TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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CONSCIOUSNESS and AWARENESS
An Overview of Consciousness / Awareness
All is matter or energy. Neither matter nor energy can be created nor destroyed. Both have always been and always shall be; moreover, consciousness nor awareness nor anything else was created by anyone, so it most assuredly was not created by any “Supreme One.”
Just as a mirage is a phenomenonal manifestation which can seemingly be witnessed by the naked eye, that which it appears to be can vary from one witness to the next. The identification of what a mirage is remains open to interpretation, depending upon the imaginings of the observer of the image.
In the end, though, it really is just an image. The same happens when consciousness is perceived by the naked eye and is imagined to be something that it is not, such as “I am this body.”
Does the body / space / form play a role in the manifestation process? Of course, but with no more significance than the space or form known as “a plant” plays a role in the manifestation process.
Thus Maharaj’s point that “the seat of consciousness is in every particle of the juice of the body.” The body can be perceived, just as a mirage can be seen, but that does not mean that either is what it is perceived to be. Both are frauds, images only.
To view a so-called brick via use of an electron microscope allows the viewer to see that a so-called brick looks nothing like what it appears to look like with the naked eye. It can be seen to be a swirling masses of subatomic particles moving about within a space.
Thus, while seekers at one level can be told that “Consciounsess is all there is,” at this highest level, another understanding is presented: that which is perceived is not That Which is Real, and even That Which is perceiving is not “the Real,” either.
Maharaj explained that "the realized" understand that the “world,” indeed the entire “universe,” exists in consciousness alone; but since that which persons take to be “this world” or “the universe” is not the reality that it is taken to be via consciousness, then consciousness is the perpetrator of myths as well.
If “the world” which the “I Am” takes to be its “place of existence” is a lie, then the “I am” is also a lie.
Since neither “the world” nor “the universe” is real, both only seem to appear in consciousness. Understanding that, the realized take their stand in the Absolute.
In the Absolute, no consciousness of the “I-Amness” or the “Beingness” or the “Is-ness” happens. In the Absolute, there are neither thoughts nor words nor deeds. The Absolute is prior to all of that . . . is prior to consciousness manifesting.
Recall that Maharaj said, “Understand, then, that it is this conscious presence that you are, so long as the body is there" [and only while the body is there and housing as well as circulating consciousness / conscious-energy].
Once a body is gone, along with the vital breath, conscious-energy will also leave that space. Only that which was prior to the appearance of a body-cum-consciousness (namely, the Absolute, the ever-present) is as close to any “identity” that can be pointed too for the sake of discussion only, though anything deemed to be an actual identity is a bogus concept.
The closest that anyone can come to answering "Who or what are we, really?" would be to say, "Humans are all a temporarily-manifested “composite unity," and that three-part composite consists of . . .
(1) a temporarily-united conglomeration of plant food elements which form a body which provides a space wherein food and air and energy are all being circulated and replaced regularly. Such cycling requires the consumption of plant cell food which can be converted into human cells in order to replace cells which come and go constantly.
(For example, plant cells which were converted into skin cells among humans are replaced constantly, minute-by-minute and second-by-second. Every 28 days, the skin will have been replaced entirely and humans will “dust” their furniture and other items in their home to clear out the dead skin cells.)
That is reality. It is here and now. Where is the question of anyone "reaching for it?"
(2) Next, a composite unity also consists of air / oxygen which is constantly being circulated throughout the space of a body, just as are skin cells on the surface of the body, just as are the cells forming a stomach lining within the body, etc.)
(3) Especially relevant for this discussion is the fact that consciousness / conscious-energy is also cycling into and out of the body and the space formed within. That is another reason why humans must consume plant food (or must consume something which consumed plants in order to receive a "secondhand, less concentrated dose" of cells which can be converted into human cells, skin cell, stomach lining cells, etc.)
So many seekers (and all non-seekers) are totally confused. Seekers are often misled to believe that the specks of consciousness which originally manifested within the space of the body of an infant is permanently manifested and includes the same specks of consciousness which were manifested at the moment of passing from a “birth” canal and which have supposedly remained in place since then. Wrong!
Consciousness comes and goes. It is introduce into the body via the consumption of plant food. Stop eating plant food and the consciousness will slowly fade away, explaining why Yeshu’a said that “heaven and earth will fade away.” Why? Because they are dreamed up concepts stored in the mind, and when the manifested supply of conscious-energy stored in the body slowly ends when the consumption of food ends, any concepts / beliefs stored in the mind will also fade away).
As for the transfer of conscious-energy via the consumption of plant food, one scientist explained, "What drives life is thus a little electric current set up by the sunshine." (Science also makes clear that consciousness and awareness are functions of an electrical current in the brain. A doctor or technician can perform an EEG to show you the evidence of that fact.)
