Consciousness

There have been many attempts to explain consciousness from varying perspectives.  What it comes close to is to touching the nature of it but not really touching it. How can one? The awareness that precedes the cognition of Consciousness itself is a profoundly deep concept. So here goes my attempt....
Who are we? What are we? Where did we originate from? (really? some of the apes evolved into us?) When did we begin to exist? When will we stop existing? What makes the core essence of Us? What give us the power of cognition and higher thinking? What animates us? What separates us from others? other animals, other plants? And how does God play into this picture?
The famous non-dualistic Masters like Nisargadatta Maharaj  and his student-disciple-teacher Ramesh Balsekhar quotes "Consciousness is all there is. All there is, is Consciousness." We therefore are an expression of Absolute Consciousness. But what is it? Trying to identify and define consciousness is akin to a fish in the Ocean of water searching for water. This water keeps it alive and goes through its gills and is essential for its breath and life itself and it is surrounded by it, in it and of it. So how does it separate itself from the ocean.  To use another metaphor, how does a drop of water in a wave become separate or know itself as an identity distinct than the ocean from which it arises. The wave comes crashing to the shore and disappears back into the ocean. So how should the drop of water within the wave spend time trying to understand its nature, or contemplating or seeing the wave within which it is embedded in its journey to the shore and its subsequent merging back into the ocean from where it will arise again?
So how do we experience this Consciousness? We can only be aware of it's existence. It cannot be touched upon, it cannot be defined and identified but can only be experienced within the context of it. We recognize it and experience it through the actions Is it possible to observe this Consciousness of ourselves. Start by bringing your focus on the "I Am That" which cannot be named. We bring our awareness, our attention and control our sensory perception to the inner reality within the physical container that we most identify with and come to a unique relationship of understanding and realization of this I Am concept. At first, this may be a challenging concept or stream of thought to maintain. Slowly and gradually, we lengthen by seconds, then by minutes this stream of focus and maintain it until the person who is focusing (the subject), the concept on which you are focusing on (the object) merge and disappear and all that is left is the act of focus itself....The Being-ness. In the moment of this release of the Self, there is an experience of liberation, deliverance from a burden of the identify that we hold up and we recognize the Knowing itself! The process has its challenges... and in the moment of this realization for some this may be a fearful process- the loss of identity, the disappearance of the I into the That can be the equivalent of an ego death. For many, this is a blissful experience. This is truly a liberating experience.
When we succeed in slowing down the burden of keeping up in the mental and sensory realm- to go through the thousand thoughts, the multiple sensory input of perceptions of our reality and reduce our involvement in our mental tendencies, we begin the process of stilling the mind enough to begin observing the flow and expression of this Consciousness. In the very act of observing, "we" disappear and we become one with the act of observation.
Meditation and breath awareness practices are one way to enable us through the stillness process. Once we have attained inner silence, we are able to be Aware of this Consciousness.

“I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?” - Chuang Tzu (Taoist Philosopher)