Awareness is like water. It dissolves everything it touches, immediately or in time. People often refer to this quality as being like a fire, or a furnace, burning up all our illusions. And sometimes it is dramatic like that, painful like that, intense and hot like that. Other times, it’s just like like slow rain. Dissolving stone, dissolving dirt, dissolving me. By awareness, I mean that noticing that notices and observes, without commentary or judgement. A very simple example of how this works is seen in the first meditation technique usually taught to beginners: focus on your breath (or something or other), and when thoughts come by, simply notice them, and label them, “thinking.” If you haven’t tried this before, give it a go. Follow the breath for 3 rounds of inhaling and exhaling. Thoughts popping up? Notice. Try to notice each thought the moment it appears. Label it, “thinking.” Now where did it go? It’s gone. Oh! There it is. It’s back. Now gone again. Ah, there’s a new thought. “Thinking.” Bam. That’s called meditating. It’s also called awareness…