How do you define awareness?

Question

How would you define the essence of awareness?

I am seeing alot of semantics being bandied about with this question, which is precisely why I asked it. I found myself doing the same thing when I thought about it. I will tell you the definition I have come to when I choose a best answer. I am basing my choice on the definition that I feel is really getting to the heart of the matter whether I agree with it or not.

OK, here is my definition of Awareness:

Awareness is the state of the mind that allows, facilitates and promotes the ability to perceive information about the universe both within and outside of the conscious self, and is not limited to the 5 physical senses.

Bah, Strike 'conscious' from that definition. I meant to remove it.

Answer 1

Wow, that is a tough one to answer. If you strip away all learned behavior, awareness is both what we are & our function. Yet, most will get themselves confused with what they are aware of & with their conditioned programing. A child at birth is in many ways a blank page, pure awareness without judgement or programming, yet just after that birth we begin immediately to "teach" that child how to respond to what he/she is aware of. This is as close as I can get. Blessings.

Answer 2

This is a tough one for me, with my limited vocabulary, to explain. But quite simply put, awareness is knowing.

I will try to explain in palpable terms. There are things that I know how to do but I don't know why I know how to do them. As an example, I will use the aerials I do in Swing dance. I have never had any sort of training in gymnastics, etc. I have never engaged in doing any sort or gymnastics or tumbling. Yet, any aerial I attempt, I can do it on my first attempt. I cannot find any reason why I should know how to or be able to do these things. In fact, it is only after I do them that I break them down so I can teach others.

I have several other personal examples, but I think you get the point. On an impersonal note, have you ever seen footage of Tiger Woods swinging a golf club when he was 3? It's brilliant.

The essence of awareness, in my estimation, comes from somewhere beyond the constraints of my human form. Although I have identified it, I have not defined it. The closest I can come to giving it a "label," I suppose, would be something like a collective consciousness from which springs the essence of me and in which all "truth" is. So, I suppose I am saying the essence of me and the essence of awareness are one in the same.

In addition, although I think everyone has this awareness, I don't think they are able to recognize it. In some cases, I think it is because they don't choose to. In other cases, I think it is because they are clouded or stifled. I also think that some people, due to mental limitations, cannot. In some cases, I think they name it God for lack of a better explanation. If we could totally tap into this awareness and get to its essence, we would know the "truth."

Perhaps one of the first clues is that I do not rely on any ideology or a text to define things for me. I use those things as a means... then I try to make sense of it.

Of course, I could be wrong. :)

Answer 3

the search for awareness is a philosophical journey that takes one into the heart of the presence of nondual reality – a reality in which the “spiritual” world and the “actual” world are not separate; in which the “physical” reality of science is a practical and imaginative construction of causal mechanisms imposed by us upon the spontaneously creative, uncaused, manifestation of Nature – a way of thinking about the world that is useful for manipulating it, yet which is not truly real. But this practical way of seeing Reality comes at a great cost; one that we suffer from every day because we have come to see ourselves as causal mechanisms too. We have accepted the mythology of science that asserts that we are separate from what we experience, that the forms of phenomenal existence are the serendipitous concretions of haphazard activity, and that the nature of a thing is nothing more than the mathematical expression of its statistical probabilities – that Nature has no soul. We have allowed this tool of thought – science – and this simplification of reality – mathematical modeling – to overwhelm the truth of our presence here and now – this alive presence that we have come to think of as our physical person acting in this physical world. What we are is Awareness. Awareness is not some attribute that our bodies have; instead, it is Awareness that manifests our bodies and this world – Awareness is the soul of Nature. It is this irrefutable truth that is used as the starting point for the journey on a path along which our ideas about existence and self are analyzed and shown to be erroneously constructed out of a most basic misunderstanding of what experience is: the error of believing that we are objective observers of a separate world that we experience. It is not an easy thing to change how one views the world. It is, in fact, a very difficult thing to do. Conceptual thought is part of the nature of being human, yet we forget that concepts are merely imaginative models of reality that simplify what is real. We can be misled by these concepts, as we are misled by the apparent independent reality of things. But it is possible for each one of us to have the necessary insight to overcome these errors – to use reason to undermine its own erroneous conclusions – on its own terms.

Answer 4

awareness comes before the act of thinking. Its on the same level as our perceptual experience. Some see correlation between our awareness and our sub-conscious mind.

Edit................

Assume you have done some philosophy courses in the past. The essence of awareness is simply one's conscious interpretation of an object. The speed of such conscious interpretation is much faster than the act of conscious "thinking". Moreoever, the act of thinking usually requires effort whereas the act of being aware requires very little or no effort.

Eg, I am aware that there is a car in front of me BEFORE i even think about the concept of "car".

Answer 5

At the very basic level, awareness means the correct perception/interpretation of stimuli of our five senses. That's at the conscious level and prevalent in children.

