CONSCIOUSNESS IS, Part Two

FROM A SITE VISITOR: there’s all these contradictions, the part I don’t get is “there’s only consciousness” but at the same time “in the Absolute state there is no one to be consciousness of anything.” Then Maharaj talked about “even in the sleep state the consciousness still is conscious” but at the same time “even in the Absolute state there is consciousness or awareness but no one to be aware of it.” Then, “neither matter nor energy can be created nor destroyed” but “this is finite while that is infinite.” Help! BraD

F.: So an attribute of conscious-energy is an ability to be conscious of, and that can happen whether manifested via a space called a “plant,” a “bird,” a “human,” an “animal” or even if not manifested at all. Too often this is not understood: consciousness is, whether it is conscious of itself or not, yet it must be conscious of something to be consciousness. You might say, “I understand that conscious-energy can be conscious of itself if manifested in a space with a nervous system, but how—if unmanifested—can consciousness be 'conscious of' something without being conscious of itself?” To understand, consider the functioning of the subatomic particles of an atom:

One attribute of the subatomic particles at the core of atoms—the electrons, protons and neutrons—is that they are conscious of each other and function spontaneously in certain ways in relationship to each other…as do atoms as well. Electrons are conscious of a nucleus and swirl around it as if the two are dancing some subatomic dance together that is resulting from their “magnetic attraction” to each other. (The notion of manifested consciousness that the natural way for humans to behave when the consciousness is manifested via a “human space”—namely, to relate, to interact, to bond, and to break bonds, etc.—is subatomic in its nature.)

It’s all automatic, it’s all happening spontaneously, and it's all natural. No one teaches the electron to revolve around the nucleus…it’s natural. No one need teach humans to be "attracted to" each other; no one needs to teach a human to masturbate; no one needs teach two humans or two birds or two mammals to fornicate. It’s all natural. Only the bastardized “mind” (filled with all of its dualistic nonsense and the arrogant belief among persons that they have the right to manage the conduct of other humans and to control the bodies of others) will teach persons that it is unnatural to do what is natural: “Our dogma teaches that you can be supernatural (that is, super spiritual) if you do not do what is natural, because we believe that some natural things are actually unnatural!” Such a teaching provides an excellent example of how persons can be stripped of logic, how the consciousness can be programmed and corrupted, and how persons will end up behaving as fools.

Are you seeing how asleep persons are when programmed by their “leaders”? They can actually be taught that something which is completely natural is unnatural, they will then believe that something which is natural is unnatural, and then they will try their best thereafter to avoid behaving naturally. And in that process, they will be convinced that they are pleasing some supernatural entity by unnaturally avoiding the natural. That kind of learned ignorance, which bastardizes the consciousness and which thrives on blind faith, can produce either a nation of repressed, uptight and hypocritical persons or “an army of god” whose members are masochistic, sadistic, and suicidal. Such is the relative existence toll of corrupted consciousness and duality…and the subsequent unawareness of awareness.

Now, note the other ways that electrons reveal that they are conscious of: they can play a role in establishing chemical bonds, “A” being conscious of “B” and bonding with it. An ion from one atom can be transferred to another atom as all involved are conscious of each other. Electrons can also be shared between two or more atoms, so an electron in one atom can be conscious of other atoms, can interact with them, and can bond with them.

Is any “one” directing an electron’s behavior or orchestrating the way it conducts itself in relation to other particles about it? Of course not. Is consciousness present? Obviously. An electron can be conscious of an object (in this example, the nucleus around which it is spinning). Is any “one” present within the atomic substructure to be conscious of a subatomic particle’s consciousness of other particles? No. Even though no “one” is present to be conscious of consciousness, is consciousness present nevertheless? Obviously, yes.

At this very moment, there is a field of energy that can be called “the absolute” in which acts of consciousness are happening even without any self-consciousness. Take that to be a “pool” of energy or an “ocean” of energy or a “field” of energy or a “system” of energy. It doesn’t matter what term is used to point to that field, but know that it is limitless and infinite and boundless and omnipresent. Understand that transferences of energy can and do happen between a “system” of energy and adjacent regions and understand that energy can also undergo transformations.

