1. When there is seeing, what is undeniable is the very fact of this appearance. What exactly is being seen may be an error, but that there is some appearance is, indeed, a fact.

2. There’s no way that any organ or function can account for the fact of this appearance. The eyes do not have the power to produce the appearance, nor does the mind have such a power.

3. Then what is that can account for the fact that something is appearing?

4. We can, at this point, allow the inquiry to fork in two different directions. First, we can consider the fact that we are aware of the fact that something is appearing. And, second, we can examine more closely this something that is appearing.

5. Consider the first: you can’t deny that you’re aware that something is appearing. Ask: “Who is this one that is aware?” Going back to the placeless place from which this question arises reveals that it’s awareness or consciousness itself. A searching investigation of awareness or consciousness itself shows that I am awareness and that I, awareness, have no objective qualities. Not having any objective qualities, I cannot be limited; thus, I understand that I exist in my own right. Existing in my own right, I understand that I am the nature, the Isness, of the experience of seeing.

6. Now consider a second line of approach: since the fact of this appearance cannot be explained through any sensible qualities, it must be accounted for via that which has no objective qualities. When we “look through” or “see through” the experience of seeing, what we discover is presence: an atmosphere of pregnant fullness. Not being visible (that is, not being colored or shaped), presence nonetheless is. Initially, presence can seem as if it’s “the support” for this appearance–here, the experience of seeing. A deeper investigation will show that presence is also “the make” of this appearance.

7. What is the relationship between awareness and presence, between “I” and “That”? I am aware of presence. I exist and it exists. I have no objective qualities and it has no objective qualities. I see: I am presence.