“The body, the senses, and the mind are not the Self, for they are seen and the Self is the seer.”
— Adi ShankaraArgument from Shankara's Atmabodha and Brahma Sutra commentary; doctrinal formulation
Commentary
This argument distinguishes the Self from the body, senses, and mind by observing that these are objects of awareness while the Self is the subject who is aware. The reasoning exploits the Advaitin principle that the witness of all experience cannot itself be among the things experienced. Eliot Deutsch explains how this distinction supports the school's claim that the Self is self-luminous and unaffected by the states of the body. Paul Hacker's study of the epistemology of the Brahma Sutra commentary emphasises the role of the witness in Shankara's account of empirical knowledge. Sengaku Mayeda shows that the argument recurs in Shankara's independent treatises as a means of directing students away from bodily identification. Richard King observes that the same argument was used against the materialist Carvaka school, whose position Shankara rejected on similar grounds. The distinction of seer and seen is a central instrument of the tradition's method, and it is securely associated with Shankara's teaching.
Commentary
This argument distinguishes the Self from the body, senses, and mind by observing that these are objects of awareness while the Self is the subject who is aware. The reasoning exploits the Advaitin principle that the witness of all experience cannot itself be among the things experienced. Eliot Deutsch explains how this distinction supports the school's claim that the Self is self-luminous and unaffected by the states of the body. Paul Hacker's study of the epistemology of the Brahma Sutra commentary emphasises the role of the witness in Shankara's account of empirical knowledge. Sengaku Mayeda shows that the argument recurs in Shankara's independent treatises as a means of directing students away from bodily identification. Richard King observes that the same argument was used against the materialist Carvaka school, whose position Shankara rejected on similar grounds. The distinction of seer and seen is a central instrument of the tradition's method, and it is securely associated with Shankara's teaching.