Do I Need to Make an Effort to Be Aware?

Awareness does not come through effort. In fact, if you try to be aware, you create inner tension—because all effort breeds tension. When you try to force awareness, you end up struggling with yourself. But awareness is not something to be forced or produced. It is not a by-product of striving.

Awareness is the natural fragrance of letting go. It blossoms from surrender, from deep relaxation.

Just sit silently, in a relaxed state, doing nothing—and awareness will begin to happen on its own. You don’t need to dig for it, pull it up from somewhere, or go looking for it outside yourself. It arises from within. It flows naturally from your own depths when you stop interfering.

Still, it’s understandable if you find it difficult to sit silently. Thoughts arise, often uncontrollably. But let them come—there is no need to resist. Don’t fight with them. Don’t waste energy trying to stop them.

Let the thoughts pass through you like clouds drifting across the sky. Don’t be on guard. Don’t impose any judgment—whether they should or shouldn’t come. Just remain neutral. Let them come and let them go. You remain simply as empty space. Slowly, you’ll begin to see that their arrival and departure leaves you untouched.

And when you are no longer reacting to them, when their movement no longer stirs you, the thoughts begin to fade on their own. They evaporate—not because you pushed them out, but because of your calm, detached presence. They dissolve in the quiet of your relaxed being.

And remember—relaxation doesn’t require effort. How could it? Relaxation means not doing anything at all. It means letting go completely.

Sitting silently,
Doing nothing,
The spring comes,
And the grass grows by itself.

Let this settle in your heart. This is the very essence of meditation. There is no striving, no technique, no end goal to chase. You are not the doer.

Don’t make awareness into a goal. That would only turn it into another object of desire, another thing to achieve. Then the mind returns to its old habits—seeking, striving, chasing. And in that chase, the subtle presence of awareness is lost.

Instead, remember this: awareness is not something you do. It is something you allow. It is the natural state of being when the mind is at rest and the heart is open.