How Would You Define Consciousness In Your Own Words?

[Rilles]

3 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

I read like a few post in this thread and two of them had circular definitions. Something to be conscious of.

Im beginning to hate the word consciousness, Im just gonna throw it out the window and hope it hits a lightpole. 

[Carl-Richard]

5 minutes ago, Rilles said:

Im beginning to hate the word consciousness, Im just gonna throw it out the window and hope it hits a lightpole. 

Where does frustration rank on the pole of consciousness?

[Rilles]

3 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

Where does frustration rank on the pole of consciousness?

Well if the light is at the top and light is consciousness then probably somewhere at the bottom where the dogs piss.

[Carl-Richard]

5 minutes ago, Rilles said:

Well if the light is at the top and light is consciousness then probably somewhere at the bottom where the dogs piss.

But the light shines on everything does it not?

Now this is just messing around.

Edited January 9 by Carl-Richard

[UnbornTao]

On 1/8/2026 at 9:53 AM, Leo Gura said:

@Entrepreneur Do you remember the first time in your life when you realized you are alive, that you exist? You lived for years before you became conscious that you exist.

That was a moment of higher consciousness.

Notice that most of the day you are not conscious that you exist. You just do stuff unconsciously on auto-pilot. Occassionally you stop and notice you exist.

Awakening is like that, but 100x more potent.

Notice you are less conscious when you are tired, sleepy, or feeling strong negative emotions like anger.

Higher consciousness is hyper sobriety and awareness of your own existence. Normies are like drunk by comparison to an Awake person.

If you just sit silently and train your attention on the fact that you exist, your consciousness increases gradually.

That is... probably why you think that psychedelics increase consciousness. 

[Davino]

What is Awake?

[Human Mint]

On 9/1/2026 at 0:28 PM, Rilles said:

Im beginning to hate the word consciousness, Im just gonna throw it out the window and hope it hits a lightpole. 

That is still consciousness haha

[Human Mint]

Just notice that consciousness is everything. Everything that exist only appears because you're consciouss. Notice that as an exercise, just label things that come up and recognize them as consciousness. Your field of view, your city, the field of chemistry as a whole and everything that has to do with chemistry (it exists in your consciousness), a plane, the internet (again, the whole internet and everything that exists there like netflix, websites, youtube, that travels through fiber optics), famous people, everything. It's like your awareness is the hub for all of that.

So becoming more conscious is becoming progressibly more aware of each thing that your consciousness encompasses. And when this happen you realize that it is always like this and not different than this exact moment, but you just aren't aware.

Edited 19 hours ago by Human Mint

[Human Mint]

On 9/1/2026 at 0:24 PM, Carl-Richard said:

On 9/1/2026 at 0:18 PM, Rilles said:

To be more conscious is to be present and aware of unconscious thoughts and actions.

I read like a few post in this thread and two of them had circular definitions. Something to be conscious of.

Is not circular explanation, but the elaboration is neglected which makes it low-consciouss.

I don't think you can escape circularities. Or I would need more examples. But overall I think there are very bad explanations and avid explanations.

Edited 18 hours ago by Human Mint

[Carl-Richard]

41 minutes ago, Human Mint said:

Is not circular explanation, but the elaboration is neglected which makes it low-consciouss.

I don't think you can escape circularities. Or I would need more examples. But overall I think there are very bad explanations and avid explanations.

The objective of the thread is to learn what "gay" means. "To be gay is to be aware of gay thoughts." Did we learn what gay means?

[Rilles]

3 hours ago, Carl-Richard said:

"To be gay is to be aware of gay thoughts."

Can a thought be gay? Thats your koan for today. 

[Breakingthewall]

When we talk about increasing your consciousness, we're really referring to being aware of more things. This is irrelevant in relation to enlightenment, since enlightenment is being aware of the absolute, unlimited Being, which isn't a thing, but rather the opening that allows existence.

Let's say that what appears is the vibration of Being. You can be conscious at level 3 or at level 1 billion, but both are equal with respect to the infinite vibrational potential of Being.

Enlightenment is the opening to the bottomless, boundless Being, to the field of possibilities where existence manifests.

[UnbornTao]

59 minutes ago, Breakingthewall said:

When we talk about increasing your consciousness, we're really referring to being aware of more things. This is irrelevant in relation to enlightenment, since enlightenment is being aware of the absolute, unlimited Being, which isn't a thing, but rather the opening that allows existence.

Let's say that what appears is the vibration of Being. You can be conscious at level 3 or at level 1 billion, but both are equal with respect to the infinite vibrational potential of Being.

Enlightenment is the opening to the bottomless, boundless Being, to the field of possibilities where existence manifests.

What are you talking about?

