Is Awareness Interactive?
John Archibald Wheeler, the American theoretical physicist, famously declared, "No phenomenon is a phenomenon until it is an observed phenomenon," implying that the universe is fundamentally participatory.* This finding from quantum physics challenges the notion of a purely objective, mind-independent reality by suggesting that the act of observation is intimately linked to the appearance of reality itself. However, from a nondual perspective, the interpretation that awareness is interactive can be a subtle form of dualism.
To say that awareness interacts with phenomena presupposes two distinct entities: awareness, and the phenomena with which it interacts. The implication is that there is a subject and an object, a perceiver and a thing perceived, that are fundamentally separate. Yet, the core of nondual understanding is that in reality there is no fundamental separation. There is not an independent observer standing apart from and peering into a world that exists outside of it. There is only one unified consciousness expressing itself in a multiplicity of apparent forms.
Awareness is not a separate agent that does things to the world or interacts with its contents. Instead, awareness is the fundamental reality, the seamless whole upon which all experiences of thoughts, feelings, perceptions, the body, the entire cosmos, appear. What we conventionally describe as interaction is, from this vantage point, simply awareness knowing itself, or appearing as various forms within its own being. The apparently physical world, just like a dream world, is not outside awareness; it appears within awareness and is made of awareness. And, just like in a dream, there is the appearance of interaction.
The apparent collapse of the wave function in quantum mechanics, where infinite possibilities become a definite reality, is not an action performed by a separate awareness upon inert matter. Rather, it is infinite awareness perceiving itself in a continuous act of self-creation. In other words, the activity of the mind is not a distinct entity influencing an external world, but awareness experiencing its potentiality from a particular point of view.
Therefore, the experience of the world, from the grandest cosmic event to the most subtle sensation, is a dynamic modulation of awareness alone. The entire display of existence is a self-knowing wholeness, an unbroken process expressing and recognizing itself as all that is. The scientific discovery that observation influences reality, then, becomes a pointer towards the nondual truth that all known phenomena in the universe appears in a unified awareness. ⬚
*Wheeler’s concept of a participatory universe suggests that the act of observation plays a crucial role in shaping reality, implying that observers are not merely passive witnesses but active participants in the universe's unfolding.
Do Thoughts Shape Reality?
We commonly perceive thoughts as distinctly ours, as products of our individual minds. This leads to the intuitive conclusion that my thoughts, driven by my choices, directly influence my reality. While this feels correct, the belief in separation is a false belief.
From a nondual perspective, all thoughts, without exception, arise spontaneously within a unified field of awareness. They are not manufactured by a separate entity called “me.” Just as waves are an activity of the ocean, thoughts emerge from an ocean of awareness. They appear in awareness, are known by awareness, and ultimately dissolve back into awareness. There is no independent entity within awareness that possesses its own private thoughts. The very experience of having a thought is itself an activity of this fundamentally indivisible awareness.
Where does choice come from, then? From the perspective of the apparently personal self, there is a compelling illusion of free will, a feeling that “I” deliberate and then “I” choose. But the entire process of deliberation, decision-making, and the feeling of having chosen are all phenomena arising within and as awareness. Of course, after a decision is made, the activity of the mind is quick to take credit.
But thoughts arise spontaneously, and the “chooser” is a function of awareness, not a separate entity. How then do thoughts shape reality? The shaping occurs because awareness, in its infinite creativity, expresses itself through countless forms, including the form of a finite mind. So it is the activity of awareness in the form of a finite mind that chooses and shapes reality, not the temporary activity of the mind which claims ownership. ⬚