Consciousness and Awareness 070512

Grim shared this with me:


http://buddhism.sgforums.com/?action=thread_display&thread_id=242880

Consciousness and Awareness Source: I AM THAT, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Q: Coming back to sleep. Do you dream?
M: Of course.

Q: What are your dreams?
M: Echoes of the waking state.

Q: And your deep sleep?
M: The brain consciousness is suspended.

Q: Are you then unconscious?
M: Unconscious of my surroundings - yes.

Q: Not quite unconscious?
M: I remain aware that I am unconscious.

Q: You use the words 'aware' and 'conscious'. Are they not the same?
M: Awareness is primordial; it is the original state, beginningless, endless, uncaused, unsupported, without parts, without change. Consciousness is on contact, a reflection against a surface, a state of duality. There can be no consciousness without awareness, but there can be awareness without consciousness, as in deep sleep. Awareness is absolute, consciousness is relative to its content; consciousness is always of something. Consciousness is partial and changeful, awareness is total, changeless, calm and silent. And it is the common matrix of every experience.

Q: How does one go beyond consciousness into awareness?
M: Since it is awareness that makes consciousness possible, there is awareness in every state of consciousness. Therefore, the very consciousness of being conscious is already a movement in awareness. Interest in your stream of consciousness takes you to awareness. It is not a new state. It is at once recognized as the original, basic existence, which is life itself, and also love and joy.

In discussion with grim:
Aurora says:
and it correspond with my thought of awareness and conciousness
.
I think it should be possible to be aware when sleeping, but to stay in awareness is deeper still