[Breakingthewall]

15 minutes ago, UnbornTao said:

What are you talking about?

What you didn't understand? The explanation you quoted is straightforward and flawless. Put it to the test.

Edited 8 hours ago by Breakingthewall

[UnbornTao]

56 minutes ago, Breakingthewall said:

What you didn't understand? The explanation you quoted is straightforward and flawless. Put it to the test.

Of course that increasing consciousness includes enlightenment. And becoming aware isn't the same pursuit.

You may become aware of previously unrecognized aspects of your experience - like parts of your body or a feeling - while becoming conscious goes beyond mere noticing to insight - revealing the truth of something. It's a bit of a sloppy distinction but hopefully it gets the point across.

[Breakingthewall]

2 hours ago, UnbornTao said:

Of course that increasing consciousness includes enlightenment. And becoming aware isn't the same pursuit.

You may become aware of previously unrecognized aspects of your experience - like parts of your body or a feeling - while becoming conscious goes beyond mere noticing to insight - revealing the truth of something. It's a bit of a sloppy distinction but hopefully it gets the point across.

Yes I understand , but enlightenment is not about increasing your consciousness in the sense of being aware of more things, but about opening your consciousness to no-thing, to absolute being.

For example, we were talking about Ramana before. He says that enlightenment is silence, or that it is found in silence. This means that enlightenment is not "something." It is not God, nor consciousness, nor a higher self; it is the absolute being, the field of possibilities where reality arises, the total openness that is

[Human Mint]

13 hours ago, Carl-Richard said:

The objective of the thread is to learn what "gay" means. "To be gay is to be aware of gay thoughts." Did we learn what gay means?

That's not even what being gay is.

You're better than that

[UnbornTao]

2 hours ago, Breakingthewall said:

Yes I understand , but enlightenment is not about increasing your consciousness in the sense of being aware of more things, but about opening your consciousness to no-thing, to absolute being.

For example, we were talking about Ramana before. He says that enlightenment is silence, or that it is found in silence. This means that enlightenment is not "something." It is not God, nor consciousness, nor a higher self; it is the absolute being, the field of possibilities where reality arises, the total openness that is

It's just becoming personally conscious of what is ultimately true about yourself or existence. That statement is intentionally left blank because whatever we think about it is, in the end, a moot point. I'm not sure that is what Ramana would say, but in any case, it is not our experience.

Speculation aside, the above is the goal.

[Breakingthewall]

20 minutes ago, UnbornTao said:

It's just becoming personally conscious of what is ultimately true about yourself or existence.

It's not about "truth," since that implies "falsehood," which is the wrong approach to the matter. Enlightenment is breaking down limits and being open to your nature, to the absolute being. "Absolute" means unlimited. Relative means limited. Relative is not false, is just manifestation, not nature.

"Being" is the consequence of unlimitedness. If nothing limits it, being is. Reality is. This is everything; it is the totality. To truly be open to this reality as a base state is enlightenment. This is not just a realization, it's an energetic shift. 

Edited 2 hours ago by Breakingthewall

[Sugarcoat]

I’d say I mainly associate consciousness with this experience that “I’m here and there’s something going on, something here that’s not me”. Dual. 

In this moment, we can agree “there’s something going on”. And that something includes you. That to me is what consciousness makes possible, meanwhile in itself it might be nothing, but not nothing as in the fabric of existence but rather something relative to you. (it’s a very conventional definition but it’s what I first thought of for now) It’s weird have you noticed a split in your self; you are aware of yourself simultaneously as you are yourself directly and can’t thus exactly pin point yourself so maybe consciousness actually needs THREE . I think I just invented THRUALITY 
 

Some may say increased consciousness is when you’re more aware of nature of reality, but if that nature is nothing then to me it sounds it would more be an undoing (undoing the sense of limitation, self) , because how can you can become aware of nothing in itself when there would be no reference point? That’s assumption tho, it’s because all I know is this dual (or thrual ????) experience so I just assume I need myself to be aware. 
 

So if we say someone like sadghuru is more conscious than average person (I don’t know THAT much about him but just impression). Some may say well he is aware of no self nature of reality. BUT how can you be aware of absence….You can only be aware of something. 
 

So it’s more that the undoing of the sense of self, creates situation where the person is less absorbed in thinking and image, so they’re able to be more aware of other processes (in body etc). They’re less attached to things, less neurotic, more aware of immediate moment, sense perceptions. So that combined makes them more conscious. AND maybe they’re able to describe reality as non dual, no self etc as a CONTRAST to the experience of duality they used to have. So it’s not in ITSELF recognized, but everything else is seen through so it’s known to be NOT THAT. Idk 

 

Edited 59 minutes ago by Sugarcoat