The terms awareness and consciousness They are concepts that refer to different ideas. According to the Royal Spanish Academy of Language, these terms are interchangeable in some cases, but not always. With respect to its reference to the moral sense, we use exclusively the term “conscience.” However, when we talk about its more general meaning as perception or knowledge, we can use both terms interchangeably.
In the following Psychology-Online article we are going to see if we should use consciousness or awareness, depending on the situation. We are going to expose the meanings of both terms, clarifying their differences with examples and how, in their development, they interact with each other.
Meaning of conscience
The awareness make reference to ethics, morality and human virtues. It would be possible to differentiate between two types of consciousness within the human being:
- spiritual awareness: it is about universal consciousness, the ability inherent to the human being through which he is able to authentically discern between good and evil based on the true ones, which are part of his essence, beyond cultures. , traditions and religions.
- Ethical or moral awareness: it is that conscience that makes up the personal moral values that will ultimately condition our discernment between what we should or should not do. This consciousness is built through personal experiences, which is why it is strongly conditioned by the social system in which one lives.
In this way, the development of ethical consciousness will condition our spiritual consciousness, manifesting some acts or others depending on our culture, traditions and religion.
The ideal state of the human being, according to some spiritual disciplines, involves the manifestation of behaviors governed by spiritual consciousness. In this state, there is no type of ethical or moral conscience since human beings are governed by . However, the differentiation between states, cultures, traditions and religions has meant the creation of different moral consciences determined by the different values in force in each social or cultural group.
Meaning of consciousness
The consciousnessfor its part, supposes the function of the human mind who receives information, processes it and retains it or not to create new knowledge or restructure existing knowledge, thus increasing his level of awareness about himself or the world around him.
According to Georges Vithoulkas, in his study on the definition of awareness and consciousnessthe process of Consciousness is determined by four elements:
- The five senses
- Imagination and emotion
- The reasoning ability of the mind
- The memory
This is how through the five senses, consciousness perceive the stimuli internal and external, makes use of imagination, emotion and stored knowledge and judges and reasons to, finally, store it in memory as new knowledge, integrate it by restructuring existing knowledge or discard it because it is not considered useful. Here we explain.
Increasing the degree of consciousness does not imply the mere accumulation of knowledge. However, this element constitutes an important aspect for awareness to occur as long as there is an attitude of inquiry and discovery of higher and deeper knowledge. It is this internal motivation towards greater knowledge that leads to the opening of consciousness and its elevation to higher levels.
Difference between consciousness and awareness with examples
Consciousness and awareness are, as we have commented, different concepts in terms of their conceptual meaning. Although the RAE allows the use of both terms In cases in which we refer to the process of awakening or awareness (or awareness).
To facilitate the differentiation between both concepts, we will use several examples to clarify the terms:
- We talk about awareness when we say “he has a clear conscience”, “his conscience does not allow it”, “you have no conscience”, etc. All these expressions refer to behaviors that manifest ethical attitudes of the one who emits the behavior or of his interlocutor. As we have said, these are conditioned firstly by spiritual consciousness and, subsequently, by the ethical or moral consciousness created according to the culture or social system inhabited.
- The term consciousness We use it in the following cases: “he has become aware of the situation”, “he is aware of what is happening”, “awareness of society is important”, etc. In these situations, the term refers to acquiring and internalize knowledge of something and awaken to that new reality, created from that new knowledge.
A progressive, responsible and deep awareness of the reality that surrounds us (includes self-knowledge and knowledge of the outside in a global and integrated way) leads us to the awakening of “spiritual consciousness” and the rejection, by contrast, of ” ethical conscience”. Conscious work, deliberate for the expansion of consciousness, will bring us closer to the complete integration of true consciousness. This involves complex and profound work and occurs in spiritual people who need to access the supreme truth and decide to renounce low and worldly passions for the benefit of their complete spiritual development. In this article you will find more information about the.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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Bibliography
- Portilla, I. (2013). The difference between consciousness, consciousness and Consciousness. Extract from the book “The Realization of the Spirit”. Isaac Portilla Website.
- Vithoulkas, G. (2014). Consciousness and Consciousness: The Definition. International Academy of Classical Homeopaphy. Journal of Medicine and Life. Vol.7 1st Issue, January-March 2014.