What is behind all the content one perceives that you could ever imagine or think about at this moment? Everything, all of it, all content; imagine if it were all gone. What would be left? Would it not be a simple awareness without a sense of anything other than being— or the purpose of existence? Feel into that sense of being, of presence which seems to be within, without, and behind all content.
What is that feeling of existence, that sense of being? It is the awareness you carry of being conscious. The all-pervading consciousness that is aware of itself and any or all content.
Where is it? Everywhere and nowhere.
What is it? The mind cannot fathom it.
You know it is here—but you can’t find it. Why? Because it is not a thing. You know it’s here, it’s obvious, but the mind cannot find it; it simply is the Is-ness of existence. Reason can only reference something as a thing. The pure sense of presence or being is a “no-thing,” nothing.
If you sense it and try to look for and capture more of it, it will fade because the mind is trying to find something to grasp and give meaning. The mind and all the content, perceptions, senses, and environment are the expressions of consciousness, the pure awareness of self. Awareness, or consciousness, the Self you are, is the substratum of all there is, including the person you think you are— this mind/body organism. Your true Self, the consciousness you know as awareness of things but cannot be touched on, transcends the mind and all its faculties: the senses, the emotions, the intellect, and the ego. You must go beyond the mind/body through meditation and self-inquiry to rest as pure consciousness.
The endpoint of Self-Inquiry will lead to “no one,” nothing. And nobody knows there is no one.