What Do You Mean "awareness"?

[Anton Rogachevski]

When you say Awareness what do you mean?

For me I would say this gets pretty close by saying what its like. I would love some input from you guys!

 

Awareness - 

acceptance, calmness, peace, authenticity, alertness, awake, spontaneous, compassion, love, unity, focus, emptiness, like a mirror, pure experience.

[jse]

 

[Trond]

It doesn't need description to my knowledge. It is what is is. It is all there is. You can't go by a second without being it, yet you can be unaware that you are it. 

The paradoxes line up in ego mode  

Edited February 21, 2017 by Trond

[Leo Gura]

If you knew what awareness was, you'd be enlightened.

Go self-inquire.

[Santhiphap]

I had a misunderstanding of awareness as well. Tronds post didnt make sense to me before watching the video. I understand much better now.

It nice that nowadays the ideas about meditation, enlightenmend and other related things are spread amongst many different cultures and beliefs. It is easier to come in contanct with these things and it catches the interest of more and more people but a sympton that comes along with it is that people start to use and teach terms like awareness completely wrong.

As I am recently digging deeper into the true meanings of such terms I realize I have a lot of work and reevaluation to do.

Edited February 21, 2017 by Santhiphap

[Anton Rogachevski]

@Leo Gura Can you know that you are aware without knowing what awareness is?

[Nahm]

right up there with what is consciousness.    its nothing and everything.  not a part.   

[Leo Gura]

5 hours ago, Anton Rogachevski said:

@Leo Gura Can you know that you are aware without knowing what awareness is?

Yes, that will be part of the various levels of enlightenment you'll pass through.

First you'll have to discover that you are awareness.

Then you'll have to discover what awareness is.

Neither of these things is anything you can imagine.

[Anton Rogachevski]

@Leo Gura So a person that isn't waking up doesn't know he's aware?

That's why I wanted a cleat definition.

Because anyone can say: "Here I see an apple, therefor I have awareness. I am aware of the apple"

 

I recently realized that this path is tricky because we mean different things but use the same word. So it's easy to listen and think you got it. But you only got it through your own definitions.

[PureExp]

@jse That's a nice and clear explanation of why there cannot be "unconsciousness" or absence of awareness.

He said, aware + ness = knowing + being. Isn't that substituting one word with another? I completely get what he is pointing at, but IMHO, it won't be possible to define awareness without inviting trouble

That's like trying to define "redness" in words or concepts. Not possible, you see. You can only point at it. (Not implying that awareness is just another quale)

The problem is - awareness is not even an experience, you can't even point at it without being it. There are no-two.

[PureExp]

1 hour ago, Anton Rogachevski said:

I recently realized that this path is tricky because we mean different things but use the same word.

Welcome to the world of nebulous definitions

If you are expecting concrete definitions in the field of spirituality, you will be disappointed. Even the original Sanskrit words are not so sharp anymore. People tend to use same words for different things by twisting its meaning. Not only that when you glance across cultures and traditions you will find dozens of words that denote awareness (consciousness, Self, soul, atman, Shiva, Purusha, spirit, heart, what-have-you). There are more twists, e.g. the word consciousness means something totally different in psychology. Different teachers use same word to mean different things. Then you encounter funny words like frequency, vibration and energy etc (especially in new-age stuff), which share origins with precise scientific terms and cause much trouble.

When I see a question posted on the net, it is 50% of the time a confusion about meanings of words. The most confused thing is mind and consciousness. People do not see the difference.

Edited February 22, 2017 by PureExp

[jse]

9 hours ago, PureExp said:

He said, aware + ness = knowing + being. Isn't that substituting one word with another? I completely get what he is pointing at, but IMHO, it won't be possible to define awareness without inviting trouble

That's like trying to define "redness" in words or concepts. Not possible, you see. You can only point at it. (Not implying that awareness is just another quale)

The problem is - awareness is not even an experience, you can't even point at it without being it. There are no-two.

Yes, that's true.  But as Rupert Spira often points out, language and other analogies are tools we use as a concession to the dualistic nature of thought.  Without this object-subject paradigm, the mind has no chance at grasping the nature of non-duality awareness.

[Barna]

I don't know what awareness is, but I can feel the acceptance of it.

Everything what you are aware of is accepted by awareness, otherwise you wouldn't even be aware of it. Everything that you hate or judge is already accepted by awareness. Your entire present moment with every detail is already accepted by awareness. Your future and your past are just thoughts in your head, so if you are aware of them, then they are already accepted by awareness.

Here is a mini-meditation: accept the present moment from your perspective, and then relax into the infinite acceptance of awareness.  

Note: Acceptance is not the same as a preference. Awareness is acceptance, but your body still has preferences. For example when you are hungry, awareness already accepted that you are hungry, but that does not mean that you can't go and eat something.  
When you respond to the hunger by eating, the fact that you are eating is already accepted by awareness.  

Acceptance doesn't freeze you, on the contrary, it enables you to flow with life without friction/resistance.