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These descriptions attempt to explain concepts that cannot be captured by language alone. While comprehending them intellectually through language may be necessary, it is not sufficient. To appreciate them fully, we must also experience them directly, firsthand, through practice. See also theory vs. practice.
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When we successfully 'rest as awareness', the feeling of being an observer is lost and all that remains is the raw data of our senses, uninfluenced by narrative and interpretation. And because we’re in this unadulterated and clear state of seeing, there is no striving to change the contents of consciousness. No urge to hold on to what’s pleasant and suppress what isn’t.
It is engaging with the present moment in a way that transcends the conventional separation of subject¹ and object².
Being awake isn’t about eliminating all sense of being a person or always being in some fantastic state of expanded consciousness far above human problems. But it is about not being lost in our problems, oblivious to the awareness beholding them, and stuck in only seeing the third person view.
When you say, "I see a tree, I hear a bird, I know a fact." The bird, the fact, the tree is an object, right? And "I" is the subject. For this reason you can never know or experience the "I". Because as soon as you think you've grasped it and turned it into an object, it eludes your grasp. "I" is the ultimate subject of all objects. But it can never become an object of experience itself.
Anything you can locate, anything you can name, is an object of awareness. The question is, who is aware? Who is the ultimate subject of all objects?
As good as this all may sound, 'resting as awareness' is not something we strive to do in every moment of life. There is of course much practical utility in not being in this state. For example, during certain moments of self reflection, when the act of analyzing our past actions can help promote a sense self-awareness, and allow us to make better choices for ourselves in the years to come. Moreover, the prevailing view, at least among some practitioners, is that any claims of people resting as this state permanently are at best unsubstantiated. No matter how much we practice, it’s all too human to slip into the conventional role of being an observer.
In light of this, the path and the goal of practice ****is to make this condition more accessible to us in everyday life. For us to become more adept at recognizing when being lost in thought as the observer isn’t serving us, and to have the presence of mind to drop back and begin again.