Rationalist Sam Harris on consciousness or awareness being ever present; Similarities and differences between his atheist view of consciousness/awareness and my view as a Hindu theist

I watched the section "Understanding Impermanence and its Relation to Suffering" (from 35 min. 19 secs), of the video: Sam Harris: A Rational Mystics Guide To Consciousness & Awakening | Know Thyself Podcast EP 47, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqA-ZRpl1jQ&t=2119s till 43 min. 31 secs. and also the next section. But in this post I am limiting myself to above mentioned section.

Given below are my notes about some of the views expressed by Harris in above section of the video, along with my comments. In the first part of my comments (which goes on till I mention the start of the second part of my comments), I have not brought in faith in God, supernatural power of God, prayer and Grace in the context of the section.

Harris is quite a famous figure. From his wiki page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Harris , "Samuel Benjamin Harris (born April 9, 1967) is an American philosopher, neuroscientist, author, and podcast host. His work touches on a range of topics, including rationality, religion, ethics, free will, neuroscience, meditation, psychedelics, philosophy of mind, politics, terrorism, and artificial intelligence. Harris came to prominence for his criticism of religion ..." My first exposure to him was as a prominent critic of religion! Prior to watching this video, I had not known about his interest in awakening, consciousness and meditation. That has been a pleasant surprise!

At least in this segment of the video, Harris does not mention anything about faith in God and supernatural power of God to shower Grace (including happiness) on devotees who pray intensely to God. So this section comes across to me as an atheist or agnostic view of consciousness/awareness and meditation.

As expected, Harris speaks about consciousness and meditation from a viewpoint of a neuroscientist and philosopher along with being a practitioner of meditation (I presume), rather than as a Hindu Swami or perhaps as a Buddhist monk (my exposure to Buddhist monks even via videos is very limited for me to be sure). It takes some effort to understand Harris perhaps because he tries to be precise (given his neuroscientist and philosopher background) and cover most angles. But Harris articulates his views well and so if one hears him attentively and perhaps hears some parts of his words again, one usually gets a clear idea of his views (not always, I think, as in my case, I did not understand one part of his words in this section and which I have mentioned below).

The interviewer asks Harris to speak about impermanence and its relation to suffering, (and also about the Buddhist view of consciousness and self (like no self) and contrast it with the Hindu view of self, which I am not covering in this post).

Harris talks about the impermenance of so many things in life including various joys, spiritual peak experiences and life itself. I am not covering that in this post.

Then he says that most people are seeking a happiness, a feeling good which is stable, in the context where everything is changing. He seems to then state that it is not possible to have a (happy or good) experience that is permanent, that is so indelible that "it becomes the person you now are". But what is "ever present" and "there always to be noticed is consciousness". For consciousness (he also calls it awareness), whether in waking state or dream state, he uses the phrase "it's like something to be what you are" which I did not understand clearly. He goes on to say, consciousness "is always the ground truth of your living and caring about anything".

[Ravi: From my limited experience of the Atma/Self, I agree with Harris on impermanence of the joys of life (except for contentment-ananda of the Self) and that it is consciousness or awareness that is "ever present" and "always there (to be noticed)". I was very happy to see this agreement I had with Harris who is a rationalist and seems to be an atheist/agnostic! BTW perhaps due to my limitations, I experience the Atma/Self as a contented peace and not as ecstatic bliss which others claim to experience. Further, I am not able, as of now, to always be able to easily switch to the Atma experience and its contented peace. Sometimes I am bored and need to watch some video or do something other than meditating on and experiencing the Atma. Once again, I think this is due to limitations of my meditation practice, as of now. Perhaps as I stablize further on it, I may be able to switch anytime to the Atma experience and enjoy its contented peace.

