In responding to Peter’s comments about awareness as a problematic term, I quoted from KTS. Ron P. asks for some further reflection on what the KTS quote means. Here is the quote, with my comments immediatly following.
Suppose that awareness were not owned by the ‘bystander’, and so were available ‘within’ experience, ‘as’ experience. In that case awareness would operate ‘within’ each mental capacity as well. Available at the outset as well as the outcome, such awareness could be understood as the expression of a deeper knowledge, alive with a vitality prior to distinctions and determinations. . . .
Understood as active within the ‘field’, rather than specified by the ‘field’, awareness would lead directly to knowledge. But when we act in accord with position and character, treating awareness as response, we are merely accepting the ‘output’ of the ‘input’ put forward by knowledge. if we can ‘take out’ what has been ‘put in’ in a way that stays true to knowledge as the source, our acceptance will not specify awareness in a restrictive way.
As Ron suggests, exploring the meaning of this passage calls for experiential inquiry, not just concepts. But keeping in mind that we are now beginning to deal with space, here is a reflection:
Usually we think of space as the container for objects. That is a really limited view. In particular, it cuts space off from knowledge or awareness. Somehow the subject shows up ‘in’ space and the subject has the capacity to be aware.
The quoted passage suggests that space itself could accommodate awareness, “within and as” experience. Here it is important that KTS speaks of space as a ‘field’, a notion we will explore later in this program. A field does not contain; it accommodates. If we want to expand our awareness, if we want to contact a more encompassing awareness than we usually have access to, one way is to open up to the awareness that pervades the field of space. For subjects like ourselves (i.e., for selves), this awareness shows up as experience. That is fine, as long as we do not lose sight of the awareness within experience, the awareness that manifests as experience.
Jack