As regards the cognition of consciousness, it is important to note that such cognition is not possible. In other words, consciousness cannot be cognized by itself in any possible way, either sensorially or non-sensorially. This is not because it is not really possible, but because there is nothing there that could be cognized in any way. This is simply because consciousness is a mere emptiness/nothingness. Whether the consciousness, when it is active, sensorially observes itself from the outside, or whether it observes itself non-sensorially from the inside, in the end, it always comes down to cognition and the result that consciousness is nothing. The only thing that consciousness can cognize about itself is that it exists and that it calls itself by the name I. And, of course, that it is the one who possesses those seven physical and psychological abilities (exertion, movement, observation, feeling, memory, thinking and understanding) and using them it can gradually in time make out of itself whatever it wants – a particle, an atom, an orb, a cell, a plant, an animal, a man, an electronic computer or anything else. In all these cases it only observes and cognizes its own exertion, movement, and work. This means that only the results of its exertion, movement, and work (a particle, an atom, an orb, a cell, a plant, an animal, a man, an electronic computer, etc.) are observable and cognizable, yet it itself, which from its interior by its exertion, movement, and work makes them be what they are, is not.
Of course, although each of these material forms is consciousness, since consciousness as their cause is inseparable from them, we cannot take and observe a particle, an atom, or a man’s cell, etc., and say: that is consciousness. That is not consciousness, but rather just the observable results of its physical exertion, movement, and work. Therefore we cannot claim that by the sensory scientific observation and the study of all these physical works of consciousness, which we sensorially experience as material forms, are we at the same time observing and studying consciousness itself. We also could not claim, for example, that by observing and studying a man’s physical exertion of, say, running, we study man himself as a runner, or that by studying man’s thinking we study man himself as a thinker. These all are only the consequences of the physical and psychological work of the particles of consciousness which build man, and not consciousness itself which, as the bestirrer and performer of all these works, acts from the inside of the entity as the cause of it all.
All this, therefore, implies that man’s psyche is not consciousness. Thus for example the thought itself is not consciousness, but the thinker who thinks, is. This is also valid for the other four psychological actions: observation, feeling, memorizing, and understanding. By these psychological actions, consciousness can neither observe nor cognize itself, but only its own psychological actions, and through them, it knows that it itself exists and that it is the one that performs all these actions. In order to be able to “observe itself” it must from the state of emptiness and nothingness, i.e. from the state of stillness, turn into the state of exertion and movement so that it could in that way be observable. And when it does that and by its exertion, movement, and work self-transform into a particle, an atom, a cell, a man, etc. then it again is not that consciousness itself, (which exerts itself, moves, and works), but those are still only the observable actions of its exertion, movement and work.
Please note that even the deep meditative states of consciousness during which man excludes all his material senses, and still keeps awake, aiming to discover what is beyond the senses border, are still the states in which the psychological abilities of observation, feeling, and memory are used. And all that is observed and felt at any meditative level is still not that same consciousness doing the observing, feeling, and memorizing. All these are still only psychological actions of consciousness, whether we speak about the consciousness of the one who meditates or of some other non-sensory observable conscious energies that surround the one who meditates, with which he is in direct contact and communication during the meditation.
In short, when the usage of physical and psychological abilities and actions completely stops, then any cognition stops as well, even the cognition of consciousness. And when physical and psychological abilities are used, then again there is nothing else that consciousness could cognize but those own physical and psychological actions themselves. And of course, there is a possibility that with their help, that is, not directly, it can cognize about itself only so much that it exists and that it is the one that performs all those actions. All this is in the sense and spirit of Descartes’ dictum: “I think, therefore I am”. We could complement it by quoting the other six abilities of consciousness and say: “I exert myself and move (work), therefore I am”; “I observe my exertion and movement (work), therefore I am”; “I memorize and feel my exertion and movement (work), therefore I am”; “I think and understand my exertion and movement (work), therefore I am”.
As we can see in all these examples, the only thing that consciousness can prove to itself is – I exist or I am and nothing else. All this is the main reason why today in natural sciences we know all about the universe as physical and psychological actions and consequences of consciousness, yet about the consciousness itself as its cause we know nothing since nothing can be cognized about it either. Because it, too, is nothing. Only when it exerts itself and bestirs itself does it become something.
Nothing and something are two distinct states of consciousness.
In the end, we came to a peculiar, yet at first glance absurd, but true conclusion and cognition. It is that the material universe as a physical and psychological action of consciousness, which we know almost all about today, and which we still think and believe exists, actually does not exist. And that consciousness (as a performer of all these actions that we call by the name “universe”, of which we know nothing about and many believe that it does not exist) actually, truly, is the only thing that does exist.