Dear Cynthia,

In this email you think through the Awareness word very well. I’ll make a preliminary statement from Vedanta’s point of view that may clear up most of the points. It should be understood that we can use any word for the Self that we want as long as we agree on what it refers to. Anyway, the word Awareness causes confusion and needs to be looked into. After my preliminary statement I will reply to each of your questions.

Pure Awareness

As you know Vedanta says that in a non-dual reality there is only Awareness. It is not awareness ‘of’ anything. It is ‘self-aware’ and needs no other awareness to know/see/perceive itself. It also does not need objects to reveal it. It is self revealing. To say that I know Awareness, assuming that the ‘I’ that knows is different from Awareness, would be like taking a flashlight out in the daytime to see the sun. The rays of the flashlight will never reach the sun. So you cannot know Awareness as an object. You know Awareness because you are Awareness. This is called ‘immediate’ knowledge, meaning that no media (instrument) is necessary to give knowledge.

Reflected awareness

If you bring Maya into the picture you have a potential problem because in Maya you have subject and object. In Maya both the subject and the object are Awareness…but it does seem that way. The subject appears to be different from the object and it seems that ‘awareness’ is the subject’s knowledge of the object. So in Maya you have the subject, the ego, which is pure Awareness reflected on the ‘I’ thought in the Subtle Body. Awareness bounces off this thought and the thought, the ego ‘i’, seems to be ‘be aware’ of the object. The ‘light’ in which this transaction between the reflected awareness and the objects takes place is Awareness. The reflected awareness is always awareness ‘of’ some object. In non-dual reality even if Awareness is split into subject and object (this is called savikalpa samadhi) Awareness knows that the subject and object distinction is ‘mithya,’ apparent. Reflected awareness is ‘mediate’ knowledge. The subject requires an instrument (media) to know objects.

In the West the word ‘awareness’ refers to reflected awareness and not to pure Awareness. Or it refers to the thoughts and feelings that reflected awareness illumines. Incidentally, the word ‘consciousness’ can be used as a synonym for awareness. You may be familiar with the term ‘stream of consciousness.’ It refers to the activities that appear in reflected awareness: dreams, memories, desires, fears, fantasies, etc.

Ram