Maybe the understanding you are looking for is something that the mind is not interested in. You can hardly formulate the question and the only fair answer is t

Maybe the understanding you are looking for is something that the mind is not interested in. You can hardly formulate the question and the only fair answer is to tell you to not ask the question before you get lost in it. The mantra of yoga and all that jazz was to stop wondering, to find focus. Finding the right words and understanding the problem are two orthogonal problems. Dualism is a good word, and separation is essential to learning. The consciousness just observes the subconsciousness, not the outside world. In that sense, dualism makes perfect sense, but it's only testable by introspection. Empathy helps recognizing that behavior in others. Recognition and socializing is much more important for consciousness than seeing. Even single celled organisms can detect light, but that doesn't count as consciousness. Yet we might call plants our friends, figuratively, and "theory" derives from a root "to perceive".