"The one who experiences perceptions does not exist before, during, or after the experiences of seeing and so forth. Knowing this, all thoughts of an "experiencer"
(perceiver) of perceptions either existing or not existing are over-turned."
Cutting deeper into the illusion of a separate individual self, it can be discovered that the awareness or consciousness that seems to be a valid "perceiver" is not a person or a sentient "being" at all.
When asleep having a dream at night, the self we seem to be, seems to be perceiving people , objects and landscapes. But since "you" have no functional eyes or ears in your dream body, the "perceiving" as seeing and hearing are imaginary projections of colors, shapes and sounds. And those colors, shapes and sounds are occurring in an imaginary, projected consciousness that seems to exist as a functional witnessing consciousness or person.
Likewise, our daytime consciousness as a self-existing entity and perceiver, is only a projection of subconscious conditioning. There is no actual "person" present having perceptions, anymore than the self in your dreams at night is a real person who can perceive.
Our eyes can't see and our ears can't hear. Our eyes are passive receivers of photons; the images are "generated" in the occipital cortex and mind from electro-chemical neural signals. Our ears are passive receivers of soundless vibrations. The sounds are generated in the brain and mind. There are no sounds in the universe, only vibrations.
Likewise there is no little independent person in the brain and mind that sits in an inner movie theater and watches the pictures and hears the sounds. Rather the "witness" is an artificial projection of subconscious conditioning that seems to be perceiving the pictures and sounds; that's the "me" or "I" that "you" sense is "you". That's the "me" that seeks enlightenment because it's generated as a "seeker". The "me" as "you" is a puppet of subconscious forces with no freedom, no autonomy, no ability to choose or decide; and has no existence except as being imagined.
It's projected in one piece combined with "it's" mind-generated perceptions. It doesn't pre-exist a perceptual event. Just like your dream character at night doesn't pre-exist it's dream landscapes.
This means there is no hope for redemption, enlightenment or freedom from suffering for the person your mind believes yourself to actually be and for who "you" sense you normally are. How could there be? The one you think, believe and feel "you" are, is merely a momentary subconscious mental construction based on past conditioning.
The empty, aware space as the context in which the content as the movie, and it's imaginary observer as the audience is appearing; is something else again...
- Nagarjuna Om