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Whoziz
USA
18 Posts |
 Posted - Jul 22 2013 : 5:53:00 PM
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| What is the difference between consciousness and awareness? I know this is a question that continues to be debated by several different lines of reasoning. My interpretation, from my own experience, is that pure awareness has no form but is like a "subject" requiring an "object" or something of which to be aware, but consciousness is a "field" without form and from which all possibilities manifest. As such, consciousness is what we call God, specifically as the Christian "Father," or the Source of all creation. Am I correct or is there a better explanation between the two - or none at all? Thanks so much in advance for your answer! |
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mr_anderson
USA
734 Posts |
Posted - Jul 22 2013 : 7:24:51 PM
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They are only words, and may be defined differently, or used interchangeably. I prefer to lose the distinctions.
Consider this. Try right now, to stop being aware. Please try as hard as you can.
That very resistance is simply another appearance in awareness, is it not? Is awareness something that "you" are doing? Or is it simply the nature of all experiences? Could you have experience without awareness? Everything you have ever known, or could know, every memory, every moment, was just an experience was it not? And whilst all such experiences changed, did the awareness with which they were known ever change?
Awareness has no form, and hence it does not change.
With regard to the question of subject and object, this is simply a mind-made distinction. It's a useful distinction, as by discriminating between "awareness" (subject) and its object, one may come to recognize the quality of aware, empty presence in which all experiences arise.
But ultimately, such distinctions are just tools, useful for focusing attention, soon to be discarded. Because ultimately Awareness is not separate from its object.
Can a reflection truly be said to be separate from the mirror within which it appears? Yes, the reflection has qualities which are distinct from the mirror, but surely they are Not-Two, Non-Dual? The primary difference is that reflections come and go, but the mirror is a constant. So it is with awareness and the appearances within it. Are two characters in your dream separate from the imagination of which they are made?
Conceiving of awareness as the subject, one ceases to identify with reflections, instead coming to know oneself as the mirror (the stage of dis-identification).
Upon realizing oneself as the mirror, one realizes that one is both the mirror and the reflections appearing within it, they are not separate (Unity, Love).
This is enlightenment. |
Edited by - mr_anderson on Jul 23 2013 9:03:01 PM |
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jeff
USA
971 Posts |
Posted - Jul 22 2013 : 11:18:41 PM
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Hi Whoziz,
In my experience, consciousness and awareness are two different things. Consciousness arises from awareness and is everything that exists or could every possibly exist. Awareness can be realized, but is beyond description or comprehension by the mind. It is Tao that cannot be named. In Christian terms, it really depends upon how you think about God. Most would think God like consciousness, but many gnostic Christians (and some Jewish traditions), think of God more as unnameable (or definable) like awareness.
Best, Jeff |
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mr_anderson
USA
734 Posts |
Posted - Jul 23 2013 : 8:58:10 PM
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How the two words are defined just depends on the tradition, the definition they are given is in the hands of the word's user. For example, I believe some of the Buddhist schools such a Dzogchen have separate meaning for consciousness and awareness. Sometimes consciousness can mean "sentience", with more of a reference to sense perceptions and content, whereas awareness like Jeff says can be the un-nameable, that which is the ungraspable background of experience.
However, in the Advaita tradition, the words are often used interchangeably, with exactly the same meaning. For example:
"Effortless and choiceless awareness is our real nature." - Ramana Maharshi
"Contemplate the sole reality of consciousness for the cessation of repeated birth." - Yoga Vasistha
"Giving attention to attention, aware of being aware." - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
"The seer becomes conscious of himself as the seer." - Sri Nisargadatta
"Remain as pure consciousness without any disturbance in it." - Yoga Vasistha
"All beings are by nature pure consciousness (existence) itself. It is only due to ignorance (false identification) that they appear to be different from it." - Sri Sankara
"You are the seer. You are consciousness." - Yoga Vasistha
"That which dwells within all that is, that through which awareness itself becomes aware, that which exists in each thing as its individual nature, is the true "I" that shines as pure consciousness" - Sri Muruganar (disciple of Ramana Maharshi) |
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iamseeker
USA
8 Posts |
Posted - Aug 16 2013 : 10:53:33 PM
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Symbolic similarity can be expressed as in the eye as organ and vision as it's function.
You "have" eyes for the function of the experience - vision. The vision is the functional expression of the eyes present.
So is the consciousness... which expresses itself through the function of awareness. Your (or mine or everybody else's which is ONE and the same) is getting expressed THROUGH you to a DEGREE of your AWARENESS, because your AWARENESS is the expression of the ONE CONSCIOUSNESS through you!
Vlad |
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iamseeker
USA
8 Posts |
Posted - Aug 16 2013 : 11:13:27 PM
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One more example might help to understand...
During meditation we observe our thoughts. Ability to "witness" our thoughts is a certain level of awareness practiced during meditation... Who is the observer (or the "witness") ? Consciousness! It is through this awareness of the process of thinking that consciousness expresses itself. The degree of this expression (awareness of the thoughts) is a degree ONE CONSCIOUSNESS "succeed" in expressing itself through YOU !
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quote:
Originally posted by iamseeker
Symbolic similarity can be expressed as in the eye as organ and vision as it's function.
You "have" eyes for the function of the experience - vision. The vision is the functional expression of the eyes present.
So is the consciousness... which expresses itself through the function of awareness. Your (or mine or everybody else's which is ONE and the same) is getting expressed THROUGH you to a DEGREE of your AWARENESS, because your AWARENESS is the expression of the ONE CONSCIOUSNESS through you!
Vlad
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Consciousness vs awareness
