Can meditation be centered only on being aware of thoughts, and not necessarily on paying attention to the breath, which seems to only to be in place to facilitate more awareness of thoughts; the ultimate goal?

Where you place your attention your energy will flow. When we place our attention on the breath, which is a special focal point that is connected to the deepest parts of ourselves, we are creating an experience of becoming aware of more of ourselves as the awareness that contains all life. However, when we place our attention solely on thoughts and stay aware, they will be empowered and keep going on and on. We will increasingly become a purely intellectual being, knowing more and more about the thoughts as they get more and more developed.

Thoughts are only at the surface level of the mind, they are said to be a very small part of the mind. The ultimate goal is to awaken to all of existence as ourselves, not just be aware of the thoughts. As we keep meditating, we are able to go deeper and deeper within ourselves and know ourselves as the awareness more and more. Then we come as this awareness into all aspects of our lives, into our minds, emotions, bodies. This will include thoughts, but thoughts will increasingly become less and less because we are coming as the consciousness to our experience more and more.

So, one function of breath awareness meditation is to find ourselves as the awareness. The second function is to strengthen our experience of living as this awareness and increase our awareness towards the deeper parts of ourselves, including the aspect of Divine Love. As we keep doing this, our ability to live as the awareness will increase. We will also be able to embody more and more of the pure Divine Love energy that is at the deepest part of ourselves. Embodying is living as awareness, also being aware of this Love more and more as we live our lives, coming as these deeper aspects of ourselves into our mind/body/emotions, enlightening them. Thoughts are a very small part of this process, they are not who we truly are. They are just a process within us that we can use as a tool for communication. Your mind is communicating your understanding to you in the form of thoughts. There are other ways to know ourselves as we become directly aware of the deeper dimensions within ourselves.

Studying the following resources can further your understanding of the topic:

What is meditation? How to practice meditation. (Concise, accurate info that clarifies the purpose of meditation and teaches how to practice)

Mind Mastery: Why Do We Have Thoughts? (Knowing the purpose of thoughts is very helpful in putting things in context)

What is the Higher Self? (Gives information about who we are at the deepest spiritual level. Practice of meditation/meditativeness is the process of us realizing this as ourselves. “A one hundred percent, continuous experience of the Higher Self is what all human beings are seeking.”)

New to Higher Self Teachings? Start here. (Step by step teachings from an enlightened teacher that can thoroughly educate you on how to get enlightened. Clear conceptual information in the form of text and videos, guided meditations, information on relevant topics. Simply the wonderful energy of the teacher will benefit you, because the experience is there, just becoming aware of it will open it up and up. Listen to the instructions carefully and practice, much wisdom you will not commonly find somewhere else is condensed into these wonderful teachings.)