I find consciousness to be the most fascinating aspect of our life there is. It has baffled philosophers, deep thinkers, theologians, scientists, psychologists and physicians for centuries and right up to this day. It is clear pure and immaterial and seemingly intangible, but its presence is obvious to everyone. It is obvious to us but we can’t put our finger on it and the greatest minds of all time don’t fully understand it. It contains nothing but itself. It doesn’t do or act. It doesn’t think or judge. It wants nothing and has no opinions or beliefs. It is pure and clear of anything besides itself. It is unlimited and boundless. It is the observer and perceiver. It seems to be nothing, but this clear pure nothing experiences all of our life. It is behind our entire experience of life. It is what makes the experience of life possible. It experiences all our senses, feelings, emotions, thoughts and experiences. It is the experiencer of life at every single waking moment and even in our dreams. It is the witness to life.
Consciousness is our basis for life. It is the awareness of our own existence and the world around us and without it we wouldn’t exist as the person we are. Our body would be in a vegetative state unable to survive and function on its own without it. This is an obvious fact that we all instinctively know but we disregard it without much thought to it. We don’t inquire into it and simply take it for granted. Scientists and philosophers are perplexed by consciousness and it is next to impossible for us to even comprehend so why should we?
If we take a closer look at our consciousness we can learn and understand a few simple things about it. One simple fact about it is that it is the most basic fundamental aspect of our personhood. It is extremely significant to our life. Consciousness is life. Without it our personhood is dead. Our body could survive in a hospital being supported, but we would be gone as a person. It seems that most of us don’t really fully understand this or acknowledge it and see its significance. Many people consider their body to be the most basic fundamental aspect of personhood and disregard their consciousness altogether, but what is the body without consciousness? Without consciousness we would essentially be jelly fish without any self awareness. We couldn’t be what we are as the person we exist as today. If we don’t take this for granted and try to understand it, it is actually very profound. It is extremely profound because consciousness is what and who we actually are.
When we were very young we began to develop an identity. We weren’t born with an identity and how it developed was mostly dependent on cultural, societal and parental influences along with our experiences within our environment. If our life circumstances and experiences had been entirely different, we would have developed an entirely different identity. Consciousness is what makes experience possible. Psychologists agree that our identity is a mental construct in our mind. It is how we define ourselves as individuals. It can change and does so as we age and progress through life and have more experience. Consciousness doesn’t change though. It is the one constant in ourselves. Because of that we often feel we are the same person we were many years ago and essentially we are -- just our identity has changed.
As we progress through life our knowledge grows. We have more experience. Our understanding expands. Lifes circumstances change. We experience accomplishments and mistakes and failures. Relationships come and go and change. We learn more about the world, people, ourselves and how to approach and deal with the complexities of life and our identity adjusts to all of our life experiences. What makes all this possible is our conscious awareness.
I prefer the term conscious awareness over consciousness because it more aptly describes consciousness. Consciousness is awareness but it isn’t just any type of awareness as in the awareness that is knowledge of something specific. It is a type of awareness that is conscious. The term consciousness can be too broad also and the meaning can include knowledge or awareness of something in particular. The term conscious awareness narrows the meaning down, but awareness, consciousness and conscious awareness all mean the same thing and are interchangeable so I use all three terms.
Most people when asked to describe themselves fail to even mention consciousness. They may include their body in their description and aspects of their identity that they consider important, but they rarely mention their consciousness. This most basic fundamental aspect of ourselves that constitutes the life we are is commonly overlooked as if it were insignificant when it is the key to the life we have and our very existence.
As I delved into my own conscious awareness to more fully understand it, I realized it is unlimited. It will become aware of anything that is placed before it by our attention. It is only limited by limits outside of itself and one of the major limits to it is our rational mind. Our rational mind is our thinking reasoning mind that interprets everything our awareness becomes aware of. It interprets and comes to conclusions that often restrict our awareness to those conclusions. Those conclusions form our perspective and determine our perception. Our limited perception often limits our awareness and keeps us from becoming aware of a great deal of information, understanding and knowledge that is out there for us to discover and can benefit us tremendously.
This information, understanding, knowledge and specific awareness that comes from removing the blocks obstructing our awareness has the power to change and transform our lives. Knowledge is certainly power and the power behind knowledge is awareness. By continually increasing our awareness we can become masters of our life by finding the solutions to the obstacles we come up against. It can give us the wisdom on how to properly approach life and to more fully enjoy it and get the most out of this precious short life we have.
Conscious awareness is very basic but at the same time it has incredible power by us simply realizing its importance, utilizing it and increasing it. The simplicity of its basic nature has us disregard it and not see how it plays the most significant role of anything in our life. It is real and you know that it is real because you are aware at this very moment. It is incredibly significant and can be used to our great benefit. Be curious about what I'm sharing with you here. Its powerful nature is right there right now for you to discover.
The benefits of ever increasing awareness are enumerable, but we can’t fully utilize awareness without removing the limits our rational mind and identity place on it. Removing those blocks is the primary way of increasing our awareness and receiving the transformational benefits of it. If you want the most out of life and achieve all that you can with happiness, joy and contentment, work diligently to increase your awareness by removing the obstacles that you have placed in front of it. The benefits of doing that are truly amazing and for many people are nothing short of miraculous.
Next: The incredible benefits of ever increasing awareness.
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