Questions about consciousness and awareness

[blossomingtree]

Originally Posted by shivatar

Answer whichever questions you want to.


What is Consciousness?
What is awareness?

Why do some people say "conscious awareness"?

if everything is consciousness, wouldn't "my consciousness" be referring to my ego only?
If everything is consciousness and I am consciousness too, how come I can't change or interact with the exterior world?
Why is my consciousness seemingly limited to my body? My inner body as well as my physical body?

If I were a candle, my ego would be the flame (which is awareness), and my consciousness would be the light shed by the flame? right?

Why do people say "the power of your consciousness"? NOBODY EVEN KNOWS WHAT CONSCIOUSNESS IS REALLY. why is there all this big talk about something we dont even understand.

Hey shivatar

Firstly, if you are interested, wouldn't it be much more gratifying and "real" to find out the answers to these questions for yourself?

Meditation - QUIET meditation (not the energy hoo-ha type) can provide answers to inquiries like this - real time answers that are physically manifested or intuitively discerned (without thought involved).

But briefly:

Don't you have the concepts mixed up a bit? Particularly on a forum like this, people can use words in different ways.

Regardless, I think that consciousness is the world of form, taste, touch, color, sight, sound. It's the physical world we live in.

Ego is the limited function that is utilized by Spirit to function/process/judge/evaluate/think. It is not the same as awareness (at least in my books). It often, when still mired by ignorance, takes a life of its own and it is marked by and within selfishness - even for the ego that thinks it is "unselfish". That is why ego transcendence is vital to genuine spiritual development.

Awareness is the most interesting of all these.

When consciousness is infused with the wisdom of higher self/spirit then things get interesting. That's my take.

BT

[God-Like]

I have put out the question before regarding 'who' coined the word consciousness. It has to come from somewhere . Peeps are readily willing to associate such a word and relate to it in such a way where they swear upon almighty God that what they are and what everything is, IS consciousness .

It's okay to associate a dog with a dog because it's something tangible and it's something that can be compared with a cat named a cat ..

All I can say is there is only what you are and that can be associated with cats and dogs and consciousness ..


x daz x

[Gem]

Originally Posted by shivatar

what does it mean to be interdependant of the object?

I meant interdependent with the object, so if there is no object to be conscious of consciousness doesn't happen, and/or vice versa. Or in other words, consciousness arises along with the objects 'it' is conscious of.

Originally Posted by John32241

Consider the concept that there is a soul awareness which is vastly superior to our human awareness. To understand it better we need to have greater intellectual humility.

What if that Soul Awareness isn't superior, what if we are that Soul Awareness in self-imposed amnesia?

Originally Posted by John32241

Now the power of our consciousness is that we can integrate divine wisdom with human awareness. That is if we can understand human consciousness as our power of perceptual choice.

And what if our power of perpetual choice is not that this divine wisdom is external to us but internal?

Did you know Jesus was a Gnostic?

[markings]

Originally Posted by shivatar

Answer whichever questions you want to.

What is Consciousness?
What is awareness?

Why do some people say "conscious awareness"?

if everything is consciousness, wouldn't "my consciousness" be referring to my ego only?
If everything is consciousness and I am consciousness too, how come I can't change or interact with the exterior world?
Why is my consciousness seemingly limited to my body? My inner body as well as my physical body?

Consciousness in spiritual terms is interaction according to some rules like natural law. In that sense everything is conscious.

Awareness is the sensing of above interaction. This can be like instinct or goal-directed behavior. At the highest level of awareness there is the recognition of what rules are in play leading to probable and predictive outcomes.

"My consciousness" is throughout my body and not limited by it. One's level of consciousness is observable to some degree through ones displayed behavior in the external world. Our consciousness perceives the world, in more ways than our 5 senses, and also acts on and changes the world.

"My consciousness" is not a property of ourselves, our body and mind. Strictly speaking there is no such thing as "My". Consciousness exists throughout the universe in various forms, but like heat e.g. it can accumulate in places, the most common aggregators are living beings, and when it accumulates sufficiently it can lead to a change in how matter behaves and is acted upon.

[lemex]

Originally Posted by lemex

Yes in a way since consciousness is everything but not you, consciousness would be your ego of it. Think of it in terms of the concept of being Trinity like, that is like us as well. iwo are you the source? You to are divided.

Post 9. ok, let's see if I can bring some of my thoughts into focus for you. Not sure of your feelings to other questions in the nature of the universe. The unknown first. What is the source of everything? In science, the source is the universe is made up of atoms, God is never considered part of the equation. The universe and particles are not living and have no consciousness.

Is matter needed for consciousness, we'd say no, our consciousness had or has a source. Typically we attribute (our) consciousness to what we call God which we are separate from. We image 2 separate ideas about reality, one of matter and the other of mind. The perspective of self consciousness to me raises the question of Consciousness, as to which consciousness is being referred to, a self consciousness or source consciousness? Do you believe there are 2 (equal) of them or only 1. Imo consciousness comes from Consciousness. I might be wrong that without Consciousness no other consciousness could exist unless I am the source.

Where does self consciousness come from. It is possible Consciousness is matter and our self consciousness where everything exists by and because of Consciousness. Consciousness is source of it all. Consciousness is which creates reality, all things, everything, what we call God.

