Difference between awareness and consciousness

[inavalan]

For me, "consciousness" is a non-physical dimension (similarly to x,y,z being physical dimensions). "Awareness" is our focus of attention on some range of the "consciousness" dimension.

[Moondance]

Originally Posted by iamthat

Again, it comes down to what we mean by consciousness.

The brain serves to receive information from the senses which the mind then interprets to understand the physical environment. If the brain is impaired then our ability to interpret our environment is impaired. If we regard consciousness as the ability to perceive and understand our environment then obviously consciousness would be impaired. If we regard consciousness as that which animates the physical form then consciousness is still present but it is operating through a faulty vehicle.

After all, if we accept the possibility of consciousness surviving physical death then the physical brain is no more, yet consciousness and intelligence are still present.

Peace.

Right, so a person without a brain (or very limited brain function) would not be conscious in any meaningful sense of the word - they certainly wouldn’t be conscious of their surroundings etc. That faculty which determines that a person/sentient being is able to have conscious experience (in any intelligible sense of that phrase) is what I mean by consciousness. Source (or awareness) is the creative animating principle behind life.

[iamthat]

Originally Posted by Moondance

Right, so a person without a brain (or very limited brain function) would not be conscious in any meaningful sense of the word - they certainly wouldn’t be conscious of their surroundings etc. That faculty which determines that a person/sentient being is able to have conscious experience (in any intelligible sense of that phrase) is what I mean by consciousness. Source (or awareness) is the creative animating principle behind life.

Exactly. It comes down to what these words like consciousness and awareness mean to each one of us. There is no right and wrong, but I tend to go with what inavalan says, that consciousness is non-physical and awareness is our focus of attention on some aspect of that contained within consciousness.

Peace.

[MikeS80]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

What do you think?
It's an interesting difference...I never understood it and used to use
the words interchangeably.

I would say consciousness is the whole/oneness/unity that "shines" brightly and wide out of our two eyes, like a spotlight that is on top of a lighthouse that shines bright and wide out to the dark ocean/sea, while awareness is the not self realized ego individualizing and separating consciousness, like a little double A battery powered flashlight.

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

What do you think?
It's an interesting difference...I never understood it and used to use
the words interchangeably.

They are the same thing and here's the real difference: Unmanifested vs. manifested consciousness/awareness. A good analogy would be your face and your face in a mirror. Your face is unmanifested and its image in the mirror is manifested. Your face cannot see itself without it being reflected in a mirror. Similarly witness consciousness, Atman, Brahman cannot experience itself without Maya.

Why does the universe exist? Why are we here?

EDIT: In other posts I've labeled it witness consciousness vs. reflected consciousness but that's not accurate as consciousness isn't reflected but illumines.

[Miss Hepburn]

I forgot about this thread! Thank you for bringing it back up, my friend.

I read that consciousness is part of duality, was all...cuz there is 'you' and something to be conscious 'of'.
While Awareness - there is just the One, the Absolute, as Unseeking said.

Not too hard to understand!! I sort of get it.

[zorkchop]

It is the tendency of the mind to strive to understand as much as possible in “either / or” labels or definitions. To understand the Whole . . . such definitions are rarely that easy.

Consciousness can be understood to be the whole sea of LIFE . . . on or at many levels. In a sense . . . consciousness can be understood to actually be . . . LIFE . . . and save for the understanding and inclusion of the spiritual force behind all of consciousness . . . Consciousness as LIFE would be very close to being very true indeed.

There are many layers or levels ( or whatever ) within consciousness . . . such as physical consciousness, emotional, mental, spiritual and yes . . . even beyond. Consciousness of Self ( mental or beyond ) . . . Consciousness of the Whole . . . there will always be an aspect of consciousness that is yet to be learned . . . no matter how great or how small. One cannot take Self . . . at whatever level . . . out of consciousness. Mind many times wishes to stop thought and then accept that it is beyond consciousness at that moment. That does not turn out to be true . . . although it certainly IS true by being mentally beyond conscious thought. There is a whole ballpark beyond . . . and one learns to certainly be “conscious” of it . . . or aware of it . . . to learn to live within it.

Each individual . . . actually all that exists . . . “swims” in this sea of Life. What you are aware of within this sea . . . would be your state of consciousness or simply what you are aware of within this sea. No one can be aware of all consciousness . . . and no one can be conscious of all of LIFE. There is always something more to “learn” . . . using simple words to suggest something quite profound.

But awareness also has multiple levels . . . and the understanding of a level of awareness as being “pre” consciousness would be accurate. This often takes the form of what we understand to be intuition. We can be “aware” of something going on but not quite be conscious of it. We can also be “aware” that it might be wise for us as an individual to develop and explore an aspect of consciousness . . . for self-growth and expansion.

LIFE’s great principle is growth . . . development . . . evolution if you will . . . or an unfoldment . . . from dark to light . . . from low to high . . . from outer to inner to outer again . . . from detrimental to beneficial . . . from the limited to the unlimited . . . etc. Lots of comparisons can be plugged in here . . . but the bottom line is . . . LIFE expands . . . from the lesser to the greater . . . however one wishes to understand that.

This might still sound too complicated . . . but to simplify a bit . . . we are all within the sea of consciousness and we are aware of certain facets within IT according to our individual development. We can choose to become more aware of aspects within this sea. The choice . . . is always an individual one.

[iamthat]

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

They are the same thing and here's the real difference: Unmanifested vs. manifested consciousness/awareness. A good analogy would be your face and your face in a mirror. Your face is unmanifested and its image in the mirror is manifested. Your face cannot see itself without it being reflected in a mirror. Similarly witness consciousness, Atman, Brahman cannot experience itself without Maya.

This analogy only works to a point. After all, we can feel our face without the need for a mirror, which suggests that our face is actually manifest.

So are consciousness and awareness the same thing? As always, it comes down to our own definitions of these terms.

Peace

Originally Posted by iamthat

This analogy only works to a point. After all, we can feel our face without the need for a mirror, which suggests that our face is actually manifest.

So are consciousness and awareness the same thing? As always, it comes down to our own definitions of these terms.

Peace

In the context of the face in the mirror analogy, it's about the face not being able to see itself without it being reflected in a mirror. Similarly consciousness cannot directly experience itself without illuminating something external and then experiencing that which it illuminates.

Consciousness and awareness are the same thing. The difference is whether mind is involved. Without mind it's unmanifested or witness consciousness/awareness. With mind it's manifested or reflected consciousness/awareness, though manifested is more accurate than reflected.

Another way to think of it is unmanifested/witness conscious/awareness is Consciousness/Awareness with a capital "C"/"A" and manifested/reflected conscious/awareness is consciousness/awareness with a small "c"/"a". The latter is the overlay of mind and its processes that gives the impression of body-mind as self. As far as I understand this is the only difference.

Now one might say consciousness is unmanifested and awareness is manifested but as you said it's just semantics as to how the two different aspects are labeled.

[Charles]

Thanks for the interesting discussion