Psi Phi:
1. (So what if language and logic are stripped away, like when you go to sleep at night, when in deep sleep there is no language and logic, what is logically deduced as a self and described by the language centers of the mind, are effectively switched "off" in deep sleep. So there is a self, but only sometimes, when we are awake, and only in the normal mundane waking consciousness? So there is a "part-time self?")
2. (The eye(the sense organ) is there, the object is there (TV), the eye consciousness (the seeing). The "I" is just put in there, that is the delusion, the "I" is added, like storytelling.)
3. (What about seeing the TV without the language involved)
4. ( So, there can be just Awareness. It doesn't have to include "I" am aware. )
Hi Phi, Good questions for conversation. My angle is this:
1. Yes, a part time self, created by language and consciousness. In deep sleep there is unconsciousness. Nisaggardatta reckons "Awareness becomes consciousness when it has an object". Guys like him live as this Awareness during deep sleep, apparently. Aware 24/24/7.
Some more Nisa: "Consciousness must have a background of Awareness.... But there can be Awareness without Consciousness, as in deep sleep: there is no Consciousness, but on waking one is aware of being in deep sleep".
Amazing, Yoga Nidra at perfection
2. Sounds right to me. Duality happens immediately one wakes and becomes conscious. Duality means there is 'I' and 'other'; 'me' and 'not me'. The most powerful trance. It's power is derived by the fear of non-existence of self.
Yes, the fear of non-existence of self, and this self has to be a self-formation, like an instinctual pattern of neurons fight for territory in the brain, branching out like a vine, seeking to justify it's own existence, and perhaps can trigger fear chemicals when threatened, just thought and pondering
3. Sounds like enlightenment...?
I dunno, or just Bare Attention
4. I know what you're saying. If I claim "I am Awareness", then that makes Awareness the object, and then.... what is the 'I' that observes it? But when I direct attention inwards to the thing doing the attending, I find I can't make an object of it. It's like trying to balance on a wet slippery log. And if I succeed for a moment in holding my balance, it sort of collapses in on itself, becomes spacious, frightening, etc. Frightening because I don't want to know the truth.