Awareness v. Consciousness in Advaita?

[The Crimson Universe]

You referred to "pure consciousness". Does this mean there is an impure consciousness, one with qualities or attributes?

The so called impure consciousness according to the Advaitins is the imperfect notions of the mind.
In short, it is our ignorance, which gives rise to (as @ajay0 said) greed, desires, hatred, envy etc.

Advaitins use the analogy of the sunlight and the moonlight to explain the difference between the pure and impure consciousness.

The moon here is the mind.
The sun is brahman.

The moon has no light of its own.
Same way the mind has no sentiency of its own.

When the sunlight reflects on the moon, the moon appears to us that it has light of its own, when actually thats not the case.

Same way, when the pure consciousness Brahman animates the insentient mind, the mind becomes enlivened and considers itself (due to its impurities or imperfect nature) a separate 'conscious' being, different from Brahman, giving rise to duality. When infact the mind itself is not at all conscious. It has simply borrowed sentiency from brahman.

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The word 'awareness' is used by advaitins mostly to refer to the impure consciousness which is equated with the mind of the jiva.

Whereas the word 'consciousness' is used for pure infinite non-dual cosmic consciousness (brahman) which is the foundation of all names, shapes and forms. :=)

 

[The Crimson Universe]

useful in this regard...

'Awareness is primordial; it is the original state, beginning-less, endless, uncaused, unsupported, without parts, without change. Consciousness is on contact, a reflection against a surface, a state of duality. There can be no consciousness without awareness, but there can be awareness without consciousness, as in deep sleep. Awareness is absolute, consciousness is relative to its content; consciousness is always of something.' ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

Nisargadatta Maharaj, uses the word awareness to refer to the infinite brahman and the word consciousness for jiva's imperfect notions of the mind. But from what i've noticed is that, for most advaitin scholars or authors its the opposite.
What really matters is that one needs to understand the two different types of chetanas. One is perfect and infinite, the other is bound to the mind of the limited imperfect jiva. :=)

 

[Aupmanyav]

Chit / Chitta is Sanskrit - Dictionary
Chetna is Sanskrit - Dictionary
Basically, mind and consciousness.

The Crimson Universe, it is like 'vidya' and 'a-vidya', knowing and ignorance.

 

[ajay0]

Nisargadatta Maharaj, uses the word awareness to refer to the infinite brahman and the word consciousness for jiva's imperfect notions of the mind. But from what i've noticed is that, for most advaitin scholars or authors its the opposite.
What really matters is that one needs to understand the two different types of chetanas. One is perfect and infinite, the other is bound to the mind of the limited imperfect jiva. :=)

Awareness or pure consciousness is used to refer to Brahman. Some advaitans use consciousness in generic terms to refer to Brahman, but specifically speaking, it ought to be pure consciousness.

This is important to distinguish it from impure consciousness corrupted by vasanas, desires in form of cravings/aversions.