching, and your world may be in disarray.
But pure awareness itself is not disturbed by anything that happens during these experiences.
Therefore, the essence of awareness is tranquility itself.

---From "The Essence of Awareness" on page 61

We often become so caught up in the content of our experiences—thoughts, images, feelings, sensations, and perceptions—that we forget to be aware of all knowledge and experience.
Awareness is always present in the background of all experience.
Yet we overlook the simple experience of unchanging awareness.
We ignore the very act of noticing.
We overlook the simple fact that we ourselves are beings of awareness.
In other words, we have forgotten our own essential nature.
Instead, we live our lives under the illusion that we are a collection of thoughts, images, memories, feelings, sensations, and perceptions.

---From "Examining the Core of Our Essence" on page 77

Imagine you are in bright sunlight and then go into a dark room.
There is nothing the mind can do to make the object in the darkness appear.
If you just stay still and relax, things will slowly begin to come into view.
Meditation is like this too.
There is nothing the mind can do to discover or understand awareness.
Because the mind is a limited form of awareness itself.


The more the mind does something, the more it obscures awareness.
Meditation is the quieting of the mind's activity, thereby revealing to itself the true nature of mind as pure knowing, or awareness.

---From "Untangling Tangled Awareness" on pages 96-97

Awareness is our fundamental experience.
Being aware is the fundamental experience of awareness.
Before awareness knows objective experience, awareness knows itself.
In order for awareness to know what appears to be other than itself—that is, to know thoughts, feelings, sensations, and perceptions—it must shine the light of its own attention, its knowing, on that object.
But in order for awareness to know itself, it does not need to send the light of knowing to any object other than itself.
- Page 115, "The Effortless Path"

The essence of awareness is pure knowing.
It is self-luminous, self-knowing, self-aware.
Being aware of being aware is the essence of meditation.
This is the only form of meditation that does not require directing the mind anywhere, nor does it require concentration or control.
No matter what we do, we cannot become who we really are.
Through practice, you can only become something other than your original being.

---From "The Effortless Path" on page 121

“What do I know or notice about my experience?”
“Where do my thoughts come from?”
“What is the essence of knowledge that all knowledge and experience reveal?”
“Am I aware?”
“Who am I?”
As the mind ponders these questions, it gradually becomes refined, gradually purifying the objective and limited qualities of the mind as it moves through the various layers of objective experience.

---From "The Path to the Inner Self" on page 136

If we compare awareness to the ocean, thoughts are waves moving on the surface, and feelings are the currents flowing underneath.
Just as waves and currents can be called the movement or activity of the sea, so the mind is the movement or activity of awareness.
The deep sea is always quiet.
Likewise, the center of awareness is always calm and peaceful.
Therefore, to attain the peace that the mind so longs for, one must sink into the center of awareness.

---From "The Sea of ​​Awareness" on page 167