Awareness means different things.

Awareness means different things...in ordinary terms with spirituality it means the Ego is observing its own mind---the sutra string is observing the beads of thought on its own string.It may even observe the rise and falling of thoughts but it is not liberation, thousands of people have done Vipassana course in 'concentration' essentially but they are not liberated...the ego is still there...Goenka was far more advanced than the present proponents and teachers of 'now' and 'awareness'. Who in most cases seem to the blind leading the blind as Ramana said.

Real awareness is The Self and can only be reached through a minimum of Kevala NirVikalpa Samadhi.....Although various experiences of the instrument of the Self/Sakti ie...Prana can be felt on the way up and down so to speak..Sometimes I have woken in this state, after apparently waking directly from the deep sleep state and not tallying in the dream state...Many people or mystics also may experience Savikalpa Samadhi but that is still with in illusion,,,albeit instruments of the Self..This the ecstasy of all the mystics, Christian, Sufi, Yogi and all...

Many are teaching 'awareness' but it is not different from the normal preparation for meditation, concentration, withdrawal of senses, one pointedness and finally meditation. So this awareness or power of now is all but preliminary exercises in yoga leading to meditation for some people...True meditation is always beyond the mind...it is within The Self itself.

What is not taught even though donations of money,services,books and dvds are sold by these new teachers teaching the 'easy way'; Is the fact that subconscious drives, desires and impediments have to cleansed from the subconscious mind or in sanskrit--the vasana citta...These according to Ramana can only be removed by practise and meditation. Grace or the Self is also involved but the amount of Grace available is in direct proportion to the amount of vasanas, obscuring that Grace are removed.

The vasanas are ingrained in the mind and species mind particularly and go back through all the tendencies the entity had in all its lives as and animal or a plant. Some of these are violent and hard to control, some are otherwise, but in humans the misuse of a more developed intellect has a result of making all these vasanas available and active in the mind, whereas in an animal the instinct dominates and nothing is out of season or dharma as it is in the ego of humans...Vasanas are also added to in this life by over satisfying natural desires and eating meat, absorbing all the vibrations from the animal and conflicting in the mind..

These vasanas are also connected to the emotions, with which it shares the subconscious mind, and direct throught the autonomous nervous system and subtle mind, energies to various organs such as the sex organs and others..Once the energy has moved to a particular organ it is hard to reverse...All thoughts and drives are ultimately subliminal and the conscious person is mostly unaware of them, although some may be available on the dream plane. Without dealing with these almost 'Freudian' conditions and vasanas with practise and meditation, no amount of non-dual conscious thinking and mind will succeed and those selling this idea or misguieded or are charlatans..