F.: Yesterday, you were invited to consider the parallel between the way that (a) the consciousness manifests and (b) is pure for a time and then (c) becomes corrupted compared to the way that persons experience the relative existence. Seeing that parallel, one might then see a similarity between the way that consciousness manifests and unmanifests with the way that a typical 24-hour cycle of brainwave activity occurs in the relative existence.
From the formless and boundless and eternal pool of the Absolute which had no beginning and will have no end, consciousness can manifest in something with a nervous system. Elements can group into spaces that have different appearances and consciousness can eventually become awareness of its presence…of the “I Am.” It can witness purely for a period but will soon begin to witness in a subject-object fashion that is the first introduction to duality…to believing that there is an “I” and a “you” or an “I” and a “that thing over there.” Soon, the programming and conditioning and enculturation begin, and the belief becomes “I am a boy/girl” which is soon warped into “I am a good boy/girl” or “I am a bad boy/girl.” More and more sets of dualities are taught, and eventually hundreds of labels will be assumed to be real identities, as with the examples offered earlier: “I am an employee” or “I am a spouse” or “I am a whatever.” As persons leave the home of their parents after having been forced to accept all the “good-bad” labels that come from being judged there, most are conditioned to accept the same for the remainder of their adult lives: “You are a good/bad employee” or “You are a good/bad spouse” and “You need to do this differently or I will consider you bad and punish you and leave you” and “You need to stop changing and do it my way or I will punish you and leave you.” All ego-states set persons up to be controlled by other persons and to become dependent on people, places, things, and false entities in “other realms” that were dreamed up by persons thousands of years ago and still accepted as real today. Anyone dependent on anything is not independent, but the distorted consciousness will claim, “Because I am dependent on this or that, I am independent.” Any sane, objective observer would ask, “What?” The True Self, the Pure Witness, would not even ask that much.
The eventual result of all programming and conditioning and enculturation is that it leads persons into “The Great Deception”: they believe that they are in the alpha or beta level of consciousness when they are actually in the DREAMING state. Persons will always experience their relative existence from the Theta level state while mistakenly believing that they are in the AWAKENED state; therefore, even as they walk about, they might as well be lying in their beds. Persons are trapped in that level between DEEP SLEEP and WAKING so that they never reach the state of true AWAKENING. Trapped in that level between DEEP SLEEP and WAKING where dreams occur, persons buy into a dream world as the real; in that imagined world, they see themselves and others and take that duality to be real; they believe that they are loved and are loving when what is happening is nothing remotely close to True Love; and nothing that they think is being done in the dream is what is actually happening at all. It’s all fiction, no different than if their bodies were just lying in bed as their “minds” convince them that they are in control and making choices and in charge of their movements.
The experiences of persons in the WAKING state are no different from those in the DREAMING state. They walk about as if awake but are actually in a dream; they travel for miles and do not recall their journey; they see all as subject-object, thinking their bodies and minds are interacting with and perceiving other bodies and minds; they toil to meet the perceived needs of others who are merely manipulating them; their sense of “self” worth (and the “value” that others give them) is defined solely in terms of what they can get or accumulate; thus, most walk about in the DREAM state, believing that what they are imagining is real while not having a clue about Who/What They Truly Are. They are lying to themselves and those others as they talk in their sleep, saying things like, “I live in the land of the free, so I am truly free”; “I am living out the American Dream,” (which does require that one be in a dream state to believe); “Hurricanes are punishments sent from my angry God whom you’ve offended because you are not behaving the way I am telling you to behave”; “I know my spouse hit me, but his being that emotional only shows how much he cares”; “My life is not boring…I really do have a pretty good life”; “What I do helps so many people that I know I am appreciated”; “I have a purpose that gives me great worth”; and “I am not depressed, and don’t you dare suggest that I am!”
