What Is Pure Consciousness? | Michael James

What if consciousness isn't felt experience at all — but what felt experience appears in? Michael James argues that most definitions of consciousness confuse what is conscious with what it is conscious of. Pure awareness has no content, no limits, no cause — and according to Advaita and the teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi, it is not what experiences phenomena, but what we essentially are — infinite being, awareness, and happiness, whether phenomena appear or not.

Michael James has spent nearly 50 years studying, practicing, and translating the works of Sri Ramana Maharshi. He studied under Sri Sadhu Om, a direct disciple of Ramana, and is the author of Atma-Vidya: The Science of Knowing Oneself. He is regarded as a leading authority on Ramana's primary sources and experiential practice.

00:00 Introduction — defining consciousness
01:26 Felt experience as the object of awareness, not consciousness itself
02:49 Consciousness is distinct from phenomena
04:09 Ned Block's phenomenal vs. access consciousness — and a better terminology
07:49 Pure awareness: limitless, beyond time and space
09:25 Not "my" consciousness — what we essentially are
12:10 Ajata and the illusion of separation
16:08 Sat-Chit-Ananda: infinite being, awareness, happiness
19:19 Is pure consciousness a brute fact or necessary?
20:34 Advaita theology vs. theistic conceptions of God
22:58 The only way to know the infinite is to be the infinite