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We speak about ourselves constantly.
But what exactly are we referring to when we say, “I”?
A body? A personality? A history? A collection of memories?
A stream of thoughts and feelings?
And what is Consciousness, through which all of these are experienced?
Begin the Inquiry
Read about the question—or investigate it directly.
Self & Consciousness is not intended simply as a collection of ideas.
Some material explores the questions through writing.
Other material asks you to examine your own experience directly.
Direct Inquiry
Look directly at experience
Short investigations designed to move from ideas about
Consciousness toward direct examination of what is actually present.
No special state is required.
Begin with ordinary experience and look carefully.
Essays
Stay with the questions
Essays approach identity, Awareness, thought, experience,
Consciousness and the nature of the “I” from different directions.
They are invitations to examine—not doctrines to adopt.
Explore Essays →Featured Direct Inquiry
Direct Inquiry 01
What Is Aware of This Experience?
Sight, sound, sensation and thought may all be different experiences.
Yet each is known.
Rather than supplying an answer about what Consciousness is,
this inquiry asks you to examine that simple fact directly.
The Question
What do I mean by “myself”?
In ordinary life, the word self usually refers
to the person we take ourselves to be.
It includes the body, name, personality, memories, beliefs,
preferences, relationships, roles, ambitions, fears and personal history.
Yet much of this changes throughout a lifetime.
The body changes. Beliefs change. Relationships change.
Memories fade. Roles appear and disappear.
Even the personality we describe as “me” may change considerably.
What, then, gives continuity to that which we call “I”?
Self and Self
Two very different uses of one word
self
Here, lowercase self refers to the ordinary
psychological and personal identity:
body, personality, memory, thought, history, roles,
preferences and the familiar personal sense of “me.”
Self
Some contemplative traditions use capital-S
Self in a very different way.
It does not mean a better personality or a spiritualized individual.
It points toward Consciousness or Awareness itself.
Whether this distinction is true is not something you are asked to believe.
It is something the inquiry can examine.
Two Directions of Inquiry
Looking from outside. Looking from within.
Third-person investigation
Neuroscience, psychology and cognitive science investigate
mechanisms associated with conscious experience.
Researchers study perception, memory, attention, brain activity,
altered states, behaviour and reports of subjective experience.
These approaches can reveal enormously important things about
the conditions and processes associated with human experience.
First-person investigation
Experience can also be examined from the standpoint in which
it is actually occurring.
What is a thought when observed directly?
What is the sense of “I”?
How does the distinction between self and world appear in experience?
First-person inquiry does not replace science.
Science does not replace first-person inquiry.
They approach different dimensions of the question.
Explore by Theme
Follow the question that draws you.
The Working Approach
Inquiry without surrendering judgment
We can listen to science without turning science into metaphysics.
We can examine philosophy without mistaking argument for direct experience.
We can investigate contemplative traditions without accepting their
conclusions merely because they are ancient or revered.
And we can examine our own experience without assuming that every
interpretation of experience must be true.
The Working Principle
No authority.
No required belief.
No promised destination.
Look. Question. Investigate.
Another Doorway
What happens when attention itself becomes part of the inquiry?
Meditation explores attention, stillness and the possibility of
resting more deeply in Awareness—not as required belief or ritual,
but as another form of investigation.