Posts Tagged ‘Consciousness’
People talk about having a “spiritual awakening” and being a “conscious being,” but what does this really mean?
Awakening and consciousness are words that attempt to define the undefinable, so it’s only natural that there will be numerous definitions and descriptions of awakening and consciousness. Not only this, but the word means different things at different points along the spiritual path so not everyone is always talking about the same thing.
Some people use the term “awakening” to mean that I am awake and not being currently controlled by the ego. If I’m Present in the Now, I am awake, but this is only one stage in the process of awakening.
I actually use the word “awakening” to mean something very different. In my vocabulary, it is synonymous with “enlightenment.” It means to realize your true nature, not just intellectually, but to actually BE it. It is a radical shift of identity that involves the direct realization of the nonexistence of the “me” that I think I am. It is the direct experience of Oneness and Infinity/Nothingness as One’s actual Reality.
Let’s take a look at several different stages of awakening.
The following is not by any means an all-inclusive list, but it does highlight some of the common stages along the path to enlightenment.
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We tend to think that there’s an objective world out there and that we can affect and are affected by this outside world. There is a world “out there” that we are born into and interact with.
If we like the interaction between us and the outside world, we call this “good.” If we don’t like it, we call it “bad.”
The above drawing (awesome, I know, thank you 
) is how we typically perceive the world.
Notice that there is a “me” independent of the outside world who is perceiving what’s happening in the outside world. There is a sense of separation.
What’s actually going on is quite different. Let’s take a look.
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photo by ceoln
A few months back I was on a plane to Chicago. As we soared through the air at 35,000 feet, the sun was bright and intense with no clouds obscuring its light. At this altitude, it was completely obvious that the sun shines continuously and there’s nothing we need to do to “find” the sun or “connect to” the sun. Just simply sit back, relax, and be with the warmth that the sun radiates towards us. Whether we were a good person or a bad person, the sun shines just the same.
Now as we started nearing our destination, we began our descent down into the windy city. On this day, the clouds below us were particularly thick, with no gaps in the clouds. The earth below us wasn’t visible whatsoever. There was this thick cover of grayish white cloudiness obscuring our view of the earth below.
Our descent continued and the plane dropped more and more until we were just skimming the top of the clouds. Then we swooped down into them and noticed that our view of the sun’s direct light was changing as well. Sinking deeper and deeper into the clouds, it became apparent that we couldn’t really see anything at all anymore beyond the thick veil of white fogginess everywhere. There was still light around us, sure, but not really coming from anywhere in particular. It was a glow emanating from everywhere. The source was now obscured, essentially invisible even though its effects were visible.
Descending down even further, we finally popped out of the bottom of the clouds and a whole ‘nother world opened up below us. We could see land, water, buildings, vehicles, roads… What was always there but beyond our range of vision had suddenly popped into awareness.
But where had the sun gone? We intellectually knew the sun was now “above” us somewhere, but all we could see was this continuous blanket of cloudcover. That’s it. Just glowing clouds obscuring the light of the sun.
We need that sunlight. It gives us life-giving warmth and energy. If we were not getting enough sunlight, it would be absolutely silly to try and create more of it. The sunlight is already there.
What’s necessary is to dissolve the clouds obscuring the light.
When the clouds dissolve, the sunlight that was ALWAYS THERE naturally shines forth and is radiantly apparent.
Spiritual growth is just like this.
Instead of trying to become enlightened and reach this state of Oneness with all beings (which is actually the way things already are), simply let go of the veil of separation that apparently comes between you and all others. The veil is the reality created by your mind.
The reality is that God’s Love is unconditional ever-present. Like the light of the sun, it is always shining down upon the earth, no matter what. What’s necessary for us is to simply be open to receiving it, to let it in.
Don’t try to find God or find the sun or find spiritual truth or find enlightenment.
Of the many earnest, and how earnest, people we may observe reading, attending lectures, studying and practicing disciplines, devoting their energies to the attainment of a liberation which is by definition unattainable, how many are not striving via the ego-concept which is itself the only barrier between what they think they are and that which they wish to become but always have been and always will be?
-Wei Wu Wei
Just let go of all resistances to Love, of all false ideas about who you think you are, and what you will discover is that what you have been looking for has been here all along.
Question:
Dear Ariel,
How can anyone come to truth by not using their mind? Yes experience, peace and oneness are wonderful things but has it ever come to your mind that those experiences are illusions? All it really is is shifting your brain into altered states of delta, and alpha states. Shifting your brain states with a brain that eventually does turn to dust.
The mind and the brain are tools that we can use to play in this physical dimension. It’s not who we are. THAT is the key point. Disidentification with the mind.
Thanks,
M.
My response:
My question is how CAN you come to the realization of Truth by using the mind? 
