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Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy
Are you talking about the direct experience of a clap of hands vs. thinking about it after the fact? If so isn't the thinking about it after the fact directly experienced just like the actual clap of hands?
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of course. both are experienced directly. but thought obscures the awareness to some extent. For the Higher Self or atman, awareness is constant. but for us who are at a lower level, thought obscures awareness to some extent, even though even thought is directly observed.
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Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy
What is the "knower" of mind?
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Interesting question. The mind is known by different subjects (not really but read on) at the same time. The mind can be an object of knowledge as well as the subject. So the mind can also know the mind. Then, the atman knows the mind, but the atman itself is unknowable. The atman can never be an object of knowledge. it is the subject.
also, by saying the the mind and atman both know the mind, i am not really positing two subjects, but two different modes of awareness, one clear, and the other muddy.
Take the case of taking a stroll in the park. your skin, which has some (borrowed) awareness KNOWS the park by the breeze that blows against it. your eyes experience the park in a different way. same with your ears and so on. None of these are the subject. The atman is the subject. But simultaneously with the atman, the skin, eyes, ears etc all of them are like pseudo-subjects because each of them are endowed with some awareness. The mind also has some borrowed awareness / consciousness and so it too experiences the park in it's own way just like a (pseudo)subject.
The whole point is to reach a level of awareness that is free from the body and the mind, and hence is free from all these pseudo subjects.