Consciousness There is something present that is conscious of these words. Whatever that ‘something’ is, is what is referred to here as Consciousness or Awareness. We may not know what this Consciousness is, but we have no doubt that it is present. It is. It has Being. We never experience the absence of Consciousness. Consciousness cannot ‘not be’ and it cannot ‘not be conscious.’ Moreover, no experience is possible without Consciousness. Everything that we know or experience is experienced by, through or in Consciousness. However, if we try to find this Consciousness we find nothing objective and yet, at the same time, it is our most intimate and direct experience that Consciousness is present. As Consciousness is undeniably present and yet has no objective qualities, from where do we derive our certainty that it is located in time and space, that it resides in the body or the mind, that it was born and will die, or that it is personal? In fact all these certainties are simply uninvestigated beliefs and if we go deeply into the ultimate cause of suffering, we find that it is rooted in this belief that Consciousness is limited and personal. There is nothing in our experience to suggest that Consciousness is either limited or personal nor is there anything to suggest that there is any other reality to the mind, the body or the world, other than Consciousness itself. To read a more complete essay on Consciousness, click here*.