Beyond the Ego Part 1

Awareness, Consciousness, Mind - (terminology)

Across various spiritual and philosophical traditions, terms like awareness, consciousness and mind are frequently used interchangeably in everyday conversation. However, this can lead to a gross mis-understanding as people will put their own learnt meanings and flavours on to them which can causes much confusion. Below, are MY interpretations of these terms, so when we are in class you know exactly what is being said and understood.

However, as I mainly teach Daoist and Zen Buddhism practices blended with ‘versions’ of Advaita Vedanta the below terms represent distinct dimensions of the human experience and reality. This article will briefly explore the architecture of awareness, consciousness and the mind. The three main terms often get intertangled with each other and are commonly used as terms to describe all three definitions as one, fused together. To understand Eastern metaphysics, one must first dismantle the assumption that pure awareness, consciousness and the mind are identical.

Before we start, I just want to make this clear, this is my current understanding in this very moment, I also have people of different faiths and beliefs within my classes and private students so please note, I am not telling you what is right or wrong or what to believe or not to believe this is your absolute freedom to express as you wish. This article is purely for clarification of the terms I use to teach these magnificent and wonderous arts and does not conflict with any other beliefs.

Let’s start off with a bang (some might say literally) the ultimate realm of which there is no other outside of it (my language), so when I speak about “the awareness that is aware” you all know where I’m coming from.

Pure Awareness: The Ground of Being, what some would interpretate as God - The ultimate, timeless, and unmoving presence that remains even when the mind is silent (as in deep, dreamless sleep or profound meditation). Pure awareness is the formless baseline of existence itself. Without this awareness there is nothing, as there is nothing (else) to be aware of. Some would say that this whole experience of life in its numerous and abundant forms is so that the awareness that is aware (God) can know itself and to know itself it has to create the illusion of separation (dualism) as one needs to project onto another to make this possible for any experience to transpire. When one recognises this within themselves one might be described as enlightened, of which all new born babies are as they have not yet attached meaning or names to anything. They just exist in pure unfiltered, uncorrupted awareness (Pure mind or Buddha mind) this remains until the parents start getting involved (ha ha) and produce an ego identity for them i.e. a name and in naming something you then have to name all other things in existence which creates the illusion of separation.

Consciousness: The light illuminating all things – Consciousness births all matter into being. Everything is energy, although some modern scientists would technically disagree with this statement. I would disagree with modern science on this one and so would the great traditions. Consciousness can be seen as a or the ‘wifi’ field of reality. This unseen (to most people’s eyes but not all) holds all the data or blueprint of this reality which is then decoded by the brain so ‘it’ can be experienced. Consciousness is the light illuminating the matter so it can be witnessed and therefore experienced by the pure awareness.

Mind: The Content, the activity movement – The mind is the constantly fluctuating streams of thoughts, emotions, memories, mental imagery and sensory inputs born from the wifi field, consciousness. It is the mental instrument that perceives, analyses and reacts to the world. It is through the mind we experience all the activities and movements of life itself, of which the pure awareness is aware. We live in an illusionary world of which matter is only perceived as matter through the subjective experience and knowing. We experience the world through ‘electrical’ stimuli (wifi field/consciousness) of which the brain decodes as information to give you a perception of experience on a corresponding vibrational frequency that the brain understands and computes (neuro-science), an image, a sound, a feeling etc through the neurological electrical bodily senses. Normally you are not aware of anything outside of this resonating vibrational frequency unless your brain has the capability to decoded another level of awareness, an expanded awareness from the field which is normally beyond the typical 5 senses often called ‘insight’. Seeing beyond the average neurological senses of which the vast majority of people have absolutely no idea of its existence, allows the pure awareness that is aware to have a greater experience, which is unfortunately but understandably ignored by the masses therefore creating limitations on humanity. It may shock some people that any image or this screen that you’re seeing right now is deep within your head where it is completely pitch black and where no light exists, not directly in front of you like it is perceived.

In my opinion there is nothing outside this above format, all of this mental activity, brain processing and decoding (mind) of the illuminated matter (consciousness) is all being observed and therefore experienced by the pure awareness itself……. YOU.

The Mirror Analogy A classic metaphor illustrates this distinction clearly: The Mind: The temporary reflections (activity) appearing in a mirror (clouds, passing objects, weather). Consciousness: The reflective property of the mirror itself (its capacity to show an image). Awareness: The mirror in its absolute, unchanging state, existing regardless of whether anything is reflected within it.

The Screen and the Movie Analogy The characters, dialogue, and drama represent the mind. The light projecting the imagery represents consciousness. The blank screen itself represents awareness. When a fire appears on a movie screen, the screen does not burn; when a flood occurs, the screen remains dry. The movie appears separate, but it is 100% composed of the underlying screen.