What Is Awareness Really?

@October 29, 2024 9:40 AM (EST) – @October 29, 2024 11:01 AM (EST)

The One Thing

Make an explicit connection between your Self and True Reality.

You use realize and recognize interchangeably, but you don’t make a claim that they are the same process. I’m left to guess at that.
You also treat self-knowledge (awareness of your consciousness patterns) as contributing to greater awareness of True Reality. Do you see them as one in the same? Is the self the conduit to the universal?
There are interesting, nuanced points here that you could make more explicitly, to clarify your perspective on these big questions.

Feedback

The whole thought experiment with the spotlight works well, especially the whole resolution of it, where simply by expanding awareness you can shift from a scarcity mindset to one of abundance.

Awareness was a word I came across often in my years as a casual meditator.

If you're referring to "the word," you'd need to refer to it as "Awareness" (with quotes), the word without a meaning. Without quotes, you are referring to the meaning of the word, not the word itself.
Another option instead of quotes is italics, which you use here: “This is why the word realization is used…”

In my own journey, I was beginning to realize [recognize?] that all the ways I showed up in the world more accurately reflected my own unique cocktail of consciousness patterns vs. the deeper truth of who I was.

This make sense to me, but it's not clear how a deeper understanding of yourself is connected to True Reality. Do you see them as one in the same? If so, that point is worth it's own paragraph, at least.

Another question I have: What is another example of expanding your awareness besides recognizing your consciousness patterns?

The viewpoint of this book is that all the wisdom of the universe already exists. Its fundamental laws and properties are operating just as they always have. The process of realizing them is facilitated through expanding awareness.

This phrasing is confusing and muddies the concepts for me. In my head, I have already equated "realizing truths" with "expanding awareness." So, it's odd to read that one facilitates the other. I see them as the same process.
This could be the place to make the point that realizing and recognizing are the same thing, and that self-knowledge and knowledge of reality are the same. At least, that's how I understand your perspective. It's important to make that clear.

It became obvious that the most direct way to realize this more fundamental information about life was to shift the focus of expanding my intellect to working on my awareness.

Awesome! This has me excited to read on. I think a lot of people will find this relatable.

References

Etymology of realize (v):

1610s, "bring into existence, make or cause to become real," also "exhibit the actual existence of," from French réaliser "make real" (16c.), from real "actual" (see real (adj.)). The sense of "understand clearly, comprehend the reality of" is recorded by 1775. Sense of "obtain, amass, bring or get into actual possession" (money, profit, etc.) is from 1753.

This could be useful in this chapter, to flesh out your point about how realization is expanding awareness.

Etymology of recognize (v):

early 15c., recognisen, "resume possession of land," a back-formation from recognizance, or else from Old French reconoiss-, present-participle stem of reconoistre "to know again, identify, recognize," from Latin recognoscere "acknowledge, recall to mind, know again; examine; certify," from re- "again" (see re-) + cognoscere "to get to know, recognize" (see cognizance).

You have an opportunity to create a nuanced distinction between realizing and recognizing. To me, they seem to be different processes. To realize is to expand your awareness so that it reveals more of True Reality to you. To recognize means to become aware of some truth that you have always known subconsciously, within you.

Realizing leads to a deeper understanding of reality. Recognizing leads to a deeper understanding of yourself.

I’m curious how you’re thinking about these two words and whether they are interchangeable.