Next, review the brainwave cycles prior to the discussion tomorrow of the cyclings of consciousness: persons are in DEEP SLEEP; they begin to “come to” and enter the DREAM state; they are then WAKING and know they are present (that is, they know they exist, they know they are, and they are aware of the “Am-ness” or “Is-ness”); then, they accept false roles assigned by others as true identities; afterwards, they walk about in their DREAM state (no more awake than a person who is lying in bed and dreaming) but convinced that they are awake, aware, and conscious. Then, they slow at the end of the day, move toward a state of less brainwave activity, more toward the rest, enter the theta state and, in fewer cases than might be imagined, enter into the Delta Level of perfect rest. Eight hours or so later, the cycle repeats itself. So it is with consciousness. Are you seeing a parallel and beginning to understand why Advaitans use the terms you asked about in order to provide pointers that can allow proteges to understand the Functioning of the Totality? Please enter into the silence of contemplation. [To be continued tomorrow]
From the formless and boundless and eternal pool of the Absolute which had no beginning and will have no end, consciousness can manifest in something with a nervous system. Elements can group into spaces that have different appearances and consciousness can eventually become awareness of its presence…of the “I Am.” It can witness purely for a period but will soon begin to witness in a subject-object fashion that is the first introduction to duality…to believing that there is an “I” and a “you” or an “I” and a “that thing over there.” Soon, the programming and conditioning and enculturation begin, and the belief becomes “I am a boy/girl” which is soon warped into “I am a good boy/girl” or “I am a bad boy/girl.” More and more sets of dualities are taught, and eventually hundreds of labels will be assumed to be real identities, as with the examples offered earlier: “I am an employee” or “I am a spouse” or “I am a whatever.” As persons leave the home of their parents after having been forced to accept all the “good-bad” labels that come from being judged there, most are conditioned to accept the same for the remainder of their adult lives: “You are a good/bad employee” or “You are a good/bad spouse” and “You need to do this differently or I will consider you bad and punish you and leave you” and “You need to stop changing and do it my way or I will punish you and leave you.” All ego-states set persons up to be controlled by other persons and to become dependent on people, places, things, and false entities in “other realms” that were dreamed up by persons thousands of years ago and still accepted as real today. Anyone dependent on anything is not independent, but the distorted consciousness will claim, “Because I am dependent on this or that, I am independent.” Any sane, objective observer would ask, “What?” The True Self, the Pure Witness, would not even ask that much.
The eventual result of all programming and conditioning and enculturation is that it leads persons into “The Great Deception”: they believe that they are in the alpha or beta level of consciousness when they are actually in the DREAMING state. Persons will always experience their relative existence from the Theta level state while mistakenly believing that they are in the AWAKENED state; therefore, even as they walk about, they might as well be lying in their beds. Persons are trapped in that level between DEEP SLEEP and WAKING so that they never reach the state of true AWAKENING. Trapped in that level between DEEP SLEEP and WAKING where dreams occur, persons buy into a dream world as the real; in that imagined world, they see themselves and others and take that duality to be real; they believe that they are loved and are loving when what is happening is nothing remotely close to True Love; and nothing that they think is being done in the dream is what is actually happening at all. It’s all fiction, no different than if their bodies were just lying in bed as their “minds” convince them that they are in control and making choices and in charge of their movements.
The experiences of persons in the WAKING state are no different from those in the DREAMING state. They walk about as if awake but are actually in a dream; they travel for miles and do not recall their journey; they see all as subject-object, thinking their bodies and minds are interacting with and perceiving other bodies and minds; they toil to meet the perceived needs of others who are merely manipulating them; their sense of “self” worth (and the “value” that others give them) is defined solely in terms of what they can get or accumulate; thus, most walk about in the DREAM state, believing that what they are imagining is real while not having a clue about Who/What They Truly Are. They are lying to themselves and those others as they talk in their sleep, saying things like, “I live in the land of the free, so I am truly free”; “I am living out the American Dream,” (which does require that one be in a dream state to believe); “Hurricanes are punishments sent from my angry God whom you’ve offended because you are not behaving the way I am telling you to behave”; “I know my spouse hit me, but his being that emotional only shows how much he cares”; “My life is not boring…I really do have a pretty good life”; “What I do helps so many people that I know I am appreciated”; “I have a purpose that gives me great worth”; and “I am not depressed, and don’t you dare suggest that I am!”
Next, review the brainwave cycles prior to the discussion tomorrow of the cyclings of consciousness: persons are in DEEP SLEEP; they begin to “come to” and enter the DREAM state; they are then WAKING and know they are present (that is, they know they exist, they know they are, and they are aware of the “Am-ness” or “Is-ness”); then, they accept false roles assigned by others as true identities; afterwards, they walk about in their DREAM state (no more awake than a person who is lying in bed and dreaming) but convinced that they are awake, aware, and conscious. Then, they slow at the end of the day, move toward a state of less brainwave activity, more toward the rest, enter the theta state and, in fewer cases than might be imagined, enter into the Delta Level of perfect rest. Eight hours or so later, the cycle repeats itself. So it is with consciousness. Are you seeing a parallel and beginning to understand why Advaitans use the terms you asked about in order to provide pointers that can allow proteges to understand the Functioning of the Totality? Please enter into the silence of contemplation. [To be continued tomorrow]
