Your mind is the mirror through which you see the world. Whatever your mind perceives becomes the truth for you, as you see it that way, but that may not be the ultimate perception. As your mind grows the perceptions change, and they keep changing all the time. Perception is actually a quality of the higher mind. The mind that perceives is pure awareness. Knowledge filters through it easily, as there are no barriers of time, space or object to hinder the free flow of knowledge. In fact, it can be said that pure knowledge is nothing but homogeneous, unbroken awareness. Based on perception, the awareness keeps sending information to the mind to guide you. On the conscious plane the mind has another source of information, the indriyas, or organs of knowledge and action. Sometimes the two sources contradict one another, and at other times one source of information is clearer or more convincing than the other, so that becomes your perception. Sensory perception is severely limiting and often an inaccurate way of perceiving things. This is because the senses are finite; their existence depends on time, space and object. The senses cannot exist if these three factors are absent. The senses have limitations because of their finite nature. Moreover, they are not independent sources of knowledge; they need the cognizing powers of manas, the rational mind, to understand the information they receive and the discriminative powers of the intellect, or buddhi, to determine truth from falsehood. Apart from the mind and intellect, the senses are also governed by the ego, or ahamkara, which assesses the knowledge in relation to oneself.
Awareness, on the other hand, is infinite, having no beginning and no end. It is totally independent of the mind, senses, intellect and ego. The awareness, or chetana, is present in each and every one of us. How to develop this awareness is the subject matter of Sri Vijnana Bhairava Tantra. This is a very important subject because our performance in life depends on it at every level, whether physical, emotional, intellectual or spiritual. If you analyse carefully, you will discover that the sum total of life is not the number of years you have lived, but what you have perceived of it. Your awareness of life is, in fact, the reality of your life, more so than your muscles, bones and body. Without awareness or perception, the body would be of no use to you at all.
So then the question arises: if this awareness exists independently of the body and mind, where does it reside and what is its link with the body and mind? The abode of awareness is best described through a beautiful analogy of the lotus flower that is born and lives in muddy water, yet remains unsoiled and untouched by it. Awareness is all-pervading within and without you. It exists in each and every cell, atom and molecule that you are made up of. It is present all around you too in each and every form. Nature is sentient and ripe with awareness.