Does "self awareness" go beyond the sense of consciousness....explain your point of view?

This is a good question, Hector, but I think the answer may need to be approached in a couple ways:

If one is consciously self-aware, then they are cognizant of their own self (inward thought) and how they interact with others (outward experience). To be fully self-aware, would mean that a person can happily balance the two aspects.

Now, once we have achieved the aspect of living in the present moment, fully aware and conscious, the other aspects to our existence also open up. We see the plethora of possibilities that exist; we know that our choices are not limited; we are connected to All that is. With this connection comes the extension of our self-awareness and consciousness to those other aspects: things that can affect us globally, spiritually, or even cosmically. So, in this way, our consciousness does extend--go beyond--the self-awareness we have as a foundation.

I hope this helps--Blessings!

Any creature with a nervous system has ordinary consciousness awareness, which I call sentience.

"Self consciousness" begs the question:" what is the 'self'-that one is aware of? the body? (cats have that, in abundance); the ego? humans have that; the sunshine? (even flowers have that?) ; air? (dolphins).

In tests, they have marked the faces of various animals to see whether they go to check themselves out in a mirror or not. Elephants, apes, chimpanzees, and cetaceans pass this test.

If there is a Higher Self, that would be the "Cosmic Consciousness" written about by Bucke in a book of the same title.

the only rational sense I can put to your question is that our sense of consciousness means our sense RIGHT NOW. And that you are asking if our self awareness becomes larger. If we might experience ourselves as more than just THIS body and THESE thoughts, THESE feelings.

We rarely are "self-aware". If someone says something about it AND we make the effort to be self-aware, we can be...for a few minutes. And then we FORGET about it. Something distracts us, either inside or outside and we FALL ASLEEP again. Back into our ordinary trance state. We may even convince ourselves that we are being self-aware. But a slight shift in our attitude, a slight effort and we become self-aware again and realize that THIS is a STRUGGLE.

It's similar to lucid dreams. You can be having a lucid dream and then notice that it's trying to be an ordinary dream. That you must make an effort to remember yourself, so that you stay conscious that you are creating everything you see in the dream.

It's a leap to realize that while we are in second state (that is, "awake", in ordinary consciousness) and that leap is called Satori. It's a shock...but also a verification. You cannot come to satori without having heard of it and/or suspected it.

Aware means conscious,not ignorant or well informed.conscious refers to a situation in which one is aware of his surrounding and identity.The former is to make and the later is to realize.One is out of information and the other is of realization.Hence Realization or self consciousness is beyond self awareness.

I think that self awareness in its truest context is the first step towards real consciousness. Once you become conscious of yourself you start on the long road of knowing your true nature, this is just step one, but its the biggest step.