What is the guaranteed fate of every composite unity? At some point, and this applies to everything, what has come together will come apart. (See the Second Law of Thermodynamics and then see the relevant pointer from Maharaj: “Someday, science will advance to the point that it will prove the validity of all pointers which are truly non-dual.”)
Once consciousness manifests, it is soon blocked or contaminated via contaminate programming, conditioning, etc. If the mind is purged of all learned ignorance and is purged of belief in any and all concepts, then the original nature as existed in the Absolute state (in the pure, unadulterated, unambiguous state) will allow for the understanding of both the “I AM” and the “THAT-ness.
That can happen only among the fully realized after transcendence of the consciousness has occurred. Why? Because consciousness is also dualistic in nature: "something is conscious of something else."
Yet prior to full realization, prior to the total unblocking of the blocked consciousness so that a clear perspective can manifest in every regard, humans are not yet capable of being aware of all truth; are not able to differentiate the true for the false; are not capable of understanding fully the oneness; and are not capable of understanding the functioning of the totality.
The “pure, universal consciousness” is the prerequisite for the manifestation of awareness which can provide a clear perspective; which can allow humans to be aware of the differences in the true and the false; which can allow humans to then be aware of all truth; which can allow humans to understand fully the oneness; and which can allow humans to understand the functioning of the totality.
Realization is simply the state of being fully free of all taught and learned ignorance. Prior to full realization, Maharaj made clear that “Awareness is not aware of its awareness.” How dissociated was he from body identification? While that space was in the throes of the physical pain of debilitating cancer, he said, “I told the consciousness, ‘It is you who is suffering, not I’.”
Only
when abidance happens as the Absolute can (a) not only the understanding of the
oneness come but (b) what also can come is freedom from beliefs which are always dualistic
in their nature.
Beyond SELF-Realization
If it is understood how the consciousness is corrupted among humans after it manifests, then it also becomes understood why seekers need a guide (or a guidebook with clear-cut directions, or both). As a basis for understanding consciousness / awareness, see why the seeker must be shown a path which need not allow seekers to “Realize Self” or to find some “Infinite SELF” or “Supreme SELF” but will - more importantly per Maharaj - allow seekers to understand all that they are not.
"The Final Understanding" involves this:
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 consciousness / conscious-energy manifests in the space called “a human,” programming, conditioning, acculturation, etc. soon lead to the consciousness being contaminated, conditioned, impure, adulterated, and ambiguous.
That contaminating process results in multiple degrees of separation from both "reality" and "Reality," including a degree of being separated from awareness of that which the consciousness truly is and from awareness of its original, unadulterated nature.
Certain steps are involved in the-gradual-bastardization-of-the-consciousness process, so certain steps of re-purification must also happen if the consciousness is to be restored to its natural, non-dual, no-concept, unadulterated state.
Only after realization (that is, after being freed from all belief in all learned ignorance) can the next level happen, which is the level where abidance happens not merely as the (re-purified) consciousness but as the Absolute wherein the consciousness is no longer contaminated, conditioned, impure, adulterated, and ambiguous.
This is often missed: even “SELF-Realization is not “the goal.” Being able to abide in a realized (that is, in a non-ignorance-and-non-stupidity-and-non-insanity-driven fashion) for the remainder of the manifestation is “the goal.”
Even those abiding as the re-purified consciousness will experience instability since all manifested 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.”
True lies 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 and which witnesses in a pure manner.
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, all that having been said, the basic pointer is this: in the no-concept, non-dual Reality, there is no "one thing as opposed to some other thing"; therefore, the "realized non-dualist" understands that the summative phrase "I AM THAT; I AM" can be stated and understood without any sense of duality at all. So can “consciousness / awareness.”
A seeker asked, “Isn't consciousness all there is?” Yes, if you want to accept that there are levels of consciousness ranging from “pure and unadulterated” to “totally corrupted” and that there are modalities of consciousness ranging from “manifested” or “not manifested.”
Then you would consider some levels of consciousness to be “pure and unmanifested” and some levels of consciousness to be “manifest and soon-to-be corrupted.”
Next, you would likely speak of “the THAT state” as opposed to “the I AM state.” If you take that stance, then you would also have to conclude that “sugar” and “sweetness” (or “glue” and “stickiness”) are the same.
In the no-concept, non-dual “Reality,” the key point is that an understanding of awareness / consciousness is only “relevant” if it guides seekers to the total freedom (during the relative existence) which manifests if abidance happens not as the consciousness but as the unadulterated awareness (which was “the original nature “in” the Absolute prior to manifestation when neither being conscious-of anything nor aware-of anything was the case).
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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THE EXPLANATION
Yeshu'a (Jesus) and Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis were spot on:
"No one shall ever see 'the kingdom of heaven.' It is within"
and
"Heaven and earth shall fade away."
and
"Heaven and hell are not geographic places
"There is no hell."
