Is meta-consciousness and thoughts connected?

[j000rmas]

How connected is meta-consciousness and thoughts? Do we have to have the thought about being aware of being aware to make it happen? Or when meta-conscious happens, is thoughts about meta-consciousness then just a by-product of this happening?

Can a thought be non meta-conscious? Bernardos breath-example. When we in this moment point our attention to the breath it becomes meta-conscious. We knew we were breathing but weren't meta-conscious about it.

Can thoughts work this way? Can thoughts be out of meta-consciousness? Are there thoughts that i'm not aware of as i was not aware of my breath before pointing my attention to it?

It feels like I'm aware of every thought there is, i dont have the same feeling of; “aha! I just got meta-conscious as with the breath” Just feels wrong to say I had thoughts that were out of meta-consciousness, but not wrong to say it about the breath.

Thanks

[Starbuck]

I would say meta-consciousness gets used to describe different processes, so its important to break it down.

One definition is just mindfulness, which is a spacious knowing of what ever appears in awareness. This is a temporary quality of the mind which could be called witnessing - all experiences are simply observed by expansive/infinite awareness. Nothing is grasped or pushed away, even to the extent that the urge or tendency to grasp or push away is acknowledged. This state does not require language, though that can be used to aid the process.

Then there is a more linguistic meta-cognition, which is about labelling or using language/comprehension to aid memory or to draw a link between 2 or more events. Meta means 'about' so this is just the cognitive capacity to divide and correlate 'things'.

Where it gets complicated is that once we have developed language, we can have metacognition but not necessarily mindfulness. We can be lost in thought, or in a convoluted dream, and have no lucidity, just like a leaf in the wind. As you say, thoughts tend to correlate to self awareness but not necessarily.

[AshvinP]

How connected is meta-consciousness and thoughts? Do we have to have the thought about being aware of being aware to make it happen? Or when meta-conscious happens, is thoughts about meta-consciousness then just a by-product of this happening?

Can a thought be non meta-conscious? Bernardos breath-example. When we in this moment point our attention to the breath it becomes meta-conscious. We knew we were breathing but weren't meta-conscious about it.

Can thoughts work this way? Can thoughts be out of meta-consciousness? Are there thoughts that i'm not aware of as i was not aware of my breath before pointing my attention to it?

It feels like I'm aware of every thought there is, i dont have the same feeling of; “aha! I just got meta-conscious as with the breath” Just feels wrong to say I had thoughts that were out of meta-consciousness, but not wrong to say it about the breath.

Thanks

Yes, most thoughts are not meta-cognitive. That is the 'unconscious' realm referred to by psychoanalysts. What is most important is making the unconscious conscious, i.e. shedding light on the dark realms of our thought-forms; expanding our thought-maps to capture more of the thought-territory.