There is still another method, used in jnan-yoga, and it is related to observation. This is the practice of awareness, which is also given and explained in its final form. Here the yogi must observe all his manifestations and actions as a detached witness. The observation must take place from inside, and not from the side, because one can look at oneself from the side with the help of the mind as well, without any deep awareness. Even so, the mind takes the position of an outside observer, imagining himself by it, and evaluating all the actions of a person. Evaluation is not related to awareness; it always comes from the mind with its notions of correct and incorrect. Therefore, the explanation that the observer must be within, points to precisely the awareness of what is going on, and not to the mind game in looking at what is happening from the side.
If a person is capable of being aware of everything happening inside him, and also his own actions in a detached way, that means he has already reached a quite high stage of awareness. But a seeker comes to this only through efforts in disidentification, in separation of attention, and no one manages to do this quickly and easily. We are thus constructed, and no matter how much you tell yourself that the mind with its thoughts and attachments is no more than an illusion, the process itself of growing awareness from this is not accelerated and is not made easy.
The logic of this practice consists of the fact that having disidentified with everything which in fact he is not, a person may finally see and become aware of his true nature, identical to the nature of God, and become aware, finally, of what is sacred, that their nature is the same. That is, awareness here is used for achievement of the very same goal – awareness of the unity of the true reality of a person and God. The world in this conception is not viewed in any way because it is by definition real quite relatively, and the state of non-duality has no relationship to it at all. The true Advaita exists only between the jiva and the Brahman, and all the rest is sheer delirium and nonsense. But with the course of time, everything changes, and therefore the interpretation of non-duality has changed as well.