George:

What do you mean, you don't have a 'face'! I can see from here you've got a 'face'. Don't be so damn stupid!

Bill:

No, the truth is, as Douglas Harding once pointed out, you're the one that has my 'face'. You're the one that is experiencing it right now! I'm not experiencing my so-called 'face'. What I'm experiencing right now is your 'face'. That is, when I look and put my attention in your direction it's your 'face' that I experience. When I direct my attention towards myself, what I perceive (or rather apperceive) in that place you point to and call my 'face' is a type of 'aware openness' or 'awake space' as Douglas Harding called it. Let me ask you right now, in terms of the evidence of direct experience, do you experience your 'face' or mine?

George:

So you're essentially saying that from my point-view I don't have a 'face' either! I'm not sure I like that very much!

Bill:

Do you experience your own 'face'?

George:

No, I suppose I don't. But just because I don't experience my own 'face' doesn't mean it isn't there. I don't particularly like this idea of being 'faceless', anyway. I don't really see what the point or value of this 'no-face' business is!

Bill:

Well, perhaps you should like it! Being 'faceless', as you call it, has some immense benefits. Let's look at some of the distinguishing features of this 'faceless awareness', so to call it. Firstly and simply, it's what we fundamentally actually are! We have a body and we have a mind-psychological system, but these are things we 'have'. They are not what we 'are'! The body and mind are in a state of constant flux. Cells are being born while others die. Thoughts and feelings come and then go. Again, constant change. However, this 'faceless awareness' that we are that is always present remains ever the same. It never changes. It remains, regardless of the situation, as featureless 'faceless awareness'. When we were a young child, although our body and mental-psychological system was less developed than they are now, the 'faceless awareness' we were then is exactly the same 'faceless awareness' as it is now! And so it will be as our body and mind ages and then decays.

Always the same 'faceless awareness' independent of time and circumstance. This is what we really truly are! This 'faceless awareness' is always “Now”. It has no past or future. Past and future are just concepts of the mind. They're just thoughts, either memories of the past or imaginations of the future. This 'faceless awareness', however, is timeless and yet always present. It is the Eternal within us, you could say.

George:

Yes, but is 'faceless awareness' always present? What about when we sleep? We aren't aware then, are we!

Bill:

Let's not confuse mental-psychological functioning with 'faceless awareness'. Remember you 'have' one and 'are' the other. When we sleep what happens is that our mental-psychological functioning moves to a lower state where experience of the outside world ceases and either experience moves into a dream state or a deep sleep state occurs where all mental-psychological functioning generally ceases, although brain activity still continues. In the dream state 'faceless awareness', or lets just call it 'awareness' here, is still present for if it wasn't no dream would be experienced. When we arise from deep sleep we have no memory of anything experienced because in that state there is so little (if any) mental-psychological functioning occurring that no impression is made on the memory.

However, this doesn't mean that 'awareness' is not present in that state. In fact, if 'awareness' did somehow disappear in deep sleep, then we would die, i.e. our bodily and mental-psychological functioning would be 'switched off', so to speak. What distinguishes a living human being from a corpse? 'Awareness'! In the case of a corpse 'awareness' is clearly absent. And, in consequence, bodily and mental-psychological functioning is 'switched off' eventually resulting in the decay and breakdown of the bodily system.

George:

Well, you could also say that what actually distinguishes a corpse from a living human being is brain activity. In the case of a corpse it is absent. In a corpse brain death has occurred which is why 'awareness' is absent. The implication here is that 'awareness' is a function of the brain and so is therefore dependent on the brain. So without brain activity there is no 'awareness'.

Bill:

But what you're forgetting here is that you are treating 'awareness' as if it is an object or an objective phenomenon. It isn't! 'Awareness' is the subject. It is the subject or experiencer of all objective experience. How do we know about the brain? From the facts of the dissection table or EEG measurements or MRI scans. The various perceptions and knowledge of the brain's functioning is all objective stuff, funnily enough occurring in the brain, although experienced by 'awareness'. From our various instruments or when brains surgeons poke around in someone's brain do they, or we, see 'awareness'? No, clearly not! 'Awareness' is a subject. Or 'the subject', rather. It is radically different from any and all types of brain functioning. All brain functioning is just that! It's just a functioning. It's an objective phenomenon. 'Awareness', on the other hand is a subjective phenomenon. Or, speaking more strictly, 'awareness' is rather the subjective Noumenon that experiences all objective phenomena.

In your own experience, when you look at brain data from EEGs and MRI scans or watch a brain operation, can you see the clear difference between these objective perceptions and your own direct apperception of your own 'awareness'? They could hardly be more different! Remember you can never see anyone else's 'awareness', you can only infer 'awareness' in others from their behaviour and how similar they are to yourself. You can see their EEGs and MRI scans and watch brain operations performed on them. You can see all aspects of the functioning of their brains, but something you will never see is their 'awareness' because 'awareness' is not an object or an objective phenomenon.

