Why is the seer and the seen something different ?

[Jannes]

I am starting with self inquiry to realize god and the approach that I take is to ask myself who am I. On top of Leo’s content I watched this video and it’s very well made and he explains a lot of things very well and simple. But there is still a thing that seems unclear to me which really slows me down in my self inquiry. One of his top arguments for why I am not my body, mind and so forth is that I am aware of these things but these things are not aware of me (I am aware of a thought, 2+2=4 for example but the thought is not aware of me). One is seen and the other one sees so they can’t be the same thing. That doesn’t really make sense to me. If someone could explain that to me I would be really grateful.  

 

[Osaid]

Well, to answer your title bluntly, I would say they are the same thing. 

I think what he is trying to do with this specific analogy is separate you from the idea that you are just the body, by making you realize that there is "something else" which is aware of the body. This line of thinking exposes the fallacious nature of dualistic thinking, but at the same time, it tackles the problem from a dualistic paradigm, and so the analogy itself is ultimately dualistic. This is similar to when you meditate and you realize that you are not your thoughts, but rather the observer of thoughts. Although this analogy does not explicitly address the fact that the observer and perceived are one, it does help to point you in realizing that the things you identify with aren't actually you, by virtue of the fact that there is always "something else" that seems being aware of that object.

Basically, he is trying to point you towards the fact that whatever finite object you try to identify with, there always seems to be something else that is being aware of that finite object, and so it makes no sense to identify with some finite object as an identity. It is a good starting point for deconstructing your identity, although flawed in the sense that it is dualistic.

If you go even deeper, you realize that the finite object is actually aware of itself.