Seeing Only the Seen – Is Everything

Awakening does not add anything. It removes everything that was never real. What remains is just what is here: seeing, hearing, sensing – without an “I” behind it. This simple instruction points directly to the heart of awakening.

It is always fascinating how simple and coherent this instruction for awakening is.

And it is not only an instruction – it is also its description.

With awakening, life continues as before.
It doesn’t actually change. We can’t see awakening from the outside. Family, friends, work, hobbies… for most people, not much will be different. Apart from the things that always change anyway.

What changes is the experience.

In awakening, everything falls away that doesn’t truly exist. And that includes identity. We don’t awaken to something – we awaken from something. From the dream of being an “I,” a someone. From the stream of thoughts that creates this illusion.

The person who never existed disappears. The personality remains. Memories, preferences, dislikes, most behaviours, the general character – hardly any of that changes. Which is why not only “good people” can awaken.

With the disappearance of the “I,” every sense of me, mine, and self disappears. There is no one who exists separately from everything else. No one who exists at all. No one who experiences or controls anything. And however important the idea of “controlling our life” once seemed – it is an outdated concept. Actions still happen. Seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling, thinking, deciding… all of it still works. What disappears is the feeling that I am doing it.

In awakening, we are no longer emotionally entangled. We don’t react to events. We respond – if a response is needed. Joy and sadness don’t vanish. They can still be felt as bodily sensations. Often even more clearly and intensely, because they’re no longer overlaid by reactions like anger or frustration.

Without the “I,” no boundaries are experienced. The world no longer appears as a collection of separate pieces. It appears as one whole. No “me in here” experiencing “a world out there.” It becomes impossible to distinguish between thoughts, memories, and dreams.

Awakened, we are no longer a “somebody” at a particular point in time and space. The sense of space and time dissolves. And with that, past and future. This can feel strange at times, because feeling anchored in time and space creates a sense of security.

Without the reference point of an “I,” the world appears flat, like a canvas. Depth and spatial experience fade. It cannot be said how far away anything is.

The entire inner world disappears, just like the outer world. No inside. No outside. This division was only an illusion. There is no longer a place within ourselves to withdraw to. And it is no longer needed.

What remains is simply what is: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling, thinking. And all of it is held by an indescribable sense of love, peace, and stillness.

Buddha expressed it to the monk Bahiya:

Bahiya, this you will understand:
In the seen, there will be only the seen.
In the heard, only the heard.
In the sensed, only the sensed.
In the cognized, only the cognized.
In all of this, you will not be seen, heard, sensed, or cognized.
When you are not seen, heard, sensed, or cognized, you are not there.
When you are not there, you do not exist — here or elsewhere.
This is the end of suffering.
– Buddha

It remains striking how simple and precise this instruction is. It is not only a pointer – it is a full description.

Seeing and hearing naturally include tasting, smelling, and touching. The five senses.
In awakening, the senses remain. But the concepts about what we see, hear, smell, taste, or feel do not. Those are imagination, projection, illusion.

Everything we experience with the five senses is real. And if we look closely, that is truly all that happens. The instruction for awakening is therefore to see, in seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling, that in none of them is there an “I.”

Instead of learning a new ability, we let go of every belief and assumption about who we are and what we are. This is how we see that we do not exist. It is unnecessary to understand who we are, what we are, what we see, think, or know. We are not searching for the True Self, the True Nature of Being, or how things “really” are.

We are not going anywhere. Not into a higher state of consciousness. Awakening is right here. Right now. There is nowhere else to go.

Awakening is what remains. A surrender to the fact that nothing is personal, ownable, referable, permanent, meaningful, essential, predictable, reliable, controllable, or completely satisfying.

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Seeing only the seen – is everything.

Buddha explained that ten assumptions or “ten fetters” stand in the way of awakening. If you want to know what they are, read here: The Ten Fetters to Awakening.

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