Recognizing Awareness in John 1:9-14
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:9-14 NIV)
The opening verses of the Gospel of John present a foundation for a nondual ontology, where God is limitless consciousness and the Word is consciousness expressed as form. John 1:9-14 explores the relationship between this divine reality and human perception, exploring why the ever-present light of awareness is so often overlooked, and what it means to truly recognize it.
John 1:9 describes the Word as “the true light that gives light to everyone.” From a nondual perspective, this “true light” is awareness itself, the fundamental consciousness that illuminates all experience. Awareness is not an acquired trait or an extraordinary phenomenon, but the essential nature of existence.
The following verses, however, present a paradox central to the human condition: “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.” The light of awareness is that through which the world is revealed and is currently sustained, yet awareness is generally overlooked by those living within this reality. How is this possible?
The oversight is rooted in the nature of awareness itself. Awareness is not an object. It is the subject, the knower, the perceiver, the silent background in which all objects (thoughts, sensations, and the external world) appear. The conventional human mind, however, is fixated outwardly, absorbed in the content of experience. In this way we mistake the reflection for the mirror. Because we are constantly focused on what we perceive, we overlook the very substance of perception: the awareness that knows.
This fundamental oversight leads people to believe themselves to be separate entities, limited to their body-minds. They mistake the localized viewpoint for their true nature. In doing so, they overlook their divine essence, the light of awareness that gives them life. They are looking through the light, rather than recognizing themselves as the light.
The verses then offer a path to transformation: “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”
From a nondual perspective, becoming a “child of God” is not a physical birth or a theological status. It is a transformation that occurs when individuals recognize awareness of being as their true nature. The “true light” is received when the identification shifts from the body-mind to the source of all experience.
The children of God, in this context, are those who have seen through the illusion of the separate self and have recognized their fundamental being as the perceiving consciousness.
John 1:14 reinforces this by stating, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” This highlights the incarnation of consciousness in form, demonstrating that the ultimate reality is not separate from the world, but is fully present within it, as it.
The path to becoming a child of God, then, is the recognition of this truth: the light which illuminates the world and the essence of our being are one and the same. We are the light of being, eternally one with the divine source.