Awareness

Awareness is the knowing aspect of experience: the fact that whatever appears, a sight, a sound, a thought, is known. In ordinary speech it is close to consciousness, but contemplative traditions often use it for something more specific: a knowing presence that is aware of experiences without being one of them.

Advaita Vedānta calls this the witness (sākṣin), the pure consciousness that observes the waking, dreaming and sleeping states without changing. Sāṃkhya and Yoga speak of the seer (draṣṭṛ), distinct from all that is seen, including the mind. Buddhist traditions do not posit a permanent witness, but some, especially in Tibetan Dzogchen and Mahāmudrā, speak of rigpa, the knowing, luminous nature of mind itself, recognized in meditation.

Many contemplative practices are trainings in awareness: noticing experience as it arises, without being carried away by it. Some teachers say that awareness is always present, and that the practice is only to recognize it.