What does awareness mean?

[Boy]

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Edited April 6, 2014 by Boy

[Boy]

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Edited April 6, 2014 by Boy

[GrandmasterP]

It is a confusing stew because we are all throwing in our own ingredients by way of labels plus attempted definitions of awareness.

Such as what follows......

 

Awareness of life happening right now = Mindfulness

' Being life' = caught up with or 'entrapped' with life 'happening'.

 

I do think there's a subtle difference between mindfulness as an awareness of the 'now' and some definitions of awareness such as your Vedanta example.

Taking Vedanta as an example I need to be implicated in a knowledge of Vedanta, what the word means for one thing.

That comes with baggage and before I know it , whilst I'm aware of Vedanta and its many blessings.. ' on the Vedanta path' as it were...

I'm too busy north of my own neck with the Vedanta stuff to be mindful.

Here , in this 'now' which is all that any of us ever have.

Edited March 26, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[Marblehead]

Nice. I think I get it now, Marblehead. I don't agree with everything you've said, but I appreciate you taking the time to explain your point of view. Thanks!

Hehehe. Sometimes I don't agree with me. The problem with speaking of objective reality is that we observe, understand, and speak of it subjectively. The further we go the less we know.

[Marblehead]

"Awareness of life happening is not 'Being life'.

Predictably the state of awareness (Buddhist mindfulness) is easily forgotten or mislaid, or it can be overwhelmed by dream thinking or any powerful emotional situation, for instance. The glass box shatters and the place you seemed to be in seems lost again. The dream seeker either starts self enquiring again, for another boost, or it is realised that awareness is just another refuge from within the dream of separation. All of this is simply the expression of Being."

( Tony Parsons)

 

That kinda works for me for 'awareness' and its discontents.

 

Exactly why I don't like dreaming. Yes, there are some nagtives attached to this but I think there are more positives because in not dreaming we don't have to go around breaking the glass of our illusions and delusions afterward.

[GrandmasterP]

I do dream seldom remember dreams but never have nightmares ( that I remember).

Used to get real wake up screaming and covered in sweat nightmares back in the day as an enduring legacy from a nasty bout of malaria.

Quite a common side effect of malaria apparently and can stick with you for years.

Old boy in India showed me a trick that works for me and I've not had a nightmare since as far as I know.

Certainly no screamy- sweaty ones.

[Starjumper]

To notice things without continually thinking of them?

 

I personally believe awareness is the most straightforward and simplistic road to wu Wei and peace.

 

How does one gather awareness? Process the thought or "no thought"?

 

The title asks for the meaning of awareness, and I read a few highly entertaining and informative posts that divided up the definition into finely diced and slights meanings ... but the OP asks the question how?.

 

How to increase awareness? --> meditation.

 

Thinking and awareness are mutually exclusive The more time your mind is watching one it is ignoring the other. You can NOT think a lot and have anything more than the most limited and rudimentary levels of awareness. Most people, the ones with untrained minds, can't help but think almost coninuously, and this is, in fact, a form of insanity!

 

So by meditation, and by meditation I mean NO thinking (or at least having the goal of no thinking) a person can train their minds to think less. This automatically increases awareness.

 

Of course at first awarenss pertains to mundane things like listening to the birds or but then later awareness starts to include subconscious processes and the spirit world.

 

Next question the OP asks is how do you process the awareness that you receive?

Edited March 26, 2014 by Starjumper

[spatha]

"Awareness is the state or ability to perceive, to feel, or to be conscious of events, objects, or sensory patterns. In this level of consciousness, sense data can be confirmed by an observer without necessarily implying understanding."

[Captain Mar-Vell]

...

Awareness.

 

I don't know what it means.

 

It is the light.

 

It is everything and everywhere and all times.

 

It penetrates everything, through and through.

 

It's apprehension is nibbana.

...

Edited April 6, 2014 by Captain Mar-Vell