How Do We Know That We Are Awareness Rather Than Awareness Being Like A Sense In Nothingness?

[Joseph Maynor]

This is a little tricky.  I accept the fact that I am nothingness.  I have confirmed that and am working to accept it.  

But awareness seems like a sense in nothingness.  Therefore I may not be awareness.    

You wouldn't say that you are your sense of sight.  But maybe awareness is like a sense in nothingness too.  

Edited July 12, 2017 by Joseph Maynor

[Shanmugam]

@Joseph Maynor  This is the result of trying to philosophizing too much... You are awareness but you are not the concept of awareness.. Anything that you think about awareness is a concept, and that concept is not you. And if you notice anything that seems like anything, it is not you either.

Don't try to twist your head to look at your own eyes, you will end up mistaking something that you see for your eyes.. Anything that you see with your eyes cannot be your eyes.

Any word to define who you really are is not the right word.. People have chosen the words awareness or nothingness because they are close in pointing out what it is..

Edited July 12, 2017 by Shanmugam

[Dizzy]

Have you seen this @Joseph Maynor ? 

Doubt you will have questions after watching this 

[dorg]

There are awareness teachings and emptiness teachings.

They are different ways for the mind to approach 'what is'.

The mind drops for the last step.

Edited July 12, 2017 by dorg

[Shin]

1 hour ago, jimrich said:

Is nameless No-thing or Not hingness BUT I am NOT dead, lifeless No-thing.   It is often said that this No-thing cannot be described but I certainly am not DEAD - like a rock!  I am aware - just cannot put it into words beyond Living or Alive Awareness so that is how I know that I am.   I'm ALIVE!

A rock is As much alive than your Little John.

[Space]

11 hours ago, Joseph Maynor said:

This is a little tricky.  I accept the fact that I am nothingness.  I have confirmed that and am working to accept it.  

But awareness seems like a sense in nothingness.  Therefore I may not be awareness.    

You wouldn't say that you are your sense of sight.  But maybe awareness is like a sense in nothingness too.  

Don't just accept what someone else has told you. Chances are you don't have any idea what you are so 'Nothingness' is just another concept. Unless you're directly conscious of what you are, which may or may not be nothingness, you need to throw out all your ideas and beliefs.

[Erlend K]

12 hours ago, Joseph Maynor said:

But awareness seems like a sense in nothingness.

I'm not sure what you mean about this. Can you elaborate?

Basically the idea about non-self is that we phenomenological have this sense of a "Self" inside our stream of consciousness. This is what Rick Hanson calls the "Unified owner of experience and agent of action". This "Self" have certain phenomenological characteristics. the "Self" feels like it is what we at the core most fundamentally are, and that it is coherent, indivisible, stable (It's the same "Self" today as there were 10 years ago), the observer of the stream of consciousness, independent of whats being observed, and the actor making decisions/setting intentions  etc.

What mystics/contemplatives have discovered is that during highly concentrated mind states this sens of Self breaks down into a set of vibrations, just like all other body and mind phenomena does. With continued practice this sense of "Self" can be weakened and eventually disappear completely (or in some traditions like certain Zen-schools, suddenly disappear). Awareness still remains, and the streams of body sense information and mind information keeps streaming through it. These are real, but the concepts "Awareness", "itching", "thought" etc are empty in the technical sense.

It's like when Alan Watts tried to answer what "the real world" is: He said something like "The real world is neither 'spiritual' nor 'material'. The real world is just.. *claps his hands*". The direct, phenomenological experience of that clap is reality, while the concept "clapping" is empty.

[Visitor]

In awareness you know without knowing.

The know is the source of truth as far as I can articulate. In the know there is no question, no doubt, no fear, nothing to point at physically of mentally. It is potentially everything at once, yet it is not. Anything that arises from the know is not a surprise because it is true, and you knew without realizing it before it arose to consciousness.

[Nahm]

Awareness isn't like a sense. 

[Faceless]

If there is identification with things one is caught in the world of things , therefore a movement of thought/self/mind. 

“AWARENESS DOESNT IDENTIFY” 

Edited May 28, 2018 by Faceless