The Non-Discovery of Consciousness

This seminar is about a very sticky problem. The problem to which the Buddha primarily addressed himself was that of agony, suffering. But before we get into that, we have to be clear about certain basics. And these basics have to do not so much with concepts and ideas as they do with a state of mind. You feel you're conscious, but you don't know what consciousness is - because it's present in every conceivable kind of experience. It's like the space in which we live, which is everywhere. We can feel it, but we can't think it. This is an extraordinarily difficult state of mind to talk about even though in its nature it's extremely simple.