One of the challenging ideas in the context of a cross-cultural study of the large theme of consciousness is the question of how the phenomenon of self-awareness is philosophically accounted for. As in the history of Western philosophy, so it is in the case of Indian philosophy, there has been several attempts at theory-making in this regard. In this paper, which is a part of a more comprehensive study, I intend to focus on the treatment of the issue of self-awareness with reference to a specific school of Buddhism, viz. Yogacara Vijñanavada and Jean Paul Sartre’s existentialistic philosophy. A cross-cultural investigation of this nature indicates that the question of self-awareness is a central issue that any study about the theme of ‘consciousness’ must deal with. In the process of such a philosophical investigation, one may also unexpectedly come across parallels – as we will see – in the theory-making task that display striking similarities, despite the differences in the over-all concerns in specific philosophies that developed in different historical-cultural settings.