Is There Anybody Out There?

One of the states of duality is the sense that there is an I which resides inside a body, and then there is a world outside the body.

I look out through these eyes to a computer screen on which text is appearing as I type. For most practical purposes this view of me and my relationship to the outside world works. It allows me to function in the world, to interact with the world, to communicate with other people in the world.

What is really going on here? There may indeed be a computer screen in front of me, but I cannot see it as it really is. Light passes from the screen into my eyes. These light waves are then interpreted by the brain which then constructs an image which I label computer screen. Am I seeing the screen out there or is it in here, inside my brain?

Sound waves come from speakers in my computer, then hit my ear drums, and my brain translates then into sounds. There is then another level to this.  I interpret the sounds and judge their merit. If I hear Pink Floyd singing Is There Anybody Out There then I call these sound waves great music, and there is an emotional response to it. If my neighbours dog barks for a long time I call this sound irritation.  There is the raw data, sound or light waves, and there is the interpretation of this data.

As you become aware of what is going on, the sense of me in here and stuff out there breaks down. There is only awareness, and in that awareness, sound waves, light waves, odours, touch sensations occur and somewhere there is a separate identity that sifts through all this data and tries to make sense of it all.

Then you walk in the room. I see your body, hear your voice. You too are happening in this awareness. My separate identity sees your separate identity, but the only way that I can perceive your separate identity is as part of myself. If you are a close friend then this perception is within the context of my memories of you. When you talk I am constantly interpreting what you are saying, but without direct experience of your thought processes that led to your words. This is against the background of my image of you.

We are looking here at the content of your awareness. This content constructs how you see the world, and  creates divisions between you and me and me and the world outside.

What about awareness itself? Is it possible to sense pure awareness without referring to its content, without forms, empty?

Formless emptiness is non-duality.