I’ve been trying to get into Advaita Vedanta after reading about Mind at Large from Huxley. However, I find it extremely difficult to seperate consciousness from the physical.
Hello everyone, as the title suggests I’ve been trying to get into Advaita Vedanta (I had initially gained interest from “Doors of Perception” from Huxley, but I’m currently reading The Vivekachudamani from Shankara). One issue that I always find myself running into is seperating my consciousness from my physical brain/assuming my consciousness as primary.
I have already attempted stripping what many consider “consciousness” (which in most cases is the contents of consciousness, such as emotions, hearing, touch, memory, etc). This would, of course, leave you with a very base level of awareness, but I still find that difficult to separate from a physical entity producing it. The idea of consciousness existing absent of something such as a brain seems very counterintuitive to me.
I have also attempted taking every piece of a priori knowledge and that makes it clearer and simpler but seems utterly unsatisfactory to me. I don’t really know how else to phrase this besides the fact that the mental hurdle of assuming consciousness as primary is difficult.
Does anyone have any specific advice or anything that could make this easier for me to understand? Advaita Vedanta seems extremely appealing to me but I just find this hurdle to be so prominent.