Thus, energy moves in wave or particle form "into" the field, throughout the field, and (sometimes) "out of" the field and manifests. In the meantime, the consciousness is still consciousness and is still conscious of, even though it is not conscious of itself when not manifested in some space with a nervous system. Compare that to the manner in which consciousness functions as it operates your heart and lungs even during your "unconscious" state of sleep. You are not conscious of your self, but the consciousness is conscious of. That is a natural function, not taught and not learned. AS IF living happens exactly like that.

Also, see the examples on planet earth of such energy transferences and energy transformations: sunlight can strikes a human in a non-usable form, but if it strikes a plant, then the process of photosynthesis will transform that energy into a form that is usable by humans. That "transference" and "transformation" process facilitates the manifestation of consciousness. (See “photosynthesis,” July 31, 2005; August 13, 2005; December 23, 2005; May 24 and 26, 2006; August 26, 2006; December 8, 2006; February 26, 2007; March 24, 2007.) The ability of energy to undergo transformation and transference sets the stage for (a) a plant to transform energy which (b) can be consumed and can thus (c) be transferred and transformed within a human space. Yes, "We Are what we eat." Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]

“MIND” and MEMORIES: When Nature’s “Assets” Become Warped into “Liabilities,” Part Seventeen

[Continued from yesterday]

F.: Personality Type Eights can eventually exhibit the Anti-Social Personality Disorder (ASPD) when they become stressed, overly-pious, highly-spiritual, or role-players, along with a God Complex Disorder.

See earlier entries for information on all except the ASPD. Those with the ASPD have little or no regard for the rights of others, the feelings of others, or for any of society’s norms and rules and laws. That “me vs. them” mentality fosters duality. ASPD’s are typically quite impulsive, have limited feelings and little empathy, and have little regard for the consequences of their actions. They are especially deceitful and thus quite effective at conning people. They are irritable and aggressive and irresponsible while being able to rationalize and justify all of their conduct.

Personality Type Nines can eventually exhibit the DID Personality Disorder and the Dependent Personality Disorder and the Schizoid Personality Disorder along with a God Complex Personality Disorder when they become stressed, overly-pious, or identified with a spiritualized ego or any other role.

All of the disorders experienced among Nines have been discussed above except for DID. DID (or Multiple Personality Disorder) has been discussed thoroughly in earlier postings that can be reviewed: search January 24, 2007 as well as February 11, 17, 18, 19, 2007.

So, the Advaitin understands that personality identification comes from a twisted and warped “mind” and that almost all relative existence suffering and misery stem from personality. As reported by the APA, the defects that result from personality have nothing to do with mental illness. Trained professionals are required to assist the 1%-5% with clinical mental illnesses. A Realized teacher could guide the remaining 95%-99% to freedom from personality disorders if that 95%-99% recognized that they were suffering from such disorders and truly wanted to be totally free of the effects. Yet few will ever understand their disorders, and fewer still will be willing to discard all that must be discarded in order to be truly free and joyous.

The modern understanding of personality disorders discussed above support the ancient pointers that have been offered by Advaitin teachers for centuries as they have recommended detaching from personality identification and then Realizing fully. Review the following summary of the relative existence results of personality identification and the subsequent personality disorders:

Obsessing; playing god; perfectionism; judging; criticizing; financial problems; relationship problems; arrogance; depression; instability; emotional intoxication; distorted self-images; hysteria; an exaggerated sense of self-importance; a sense of superiority; grandiosity; a sense of entitlement; using others; lacking empathy; envy; blind faith; childish behavior among adults; and egotism.

