Question: You spoke about how consciousness could not have emerged; instead, you suggest that all objects appear to consciousness. Could you contrast this with some of the rival dualistic traditions in future, whether Western or otherwise? I can see why consciousness is fundamental in its own right but I can’t see why the deliverances to consciousness can’t be sourced from fundamental beings in their own right–objective objects.

This is just the right question. What a keen one. Let me offer a short answer here; you’ll find a longer answer here.

1. The Vedantic teaching unfolds in a series of steps. Each step is “sublated” by the next step as the understanding is refined via intellect and, above all, through meditation.

2. The starting point for this video essay is a misunderstanding thanks to physicalism. In order to correct this misunderstanding, we start with a standard picture that no reasonable being would reject: there is a subject and there is an object. Then the question is: “What, in truth, is the subject, what the object?”

3. It turns out that witnessing consciousness is the subject, and the body, mind, and world are all objects (so understood).

4. We’re now in a position to answer your question. At this stage, we then “go back” and examine objects. And what’s discovered, in fact, is that objects are made only of consciousness. Here are sub-steps:

• (4a) Objects arise in consciousness.
• (4b) Objects are pervaded by consciousness.
• And (4c), in the final analysis, just as waves are only made of water, so objects (or arisings) are only made of consciousness. 5.

Therefore, it’s experientially understood that there is only consciousness, i.e., that all that exists is nothing but consciousness. This is the absolute end of suffering and, what is the same thing, the absolute peace that is none other than consciousness.

Coda

Of course, all of these steps need to be understood experientially, and that cannot be conveyed in a reply like this. The intellectual understanding can be conveyed (hence this response), but not the experiential understanding. The former invites one to dive deep into meditation in order to realize the truth for oneself.