Re:Greg/Awareness

[Guest guest]

G: Can you explain what you mean by being unconscious of something? I know

what "conscious of" means. It means that there is supposedly an object

outside of consciousness, that consciousness apprehends. This can never be

proven. (If the object were NOT outside of consciousness, as non-dualism

teaches, then it really makes no sense to say "of.") But "unconscious of"?

What does that mean?

 

D: Although I wasn't the one who raised this idea about being unconscious

of something, I did get into the discussion - so let me take a stab at

this...

 

"conscious of" can mean being able to reflect about something - an idea,

a word, an image, an activity

 

"unconscious of" can mean being unable to reflect about something -

not being able to look at the idea, word, image, or activity

 

to be unconscious of something would then mean being

in a state where reflection wasn't possible - perhaps do to

dissociation (being "somewhere else") or dreaming (another

way to be "somewhere else"), having a concussion (having to be "somewhere

else") or avoidance (intending to be

"somewhere else")

 

Now, I do get that there really isn't "somewhere else." So, in

ultimate terms, unconscious and conscious are the same - simple

awareness - and there is no "of" there is only This.

However, speaking of "ordinary human states of awareness"

we can speak of being conscious, or unconscious as

seeing something,

missing something, not wanting to see something, avoiding

something... to me, that's what these words are about :-)

[Guest guest]

Hi Greg,

>G: Can you explain what you mean by being unconscious of something? I know

>what "conscious of" means. It means that there is supposedly an object

>outside of consciousness, that consciousness apprehends. This can never be

>proven. (If the object were NOT outside of consciousness, as non-dualism

>teaches, then it really makes no sense to say "of.") But "unconscious of"?

> What does that mean?

 

Speaking from experience here, if you've ever had the experience of

becoming conscious of something that you were previously unconscious of,

then it's clear that those terms do have meaning. An example: when I was

young, I was terrified of spiders... horribly, irrationally afraid. In my

early twenties, I saw a movie ("Darby O'Gill and the Little People") where

a horse suddenly turned into a fearsome supernatural creature, and it

really threw me into a fright. ) After that for a while I was afraid of

ghosts and things like that. Then on our first night in a new apartment we

were awakened by the sound of someone walking outside the bedroom in the

apartment. After a long, very scary time, we discovered it was the man

downstairs walking... it just sounded like it was in our flat. Then I was

afraid of prowlers, strange men, etc. And I discovered that I wasn't very

much afraid of spiders any more. So I realized that I had had those fears

of ghosts and prowlers and so on ever since childhood and hadn't known

it... the spiders were a "cover" for it. It wasn't the spiders I was

really afraid of, but I hadn't known that.

 

I experience myself as a focal point of consciousness... a moving focus.

And to me the conscious is everything in my head that's accessible to me.

The unconscious is everything that's not accessible to me. But as I

explore and go into new territory, the circle of consciousness widens.

Once I've gone someplace, then it's accessible... no longer completely

unconscious. What was unconscious becomes conscious.

 

Love,

Dharma