Can you be aware but not conscious?
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In descriptions of the five skandhas the fifth, Vijñāna, is described/translated as "consciousness" and "awareness": as if they're interchangeable.
But maybe there are other types of awareness. Ibid. says,
This type of awareness appears to be more refined and introspective than that associated with the aggregate of perception (saññā) which the Buddha describes in the same discourse as follows [etc.]
And,
Similarly, in the traditionally venerated 5th-century CE commentary, the Visuddhimagga, there is an extended analogy about a child, an adult villager and an expert "money-changer" seeing a heap of coins; in this analogy, the child's experience is likened to perception, the villager's experience to consciousness, and the money-changer's experience to true understanding (paňňā).[15] Thus, in this context, "consciousness" denotes more than the irreducible subjective experience of sense data suggested in the discourses of "the All" (see prior section); here, "consciousness" additionally entails a depth of awareness reflecting a degree of memory and recognition.
So maybe "awareness" is also used for sense-impressions (e.g. visual sight), which "consciousness" then reifies into a chariot, and/or "consciousness" is also used in the sense of "wisdom" (one word for which is 'higher consciousness')
I don't know about Buddhist teaching but it's reminding me of one time when my Tai Chi master pretended to attack me and I moved to block without thinking about it: so my action was aware (of what I saw) but unconscious.
Similarly when driving a car: when I was a student driver I had to consciously think about everything ... changing gear, other cars, road signs, stationary objects, indicators, the driving instructor, etc. Now that I have more-or-less mastered driving it's sufficient to be aware of what I see around me, and to some extent being less conscious implies greater capacity for awareness.
Maybe I developed neural circuitry to handle the sense-input-signals from driving...
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When you start meditation, your conscious is weak but it becomes stronger when you practice and your perception becomes weaker. Your perceptions and mental habits generally cloud your awareness. Generally many things comes to our consciousness but we are not aware at the surface level of the mind to start with but our awareness increases through more practice of meditation we become aware of what every that comes to our consciousness.
If you take an analogy from modern psychology we have the conscious mind and sub conscious mind. As we meditate your conscious mind expands to include our sub conscious mind.
At one stage our whole body is sensitive to what every that comes to the consciousness hence our conscious mind has expanded to the extent there is not sub conscious mind. What ever that comes to our conciousness we are aware.
In a nutshell generally it is the opposite for a non mediator. You can, at times, not be aware, as your consciousness has not made an strong imprint, but nevertheless conscious without the surface of you mind knowing. In developing awareness it should be done such that it does not get clouded by perception, i.e., should be rooted in phenomena when meditating.
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