What is Aware of Awareness?

[00:00:07] Seeker 1: but it still feels like something's aware of the vastness rather than I am the vastness. And I was wondering how you transition or if there's anything that helps you actually completely merge or what's aware of that awareness. [00:00:15] Rohan: Yeah, I feel like when I do that it just goes blank and I just there's nothing, nothing. So just keep doing that. [00:00:23] Rohan: Yeah because that's not quite it. That's something aware of it and then that itself. Then there's zero. Not even zero. You know, nothing isn't something. Like sense, but the mind makes makes nothing something. There's not even nothing. [00:00:51] Rohan: You know, the mind will make nothing like a bat a giant bag. There's an edge somewhere, do you know what I mean? Anyway. Like it can't do nothing. It can't comprehend nothing. Because it's all of the senses. The mind and the senses are are one thing. Does makes sense? [00:02:42] Rohan: The world of unfinished business. But even that also fantastical. Ultimately nothing that is the only true thing. Well, and you got no option in that, you're that dreaming. Dreaming itself. [00:03:38] Rohan: You know, like when you're deep sleep at night or not deep sleep and you're in dream state at night, like you have the most fantastical dreams and and there's no like cognition of this just doesn't make any sense. It's ridiculous. You you you wake up into this and then you go out it's ridiculous. How do I how can I even let that through? Do you know what I mean? No, that's ridiculous. And you you just step out of it and and you wake up whoa. This is just the dream of that. It's about it. [00:04:27] Rohan: So come back to the original dream. Stay with your original dream. And if you want to because you you lose function when you go right back as you know, you lose function. So you know, you allow yourself to lose function and it's wise to do that is to to to let it and um settle in for a period of time. And you know, especially doing this work together you've got people around you know what's happening so they can you know, they won't lock you up. Because some people get locked up if no one knows what's happening. They get medicated. [00:05:41] Rohan: So that's it, you you become dysfunctional at that point. This this whole thing drops away, this whole learned mechanism. You watch the children learn, they're they're just blobs of salt water, aren't they? Moving, you know, trying to work within the all this then we learn language, and we learn our name, and structures and how to be and how not to be and layer upon layer upon layer. But prior to all that was just the originally just pure awareness and witnessing. And what but what that what that awareness was prior to birth also. Prior to presence. And we'll be post death. So birth and death are somewhat illusory too.

• Satsang
  Literally "Meeting in Truth." It is the direct investigation into our true nature in the presence of an awakened teacher, transcending the separate idea of 'I' or 'me'.
• Non-Duality
  The direct recognition that reality is a single, undivided whole. It points to the collapse of the illusion of a separate self, revealing the substratum of pure awareness.
• Self-Inquiry
  A core practice of turning attention inward to investigate the source of the 'I'-thought. It is not a mental analysis but a direct seeing of what we are prior to identification.
• Enlightened Teacher
  One who abides in the substratum of being and can act as a direct pointer to that reality for others. Their function is not to give knowledge, but to facilitate direct realisation.
• Inner Investigation
  The process of looking directly at the mechanics of the mind—its beliefs, patterns, and agreements—without judgment, in order to facilitate their dissolution.
• Pure Awareness
  The substratum of being; the silent witnessing that is present before birth and remains after death. It is not an object to be known by the mind, but the very field in which knowing happens.
• Original Dream
  Rohan's term for the foundational, continuous awareness from which the dream of the separate self and the world arises. To 'stay with the original dream' is to abide in this source.
• Losing Function
  The temporary state where learned social and personal mechanisms drop away during a deep shift in consciousness. It appears dysfunctional from the outside but is part of the dissolution process.
• Bliss Body
  The experiential, vibrational quality that accompanies the direct, non-intellectual knowing of your true nature. It is a felt-sense of reality, not just a thought about it.
• Mind and Senses
  Treated as a single apparatus that converts the seamlessness of reality into objects, edges, and concepts. This mechanism cannot comprehend true 'nothing' as it is designed to define things.

• What does Satsang mean?
  Satsang literally means "Meeting in the Non-Dual Truth of Reality." It is the practice of gathering in the presence of an awakened teacher to directly investigate and experience our true nature, which is undivided awareness, free from the illusion of a separate self.
• How can I stop obsessing about the future?
  Instead of trying to stop the mind, the teaching suggests a different approach. Through Self-Inquiry, you investigate the 'I' that is obsessing. This shifts the focus from managing thoughts to recognising the silent Presence that is aware of them, which naturally quiets the mind's compulsive activity.
• What are the signs of an authentic spiritual teacher?
  An authentic teacher is recognised not just by their words, but by an 'energetic light' that can be directly felt. They don't offer you more beliefs, but instead use skillful means like meditation and inquiry to guide you to your own direct realisation of Truth.
• Can I practice this if I'm not religious?
  Yes. The methods used in Satsang, like Self-Inquiry and Inner Investigation, are not based on belief or religion. They are direct, experiential tools for looking at the structure of your own consciousness to see what is true, independent of any ideology.
• What is the difference between being aware of vastness and 'being' the vastness?
  The feeling that 'something is aware of the vastness' is the last subtle trick of the mind creating an observer. The transition to 'being the vastness' isn't an action you do, but a collapse of this observer. It is a direct, non-conceptual recognition of yourself as the awareness in which everything appears, not a separate self looking at it.
• Why can't the mind comprehend nothingness?
  The mind and the senses operate as a single mechanism designed to create definition. They turn reality into objects with edges. 'Nothing' is the absence of objects and edges, so the mind tries to make it into a 'something'—like a giant empty bag. It cannot process true formlessness, which is why direct experience must bypass the conceptual mind.
• Can spiritual awakening make you dysfunctional?
  Yes, a deep awakening can lead to a temporary loss of function. This happens when the learned mechanisms of personality, social conditioning, and identity drop away. From an external perspective it can look like a mental health crisis, but within a supportive context, it's understood as a necessary part of dissolving the old structure to rest in what is real.
• What does it mean to 'stay with the original dream'?
  This is a pointer to rest in the foundational awareness from which the dream of a separate self and world arises. It means abiding as the silent witnessing presence itself, rather than getting caught in the stories, thoughts, and perceptions that appear within it. It's a return to the source before the mind creates a world.