Consciousness is sometimes pictured as an inner observer that receives information from the world. Direct inquiry makes that picture difficult to find. We encounter a field of experience in which a sound is already heard and a colour is already seen.
The seamless character of experience is important. It does not follow that consciousness is fundamental to reality. A description of how experience appears is not yet an account of what makes experience possible.
Emergence without separation
I understand consciousness as emergent within reality. Living organisation gives rise to a felt perspective through ongoing relation with an environment. Consciousness is embodied and dependent upon those conditions.
Dependence does not make it unreal. A flame depends on fuel and surrounding conditions, yet the flame is a real event. Consciousness can be understood in the same way: a genuine form of reality that occurs when the relevant conditions are present.
No detached witness
An emergent view also challenges the idea of a witness standing apart from experience. Seeing belongs to the activity of a living being in a world. The seer is formed within that activity rather than added as a separate substance.
This fits experiential inquiry. When we look for the observer, we find further experience. We do not need to conclude that awareness exists on its own. We can recognise that the subject and its world arise together within the wider reality.
Reality remains fundamental
Reality or existence is the condition for every conscious event. It includes what is experienced and whatever exceeds present experience. Consciousness discloses part of reality from a located perspective.
This preserves the intimacy of nondual insight without making the world a projection. Experience belongs to reality. The world does not depend on being experienced in order to count as real.