FROM A SITE VISITOR: Please explain consciousness as opposed to awareness. Thank you. Harish
[The discussion continues by referencing the picture posted on 3 May 2007. Please review the picture before continuing.]
F.: But all of the happenings in the picture's background of unicity, as well as all of the supposed happenings that are occurring via the manifested, dualistic consciousness in the foreground, are only possible because of the energy of the sunlight breaking through the clouds in the background. Without that background energy which is manifesting in the plants, nothing in the foreground could be happening. (As Szent-Gyorgyi said: “What drives life is…a little electric current, set up by the sunshine.”) Consciousness could not happen except for the background of Awareness, but Awareness IS, whether consciousness is manifested or not and whether consciousness of “this” or “that” is happening or not. Similarly, “stickiness” exists, even after the elements that form the glue stick return to the original pool of elements.
At the atomic and sub-atomic levels of matter/energy as “clouds” and “mountains” and “trees” in the background, Awareness IS. Yet there is no “one” that is conscious of anything. So it is when the temporarily manifested conscious-energy unmanifests and is subsequently “re-absorbed” into that unmanifested field of The Absolute.
Note too that in the foreground, many things seem significant: a delivery must be made on time; people must be at work on time; and food must be purchased in the mercato and consumed in order for the consciousness to remain manifested in the physical space. In the background, however, everything is merely cycling and nothing matters at all: clouds come and go; mountains that had formed will someday crumble; and trees that are rising will one day fall. So it is when abidance happens as the Absolute: what happens will happen, yet “the insignificant” is never misperceived as “significant.” That faulty perception that results in the insignificant being considered significant only happens via warped consciousness, via assumption of personas, and via the emotional intoxication that personas generate.
Revisiting the second analogy (the glue stick), take “sticky” to be a relative existence attribute of the elements combining as "glue" but take “stickiness” to be the underlying essence of glue; similarly, take Awareness to be the underlying essence of Reality that is beyond the relative and beyond attributes. Take “stickiness” to be the actual “identity” of the temporarily manifested elements called “glue,” and take Awareness to be the actual “identity” of that which is temporarily manifested and called Consciousness. Just as scientists discuss the various “forms of energy,” take Consciousness to be a form of the originally pure, unadulterated energy which manifests and which then becomes impure and adulterated as the consciousness is programmed and conditioned and enculturated.
If that is understood, and if it is understood how consciousness is corrupted, then it also becomes understood why seekers need a guide (or a guidebook with clear-cut directions, or both). As explained earlier…
…here is why the seeker must transition seven steps in order to realize: In the limitless expanse of energy called “The Absolute,” that energy which has the ability to be aware of, if manifested, is uncontaminated, unconditional, unconditioned, unqualified, unlimited, pure, unadulterated, and unambiguous. When the consiousness manifests in the space called “a human,” programming and conditioning and enculturation soon result in it being contaminated, conditioned, impure, adulterated, and ambiguous. That contaminating process results in seven degrees of separation from Reality, in seven degrees of separation from awareness of What the consciousness Truly Is, and from awareness of its original, unadulterated nature. Seven steps were involved in the-graduated-bastardization-of-consciousness process, so seven steps of re-purification must happen if the consciousness is to be restored to its natural, non-dual, no-concept, unadulterated state.
Only after Self-Realization can the movement to the next level happen, which is abidance not merely as the (re-purified) Consciousness but as the Absolute. This is often missed: even Self-Realization is not the end of the “journey.” That is why protégés have been encouraged to understand the post-Realization Teachings as presented in CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS: The Nature of Reality Beyond Self-Realization (Peace Every Day When Abiding as The Absolute). Even after having read From the I to the Absolute, even after completing the seven-step journey to reality, and even after Self-Realization, there is no guarantee of unwavering peace unless the Consciousness/Awareness is understood in order to abide as The Absolute for the remainder of the manifestation.
Even the Self-Realized, abiding as the re-purified consciousness, will experience instability since all consciousness must necessarily involve some element of duality, conscious of-ness being inescapable in that abidance. Absolute stabilization can only happen via abidance as the Absolute whereby Awareness happens without any "one" thinking there is someone or something that is present and able to be “aware of”: Realization is four steps beyond “The Religious One” and “The Spiritual One,” and awareness is even beyond that One which knows the unicity and which knows the beingness and the non-beingness. Abidance as the consciousness guarantees that duality will never be forfeited completely. Only the Awareness is “One” without any “one.” Consciousness can know the "not two." Awareness is the absolute "not two." If you stay alert to the reality of "not two-ness," then for the sake of discussion you might take consciousness to be the essence of beingness, the re-purified consciousness to be the essence of non-beingness, and awareness to be the essence of the Reality beyond both beingness and non-beingness.
[The discussion continues by referencing the picture posted on 3 May 2007. Please review the picture before continuing.]