In fact Consciousness even is the appearance of self consciousness that falls away without the body because it is an illusion. Do we return to merge back to the source from whence we came, then the question is entirely mute, as everything goes back to its original state or place or is there an essence of source to us that can never be separate but always be a source to us. Without source nothing can be. There are aspects of source within the smallest part as with the source. Here I feel it cannot be other. They cannot be divided each part of the other. It could also be we have a connection from that Consciousness. I can give nothing to the source but only the source can give. Even matter comes from and is Consciousness.

You may be a soul or a spiritual being and not know this. Some may realize they are really spiritual beings or in nature and do not have the walls (barriers) keeping them from knowing it. You may be a spiritual being but feel you are not such a being. It is imo only the body that makes one feel this way, yet will become a spiritual begin because you already are. You are already a spiritual being. The soul or spirit would be an example. Your perception may be you are not but something inside tells you you are. The journey is going to provide the answer

Can you prove you are a spiritual being if you believe you are btw? There is no proof for any of this stuff.

[iamthat]

Science is slowly beginning to understand the material nuts and bolts of the universe, but this understanding will always be limited until science includes consciousness as part of the equation.

Esoterically the Absolute first expresses as Purusha (Spirit) and Mulaprakriti (Primordial Matter). The two combine to produce Consciousness. That Consciousness is the source of individual consciousness. As human beings we are Being (Spirit) expressing through individual consciousness (Soul) experiencing the world of form (personality).

Individual consciousness combines with form to produce self-consciousness. When we transcend form then self-consciousness dissolves but individual consciousness remains.

Can any of this be proven? We can only discover it for ourselves. Consciousness is the laboratory within which we work.

Peace.

[shivatar]

Originally Posted by Gem

I meant interdependent with the object, so if there is no object to be conscious of consciousness doesn't happen, and/or vice versa. Or in other words, consciousness arises along with the objects 'it' is conscious of.

There is always an object, because there is always consciousness. Even no-thing is a thing, albeit a thing beyond the mind and concepts.

I've heard that before though in a class I took that studied the nature of consciousness and dreams. that its interdependent with the object, however I find it to be more of a theory than anything.

[shivatar]

Originally Posted by lemex

Post 9. ok, let's see if I can bring some of my thoughts into focus for you. Not sure of your feelings to other questions in the nature of the universe. The unknown first. What is the source of everything? In science, the source is the universe is made up of atoms, God is never considered part of the equation. The universe and particles are not living and have no consciousness.

Is matter needed for consciousness, we'd say no, our consciousness had or has a source. Typically we attribute (our) consciousness to what we call God which we are separate from. We image 2 separate ideas about reality, one of matter and the other of mind. The perspective of self consciousness to me raises the question of Consciousness, as to which consciousness is being referred to, a self consciousness or source consciousness? Do you believe there are 2 (equal) of them or only 1. Imo consciousness comes from Consciousness. I might be wrong that without Consciousness no other consciousness could exist unless I am the source.

Where does self consciousness come from. It is possible Consciousness is matter and our self consciousness where everything exists by and because of Consciousness. Consciousness is source of it all. Consciousness is which creates reality, all things, everything, what we call God.

In fact Consciousness even is the appearance of self consciousness that falls away without the body because it is an illusion. Do we return to merge back to the source from whence we came, then the question is entirely mute, as everything goes back to its original state or place or is there an essence of source to us that can never be separate but always be a source to us. Without source nothing can be. There are aspects of source within the smallest part as with the source. Here I feel it cannot be other. They cannot be divided each part of the other. It could also be we have a connection from that Consciousness. I can give nothing to the source but only the source can give. Even matter comes from and is Consciousness.

You may be a soul or a spiritual being and not know this. Some may realize they are really spiritual beings or in nature and do not have the walls (barriers) keeping them from knowing it. You may be a spiritual being but feel you are not such a being. It is imo only the body that makes one feel this way, yet will become a spiritual begin because you already are. You are already a spiritual being. The soul or spirit would be an example. Your perception may be you are not but something inside tells you you are. The journey is going to provide the answer

Can you prove you are a spiritual being if you believe you are btw? There is no proof for any of this stuff.

Dont need to prove it to anybody but myself, and if I believe it there is no reason to prove it. Only the doubt in me needs proof, and I dont need to feed doubt.

Thank you for sharing your ideas.

[shivatar]

Originally Posted by iamthat

Science is slowly beginning to understand the material nuts and bolts of the universe, but this understanding will always be limited until science includes consciousness as part of the equation.

Esoterically the Absolute first expresses as Purusha (Spirit) and Mulaprakriti (Primordial Matter). The two combine to produce Consciousness. That Consciousness is the source of individual consciousness. As human beings we are Being (Spirit) expressing through individual consciousness (Soul) experiencing the world of form (personality).

Individual consciousness combines with form to produce self-consciousness. When we transcend form then self-consciousness dissolves but individual consciousness remains.

Can any of this be proven? We can only discover it for ourselves. Consciousness is the laboratory within which we work.

Peace.

Give it another 100 years and maybe we will see something interesting. Like a 99% understanding of consciousness, enough to transfer our being into a digital format. sounds interesting to me.