Is there an unconscious mind ?

[Someone here]

I was meditating by watching my thoughts arise and fade while remaining as a witness to them which is the simplest meditation technique to me . It simply shows the gap between awareness and the mind or the thinking process. Thoughts which arise in my consciousness are not coming  from my own authoring ..they arise on their own and also the mind chatter itself is very clearly and sharply distinct from awareness in the sense that I can observe the mind blabbering from a distance without me needing to engage with  it.  I have made that line very clear.
A lot of times I reach a moment of complete silence of thoughts where there aren’t any thoughts at all present in my awareness but I still feel bad or restless in the back of my mind. I still feel tensed . My facial expression is disturbed and my body is tight instead of loose . I concluded it is because of years of conditioning and years of suffering and memories and the subconscious mind . But if all of what I mentioned now are not accessible directly in my awareness when I reach the zero thoughts phase in meditation..then where are they present ? The only answer that comes up to me is they are in the unconscious mind . But how can something exist and be unconscious? Either a thing is conscious or it doesn’t exist.  What am I not getting or getting wrong ?

[Mellowmarsh]

5 hours ago, Someone here said:

But how can something exist and be unconscious? Either a thing is conscious or it doesn’t exist.  What am I not getting or getting wrong ?

There’s nothing outside the text. . . linguistically, concepts are known, and that which is known, knows nothing.

[Jirh]

6 hours ago, Someone here said:

A lot of times I reach a moment of complete silence of thoughts where there aren’t any thoughts at all present in my awareness but I still feel bad or restless in the back of my mind. I still feel tensed . My facial expression is disturbed and my body is tight instead of loose . I concluded it is because of years of conditioning and years of suffering and memories and the subconscious mind . But if all of what I mentioned now are not accessible directly in my awareness when I reach the zero thoughts phase in meditation..then where are they present ? The only answer that comes up to me is they are in the unconscious mind . But how can something exist and be unconscious? Either a thing is conscious or it doesn’t exist.  What am I not getting or getting wrong ?

You might not be able to access them in your regular state of consciousness, because conditioning or trauma can be buried deep inside the body.

To access them, you might need to trigger them somehow. And there are several ways to do that (AI-generated):

1. Somatic practices – Yoga, breathwork, or body scanning can loosen stored tension, allowing buried sensations or memories to surface.

2. Expressive arts – Painting, dancing, or writing without a plan can bypass the logical mind and bring unconscious material into form.

3. Psychedelic-assisted therapy – Under controlled conditions, substances like psilocybin or MDMA can lower defensive barriers and reveal deep conditioning.

4. EMDR or brainspotting – These therapies use eye movements or fixed gaze to access trauma held in subcortical brain regions.

5. Intense physical exercise – Long-distance running, cold exposure, or high-intensity intervals can sometimes “shake loose” repressed emotions.

6. Holotropic breathwork – Rapid, rhythmic breathing can induce altered states where buried content arises spontaneously.

7. Dreamwork or active imagination – Engaging with dream images or dialoguing with inner figures can retrieve material not accessible while fully awake and defended.

[Lyubov]

I think the concept of the unconscious mind is largely misunderstood and steeped in needless mysticism. People always wanna play up what they don’t understand. There is the mind and your beliefs, and you can make your beliefs and story entirely conscious and entirely crystal clear as you start to trust that being honest with yourself is the safe and right thing to do. From a place of openness you can understand yourself. 

Edited 10 hours ago by Lyubov

[gettoefl]

The unconscious mind is, I want to be unhappy, separate and special. The work is undoing these mistakes. Dissolve self, dissolve others, dissolve problems. They all exist because you are creating them. Undo them. Any tension in the body is a clue that more work is needed. In fact, all upset, irritation, disappointment, annoyance, frustration are telling you that you are not seeing correctly.

Edited 9 hours ago by gettoefl

[Someone here]

8 hours ago, Mellowmarsh said:

There’s nothing outside the text. . . linguistically, concepts are known, and that which is known, knows nothing.

What does this mean? Please be clear . Thanks.

[Someone here]

5 hours ago, Lyubov said:

There is the mind and your beliefs, and you can make your beliefs and story entirely conscious and entirely crystal clear as you start to trust that being honest with yourself is the safe and right thing to do. From a place of openness you can understand yourself. 

Is there such a thing as unconscious beliefs at all ? A person trying to succeed with attracting girls might believe he isn’t worthy because of something buried in his unconscious mind or all of those limiting beliefs are conscious and appearing on the surface ? 
why can you be feeling bad without there being any apparent cause on the surface ?  In the case of the body ..we are not aware that low blood sugar or under slept time might make us make less wise decisions like getting into a fight . Is there a similar dynamic with the mind ?

Edited 5 hours ago by Someone here

[Someone here]

3 hours ago, gettoefl said:

The unconscious mind is, I want to be unhappy, separate and special. The work is undoing these mistakes. Dissolve self, dissolve others, dissolve problems. They all exist because you are creating them. Undo them. Any tension in the body is a clue that more work is needed. In fact, all upset, irritation, disappointment, annoyance, frustration are telling you that you are not seeing correctly.

I think this is too unrealistic and hunky dory Even if you are enlightened you just see life and tough situations differently with less negative emotions but the body appears separate from your psyche. Or do you think that you have no problem with the human condition?

my question is if everything on the surface of consciousness appears peaceful.. then is there unconscious elements that might make us disturbed without knowing them consciously? And if so I would like to know how to cleanse the unconscious mind completely in the same way you cleanse your body with water fasting ? And hopefully achieve light state of consciousness.

Edited 5 hours ago by Someone here

[gettoefl]

3 hours ago, Someone here said:

I think this is too unrealistic and hunky dory Even if you are enlightened you just see life and tough situations differently with less negative emotions but the body appears separate from your psyche. Or do you think that you have no problem with the human condition?

my question is if everything on the surface of consciousness appears peaceful.. then is there unconscious elements that might make us disturbed without knowing them consciously? And if so I would like to know how to cleanse the unconscious mind completely in the same way you cleanse your body with water fasting ? And hopefully achieve light state of consciousness.

Step 1 is, I am doing everything to myself. Take responsibility. The world isn't making me unhappy. I have a deep investment in unhappiness since it keeps this dream of separation alive. I don't want to give this up. I may be unhappy but maybe tomorrow I will be happier than today.

You have to make a choice. You want this or you want that. Fear not that you will lose the body. You won't. It goes on until the final breath as it was sure to do. But body will serve a different purpose post-awakening. It will be a communication tool. It will be used by truth to demonstrate truth. 

You don't need to do anything externally to awaken. What you do is change your mind about what you see. Stop interpreting what you see. It's not bad; it's not good. It just is. Stop letting your mind run your life on your behalf. It has a selfish agenda. It wants to keep you here suffering for lifetimes to come. Take back charge of your life.