TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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CONSCIOUSNESS and AWARENESS
The Bulb, The Light, The Energy
A seeker once asked, "Will you please explain consciousness as opposed to awareness." So the series will continue in order to provide that explanation.
In the no-concept, non-dual reality, there is nothing “opposed to” anything else, but the terms can be used post-realization to allow seekers to understand the nature of reality (the THAT-ness) beyond realization (which can only happen during the AM-ness, the IS-ness).
Understand, however, that it is possible to abide as the Absolute Awareness during “the manifestation of consciousness” that is called the relative existence. The explanation will begin with this consideration for the reader:
From the third-floor balcony of the lakeside condo I lived in before moving into this current home, it happened that early one evening as a storm approached, the skies were seen to darken.
Walkways cross the green terrace that leads down to the lake, and all along those paths, soccer ball-sized lights are mounted on two-foot posts to illuminate the way. As the remaining daylight was blocked by the heavy clouds, the bulbs inside the fixtures were seen to come on automatically.
As water puddled in the walkways, the lights began to cast diagonal reflections of themselves that appeared to be two to three-feet in length. Those golden lines of reflected light glistened in the water and appeared to become a thousand smaller lights, twinkling as the raindrops began to splatter into the gathered pools.
The invitation to the reader is to pause now, to consider consciousness / awareness, to consider the description, and to try to find a message in that description which might be relevant to understanding consciousness / awareness. [Please pause for consideration.]
Now, do you understand that the reflections were not the real light? Even the appearance of “a thousand smaller lights” was a misperception. If you the reader had been there and looked beyond the reflection, you would have seen the actual light fixtures in the background.
Too, you would have understood that there was something even beyond that which was housing the light, namely, a form of energy. No one had to tell that energy how to behave in order for the light and reflections to appear. It just all happened automatically.
Recall that in the no-concept, non-dual reality, there is nothing “opposed to” anything else, but the terms “consciousness” and “awareness” are pointers used in explanations of energy manifested, energy not manifested, pure energy, corrupted energy, and energy unmanifested.
Know first, though, that since reality is non-dual, consciousness / awareness is not two, just as "I Am That / I Am" is not two. That said, “attributes” can nevertheless be pointed to for the sake of discussion and understanding.
In that analogy, the bulb temporarily Is because of human behavior, just as an act of friction involving two humans made possible the temporary Is-ness of the short-term manifestation of consciousness presently being called “you.” Because that bulb (consciousness) Is, the reflections seem to be.
Yet neither the consciousness (bulb) nor the perceived reflections are real; that is, neither are "that which is" permanent. The bulb (consciousness) will someday not be as the elements combined as the space called “a bulb” will return to the pool of universal elements.
When the consciousness (bulb) is manifested no more, then the reflections that only appear to be real will no longer be perceived at all. What remains? The energy that made possible the temporarily manifested consciousness (the lit bulb), which had made it possible for false reflections to seem real and which made it possible for the false “smaller lights” to seem real.
That which is behind and beyond the bulb—the awareness—allowed the consciousness to be temporarily manifested. The temporary manifestation of consciousness generated the temporary misperceptions.
Thus Krishna's pointer: "Those alone who understand that I (the Absolute) am beyond the states of being and non-being [can] realize my true nature; all others are fools."
Glue, Sticky and Stickiness
Understand that consciousness is just a particular “form” of awareness, made impure via programming, conditioning acculturation, etc. Awareness is the no-knower knowingness. consciousness can be either (a) the not knowing, as with persons, or (b) the knowing which is assumed to be known by a “knower.”
Another analogy might provide clarify for some seekers regarding the nature of reality (the THAT-ness) beyond realization (which can only happen during the AM-ness, the IS-ness). Take glue to represent consciousness and “stickiness” to be awareness.
Consider glue sticks. Happenings by humans can result in elements being combined and temporarily manifesting as glue sticks. Glue can be described as “sticky” but, ultimately, “stickiness” is why it can be sticky. Similarly, consciousness is the form of energy which allows conscious-of-ness to happen, but awareness is why the consciousness can happen. Glue is sticky—stickiness is why.
Similarly, too, consciousness is what facilitates knowing, but awareness is why the known can be known. (To extend the metaphor and the understanding, Awareness is the “stickiness” which allows the sticky glue of consciousness to happen. The sticky glue is temporary; "stickiness" is the nature of the glue that is eternal.)
So consider these analogies:
sticky glue : stickiness as
the known : the potential for knowingness as
consciousness : awareness
Realize that glue, while a temporary combination of physical elements, has no independent and eternal existence apart from that fundamental background of “stickiness.” Similarly, also, consciousness, while manifested via a temporary combination of physical elements, has no independent existence apart from its fundamental background of awareness.
