Ordinary vs Awakened Consciousness 1

Most of us operate in "ordinary consciousness" most (not all) of the time. At this level, we experience "consensus" or "conventional reality," meaning "the generally agreed-upon reality of separate subjects and objects that most of us believe is the true perception of life."

Rodney Smith. “Awakening. A Paradigm Shift of the Heart.” Shambhala, Boston, 2014.

But we're all "hard-wired" with the capacity to have a qualitatively different experience - "awakened consciousness." Retired sociology professor and long-time Zen practitioner, Richard Boyle, summarized his understanding of the differences between these two levels of consciousness in terms of: 1 conscious awareness, 2 emotions & feelings, 3 thinking, and 3 meaning.

Conscious awareness in ORDINARY consciousness:

"The results of perceptual processing are modified to be as consistent as possible with the person's social reality and social (symbolically represented) self. Individuals see the world from an egocentric perspective and experience separation from that world and from other people. Because the amount of symbolic processing required is large, activity devoted to perceptual processing is reduced and the vividness of conscious awareness is diminished."

Conscious awareness in AWAKENED consciousness:

"The results of perceptual processing are not altered by symbolic processing, although the information and expertise encoded in symbolic systems can be accessed objectively (ie additively). Individuals see the world from an allocentric perspective and feel connection with that world and the people around them. Without the intense personal involvement of the social self in the drama and complexity of social reality, more processing time is available for sensory awareness and conscious awareness is more vivid."

Richard P. Boyle. “Realizing Awakened Consciousness. Interviews with Buddhist Teachers and a New Perspective on the Mind.” Columbia University Press, NY, 2015.