Next, an understanding of the personality types—and the obstacles to Realization that are generated by each personality—can reveal why so few will ever Realize. 50% of the earth’s populations are Type Sixes. When Sixes are programmed with dogma, as nearly 99% on the planet are, they will remain loyal to those beliefs, unquestioningly, and will accept what they have been told. Why? Being fear-based, they become trapped by their programmers’ threat: “If you do not have faith in what we say or if you doubt any part of it at all, you will be punished and you will suffer now and forevermore.” Therefore, the tally of those who will never be enlightened starts with that 50% who most likely will never give up their beliefs in dogma and nonsense. In an essay on his website, Mark McCloskey had this to say about “faith”:

Faith is a crutch that humans have used for millennia as a way to explain the unexplainable….” (On August 9, 2006 on this site, a similar reference was made to religious leaders who have historically dreamed up “concepts and ideas and teachings and beliefs that were used to convey false and supernatural explanations for events that were totally natural happenings.” Such is the essence of childish, magical thinking. Only if you mistakenly believe that an imagined “world” is real will you also be required to mistakenly believe that an imagined god—who was actually “created” by man in man’s image—is real.)

McCloskey continues, “If you stay with a crutch when you do not need it, you can become lame by reason of the crutch itself. The crutch must be abandoned, thrown away and then you can walk freely again….” He says, “Faith or any belief system as a whole is the final hurdle to overcome in the human path towards freedom and joy. Let me say it on a very personal level. Until you, as a human being, are able to completely abandon what you believe, have been told or taught what to believe or believe in, you will never experience this moment of reality as it is. You will never be fully free. You will be conditioned to experience present reality through a veil of the past…. This is not a joke, not any agnostic or atheistic principle. I am trying to point you to your own total human freedom to be able to live in this world joyfully….”

Sixes are especially prone to use the crutch that Mark speaks of, though all nine types can be programmed very easily. They will blindly and unquestioningly accept whatever they are told by anyone whom they take to be a “religious, spiritual, or political leader.” Relatedly, most Type Threes will live as a Six at times, exhibiting the Six’s blind loyalty to belief systems while being dedicated to image-building. By sheer numbers, most on the planet are living under the influence of a Three-Six personality. Threes are more interested in creating false images and maintaining those false images, actually believing that their images are real. With the preponderance of the Three-Six in the earth’s population, the majority on the planet will live like conditioned children, remaining loyal to whatever they were taught (Type Six) and always fighting to maintain image and always rejecting any invitation to get in touch with reality (Type Three).

Other types also face obstacles to enlightenment: Type Eights are prone to attach to supernatual beliefs since they think that such beliefs are another means to accumulating power (and thus control); therefore, they are not likely to abandon magical thinking and then Realize. Nines attach to the images that they use to manipulate others to take care of them. Two’s create a loving image in order to obtain what they think they lack and will attach to that image. Like Three’s, they are always “on stage.” Sevens have little desire to face reality and prefer to escape instead. Is it becoming clear why personality is a major hindrance to Realization?

Of all of the nine basic personality types, only Fours are geared toward the search for authenticity, toward attainment of a sense of unity, and toward the quest to discover the True Self, but Fours only account for about 1% of the earth’s population. As for Realizing fully, their dilemma lies in the fact that they are less prone to logic and more prone to seeing the dualities in the relative existence and seeking the “beautiful,” the “moral,” the “romantic,” or the “harmonious.”

So, the conundrum should now be obvious: the “mind” and personality must be abandoned to Realize, but persons value the “mind” and identify with personality; thus, both continue to be the great obstacles to Realization. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [Tomorrow: The Conclusion] For additional information about the book which these extracts are being drawn from (There's No Such Thing As "Peace of Mind") click

here

COMING NEXT: A RIVER THAT FLOWS INTO THE OCEAN OF REALITY

DOERS, “THE MIND” & OTHER MIRAGES, Part Four

[Continued from yesterday]
V.: Even though its intellectually understood that the one who is fearing his own absence is a non-existent entity, the fear is still there.

F.: Again, the words reveal that it is not the re-purified consciousness that is speaking but—by your use of the word “intellectually”—you reveal more of your “mind” stuff. That comment comes from the second step level. Though this is a seven-step "journey," you continue to hover around steps one and two...around body and mind identification. You likely visit step three at times (assuming a spiritual and/or religious persona) but you are unable to transition that persona and continue the "journey" to its completion. Why? As with all ego-states and false identities, "The Spiritual One" loves his role, and he especially loves that role since his entire culture dualistically agrees that it is a "good" role...not a "bad" role.

