the reason we think awareness is nothing is because we think that all of this is
something the teenage kid is watching football he's watching match of the day his mum comes in
and says what are you looking at he says match of the day twenty minutes later his mum comes
in the games finished kids turn the TV off his mum says what are you watching he says nothing
the reason he says nothing now is because he said something earlier for nothing that he's watching
now with the screen off whether the TV off is the complement the feeling I'm seeing something when
I'm watching match of the day however if his mum had come in and said to him while he was
watching match of the day what you looking at and he had said a screen 20 minutes later he's turned
the TV off his mum comes in again says what's he looking at now what would he say repeat that again
in the second scenario the kid is watching match of the day mum comes in says what you looking at
he's a smart kid so he just says I'm looking at the screen 20 minutes later the game's over he
turns the TV off his mum comes in again and says now what you looking at and he's still
facing the same direction he's still facing the same direction screen what he says the screen
because he realized he was seeing the screen in the first instance he realizes he's still
seeing the screen in the second instance in the first scenario he thought he was seeing
something in the first instance so in the second instance he said I'm seeing nothing if you think
you're seeing something in the waking State then you think that deep sleep will be nothing but if
we realize that in the waking State there are no things it's just consciousness then we realize
that deep sleep is not a blank empty nothing or indeed the experience of consciousness it's not
a blank empty nothing but the that the problem is that the underlying problem is the deep belief
we have and this belief outlives many years of non-dual exploration this is been my experience
it is the belief that now it is I the body that is aware of my experience that that is the reason we
have this problem because it seems now for all of us including myself that experience is perceived
from the perspective of the body I close my eyes it's the sight of the room disappears therefore
it's so obvious isn't it that consciousness must be located behind the eyes because I see
everything when I look in this direction I see everything in front of me when I close my eyes
everything in front of me vanishes there for a logical conclusion is consciousness is located
in the body behind the eyes hence the belief it is I the body that is aware of my experience
and it is because of this deep feeling that it's I the body that is aware as
opposed to the understanding that it is I awareness that am aware that we have
this difficulty if it is clear to us now that it is i awareness that is aware and
then we see the world as if from the perspective of the body but that the awareness with which we
experience the body and the world is not located in the body or the world but the body in the world
is located in awareness then the question of awareness being aware of itself is just obvious
it is obviously awareness is primary experience to be aware of the experience of being aware
so we really have to if there is a lingering belief it is either body that is aware then
that belief will make it impossible to understand that awareness is aware of itself in the absence
of objects we have to realize first that it is now awareness that is aware of experience it is
not the body that is aware of experience the body is experienced it doesn't do the experiencing it's
such a tussle between the it's so counterintuitive it so many years of training it's a tussle but but
to just I mean if this is only an image but but it it it's an image that shows how persuasive the
waking state point of view is imagine that you fall asleep in garrison so mark falls asleep in
garrison but he dreams he is John on the streets of New York now when John looks at the streets of
New York he sees whatever is in front of his eyes when he closes his eyes the streets of New York
vanish so he quite reasonably assumes that the consciousness with which he is experiencing the
streets of New York lives just behind his eyes but what is John's consciousness where does it
really reside in Mark's mind in bed in garrison but the the illusion from John's illusory point
of view that that the belief that the knowing with which I know my experience lives inside my eyes or
inside my head it is so strong and his entire experience of the streets of New York seems to
confirm his belief that then knowing with which he knows his experience lives inside the body
why couldn't exactly the same thing be true of the waking state because if we explore our
experience everything suggests that it is because our experience is not that consciousness is in
the body the body is a series of perceptions and sensations that appear in consciousness
it's it's a real confrontation that this is the the root of the issue the belief and the
feeling that consciousness lives in and shares the limits of the body it's absolutely the crux
of the matter if this knot is untangled all the other knots get untangled very easily so this is