Later with experience, we become aware to things beyond our sensory range as our mind develops. As we develop more insight about our surroundings ie nature and people, we can read more than what is apparent at superficial level, the hidden meanings and insinuations, innuendos etc. etc.

And then there are some who have extra-sensory perceptions like clairvoyants, seers who claim to be aware of things normal human mind cannot see or perceive.....

In simple words awareness is capacity to feel with all your senses AND beyond your senses...

Answer 6

Good question!

The answer is deep, indeed it is an infinite depth and by saying that I mean it needs the commitment to the continual understanding of understanding knowledge.

Said simply, continual knowledge attainment is the key to understanding how aware one can be.

How aware of awareness do you want to become? How deep does the rabbit hole go?

lets start by saying "pay attention to what is happening" then carry on inside and out.

For example I understand all my dreams and even direct them. I always play myself in my dreams and am never the puppet. Who is pulling your strings? Are you aware of that in your dreams?

On the flip side I solve my friends problems (if they ask) by paying attention to them for I solved my problems, now I only have experiences. Paying attention to what is happening is also a key. A problem is only a problem if you do understand what caused it.

Answer 7

ADDED TO LATER PLEASE READ !

In response to your added note Gee I must say that it is difficult to define a word without falling back on semantics, as all words and therefore concepts defined my words are relatively subjective in the understanding of their meaning.

I at first tried to get around this by describing what I have learnt to understand as awareness in it's applicable form, this is base on a past interest in the fighting arts and being hit on the head by a piece of wood, while kneeling blindfolded. After many, and I mean many taps I started you acquire the ability to sense the blow before it arrived (this may sound like stuff out of a film, but please believe me it is possible.)
Maybe all the blows to the head left lasting damage!!!

Anyway that explains my first attempt, which is below in it's unaltered form. However I have the following to add.


I now wish to talk a little about semantics,
When Oracle compared Awareness to Conciousness he made the mistake in my view of comparing A rose with rosa.

Just for the sake of interest I live in Italy were there is only one word for both Awareness and Conciousness, Consapevolezza. Here at least in the Italian mind there is only one single concept.
Quindi by defining awareness we are automaticlly defining conciousness and visa versa.

This has not change my concept of awareness, however your note has made me rethink my explanation.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
By the term sixth sense I mean to say that Consapevolezza is something which exists as a result of the meeting points between our internal essence and the impact of the world around us.

Another way to describe this is if you are at home and your house is isolated from the outside world. with no TV, no radio, no internet, no telephone and nobody rings the door bell. then your life surmounts to a dream.
And on the other hand if nobody (you) is at home and salesmen came calling they ring as much as they liked and no awareness of their act would take place.

Replacing: You with mind, the house with the body, the electronic gadgets with the senses, and the salesmen with the outside world.

Awareness then in my understanding only takes place in the in home scenario, thus the components of awareness are mind, senses, and outside world. The body is only the housing.

I hope that I have been able to explain my thoughts a little better.

I THANK YOU for the opportunity to take part in this thought experiment and I hope that you forgive my layman's approach to philosophy.
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ORIGINAL PART
Interesting

In some ways it could be considered as the Sixth sense, in which the information gained by a combination of the five senses is processed and compared to life experience and emotion*1 forming a perception of things which are not readily available by knowledge, sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch alone.
I would talk further on this but I feel that words alone will never explain the essence of awareness , a fact which I am sure that you are aware of.
*1 (not a simple word, as we really need to spend a fair bit on time on the origin and roots of complex forms of emotion)


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To Frosty below By your definition of 'Being alive' Do you mean that all life is aware?
I can't say for certain from personal experience that the most simple forms of life are not aware, but it does seem some what unlikely.
And the basis of experience does not allow me to know whether after I am no longer alive that I will cease to have awareness!

But in my younger years I had the experience of being so drunk that I was not aware of being taken to hospital or the fact that had broken my leg after being hit by a car.

Answer 8

I want to come up with something original but I keep coming back to
1. "I think therefore I am"
(this would be basic awareness of ( my ) existence.)
2.You interact with Me ,therefore you exist=
( awareness of others outside myself.)
3,things happen outside of my thinking and control.=
(awareness of reality)
I guess my point is awareness is attained by experiencing and interacting with life .
the essence of awareness is an understanding gained through living (real living)
knowledge can be attained through study.you can have knowledge without understanding or awareness.
those who are aware, have many scars and many laugh lines.
peace ><>

Answer 9

To know or be informed with the basic information needed. At this point we can then make our assumptions and do our investigations to fully know and understand whatever the situation is.
Ex: Frank has been out of work for three weeks. That is what we are aware of. This will then lead to questions in order to fill in the blanks. Why is he out? Is he sick? How did he get sick? Is he sick or on vacation? etc. etc.

Answer 10

Awareness is trancsendance from the illusion of knowing, thinking and feeling.
Awareness is oneness with everything. Awareness is going past all knowledge, senses and intelligence. Awareness is life and death. It is when we become completely un-aware of our seperation from everything, that we may hope to become aware.