ABSTRACT
This book is about consciousness, though I prefer to use the term ‘awareness’ instead. Consciousness can imply self-awareness and, for a philosopher, may carry overtones of intentionality, emotionality or whatever. I’ve written mainly about the basic phenomenon that underlies everyday experience and lights up, so to speak, things like my idea of myself, my feelings at this moment and so forth. Although people have some sense of T almost constantly present either somewhere in the background or, more often, well to the forefront of their consciousness, the pure awareness described by Zen masters and very occasionally experienced by many people does exist. All sense of person and other common attributes of consciousness are lost when in such a state, but awareness remains.