If you sit around and think and think and think all day, will you one day discover the truth of what an apple tastes like?
No, you have to EXPERIENCE the taste of an apple in order to know its taste.
Is it necessary to think about the apple while you’re eating it? Not at all. You can simply sit in silence and enjoy the taste of the apple as it is chewed around in the mouth. Whether you’re thinking about the apple, thinking about what you have to do next week, or thinking about nothing at all, your senses are STILL going to register the taste of the apple.
Most people are under the belief that thought is the only way to discover Truth. Either we have the right thoughts about it and thus know it, or we are lacking the correct thoughts and thus don’t know it. Therefore we have to either learn about it, imagine it, or discover it. When the mind is seen as the sole source of authority, to know about something is the same as to actually know it. This is a delusion.
Have you ever had a bad feeling about something? I don’t mean a fear of doing something, but just an intuitive knowingness that something’s just not right. It you drive down this road, you’ll suddenly discover exactly what the “bad feeling” was telling you. How did you know? There was no possible way the mind could have known what was to come, nor any external hints to point out the danger. At first it may be just random chance, but when one starts to experiences a few of these strange “coincidences”, then dozens, then hundreds… it becomes really difficult to truly brush it off as mere chance.
What about the little children who are born and at the age of 3 or 4 can already play the cello like a master, recite major historical facts, and demonstrate other amazing talents that no one can quite pinpoint from where they were developed?
What about those situations when you’re in a state of “flow” with life. You don’t know what’s to come or what to expect, yet everything seems to happen perfectly. You naturally say the right things, doors open up for you, situations somehow fall into place effortlessly, you just so happen to keep making the right decisions. This state of flow may only last for a short period of time, but there’s clearly something that’s been tapped into.
There’s other seemingly mystical sources of knowingness. (Mystical is nothing magical. It simply implies that which is unseen, perhaps undetectable by our physical senses.)
The mind is not the only source of knowledge for us to tap into.
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Meditation is often talked about as a stress-reduction tool.
Let’s look at some of the benefits of meditation and see why it works the way it does.
Most people today are unconscious. This means that when a stimulus comes up, the person automatically reacts in a certain way based on their beliefs and emotional surges. This is particularly dominant when the painbody overtakes the person.
One of the main aspects of meditation is that you simply sit in silent presence and allow yourself to be aware of your mind, your body, your surroundings, and all the stimuli that is constantly competing for your attention.
There’s a bazillion things we could pay attention to at any moment, but our brain (thankfully) helps us focus our awareness down to just a few things at any point in time.
In meditation, you allow yourself to sit still and consciously choose not to react to any mental or physical stimuli such as your thoughts, things you need to do now or later, any itchy sensations, sounds and noises in your environment, and so on. All the stuff that would normally pull you in a certain direction, you allow yourself to notice those things without getting pulled away from your meditation. They start to lose their control over you because you come to realize that hey, wait a sec, I don’t HAVE to respond to this stuff.
What happens is that by doing this, you notice a gap between a stimulus and your response.
Most people operate primarily unconsciously. That is, when there’s a stimulus such as someone saying, “You’re an idiot” or, “You’re wonderful,” these statements make them automatically react a certain way.
Through meditation, you come to be conscious of the small gap between a stimulus and your response. You become aware of the possibility of actually choosing your response consciously to any circumstance instead of being controlled by every external event that is beyond your control.
Stress is basically the feeling that life is getting out of hand and we’re losing control. It’s a sense of pressure beyond normal levels which leads to anxiety, discomfort, and fear. This stress is all mental. It all exists in the mind, in one’s imagination, no matter how real or justified it feels.
When one doesn’t know how to manage this stress, it commonly grows stronger and becomes more and more amplified.
A wonderful thing about meditation is that it gives you practice in consciously choosing your response to what is instead of unconsciously reacting to what is.
There is tremendous power in this consciousness, in the sense of presence that one embodies.
Being unconscious makes you feel confusion and anxiety. This confusion clouds over your inner knowingness and makes it harder to realize solutions to life’s problems.
Being conscious and fully present brings in a sense of clarity and focus. From this place, solutions are easy to come up with. You begin to feel like an oak tree who is certainly aware of and conscious of life’s twists and turns, but you don’t get pulled every which way. You maintain your centeredness and stillness, your sense of inner peace and freedom.
Instead of being pulled away from your centeredness, you get better and better at maintaining a sense of inner peace no matter what is happening externally or in your mind.
Meditation is a wonderful practice towards helping one deal with stress, in the short term and especially over the long term. It’s a way of life, a way of being.
The ability to easily handle stress and maintain a sense of clarity and stillness while life continues to unfold all around you is but one of the many fruits of regular meditation.
Strengthen your roots and you’ll enjoy some delicious fruits. 
