Most people never even notice: wow, there is something that is aware of my experience! I have thoughts, sensations, and perceptions. But something is aware of that. Wow! What is that? Most people never even have that thought! Our experience is illuminated by consciousness, is known by consciousness, appears in consciousness. And yet our culture systematically ignores the presence of consciousness. Once it has become obvious to us—as it has to all of us here—that there is something which knows our experience, it’s almost impossible to understand how it could have been overlooked.
All I’m trying to do is to provoke in you this interest in the nature of your experience. How come my experience is known? I mean, isn’t that amazing: our experience is known! I mean, forget walking on water, or raising the dead, or anything. Experience is known! That’s incredible! There is experience! How come? What knows it? What knows our thoughts? What is it that is hearing these sounds? It’s all lit up by a light—not a physical light, but a knowing light.