awareness vs consciousness

[SoonHei]

can someone define how these two words are used?

do they talk about the same thing?

 

i feel awareness = being aware of whatever...

consciousness is the field/"object" thru which I become aware?

 

 

in other words, awareness is the output / result of consciousness being present.

 

 

Am I understanding this correct?

or are these words used in different meaning depending on context?








googled it just now actually and found this:

“Awareness is primordial; it is the original state, beginningless, endless, uncaused, unsupported, without parts, without change. Consciousness is on contact, a reflection against a surface, a state of duality. There can be no consciousness without awareness, but there can be awareness without consciousness, as in deep sleep. Awareness is absolute, consciousness is relative to its content; consciousness is always of something. Consciousness is partial and changeful, awareness is total, changeless, calm and silent. And it is the common matrix of every experience.”  
~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

According to world expert on lucid dreaming, Stephen LaBerge, consciousness is awareness plus mind and the structure of the individual brain. “That’s a critical understanding,” he says, “Consciousness does have to do with the brain, but it’s not awareness. Awareness is the word for what it is prior to the one thing we are sure of.”

...

Consciousness requires and object. Awareness does not.

 

 

 

Can someone provide example/metaphor to explain what the difference between the two is?

it seems based on what i have googled above that awareness is the absolute primal thing - that's the highest of the levels which nothing is prior to.

so as a result, i guess that's the purest form of what each of us is? awareness. pure awareness. but it's different than consciousness somehow? 

I understood this all as pure awareness as the highest level and then mind which is the level below but now there is apparently a sub-division of awareness then consciousness then mind? 

 

 

am i just making this more difficult than it's supposed to be ? lol do these levels really matter? i guess they do in order to see what I am deep down intellectually .. 
 

 

Edited September 4, 2018 by SoonHei
added quote + a bit more

[Preetom]

@SoonHei Be ready to get your shit blown away  

 

[Nahm]

@SoonHei Yes. Analogies won’t hold here though, only ‘experience’ (non-experience), other wise they seem exactly the same, though there they are not, keeping mind there are no words or communications ‘there’, just you, so distinctions ‘here’, offer nothing about ‘there’. In an ultimate way, consciousness at large is an “object” (not in the common sense) within awareness.

[SoonHei]

I guess it just points to that deepest realm which even witnesses the one that is aware or simply , it witnesses even awareness

 

It just is. Blank . Point. Zero. Just . Is. 

 

And from it, all else rises, including first of, the awareness

[Nahm]

@SoonHei Absolutely mysterious af.

[Forestluv]

Most teachers I consider to be awake use "awareness" and "consciousness" as pretty much the same. At my stage of development, trying to discern between the two creates an intellectual distraction.

However, I am curious about the differences between concentration and awareness/consciousness.

[Nahm]

@Serotoninluv  Does this model fit iyo?.....Concentration is a function of the brain, relative to the activity (from over thinking to samadhi). Distraction is concentration with over thinking, single point focus is concentration with little to no thought activity....Awareness is - it is how we can talk about the brain, thoughts, and concentration. 

 

[Joseph Maynor]

I like to use both words for different purposes.

I like to use 'Consciousness' to reference the fact that everything is inside my Consciousness.  Other than this use, I avoid using the word Consciousness.

I like to refer to 'God Awareness' as the true Self.  'Awareness' without the 'God' modifier is an Awareness that doesn't yet realize it's the only thing that actually exists.  And Awareness does not include 'Maya' which is Experience and Thought.  God Awareness looks down on and through Maya a.k.a. Experience and Thought.

Edited September 7, 2018 by Joseph Maynor

[Mu_]

The words are just words.  Different people have different meanings behind them.  Most the time they are the same, but not always, thats why its good to clarify sometimes. 

@SoonHei

[Jack River]

On 9/5/2018 at 9:08 AM, Nahm said:

single point focus is concentration with little to no thought activity....Awareness is - it is how we can talk about the brain, thoughts, and concentration. 

 I think I’m getting you dude. Concentration is reactive. And that concentrated attention cant go beyond its own limit of conditioning. Only awareness being unconditioned can look holistically at the concentration-reaction. Is this kinda what you mean dude? 

Edited September 7, 2018 by Jack River

[RichardY]

 

[Jack River]

1 hour ago, Joseph Maynor said:

And Awareness does not include 'Maya' which is Experience and Thought.  God Awareness looks down on and through Maya a.k.a. Experience and Thought.

Not look down as judgemental but it’s an Awareness sees all of maya. It sees how the entire trickery of maya is performed because there is no reaction. As in respons of thought which determines experience. Only identification with maya is there this reaction response of thought/experience. 

Edited September 7, 2018 by Jack River