F.: But all of the happenings in the picture's background of unicity, as well as all of the supposed happenings that are occurring via the manifested, dualistic consciousness in the foreground, are only possible because of the energy of the sunlight breaking through the clouds in the background. Without that background energy which is manifesting in the plants, nothing in the foreground could be happening. (As Szent-Gyorgyi said: “What drives life is…a little electric current, set up by the sunshine.”) Consciousness could not happen except for the background of Awareness, but Awareness IS, whether consciousness is manifested or not and whether consciousness of “this” or “that” is happening or not. Similarly, “stickiness” exists, even after the elements that form the glue stick return to the original pool of elements.
At the atomic and sub-atomic levels of matter/energy as “clouds” and “mountains” and “trees” in the background, Awareness IS. Yet there is no “one” that is conscious of anything. So it is when the temporarily manifested conscious-energy unmanifests and is subsequently “re-absorbed” into that unmanifested field of The Absolute.
Note too that in the foreground, many things seem significant: a delivery must be made on time; people must be at work on time; and food must be purchased in the mercato and consumed in order for the consciousness to remain manifested in the physical space. In the background, however, everything is merely cycling and nothing matters at all: clouds come and go; mountains that had formed will someday crumble; and trees that are rising will one day fall. So it is when abidance happens as the Absolute: what happens will happen, yet “the insignificant” is never misperceived as “significant.” That faulty perception that results in the insignificant being considered significant only happens via warped consciousness, via assumption of personas, and via the emotional intoxication that personas generate.
Revisiting the second analogy (the glue stick), take “sticky” to be a relative existence attribute of the elements combining as "glue" but take “stickiness” to be the underlying essence of glue; similarly, take Awareness to be the underlying essence of Reality that is beyond the relative and beyond attributes. Take “stickiness” to be the actual “identity” of the temporarily manifested elements called “glue,” and take Awareness to be the actual “identity” of that which is temporarily manifested and called Consciousness. Just as scientists discuss the various “forms of energy,” take Consciousness to be a form of the originally pure, unadulterated energy which manifests and which then becomes impure and adulterated as the consciousness is programmed and conditioned and enculturated.
If that is understood, and if it is understood how consciousness is corrupted, then it also becomes understood why seekers need a guide (or a guidebook with clear-cut directions, or both). As explained earlier…
…here is why the seeker must transition seven steps in order to realize: In the limitless expanse of energy called “The Absolute,” that energy which has the ability to be aware of, if manifested, is uncontaminated, unconditional, unconditioned, unqualified, unlimited, pure, unadulterated, and unambiguous. When the consiousness manifests in the space called “a human,” programming and conditioning and enculturation soon result in it being contaminated, conditioned, impure, adulterated, and ambiguous. That contaminating process results in seven degrees of separation from Reality, in seven degrees of separation from awareness of What the consciousness Truly Is, and from awareness of its original, unadulterated nature. Seven steps were involved in the-graduated-bastardization-of-consciousness process, so seven steps of re-purification must happen if the consciousness is to be restored to its natural, non-dual, no-concept, unadulterated state.
Only after Self-Realization can the movement to the next level happen, which is abidance not merely as the (re-purified) Consciousness but as the Absolute. This is often missed: even Self-Realization is not the end of the “journey.” That is why protégés have been encouraged to understand the post-Realization Teachings as presented in CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS: The Nature of Reality Beyond Self-Realization (Peace Every Day When Abiding as The Absolute). Even after having read From the I to the Absolute, even after completing the seven-step journey to reality, and even after Self-Realization, there is no guarantee of unwavering peace unless the Consciousness/Awareness is understood in order to abide as The Absolute for the remainder of the manifestation.
Even the Self-Realized, abiding as the re-purified consciousness, will experience instability since all consciousness must necessarily involve some element of duality, conscious of-ness being inescapable in that abidance. Absolute stabilization can only happen via abidance as the Absolute whereby Awareness happens without any "one" thinking there is someone or something that is present and able to be “aware of”: Realization is four steps beyond “The Religious One” and “The Spiritual One,” and awareness is even beyond that One which knows the unicity and which knows the beingness and the non-beingness. Abidance as the consciousness guarantees that duality will never be forfeited completely. Only the Awareness is “One” without any “one.” Consciousness can know the "not two." Awareness is the absolute "not two." If you stay alert to the reality of "not two-ness," then for the sake of discussion you might take consciousness to be the essence of beingness, the re-purified consciousness to be the essence of non-beingness, and awareness to be the essence of the Reality beyond both beingness and non-beingness.
Now, Harish, all that having been said, return to the original pointer: in the no-concept, non-dual Reality, there is no "one thing as opposed to some other thing." Therefore, the Advaitin understands that "I AM THAT; I AM" can be stated and understood without any sense of duality at all. So can "Consciousness/Awareness." Please enter the silence of contemplation.
