The real purpose of this slogan is to pull the rug out from under you in case you think you understood the previous slogan. If you feel proud of yourself because of how you really understood that everything is like a dream, then this slogan is here to challenge that smug certainty. It's saying: "Well, who is this anyway who thinks that they discovered that everything is like a dream?"

"Examine the nature of unborn awareness." Who is this "I"? Where did it some from? Who is the one who realizes anything? Who is it that's aware? The slogan points to the transparency of everything, including our beloved identity, this precious M-E. Who is this ME?

The armor we erect around our hearts causes a lot of misery. But don't be deceived, it's very transparent. The more vivid it gets, the more clearly you see it, the more you realize that this shield - this cocoon - is just made up of thoughts that we churn out and regard as solid. It's not made of iron. The armor is not made out of metal. In fact, it's made out of passing memory.

...If you think this big burden of ego, this big monster cocoon, is something, it isn't. It's just passing memory. Yet it's so vivid. The more you practice, the more vivid it gets. It's a paradox - it can't be found, and yet it couldn't be more vivid.

When we awaken our hearts, we're changing the whole pattern, but not by creating an new pattern. We are moving further and further away form concretizing and making things so solid and always trying to get some ground underneath our feet. This moving away from comfort and security, this stepping out into the unknown, uncharted, and shaky - that's called enlightenment, liberation.

From START WHERE YOU ARE by Pema Chdrn, 1994.
Published by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boston.