"Some writers say that there is "Awareness" and some say there is Nothing. Are they using different words to describe the same thing 'cos "Awareness" strikes me as being something more than Nothing?"
Nonduality (or whatever label) pointers use many different words to describe the same exactly "thing". We are all conditioned to think that words mean things, so everytime a word is being used, a concept or idea about that word is seen as a very particular thing and description. But what is being pointed to has no description because it's not a thing, it's everything/nothing. It's this one life without the mental concept of separating life into parts or things. It's a nonconceptual seeing of what is here.
Therefore, whatever word is being used: Awareness, Consciousness, Nothing, Silence, Freedom, Oneness, Energy, Love, God, Divine, Timelessness, Beingness, Perfection, Enlightenment, Nonduality, etc... what is being pointed to is always describing a never-changing and always-present presence that is awake, alert, and aware right now.
This never-changing and always-present source can also never be created because it is constantly there. There is no way to create silence, silence is always there as a continuous constant. Sound can be created in the foreground but the backdrop of silence never actually vanishes, even in the foreground of loud noisy obnoxious sounds. The same can be true for any other word mentioned above or otherwise. These are just words to point.
Really there is no backdrop or foreground. There is no silence versus sound. Every word that is used, an opposite can be suggested but only in the appearance of the first word. What is being pointed to is wordless because no word or description can capture it, no word is more true, accurate, or better than any other word. Whatever you want to call it, this is that as one. It is all that exists.
Some would say that this life is an illusion and doesn't exist at all, but what are they comparing it to that is real in order to know this life to be an illusion? What part of life is more real than any other part? You see? It's just a way of pointing. This life is not an illusion, it is both illusion AND real simultaneously because both appear in this one life. What it is appearing to, is you. Every idea, thoughts. emotion, feeling, sensation, state, experience, etc... is an appearance that is appearing to you. The appearances and what is witnessing the appearances are the same exact thing. One life, one environment, one seeing, etc... You can not create or destroy what already is and you are that; not the word.
Awareness, silence, or nothing etc... are different words for the same thing because they are never-changing and ever-present. Everything you can describe awareness as, you can also describe nothing or silence as (or any other word that pointers use): unmoving, unharmed, undestructible, never-changing, always-present, void, nothingness, empty, space, timeless, etc..
Forget the words and what you think they mean. Instead, look to where they are pointing. All words are conceptual ideas, but what is being pointed to is not conceptual. The words are pointing always to that unchanging and always present source that is seeing all the appearances change. What never changes? You can call that awareness or silence or nothing, but it is awake to the appearance of these changing words right now, whatever you want to call that, that is all it is.
You will never be more awake or aware than you are right now because what you are is unborn, eternal, never-changing and always-present; no matter what appears to change around that unchanging source.
This is very simple and obvious, which is why it is overlooked. But it's what is always looking and there is freedom is realizing that as who you really are. How can an unchanging and always present source want anything more than what life is already offering? What is looking, sees that every want, every thought, everything, is just an appearances that appears to the looking, then it dies right back into the looking in which it came. All appearances are just passing phenomenons. All appearances are empty because they never last.
Everything will change eventually, that which notices change is free from change because no change can touch it. It only witnesses the change. It witnesses the body change, the mind change, the thoughts change, the emotions change, the feelings change, the personality change, the views change, the opinions change, the perspectives change, the beliefs change, the things change, all appearances change and yet this unchanging presence is untouched by any change.
Here is a small pointer to point out what is being pointed to:
Awareness doesn't actually hear anything, it's always completely silent; the body/mind hears and you are aware of it. Awareness doesn't think, the body/mind thinks and you are aware of it. The body/mind experiences a life unfolding, you as awareness are never experiencing anything; you are only aware of it. Awareness is never involved, it is only aware. Awareness can only ever be what it is: aware. Yet awareness has the ability to be aware of itself as everything because awareness is all that exists.
Now if you have a conceptual idea of what the word "Awareness" means, then you will have a difficult time understanding what is being pointed to because we were taught that awareness means a certain thing and a certain definition. If awareness is what we were taught, then how can awareness be everything? How can it be all that exists?
You see how the words start to fail? I am not pointing to the word "awareness" or how it is understood on a conceptual level. I am pointing to something that is wordless and no word can be created to contain what is being pointed to because every word is conceptual. However, I must use a conceptual word to point to this nonconceptual awake presence in order to use language to point.
This is the only reason nonduality pointers are misunderstood because what is being pointed to is simple and obviously awake to these words right now, that present source that is watching these words being read. Not the eyes that are reading the words or the mind that is conceptualizing the meaning of the words, but that awareness that is only ever witnessing these words and not grasping onto them for meaning. That source that just sits there witnessing and observing, that is all it is ever being; aware. It has no view, opinion, belief, ideas, or any passing appearance about itself because it is the seeing of all appearances. It can not appear to itself because it is the seeing of all appearances. It is just aware of the appearance of a body/mind and everything the body/mind does within it. And even the body/mind is just a passing appearance/phenomenon within it.
The words just make pointing seem complex. What is aware and awake to the body/mind reading these words right now? That is it. You are that. Unchanging and always-present unborn source. Every awake and aware source is awake to a particular body/mind but it is the same one unchanging source. It is not limited, it is everywhere. It only appears to be limited through each particular body/mind but that is only an appearance inside the one awareness that you are. No appearances harm it, no appearance can separate it or individual it; it only appears to.
And at death, awareness will be aware of itself as everything because the only death is to the idea or belief that you are a body/mind individual. Awareness is everywhere and never was limited to any body/mind, it is aware of every body/mind as it and the same awake awareness is in every body/mind because there is only one awareness here and you are that.