Glue, even if not being used to adhere one thing to another, still retains its essence of stickiness. Even glue that is not gluing is still sticky. Like that, awareness is the “Fundamental Essence of Reality” and the actual identity of That which may (or may not) temporarily manifest. (It’s all a matter of chance.)
Stickiness is the fundamental essence of glue and is its actual identity when elements come together in a way that results in glue being manifest. Stickiness is the backdrop against which all individual forms of glue come about and adhere . . . by which adherence happens.
You might get all caught up in a gluing process, get glue on your hands, stick all sorts of things together accidentally, and experience all sorts of chaos and anxiety and misery that might ensue, but the nature of the glue—the stickiness—remains undisturbed.
"That which you are" is the “stickiness,” not the glue which can lead to such a mess when manifested. Only if abidance happens in that fashion can an undisturbed relative existence happen.
To continue with the analogy, the capacity for glue to be sticky existed prior to any elements coming together and “making” glue. As the conditions and elements came together and glue took a physical form, its essence of stickiness manifested. The possibility for stickiness to manifest predated the glue.
Consider glue sticks and Scotch tape and Post-It Notes. While manifested, they can each exhibit the “attribute” of being sticky; but the Laws of Thermodynamics are constantly activated, so at some point those elements will return to the universal pool of elements. Then, what remains? Not glue sticks or Scotch tape or Post-It Notes but only . . . certain elements and “stickiness.”
Now, please understand what can and what cannot happen with the Post-It Notes in order to understand what cycles and what does not. If you understand this, then you can be free of the belief in such nonsense as the Dalai Lama's claim that “New Orleans was struck by Hurricane Katrina because of the bad (that's dualistic) karma of the people.”
(Freakin’ absurd, but billions have been plagued with that speck of learned ignorance which he is passing on to newer generations.) If realized, you can also be free of belief in such dualistic nonsense as “You are going to cycle and cycle and cycle again, until you get it right.”
To continue: it could be that millions of old Post-It Notes might be processed through a pulper that chops the paper into small bits and then heats them in a mixture that breaks them down into fibrous strands of cullulose (which is merely organic plant material).
Then, the pulp can be screened and, if necessary, de-inked and color-stripped. After bleaching, the material can be processed in a manner that results in it again taking the form of paper which can once again take the form of Post-It Notes. But what really cycled?
The organic elements, not the same notes.
Can these newly-manifested Post-It Notes possibly be taken to be the same Post-It Notes that existed before? Of course not.
Will all Post-It Notes be recycled? No.
Can their “form” end permanently? Yes.
Can the organic material used to make paper be destroyed? No.
Apply that to “forms taking form” and to consciousness manifesting and unmanifesting.
If notes are recycled, it is the same organic material which can cycle into a form that can appear to be the same, but that material could as easily take the form and appearance of a legal pad, a magazine, or a book.
(That is how trillions upon trillions of “humans and animals and birds” have cycled into and out of manifested form on the planet while the planet has experienced zero-gain and zero-loss: organic material is merely being cycled, and it all happens with a speck of energy manifesting via plants.
In the relative, you are what you eat and nothing more. It happens spontaneously with no master-control or Master-control involved. With condolences to those who take themselves or their offspring to be “gifts from God,” what is really going on, and on-going, is a simple and natural organic happening, not a supernatural happening.)
Conscious-energy cycles (or not) in the same manner as the Post-It Notes. In the case of the legal pad, the magazine or the book, the attribute of "being sticky" would not happen, yet “stickiness” still remains though the original "sticky note paper" does not remain in its previous form.
(Dennis Waite makes this clear by noting that those who are impeccable with their words will talk of "tably wood," not of a "wooden table.")
Do you grasp fully the functioning of the totality? Do you understand completely what cycles, how it cycles, what does not cycle, what remains forever, and what is only temporarily manifested?
Similarly, “stickiness” exists, even after the elements that form the glue stick return to the original pool of elements. Glue, while manifested, is considered “sticky” as it adheres one thing to another (so it is dualistic in its very nature) but that which is independent and eternal is the glue's fundamental essence of “stickiness” (which is non-dual in its nature).
To review, 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, conditioned acculturated, etc.
Fundamentally, the glue is not separate from the stickiness. It is the glue’s root identity—pure, unconditioned stickiness, manifested, though temporarily. In fact, it is what the glue is, elements notwithstanding. (Understand what that pointer reveals about the “not two” and then it will be clear that the phrase “I AM THAT; I AM” actually points to the unicity.)
