What is aware
of all this?

I am aware of my body, my thoughts and the world.
Then I notice that I am aware. This is where the questions begin.

A person with an open hand beside the sea. A tree, a car, buildings and the person share one continuous twilight scene. — A picture of an enquiry. Select something to notice, then explore the awareness of it.

I am aware of my hand.

I can see its shape and feel its sensations. In this enquiry, my hand is an object of awareness: something I know through experience.

I am aware of my breathing.

The movement of my chest, the feeling of air, the weight of my body. I can turn attention towards these sensations as they happen.

I can notice my own thinking.

A thought appears. My intellect examines it. I can also notice that examination. Even the thought “I am aware” is something I can be aware of.

The world is present in my experience.

A tree, a car, the sound of the street. Everything I know of the world reaches me through experience. What is the relationship between that experience and the world itself?

What is aware of all this?

Now I turn attention towards the fact that I am aware. In the language of this enquiry, the subject is the awareness in which all these objects are known.

Could it all be one field of experience?

This is the non-dual possibility I am exploring: the body, thoughts and experienced world appearing within the same awareness. I have questions about it. I have no final answer.

An old way of picturing it

One ocean.
Many waves.

The Ashtavakra Gita uses waves and water to picture non-duality. Each wave has a shape; all are water. Here, the waves stand for experiences, and the ocean stands for awareness.

A metaphor for the non-dual view.

I am aware of my hand. I am aware of my breath, my car, my body, my thoughts and my intellect. I can even notice that I am aware. That is a strange thing to sit with.

In this enquiry, an object is anything I can be aware of. It can be a physical thing, a sensation or a thought. The subject is the awareness through which it is known. When I say awareness comes first, I mean that everything I know is already appearing in experience.

The non-dual idea I am exploring goes further: the person I call me and the world I experience arise within the same awareness. That is how I understand the thought that everything is me, awareness. I have no final answer. I find the question interesting.

I also like the word rendering. My experience of the world takes shape through my senses and mind. Beliefs, memories and interpretation help shape my internal climate. My body and circumstances are part of that too. It makes me curious about how much of what I experience I am adding.

One way I want to explore meditation is simply to notice this, with my eyes open as well as closed. I can be talking, breathing or looking at my hand, and notice the awareness of it.

What happens when I turn attention towards the fact that I am aware?

About this picture & sources

This visual explores a philosophical view found in Advaita Vedanta. The ocean is a metaphor. The independent existence of objects, and the nature of consciousness, remain separate philosophical questions.

Vision involves light being converted into electrical signals in the retina and processing by the brain. That account of perception leaves the metaphysical questions open. “Rendering” here describes how experience takes shape. The illustration makes no claim about a physical location for awareness.

I am aware of my hand.

One ocean. Many waves.

One ocean.
Many waves.