Algorithmic application of adhyāropa-apavāda

I am aware of the body. Therefore, I am not the body.

I am aware of sensations. Therefore, I am not the sensations.

I am aware of thoughts. Therefore, I am not the thoughts.

I am aware of emotions. Therefore, I am not the emotions.

I am aware of the ego-sense, the feeling “I am this person.” Therefore, I am not the ego-sense.

All these are witnessed: body, sensations, thoughts, emotions, and ego-sense. Therefore, provisionally, I take myself to be the sākṣī, the witness.

This sākṣī standpoint is a necessary adhyāropa. It separates me from the body-mind complex.

Now the thought arises: “I am consciousness.”

The thought “I am consciousness” also appears in the mind. Therefore, I am not that thought as a mental event.

But this thought is a pramāṇa-vṛtti, a knowledge-form produced by śāstra. Its function is not to create consciousness or objectify consciousness. Its function is to remove the error, “I am the body-mind.”

Therefore, I do not cling to the thought as an object. Nor do I reject what it reveals.

The thought is negated as a thought. But the consciousness indicated by the thought is not negated, because it is the very basis of all negation and affirmation.

Now apply apavāda to sākṣitvam itself.

Is the sākṣī another object? No.

Can the sākṣī be seen, heard, touched, thought, or objectified? No.

Does the sākṣī stand apart from the mind like one object watching another object? No.

Therefore, sākṣī is not an entity inside me. It is not a second thing observing the mind.

Witnesshood is only a provisional word used because there appears to be something witnessed.

When the witnessed is understood as mithyā, a dependent appearance, the witness-witnessed division also loses finality.

The mind appears in me, consciousness.

The mind has no independent reality apart from consciousness.

Therefore, I am not a separate witness standing apart from a second thing called the mind.

The sākṣī standpoint has served its purpose. It removed identification with the body-mind.

Now even sākṣitvam, witnesshood, is released as a provisional teaching construct.

What remains is not an inferred thought, not a mental conclusion, and not an objectified experience.

What remains is self-revealing, non-dual awareness.

Therefore: I am not the body, not the mind, not the ego, not the thought “I am consciousness,” and not even a relational witness. I am non-dual awareness, Brahman.