Consciousness Vs. Awareness
Presumably, whatever we may think, the truth is that we all actually live in the same world, but obviously, we don’t all agree upon the “true nature” of our one, shared, so-called “objective reality” nor do we all necessarily agree that it even exists. How can we say “what’s what” when all of our experiences are personal and subjective and none of us can actually see the whole “big picture”?
One often hears people say things like, “Everything is consciousness” but, while I think that there is something to this line of reasoning, I also think that it isn’t an exactly accurate representation of the actual nature of the thing that we are talking about. To try to understand what we are talking about when we discuss the nature of reality, and to avoid the pitfalls of confusion, we have to know exactly what we mean when we say “Consciousness”, and we also have to understand what we mean when we say “Awareness”, because these two things, which may appear to be the same thing, are not really the same thing.
Consciousness is a form of awareness. Your consciousness lives in you and my consciousness lives in me. Consciousness is a little thing defined and bounded by the limits of its own form and perspective. You are self-conscious and may be conscious of other things as well. Consciousness is a reflection, and a little thing that takes place within the greater “sea” of awareness…