To see how out of touch with reality that “I” is—the “I” who is speaking—restate your comment with accuracy: Even if a mirage could intellectually understand that it is fearing its own absence when the sun sets, and even if the mirage knows that it’s just a mirage, the fear being felt by the mirage would still be there. If in touch with Reality, it would be understood that a mirage is a mirage and that a mirage can know nothing. It would be seen that it would be totally insane to believe that any fear being generated by a mirage is real.

It would be seen that it is totally insane for a relative existence to happen in the style of a mime…pretending that he’s trapped in a box that does not even exist. It would be seen that it would be totally insane for the mime to play “The Mime Role” for so long that he eventually begins to believe that he really is trapped and that the box he’s in is real. It would be so simple for the non-insane to see the conditioned mime’s self-delusion and insanity. What is complicated is the maze of lies called the “mind.” It is the attachment that persons have to the fictional "mind" that prevents the insane from seeing that they are insane and prevents them from understanding that their insanity is sustained by their unquestioning faith and their naive belief in what persons have told them. Seeing all of Reality is simple. Seeing all of the lies is more challenging. Understand that Reality is observable from within but that lies all come from without.

V.: How to overcome and find the courage to be what one truely always is?

F.: For some, seeing the price of not knowing What One Truly Is can inspire an undertaking of, or completion of, the entire “journey.” Some finally tire of the silly games, of the unmet desires, of the imaginary (but seemingly real) fears, of the instability of their cycles of being happy and unhappy, of the mental and emotional pain and suffering. However, since persons have been conditioned to have a high tolerance for pain (and have been conditioned to walk about in their sleep and generate even more pain), few ever attain freedom from the programming and conditioning and enculturation and corruption of the consciousness. Thus, they will walk about the planet in their dreams, they will play their phony roles in The Drama of the Lie, they will generate chaos by emoting, and they will prefer the sleep-like stupor of boredom in order not to have to feel anything associated within the insane “world” that they imagine is real.

Therefore, they just stay in their pain or their stupor, even as they deny their pain or their stupor. For most, the “path” can only be followed when clearly marked. Yes, a guide can point the way, but so many who claim “The Guide Role” have never completed the “journey” and believe at dawn that they are standing beneath the noonday sun. The book FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE marks the way clearly by identifying the seven steps, in their exact order, that are required for Realization to happen. Only via step-by-step instructions can persons avoid the thousands of useless steps now being taken, steps which are nothing more than distractions and which bog persons down with doingness. All that doingness merely reinforces the false sense of a “do-er,” resulting in this closed loop: the imaginary do-er believes in his/her doingness, then his/her doingness reinforces the illusion of a do-er. Being trapped in that cycle inspires persons to run about in a circle and thus prevents completion of the “journey” that requires the following of the direct "path."

V.: The notorious Ego even tries to make use of this understanding that \"one never exists\".

F.: The irony of the ego is this: as long as the “I”—the “ego”—is taken to be real, the influence of that illusion (which is generated by the corrupted consciousness) will prevent the re-purification of the consciousness. The ego’s quest is to convince the false self—and all other false selves—that it is that which is real. Thus, any effort to tell a “Husband”—who is dependent on “Wife” for his very existence—that he is not a “Husband” at all is a consideration that will be spurned like a mangy cur. The invitation is to see that a mirage can have no power over the sane nor any influence among the sane; however, if one swerves his car off the road and over a cliff to avoid a mirage in the road ahead, the effect of the mirage in the relative existence will certainly seem real enough and powerful enough and influential enough to a programmed bystander. Conversely, the Realized will see a mirage for the mirage that it is and will sail along peacefully down the road, unaffected at all by the illusions that seem to appear before the eyes and that are taken by the non-Realized to be real.

V.: (please excuse me, badly feeling the need of question-answer sessions and physical presence of someone who is stabilized in the Absolute)

F.: No excuse need be requested or extended in reply. This type of happening is what happens on this site and is what shall continue until the consciousness is no longer manifested or no longer speaks. On the other hand, if you still don't "get it" after this set of free pointers, spring for the cost of the guidebook. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]
FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS: Out of town. Please visit the archives.