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In Advaita Vedanta, we are encouraged to discriminate between the knower (awareness) and the known (the body, mind, thoughts, emotions, sensations, etc.), and through practice become less identified with the body-mind complex.
I’m curious about what this actually means experientially, especially for someone who is deeply realized.

Does earnest practice create an increasingly obvious experiential “gap” between awareness and the body-mind?

For example, if a realized person is at work, talking to someone, or performing a physical task, do they literally experience their body and mind as something separate from themselves — almost as though they are watching the body and mind functioning from a distance?

Or is the experience actually much more ordinary, with the body, thoughts, emotions and actions still being fully experienced, but without the sense “I am this body-mind”?

In other words, what does being the witness actually feel like in direct experience?
And does this sense of witnessing eventually disappear as well, because the distinction between “the witness” and “what is witnessed” is itself seen as dualistic?

Ive been meditating for one hour sessions, and after a while it’s like everything disappears. Then I become aware again and realize 20–30 minutes have passed, but there’s no memory of any experience during that time. I don’t think I was asleep.
Has anyone else experienced this? Is it deep absorption, dullness, or something else?

I’ve been practicing Advaita Vedanta sincerely for several years. My daily sadhana includes meditation, self-inquiry, and studying the teachings. The transformation has been profound—my baseline awareness, peace, and freedom from identification with thoughts have increased significantly. In most areas of life, I naturally rest as the witnessing awareness.
However, I’ve noticed one area where all of this seems to collapse: my romantic relationship.
When my girlfriend and I have a serious conflict—especially if she says she wants to leave—my nervous system goes into an intense fight-or-flight response. My chest becomes tight, my body feels overwhelmed, and my mind is flooded with catastrophic thoughts. In those moments, it feels as though all my spiritual practice has vanished. The only thing that seems real is the fear, emotional pain, and mental narrative.
What’s interesting is that once the nervous system settles, I can clearly see that awareness never actually disappeared. Looking back, I recognize that the Witness was always present, even though it was completely obscured by identification with the mind. During the episode, however, I have almost no access to that recognition.
My question is:
From an Advaita perspective, is this simply a matter of continuing to deepen meditation and self-inquiry until the identification weakens further? Or is the more mature approach to fully allow the human experience—fear, grief, attachment, nervous system activation—to unfold without trying to transcend or bypass it?
In other words, is the path here:
to strengthen abidance in the Self through continued practice,
to allow unresolved conditioning (vasanas) to exhaust themselves through conscious feeling,
or both?
I’d especially appreciate insights from those who have experienced intense attachment wounds or relationship triggers while walking the Advaita path. How did your practice evolve so that awareness remained accessible even during moments of overwhelming emotional activation?

I’ve been practicing Advaita Vedanta for a long time through daily self-inquiry and meditation. Most of the time there’s a natural sense of witnessing and equanimity. However, some days it feels as though there’s no progress at all. The mind becomes so compelling that thoughts and emotions feel more real than awareness itself. Instead of effortlessly resting as the witness, it feels like there’s a barrier preventing me from abiding in awareness. On those days, I feel like I’m going nowhere in my practice. Is this a normal stage on the path, and how should I work with it without turning it into another effort of the mind?

I’m a very systematic person with meditation and would love insight from Advaita practitioners.

Right now I meditate 3x daily:
- 2 x 15 minute sits
- 1 x 1 hour sit

If I miss one, I almost feel “wrong” and try to compensate the next day. Part of me understands this is just another form of egoic structure/achievement.

My question is:

How do we actually measure progress in Advaita Vedanta?

If awareness/Brahman is always already present, and I can clearly recognise the Self in a 15 minute sit just as much as in a 1 hour sit, then what exactly is the difference between shorter and longer meditation?

What is the metric of tangible spiritual progress in Advaita?

In other Hindu and Buddhist traditions, more meditation is often emphasised heavily. Is Advaita the same? Or is formal meditation mainly for stabilising recognition and reducing identification with mind?

Would love perspectives from people deeper into Vedanta or with guidance from traditional teachers.

In meditation I can recognize a deeper ground of awareness or being beyond ordinary thought. But the moment I attempt to understand, interpret, or describe that recognition, it seems to require the mind again.

So my question is:

If all comprehension, articulation, and even recognition at the human level are mediated through mind and cognition, on what basis can nondual traditions make definitive claims such as “Brahman is infinite” or “ultimate reality is nondual”?

Is realization itself beyond conceptual certainty, with all teachings merely provisional pointers? Or is there considered to be a form of knowing in Advaita that transcends the limitations of conceptual mind altogether?