WHAT IS REALITY....? Sri Ramana Maharshi :

Q: What is reality?

Sri Ramana Maharshi :

Reality must be always real.
It is not with forms and names.
That which underlies these is the reality.
It underlies limitations, being itself limitless.
It is not bound.
It underlies unrealities, itself being real.

Reality is that which is.
It is as it is.
It transcends speech.
It is beyond the expressions `existence, non-existence', etc.

The reality which is the mere consciousness that remains
when ignorance is destroyed along with knowledge of objects,
alone is the Self [atma].

In that Brahma-swarupa [real form of Brahman],
which is abundant Self-awareness,
there is not the least ignorance.

The reality which shines fully,
without misery and without a body,
not only when the world is known
but also when the world is not known,
is your real form [nija-swarupa].

The radiance of consciousness-bliss,
in the form of one awareness shining equally within and without,
is the supreme and blissful primal reality.

Its form is silence and it is declared by jnanis to be the final and unobstructable state of true knowledge [jnana].

Know that jnana alone is non-attachment; jnana alone is purity;

jnana is the attainment of God; jnana which is devoid of forgetfulness of Self alone is immortality; jnana alone is everything.

Q: What is this awareness and how can one obtain and cultivate it?

Sri Ramana Maharshi :

You are awareness.
Awareness is another name for you.

Since you are awareness there is no need to attain or cultivate it.

All that you have to do is to give up being aware of other things, that is of the not-Self.

If one gives up being aware of them then pure awareness alone remains, and that is the Self.