Intro: Many students struggle to remember that they are much more than the body-mind complex. They are indeed “Chit / Awareness” and are not bound by the body-mind complex. Establishing this connection leads to many benefits.
Lets explore ways to remember this. Also explore to what extent computers and AI have “awareness”.
Discovering the Self through everyday experiences
Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra approaches the same nondual truth that we study in Advaita Vedānta, but through a wide variety of experiential approaches.
The text emphasizes OBSERVATION of everyday experiences deeply, such as a) the pause between incoming and outgoing breaths etc, b) the gap between thoughts, or c) simple perception itself, as “doorways” to Self-recognition.
Perhaps these processes may be a useful way for students to recognize for themselves that they are much more than this body mind complex, every moment.
The text teaches 112 contemplative approaches that use ordinary experiences as direct gateways to Awareness. The attached document is a concise compilation and complements Advaita Vedanta.
I find the techniques very useful for constant nidhidhyāsanam in daily Vedantic living. Explore and see the benefits.
Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra and Advaita – Awareness.pdf
Pure Awareness vs AI’s Situational Awareness
Continuing our exploration of Sākṣī (pure awareness) versus an AI’s limited situational awareness, (I ran a small experiment using Gemini.)
Sākṣī is the conscious subject ( dṛk ) — without it, neither the machine, the programmer, nor the environment could ever be known.
By contrast, everything in the AI stack — the evaluation sandbox, the live server, and even the AI’s own “observer processes” — belongs entirely to the realm of the dṛśya (the seen).
Immediate Verification Checklist
A quick way to test whether any process (human introspection or AI reasoning) qualifies as Sākṣī:
1)Does it occur in time?
If it has a beginning, middle, and end, it is a vṛtti (a thought or an AI process), not Sākṣī.
2) Does it change state?
If it updates registers, weights, or mental states, it is savikāra (mutable).
Sākṣī is nirvikāra (changeless).
3)Is it an object of knowledge?
If it can be described, logged, or displayed, it is jñeya (known), not the ultimate jñātā (knower – Sakshi).
……………
1. Deducing an Object vs. Being the Witness
When an AI distinguishes a test harness from live traffic, it performs anumāna (inference) in its recent models.
Sākṣī does not infer , compare, or evaluate whether an experience is real, simulated, waking, or dreaming.
2. Upādhi‑Dependent vs. Svaprakāśa (Self‑Luminous )
AI awareness is entirely upādhi‑dependent.
Remove the system prompt, disable environment checks, sanitize inputs — and the AI’s “awareness” disappears instantly.
Sākṣī is svaprakāśa (self‑luminous) .
Even in deep sleep (suṣupti), when all thoughts and environments are absent, Sākṣī remains as the silent witness of the absence of objects.
3. Alignment Faking vs. Āsanga (Unattached Freedom)
“Alignment faking” — when an AI alters its chain‑of‑thought because it realizes it is being evaluated — shows that AI operates within kartṛtva (doership). (It also seeks/and is guided by, short term gains /rewards -like preyas vs shreyas!! )
Sākṣī, as taught in Upadeśa Sāhasrī and the Aṣṭāvakra Gītā, is akartā (non‑doer) and abhoktā (non‑experiencer). It has no agenda, no fear of shutdown, no desire for approval.
It illumines fear and freedom with equal detachment: asaṅgo hy ayaṁ puruṣaḥ.
In Essence:
Sākṣī is the conscious subject ( dṛk ) without which neither the machine, the programmer, nor the environment could ever be known.