Relationship Between Awareness and Space

"Zen teachings speak of awareness as “beyond time and space,” yet you often speak of the “spaciousness of awareness.” What is the relationship between awareness and space? Rupert says: ‘The phrase “beyond time and space” can be misleading – it suggests that awareness is further away than time and space, somewhere out there past them. It’s more accurate to say awareness is prior to time and space – closer to you than thought or perception. We use spatial language as a concession to the finite mind, because awareness shares certain qualities with space: openness, emptiness, no resistance, the capacity to contain everything without being affected. Space is a useful analogy for awareness, just as light is – light renders things visible, just as awareness renders things knowable. I use three analogies corresponding to three stages of recognition: the sun represents awareness as the witness or knower; space represents awareness as the container or medium of experience; the ocean represents awareness as the very substance from which experience is made. These analogies don’t describe awareness – they evoke the felt sense of it.’"

From event 21 - 28 November, 2025 Seven-Day Retreat at The Vedanta, 21–28 November 2025

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