Differences Between Emptiness, Consciousness, Awareness, Nothingness, Truth, Absolute Infinity, Reality And God

[Chrissy j]

I keep hearing all these words and I get confused. Could somebody define all these for me? And link them all up together and how they relate to each other, growth, the world, life, and everything else? Is consciousness the same as awareness? Is consciousness actually nothingness? The Truth is you are nothing and everything they say. Some teachers say you are empty awareness, some say you are nothing, are they the same? They call it God and absolute infinity and all kinds of shit. Can somebody just explain all these words and the concepts and ideas behind them? I would like a big picture understanding of how these all link up together. Thanks

[Dodo]

Mind doesnt need to know anything, what You need to do is sense the presence of nothingness with Your (Nothingness') Awareness, which is the same as awareness becoming aware of itself. That's tricky, at least for me, but my practise is clearer now with this understanding (ok maybe its good for the mind to know something hehe :D).

So Nothingness becomes aware of nothingness, but this is the realm of nonduality, so to answer your question awareness, nothingness, God, presence all are one no-thing that is you, consciousness, absolute infinity. It's tricky (impossible for the mind to become aware of true nothingness) so thats why disidentification with mind/Ego is needed, so you can increase the faculty needed to sense that nothingness - that faculty is awareness! Only awareness can sense awareness (nothigness); only infinity is big enough to hold within its sight infinity; Only nothingness is small enough to see nothingness; Only you can discover your true self!

I am not enlightened, but this is my understanding so far.

Edited March 23, 2017 by Dodoster

[PureExp]

@MochaSlap Its a mess Different teachers and traditions use different words to describe their version of stuff. Its a matter of terminology.

The question is - will you blindly believe me if I tell you what they mean and how they relate to each other?

The whole point is to know it yourself, and then adopt best words to convey what you know.

[AstralProjection]

As Leo might say they all point the same thing but they all have different nuanced differences based on who taught them and their semantics involved. I'll just add that reality and consciousness are probably the ones that are different the most but only by a little bit when compared to the rest. Consciousness can  be just ordinary consciousness, meaning thoughts + awareness for everyday people but if a meditator says consciousness he could mean awareness without thoughts. And with reality, reality can mean the absolute reality the unmanifest pure awareness, or it can be truth, or it can mean experience. So it all depends on the context. 

[Prabhaker]

@MochaSlap

Only nothingness can be infinite; somethingness is bound to be finite. Only out of nothingness is an infinite expanse of life, existence, possible - not out of somethingness. It is not empty, it is overfull. Things have disappeared... and what has remained is inexpressible. We try to express it as blissfulness, as ecstasy, as eternal joy, but these are just faraway echoes of the real thing.

God is not somebody: He is nobody or, more correctly, nobodiness. God is not something: he is nothing or, even more correctly, no-thingness. Never for a single moment think that nothingness is a negative state, an absence, no. Nothingness is simply no-thingness. Things disappear, only the ultimate substance remains. Forms disappear, only the formless remains. 

Consciousness is a quality of your mind, but it is not your total mind. Your mind can be both conscious and unconscious, but when you transcend your mind, there is no unconsciousness and no corresponding consciousness. There is awareness.

Awareness means that the total mind has become aware. Now the old mind is not there, but there is the quality of being conscious. Awareness has become the totality; the mind itself is now part of the awareness. We cannot say that the mind is aware; we can only meaningfully say that the mind is conscious. Awareness means transcendence of the mind, so it is not the mind that is aware. It is only through transcendence of the mind, through going beyond mind, that awareness becomes possible.

Consciousness is a quality of the mind, awareness is the transcendence; it is going beyond the mind. Mind, as such, is the medium of duality, so consciousness can never transcend duality. It is always conscious of something, and there is always someone who is conscious.