Chapter 15 Chapter 14 Consciousness, Awareness, and Awakening

What is the difference between awakening and awareness? There are many differences between awareness and witnessing.Awareness is still an act, you are doing it, there is the ego.Therefore, the phenomenon of awareness is divided into subject and object.Awareness is a relationship between subject and object.Awakening has absolutely no subjectivity or objectivity.In awakening there is no one who is aware and no one who is aware.Awakening is a whole, total act, with which subject and object have no relation, they are dissolved.So being awake doesn't mean someone is awake, it doesn't mean something is noticed.

Awakening is holistic—the whole of subjectivity and the whole of objectivity as a single phenomenon, whereas in awareness there is a duality between subject and object.Awakening is inaction, awareness implies a person who does.But through awareness, awakening is possible, because awareness means it is a conscious act; it is an act, but conscious.You can do something without being conscious -- our ordinary activities are unconscious activities, but if you become conscious in it, then it becomes an awareness.So, from ordinary unconscious activity to awakening, there is a gap, which can be filled with awareness.

Awareness is a technique, a method, towards awareness. It is not awareness, but it is a higher step than ordinary action, unconscious action.Something has changed: action has become conscious, unconsciousness has been replaced by consciousness.But something else has to be changed, that is: activity, which has to be replaced by inactivity.That would be step two. Leaping from ordinary unconscious action to awareness is difficult, it is possible, but hard.So, adding a step in between is helpful.If one starts with awareness, conscious action, then the jump becomes easier -- without any conscious subject, without any conscious object, without any conscious activity at all to the leap to awakening. .That doesn't mean awakening isn't consciousness, it's pure consciousness, but no one is aware of it.

There is another difference between consciousness and awareness.Consciousness is a quality of your mind, but it is not your whole mind.Your mind can be both conscious and unconscious, and when you go beyond your mind then there is no unconscious and no corresponding consciousness, only awareness. Awakening means that the whole mind has become awakened.Now, the old mind is no longer there, but a conscious quality is there.Awakening has become the whole, and the mind itself is now part of the awakening.We cannot say that the mind is awake, we can only meaningfully say that the mind is conscious.Awakening means transcending the mind, so it is not the mind that is awakened.Only by going beyond the mind, by going beyond the mind, is awakening possible.

Consciousness is a quality of the mind, awakening is transcendence, it is beyond the mind.The mind is at best a vehicle of duality, so consciousness can never go beyond duality.It always refers to being aware of something, or someone who is conscious.So consciousness is a part of the mind, and the mind is, at best, the source of all dualities, all divisions, whether they be between subject and object, action and inaction, or consciousness and unconsciousness.Every type of duality is a product of the mind.Awakening is non-dualistic, so awakening means the state of "no mind" (no mind).

So, what is the relationship between consciousness and awareness?Awareness is a state, and consciousness is a means towards awareness.If you start becoming conscious, you will achieve awareness.If you start becoming conscious of your actions, conscious of your daily happenings, conscious of everything that surrounds you, then you start to be aware. Awareness comes as a natural consequence of consciousness.You cannot practice awareness, you can only practice awareness.Awareness comes as a natural consequence, as a shadow, as a result, as a by-product.The more you become conscious, the more you move into awareness, the more you become a knower.So consciousness is a means to achieve awareness.And the second step is: Awareness will become a method to achieve awakening.

So, these are the three steps: Consciousness, Awareness, Awakening.But where we exist is at the lowest level: that is unconscious action.Unconscious action is the state of our mind. Through awareness you can achieve awareness; through awareness you can achieve awareness; and through awareness you can achieve no achievement, that which has been achieved.After awakening, nothing exists.Awakening is ultimate. Awakening is the end point of spiritual progress and non-awakening is the beginning.Awakening means a state of material existence.So, non-awakening and unconsciousness are not the same.No awakening means matter.Matter is not unconscious, it is unconscious.

Animal existence is an unconscious existence, human existence is a phenomenon of the mind -- ninety-nine percent unconscious, one percent conscious.This one percent conscious means: you are one percent aware of your own ninety-nine percent unconsciousness.But if you become conscious of your own consciousness, then the one percent continues to grow, and the ninety-nine percent of unconsciousness continues to decrease. If you become one hundred percent conscious, then you become an aware being, and you reach a point where the leap into awareness becomes possible.In awakening, the knower disappears, and only awareness remains; the agent disappears, subjectivity disappears, egocentric consciousness disappears.At that time, consciousness remains, but without ego.The circumference remains, but without the center.

This circle without a center is awakening.A consciousness without any center, without any root, without any motive, without any source, a consciousness without a source, is awakening. So, you move from the non-awakened being, the primordial matter, to awakening.You can call it divine, divine, or whatever you want to call it.Between primordial matter and divinity the distinction is always of consciousness. ①Primary substance (prakriti): Also known as the original substance, the Sanskrit original meaning is "source".Used by the Sankhya school of Indian philosophy to refer to the nature of matter in its embryonic state. —— Annotation