Nisargadatta Maharaj disciple Stephen Wolinsky deconstructs Awareness, pointing out that it is NOT the substratum, or "what you are". Below is a transcription of the video:

Deconstructing Awareness:

The quality-less quality of awareness is
super-imposed or anthropomorphically projected
upon THAT which does not have qualities.

In other words because I as a body-mind have
consciousness, sentience, a location and awareness
I assume and project that the Absolute
has consciousness, sentience, a location in
space-time and awareness.

Being aware of being aware still might have
a formless localized quality.
Then, the formless localized quality is projected
upon THAT which has no qualities and has not even
a quality-less experience and has no location.

The Absolute is not knowable because it has no
vehicle to know or know about it or itself.

The Absolute is not aware-able because it
does not contain awareness and the Absolute is
not conscious nor does it have presence or
sentience because it contains no consciousness
or presence or a vehicle to know about
consciousness, sentience, presence or awareness.

Even the quality-less, nonlocal state of
being (the operative word being 'state of being'):
It could be said that when you hear the word
state, you could use the word 'illusion',
therefore 'the illusion of being'.

Awakening occurs when the spanda stops and
when "you" slip outside of the physical universe
and "are" prior to the physical universe.

Not only then is there an Absolute Nothingness
which may or may not have a "view" of
consciousness floating in emptiness but there is
not any "I" and not any people or things
or solid universe anymore.

It is the slipping in and out of that physical
universe and then holding both positions at the
same time and then eventually just staying
"outside" of the physical universe, where
the final awakening is realized.

Nisargadatta Maharaj, (paraphrased):
Find the space prior to where being becomes
non-being and non-being becomes being.

In order to go beyond the quality-less state
of awareness which is being aware of being aware
or being awareness along with its cousin
consciousness or being conscious of being
conscious or being consciousness,
all those states have to be recognized as
a state, a veil, a covering or a layer.

Once that recognition occurs, as Maharaj said then
you have found the space between being
and non-being prior to or without consciousness
and awareness.

At that point the most you can say is that out of
the Absolute Nothingness, prior to the witness,
without awareness, there is a formless nonlocal
"view" which knows nothing about location,
awareness, consciousness or knowingness.

It just rests within itself without any movement
(karma) or primal movement (desire)
or spanda (pulsation).

Being aware of being aware still holds a formless
no time quality to it which is then projected upon
THAT which has no qualities and is not even
quality-less.

The Absolute is not knowable because it has
no vehicle to know or know about itself;
it is not aware-able because it does not contain
awareness and it is not conscious nor does it
have presence because it contains no
consciousness or presence.

The Absolute is without a vehicle to know
about consciousness or presence.

Ultimately, when the spanda stops there is no
Absolute Nothingness.

The Absolute Nothingness is an appearance
on the Absolute.

Beyond this cannot be even spoken about, or
as Maharaj said:

"Anything you say it is, it isn't".

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