George:

Ok, granted that the data we get from the scientific instruments we use to investigate our brains is radically different to the immediate apprehension or apperception of our own 'awareness', what about thoughts and feelings? They're subjective, too! Other people can't see or experience them in the same way I do. Ok, I can tell people about my thoughts and feelings, just as I can tell them I am aware, but they have no direct knowledge of my thoughts and feelings as I do.

Bill:

Yes, but your thoughts and feelings are experiences. They are transient objective phenomena which arise and then pass. 'Awareness', i.e. 'you', is the ever-present subject! 'Awareness' is the unchanging subjective Noumenon in which all thoughts, feelings and perceptions of any type come-and-go. Yes, your thoughts and feelings are 'subjective' in the sense that only you have direct knowledge of them. But the 'awareness' you are is 'subjective' in a radically different sense. Again, it's the difference between 'have' and 'are'. You 'have' thoughts and feelings, but you 'are' this ever-present 'awareness' that you very clearly and easily apperceive right now! Ever-present 'awareness' in yet another sense is the unchanging context in which thoughts and feelings arise and inevitably pass.

George:

Ok. But I don't feel particularly amazed by the Recognition of this ever-present timeless 'awareness' that I am. I still feel I have a personal identity, a 'face', and this personal identity I feel I am dominates and rules my day-to-day life, my thoughts, my feelings, etc.

Bill:

Yes, gaining the Recognition of oneself as this 'always-Now faceless Awareness' is one thing. Getting this Recognition to 'stick' and pervade one's life in a significant and meaningful way is another. That 'face we see in the mirror every day is a very powerful image which has been conditioned into our minds in a very deep way. Since we were very young this strong image has been constantly affirmed in us by our upbringing and the culture around us in general. In an image that Douglas Harding used to use, it's as if that 'face' in the mirror has come out of the mirror and been 'plastered' onto this 'always-Now faceless Awareness' we really are. Due to our culture's conditioning, our true identity has been usurped by this interloper that's left its proper place in the mirror and, like a mask, has covered over and obscured who and what we really, truly are. If you look around the world today virtually everyone thinks they are this 'face' they see in the mirror. This 'face' has become our identity and from this false 'self' come all manner of ills and afflictions: alienation, loneliness, depression, lethargy, unspecified unhappiness and other mental troubles.

The only way back to health and sanity, so to put it, is to gain the Recognition of our 'true face' which, as we've said, is this 'ever-present faceless Awareness' that we are already right here and now. So once we have this Recognition, to get it to 'stick' we have to bring our attention as much as is possible to recognising and seeing (or apperceiving, rather) this 'always-Now Awareness' we are. The more attention we bring to this, as well as being as more attentive to the present moment and less caught up in worrying the past or imagining the future, the better. So practising 'awarefulness', so to put it, will help break down past conditioning and loosen the grip of the false 'face' or 'self' and so establish our 'original face'. We need to become 'conditioned in freedom', as some have rightly said, and the only way to do this is through day-to-day practice.

George:

So Recognition comes first, and then practice to establish Recognition in a more solid and full manner by breaking down those habits and conditionings which have bound us in the first place.

Bill:

Yes, that's right. Many people who show an initial interest in these matters and gain some insight into their true nature through Recognition never really continue with what they have learned. They get caught up in their day-to-day lives and give little attention to deepening Recognition, so to put it. So, sadly, it doesn't really have that great effect or significance in their lives.

George:

What more can you say about the features and characteristics of this 'always-Now faceless Awareness' that we are.

Bill:

Well, if we look and see and check the evidence, what do we find? This 'Awareness' we are is 'open' in the sense that it is open to whatever is arising in this moment, in this ever-present 'Now'. In fact, one way to describe this 'Awareness' is as a type of 'Openness'. In itself 'Awareness' is empty but yet it is full of the arisings and passings of the things of the world: perceptions, thoughts, feelings and sensations. This 'Awareness' we are is also that within us that is truly 'alive', as we partially established earlier. Bodily and mental-psychological functioning has no meaning without 'Awareness'. It is this 'Awareness' we are that is really 'alive' rather than the 'stuff that functions', i.e. the transient body/mind system. Also, as 'Awareness' has no content in itself, it being 'open' and 'empty' the essence of its nature therefore is Stillness, Silence and Peace. The world is often a noisy place, but here at the centre of our being, where there is no movement or agitation of thought or feeling, is a deep Stillness, Silence and Peace. We all love to be in a state of calmness, where we are free from disturbance and where we have a tranquillity and peace of mind. The reason we desire this, of course, is because we intuitively know deep down that's what our true and real nature really is.

George:

Thanks.

Bill:

You're welcome.