It is actually difficult to find the main difference between mental alertness and consciousness since they are very much overlapped. But still we will try to analyze the difference through some examples from our day to day life. When we sleep, we are not aware of things happening outside and within us. During this time, we have a very little mental awareness. When we are awake, we have comparitively good mental awareness so that we are aware of many things which is happening within us and outside. So mental awareness is mainly goal oriented or it is for survival process. But when we say about consciousness, it is present when we are awake or even during the time when we sleep . This means consciousness is referring to something which is present within us all the time. Let us look at one example to understand this. Consider we have made a wound in our hand. What happens to it after some days. Day by day it will gradually heal up. Why is it healing up gradually? This is because, there is some kind of intelligence that works within us which helps us in the better coordination and wellbeing of our body. Thus consciousness is actually referring to the source of intelligence within us which is the creator of this body. This consciousness is present in each and every cell of our body. Or in otherwords it is our self. This is separate from our body, thoughts, emotions, knowledge, ignorance, good qualities and and bad qualities that are present within us. Through meditation, the possibility of attaining this experience is more. You can get to know more about this from 1st and 2nd articles.
In a wider sense, the meaning of the word "man" includes both man and woman. Thus the word man has a wider sense and a narrower sense.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly the word consciousness also seems to have a wider and a narrower senses.