The glue has a molecular structure that is in motion, moving while manifested, active, bonding, etc. Stickiness transcends both movement and stillness. Glue is conscious of since ”this” is forming a bond with “that,” so manifested consciousness must involve duality; stickiness, to the contrary, is non-dual. Realize that glue has no independent existence apart from its fundamental background of stickiness.
Ultimately, stickiness cannot be defined and cannot know itself. It just is. From it emanates the ability of elements to combine and to be called “glue” and to bond. So it is with consciousness manifesting via a space of elements that can be called “humans” who “bond.” But wherever glue appears, it is really just a reflection of its inherent stickiness, though the manifested glue is not itself the stickiness.
The glue may be gluing or not, but the stickiness still Is. It never ceases to be and makes possible all sticking that might or might not happen. When glue is gluing, there is a consciousness of—of the other molecules being bonded with.
“Sticking” happens as a property of the elements and the way they function when combined in a certain manner, but there is no continuity to the manifested form of the glue. “Stickiness” happens with continuity beyond that physical combination. Glue is time-bound and space-bound. Stickiness is not.
Glue is a product of elements that have combined, originally protein colloids made from the tissue of animals. Proteins, such as milk and egg yolk, can be used to “make” glue, but glue is not being “created.” Already-existing elements are merely entering into temporary combination. Proteins are often long, branching, stringy chains of molecules, and those molecules can be mixed into liquids to “make” glue.
Chemical bonds form between molecules and intermolecular forces work spontaneously. Such is the case with elements combining temporarily to “make” bodies. Nothing is really being made. Temporary combinations are happenings.
As with awareness / consciousness, stickiness is the essence that makes the glue capable of doing what glue does. (The glue is certainly not a “do-er,” so whatever happens merely happens automatically.) To compare, sugar is elemental; sweetness is not. It is the essence of the sugar.
A child eating a candy bar does not care about the elements but is simply enjoying the essence. That is the way the manifestation unfolds post-realization as well, and that is the way that bliss can be enjoyed as well.
As in the case when that which is taken to be a “human” is believed to have “died,” you can burn glue so it no longer retains its physical attributes; however, stickiness (the essence) cannot be destroyed.
The stickiness in not the glue—it is what makes sticking possible when glue is manifested. Glue can be conscious of stickiness, conceptually. That is known because molecules bond with other molecules and “stick” and that process can be observed.
However, it is the pure stickiness by which all gluing happens, by which molecules can be conscious of molecules. The stickiness is behind all of the sticking that happens when the glue is manifest. The stickiness does not “make” the glue, but it makes gluing possible, temporarily.
To label stickiness as glue is a misperception. Stickiness is the essence, not the material. Thus, to look in the mirror and to say, “this is me” is a lie. I Am the essence, not the temporary combination of elements.
Stickiness is unchanging and changeless. Glue is changing. Stickiness does not act and is not conscious of molecules. Stickiness just is. Glue is conscious of something, so “this” clings to “that.” That involves duality, as exists when consciousness manifests. Stickiness is not aware. Stickiness does not act.
That involves non-duality. Glue acts in the relative existence. It is dual in its nature. This is the difference between the stickiness which is not conscious of and the gluing process wherein conscious of happens.
Stickiness is the awareness that glue’s consciousness is in, meaning that stickiness exists and “makes it possible” for glue’s consciousness of something else to happen whenever there is an object . . . that is, when there is something to be “conscious of” and to stick to.
Glue is about duality; stickiness is non-dual.
Stickiness knows no thing, but manifested in the space called “glue,” it allows the glue to be conscious of other molecules and to stick. Distortions happen when the common essence is ignored and all kinds of glue are considered to be different and separate and better than other types:
fabric glue, super glue, wood glue, rubber cement, hot-melt glue, epoxy resin glue, acrylic cement, etc. They look different, but all are merely combinations of elements that share a common essence of stickiness.
The stickiness, the essence, of glue is simply everything about it, independent of the question of existence as a group of elements that have temporarily combined. After all the elements are no longer combined, the essence—the stickiness—remains in the background. The essence, or stickiness, of glue does not depend on anything else:
it does not depend on any elements, it does not depend on whether the glue had manifested or not, it in non-dependent, period. So it is among the realized. The essence is non-dual. Stickiness is the intrinsic, non-dual nature of the glue.
Such is the case with sticky glue sticks representing the consciousness and stickiness representing awareness.
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
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THE EXPLANATION
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"No one shall ever see 'the kingdom of heaven.' It is within"
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"Heaven and earth shall fade away."
and
"Heaven and hell are not geographic places
"There is no hell."
