The Basis of Consciousness | The Jewel Garland of Inquiry

"If the basis is insentient, a separate seer is necessary.

If the basis is sentient, it will itself be the seer."

I came upon this statement by chance in the translation of an ancient text called Vichara Mani Mala.

The Jewel Garland of Inquiry.

It appears in a dialogue between a sage and a seeker. And this dialogue itself was handpicked from a much larger text by none other than Sri Ramana Maharshi. One of the most esteemed and well-known sages in recent history.

The full import of this statement probably hasn't hit you yet. But it really offers a radical answer to what is called the 'Hard Problem of Consciousness'.

The question of how and why there is any experience at all. And as I'll point out this is not a metaphysical or unverifiable claim either. The evidence is available, first-hand. But for this to hit harder, we need a bit of a buildup.

We need to consider the depth of the hard problem.

"If the basis is insentient, a separate seer is necessary."

All human thinking and knowledge assumes that the basis of the universe is insentient. That sentience appears later.

And there are all these separate observers. Sentient entities or conscious beings. Living things. And because of this assumption we hit a hard problem.

What exactly is the thing that is conscious? And how does it come to be conscious?

This problem is hard not just in the normal sense, but in the sense that the entire sum of human knowledge offers no clue to how this can even be possible. We have no idea of what an answer would be.

How can the universe start with insentient quarks, and leptons, and gluons, and so on, and a whole lot of empty space; entirely quantitative phenomena, and just by combining them in a certain way, give rise to experience? Colors, music, love, hate.

Even what is called physical sensations are not at all physical. They are not quantitative. They're qualitative. An entirely different category to the stuff that science can even deal with.

Splitting things apart in all the particle colliders doesn't help here. Because no matter how much you split things apart, you just end up with a whole lot of nothing and little bits of insentient stuff.

If we turn to Neuroscience, the study of brains, it offers no clues either. Brain chemistry is based on the same physics. It's all insentient matter. We can correlate certain patterns of activity in the brain with certain experiences, but that's about it.

This is the perplexing view if the basis of the universe is insentient.

If this is the case, we need to identify what is the thing that is conscious. Because that is the only thing any of us truly care about.

"If the basis is insentient, a separate seer is necessary."

In addition to the seeing, there should be a seer. In addition to the experience, there should be an experiencer. But there is none to be found.

In your own experience, it is quite obvious that there is seeing. But from that first-hand point of view, can you see the seer?

You can only see skin. Reflections of light, and so on. What exactly is looking?

And from the view of science, again there's no observable thing that can be pointed out with certainty and said this is what is conscious.

So, the case is not looking strong here. There's no evidence to support this hypothesis that the basis is insentient. Because a seer, a separate seer, cannot be found.

But most minds can't even fathom an alternative.

But here we are, with this statement presented with the wisdom of a true Sage.

"If the basis is sentient, it will itself be the seer."

Now, the intellect in you may jump up and say this is an unprovable hypothesis. Wrong.

It's not.

Turn off the lights. Sit down. And be quiet. Be still.

Now notice the basis of all this. Whatever is happening, whatever is being known, what is the basis of it?

The basis is the fact of being aware.

Take away this quality of being aware and this whole world is reduced to nothing. Might as well not exist. Without this quality of being aware, even if something did possibly exist, it would never be known. Which is the same as being an unrealized possibility.

Just a probability.

Take away this quality of being aware, and this whole world is reduced to nothing.

Now, without the world, whatever is left standing, that is real. For the world to appear, Reality must be present.

For experience to arise, there must be this quality of being aware. So, that is the basis. This quality of being aware is the basis.

Now, there's a quirk in the English language that to turn a quality into a noun, you just add four letters at the end. And you get things like happiness, stillness, consciousness. But these are not really things at all.

What we're talking about is not a thing that can be possessed. It is the quality of being aware.

Aware-ness. Aware-ness is aware. Sentience is sentient.

There's no separate seer or experiencer required here. Because the basis is sentient.

All this activity being described by science; the light traveling to the eyes, the brain activity taking place, all of this takes place within this basis. So, of course, some of it may be experienced. Even in this one body you don't experience everything taking place.

Not even in the brain activity. Only certain bits of it rises up to the surface of Awareness. But because the basis is aware, the possibility of experience is present. That is why there can be an experience to it.

And this does not contradict science in any way. There is the process as it appears through instruments and their measurements. There's some quantitative aspects to it that can be described through maths. And then there's the experience that these processes can appear as; the first-hand perspective.

The seeing, the hearing, all the sensing, and feeling, and knowing.

And then there is the basis; what is fundamental and most real. This Aware-ness, which is in itself the seer. The knower. The experiencer.

But even without the seeing, and the knowing, and the experiencing, the basis remains.

So, here the hard problem is not hard and not a problem. It is resolved quite simply.

"If the basis is sentient, it will itself be the seer."

One step back from the intellect, the basis is present and quite obvious.

It is You.

The entire world before you is subjective. And you, that are aware, are the basis for this entire subjective world. You are not to be found in this world.

Try as hard as you like. None of the answers that your instruments will provide you will be fulfilling. Because You cannot be represented by an equation. You cannot be described in words.

And even experiences can only paint hints of what You are. Nothing can fill You more than the clear knowledge of your own true quality. The quality of being aware.

You are not in this world, You are its basis.

And the basis of even one particular, subjective world, cannot be separate or different in any way to the basis of all worlds.

Even if it is just this one subjective world that you're aware of right now, being its basis, you're neither an object in it, nor a separate subject of it.

You stand unsupported as pure Aware-ness. Reality unto Itself.