A Deeper Definition of Consciousness

Have you ever had the experience of walking or driving through a thick fog? There is a sense that just about anything could appear out of it. A truck bearing down on you. Or maybe a dragon.

Your rational mind might say that's improbable, but there is another part of your mind which knows that anything could appear out of this fog. It is the space of possibility.

Now close your eyes for a moment and look at the space there. Technically you're looking at the back of your eyelids, but the space that you're seeing has a depth to it that is far greater than the distance between your eyeballs and your eyelids.

In fact, you can't really say how big the space is. There's no boundary. Anything could appear here. A little butterfly, or a wide open landscape, or even an entire galaxy.

Anything can fit in this space that you're looking at.

And that's not just because these are optical illusions.

It's because the space has the capacity to contain anything.

Now with your eyes open, the world that appears, all the colors and shapes brightness it's all appearing in the same space. If you blink slowly and just focus on the space. you'll notice it's the same space being filled with light with colors and shapes.

All these things are appearing in this space; the whole world.

And this actually shows us that when we talk about physical space with its three dimensions. that's really a subset of what we're seeing here. Because colors are a dimension here.

Brightness. And those are just the visual ones.

When you hear a sound it appears in the same space. Sensations.

Even your most intimate experiences. Emotions, thoughts, memories; all of these are appearing in this one space.

It's not like there are different kinds of spaces that you have access to. There's just one container.

And as you go to sleep at night you're staring into the same space, then you drift off, then the next thing you know you're in a dream. And of course the dream too appears right here, in this space.

So at this point it's not quite right to call it space anymore. It's not three-dimensional.

It's got infinite dimensions. Infinite possibility.

This is the space of consciousness.

That is what the word means.

You're very familiar with it. It's only when we get academic or philosophical, or someone tries to point out the great mystery of it that it gets a bit confusing.

Consciousness is most natural to you. But shouldn't be taken for granted.

What you're witnessing is infinity.

And within that infinity there's a stream of experience which you call 'my life'. But at the same time there are countless other lives being lived in this very same space of consciousness. Nobody can claim to own it.

The scale is too vast.

And yet we make the mistake of claiming a portion of it for ourselves. My consciousness. My mind.

Very much like, my piece of land.

But in reality no such boundaries ever exist. They are only mental.

Say that you're dreaming and there's someone in bed with you that notices that you're dreaming.

They look upon you. The space in which the dream appears it's not different in nature to the space in which you're being seen by this other person. It's the very same space, only there are two distinct streams of experience in it. And those streams exist simultaneously; in parallel.

They are distinct but not entirely separate, because they are contained in the one space of consciousness.

So the aim here for now is to make this distinction between what Consciousness is, and what these minds, which are really just streams of experience, are. Those can be many, but what we interested in is the nature of Consciousness itself.

What is your relationship to it?

All that we've talked about is the states of Consciousness in which there is some experience. But you know that there is a state where experience is completely absent.

And generally this is called 'unconsciousness'.

But consider your own experience of waking up from deep sleep, or, if you've been unfortunate enough to have to go through an operation where you had to take general anesthesia, that is a very enlightening experience if you look at it the right way.

Or, if you come to this as a meditator who has undergone cessation; the complete falling apart of experience, Well you can refer to that as you think about this.

Try to understand the insight here.

You see, when you wake up from sleep, or any of those other states, when the very first experience appears, just before that is what is called 'unconsciousness'. But if that state really was unconsciousness, there would be no possibility of that experience being noticed. Being known.

It wouldn't be an experience at all.

So there is consciousness there. Present to render that experience. And it's not really there in the form of a state.

And at this point we can't even call it space.

There's no space. There's no sense of time at that point.

The only presence at that point is you.

You are there to take receipt of that first experience.

And so, what you are is Consciousness in it's purest form.

When it's formless.

Even to talk about it as space is meaningless. Where there is no change, so there's no sense of talking about time.

Pure Consciousness, before the advent of experience.

And when experience does appear, it appears to you. The Sentience that has the capacity to perceive whatever appears in the realm of consciousness.

So I fear we've gone too far in this one video. So just bring it back a bit, and during your day blink a bit slower sometimes.

Notice that space behind closed eyes.

And as you lie down for sleep, if you're in a nice dark room, try opening your eyes and closing them, and seeing if there's any difference in the space that you're looking upon. You'll find that there's none.

So notice this space.

It will reveal many secrets to you.