The Reality where science and spirit converge

The body, mind, and the world appear in the state of consciousness.

Something that appears later in consciousness claims this state at its own. As, "My consciousness."

This is where the misery begins.

When this false identity is taken to be the Self.

In a previous video, we discussed what this is. It is the ego; a thought process gone rogue. The echoes of a chemical reaction.

The functioning of this brain.

You are not that.

Because you are what is conscious.

And all of this is what is being observed; the phenomena.

As long as the focus remains entirely on the phenomena, on what is being observed, the final truth remains elusive. In this case attention is fixed on a subjective world and its content.

But underlying all these self-contained, subjective worlds; these streams of consciousness, there is a common factor.

And that common factor is the subject matter here.

The Truth being sought by all who seek Reality and the true Self.

From the empirical scientific perspective, that common factor is theorised as a physical universe. A universe ruled by natural laws that apply to all in it. And these laws can be verified in each subjective world and support the hypothesis that there is a greater context in which all these bodies, minds and worlds are appearing.

This model caters for all quantifiable and observable phenomena.

But there remains an other obvious common factor among all these subjective worlds.

And that is the universal law that allows for experience.

Consciousness is not just a state, it is also the name for this common factor.

Which can be quite confusing. So, we scrounge for words and at this point it's best to just pick one that resonates with you.

Awareness.

Sentience.

Being.

No body or mind or world can be known without this factor.

But since experience is entirely qualitative the factor that allows for experience; that makes it possible, cannot be quantified either.

If you have no way of representing joy except by feeling joy, how can we represent what makes the joy possible?

We can't do it with numbers or equations. The laboratories and the particle accelerators can't help us here.

The common factor underlying all streams of consciousness is only known through the fact of knowing and feeling and sensing.

In a way, this is similar to how the other forces of nature are known.

Like how Gravity is known by the quality of mass, the feeling of weight. And how Electromagnetism is known through the presence of light, the qualities of light and electric charge.

In this way experience is the natural process being observed here. And the common factor; Consciousness or Sentience, is the force of nature.

But there's also a clear difference here.

And that is that experience is not known through third-person observation, cannot be known through third-person observation.

It is known intimately. First-hand.

So, while the other forces of nature being discussed by physicists and so on require evidence; empirical evidence, the common factor we are talking about here is self-evident, simply by the fact of knowing.

And the force of nature that allows for one experience is the same force that allows all experience.

If this is seen clearly, it is quite obvious that Consciousness or Sentience is not something contained in a body, or possessed by a brain, in the same way that the field of Electromagnetism is not contained within a circuit.

Consciousness is indivisible and non-local.

How can any boundaries be drawn without reference to a local experience?

A particular circuit. A body, a brain. And the local field; the mind and the world.

But the subject matter here is the Common Factor underlying all streams of consciousness.

This universal Common Factor is what the sages are talking about.

Whereas the seekers are still grappling with their local stream of consciousness. A particular subjective world. The local circuit.

From the sage's perspective nothing in this subjective world or in the physical universe can be said to possess Consciousness or Sentience. Consciousness is universal in the scientific, impersonal sense.

No individual entity can honestly claim to possess Consciousness.

But this isn't quite right either because it is referring to Consciousness in the third-person.

But, in fact, Consciousness is only known through the act of being conscious. In the act of knowing and sensing and feeling.

By being the Conscious-ness. The Sentience.

The Common Factor here is not being known indirectly, it is known directly.

In every life, in every mind or subjective world, this Common Factor is known as I.

Not I the word.

Not I in the sense of a particular feeling or sensation or a person. Not any of those combinations of subjective things.

But simply I — the Sentience. The Awareness. The undeniable Presence.

This is where the impersonal becomes intimate.

This universal law of nature; Consciousness, is what you are.

How absurd and yet quite obviously true.

The only obstacle here is mixing up what is universal with what is local. With identifying with it. Attaching to it.

None of these streams of experience will ever be enough.

Look at the totality of it.

The truth of what you are.

That is where you will find peace.

This is all yours.

It is all You.