I agree that consciousness is the "ground truth" of your living but I don't know about consciousness being the ground truth of caring about anything. end-Ravi]

Harris then brings in ethics and morality and connects it to the caring aspect of consciouness. [Ravi: This does not match my limited experience of Self/Atma. When I switch off thoughts and focus on the consciousness/awareness within (or simply be only the consciousness/awareness), which I did in the middle of this sentence by taking a few seconds break, my experience is of only the Self/Atma/consciousness/awareness - there is no other to be caring about. In other words, in my limited Self or consciousness experience, I have not experienced any connect between my Self/consciousness and others. Perhaps that's because of my limited experience. Perhaps if I get an experience of oneness with all (which I have not yet had), I may be able to better relate to what Harris has said here. end-Ravi]

Then Harris says consciousness is the basis of all experience and that it has a certain character which in the Buddha sense is selflessness and Shunyata. I am not covering Harris' description about Buddhist view and Hindu Advaita view about the self (or not self)  which are mainly covered in the following section 'The concept of "Emptiness" in Buddhism' (from 43 min. 31 secs.) till 56 min. 32 secs.

That concludes the notes and first part of my comments on interesting parts of the "Understanding Impermanence and its Relation to Suffering" section of the video.

In the first part of my comments, I have not brought in faith in God, supernatural power of God, prayer and Grace in the context of the section, but which I am now bringing in, in this second part of my comments.

I think for people of great faith in God (Note1), communion with nameless and formless God or their favourite deity with name and/or form (Note2), in their hearts and minds, say through prayer to deity/God (Note3), are "indelible" and happy/joyous experiences that can be re-obtained anytime. Such persons, IMHO, do not need to meditate on, or experience, consciousness for them to experience an ever-present ground truth of their living, as for them God/deity is an ever-present ground truth of their living and who can be communed with anytime they want through prayer.

In my own case, prayer to Sai Baba (Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba and Bhagavan Sri Shirdi Sai Baba) through "Om Sai Ram" chanting - Namasmarana (Note3) - almost always, if not always, results in a conviction that Sai Baba is present in my inner being and, depending on the situation and my prayer, is giving me courage as well as guidance (through intuition) and help to face any problems I may be facing, or simply guiding me through intuition in my spiritual efforts or is showering grace and joy on me etc.

Notes:

1. Great faith in God is more specifically, great faith in God being available/accessible to them, say through prayer.

2. Favourite deity with name and/or form is Ishta Devata in Hindu context.

3. Prayer to God includes Namasmarana (chanting the Lord's name) in the Hindu context.

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For a person with faith in Hindu Vedanta (which includes me), the ever-present consciousness or awareness is the Atma, which, as per Vedanta, is part of Paramatma/Brahman/Parabrahman (formless God who created, sustains and will destroy the universe/creation), and the Atma's essence is the same as the essence of Paramatma/God. So by being in consciousness or awareness without thought, one is connecting to Paramatma (God) and one can try to merge/dissolve in, or become one with, this Paramatma (get into samadhi state) to experience more of Paramatma (than what one experiences as Atma). An example of (more) experience of Paramatma would be as the universal consciousness which permeates whole of creation or, in other words, experiencing oneself in all and all in oneself. Note that some self-realized mystics claim to have experienced samadhi states of various kinds and so do not have to try to merge/dissolve in Paramatma/God but spiritual aspirants like me have not experienced such samadhi states and are in the stage of trying to achieve those state(s). My own current sadhana in this context is described in my recent post: Viewing Awareness-I as essence or part of God in my meditation and trying to dissolve or merge into God (experience oneness with God), https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2023/06/viewing-awareness-i-as-essence-or-part.html .

About Paramatma from wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramatman : "Paramatman (Sanskrit: परमात्मन्, IAST: Paramātman) or Paramātmā is the Absolute Atman, or supreme Self, in various philosophies such as the Vedanta and Yoga schools in Hindu theology, as well as other Indian religions like Sikhism. Paramatman is the "Primordial Self" or the "Self Beyond" who is spiritually identical with the absolute and ultimate reality." ... "Hindus believe in one God, who is known variously as Paramatman, Parameshwar, Parabrahman, Purushottam and so on."