Awareness in Buddhist Meditation

7
Awareness is not Consciousness
Awareness is not the same as consciousness. Thought which is conscious
thinking is a logical deduction from previously obtained data;
and as such it depends on previous experiences which have been
stored up by memory. It is, of course, not an actual experience
which has been or even which can be stored up. At most it is mental
reaction on the verbal level, in which a keyword has been inserted
for reference.
What is the difference between consciousness and awareness?
Consciousness is thought; and thought is the result of thinking,
which is a process of application of the mind with logic and memory,
with volition and determination, with judgement and selection, with
prejudice and ideals, with fear and hope. Consciousness, in other
words, is the ‘I’ in action which is reaction, because all thinking is
the conditioned result of the entire past, not only of the individual
past, but he accumulation throughout the ages of the struggles for
survival, the interminable wars for emergence, the endless conflicts
with the ideas of the mind controlling the weapons of the pen and
the sword. Consciousness is the past trying to become the future,
without understanding the past, without knowing the future. Thus,
consciousness or thinking is always in conflict; it cannot solve any
problem, because it does not try to understand. But awareness is
not thinking, is not the memory of the past, is not desire, is not
the longing for the future. It is just to be open and receptive to
whatever is or happens. There is no approach to the present; the
present is here already and we are facing it directly without fear of
the past, without hope for the future. Awareness is seeing what is as
it is, with openness and directness, without expectation of results,
without fear of consequences, without reflection as to a ‘self’ judging
in prejudice. It is an immediate experiencing, in which there is
no reference to ‘self’, and hence no thought, no conscious reaction.