The Metaphysics of Consciousness: Intro to the Upcoming Book

A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive. (Albert Einstein, 1954)

Intro

Everything is conscious. Consciousness differs though to the degree to which it expresses itself; meaning to what degree is it consciously employed and subsequently made manifest.  Consciousness is employed and thus executed through the conscious force manifesting its will. Consider the movement within the conscious mind of a human to make decisions to bolster his or her life.  Furthermore, seemingly “non conscious” entities of existence exhibit qualities of consciousness because, as we will see, within everything is a creative life driving force that perpetuates its own existence.  Consider the plant that exhibits movement in attempt to sequester as much nutrient and sun from the environment as it can.  Everything is inherently connected when we consider the phenomena that this creative life driving force is the force that sustains all of existence through the perpetuation of the “life platform.”  Consider the movements of celestial bodies, such as the sun, the earth, and the greater cosmos as a whole.  Without the existence and subsequent movement of these celestial bodies life as we know it would not exist.  With all this in mind isn’t it probable then that the celestial bodies that constitute the heavens, in some incomprehensible way [to the degree to which we are currently conscious], become manifest so too allow for the platform too which consciousness came to know itself and thus evolve?  As we will discover life is magical for it is, in totality, beyond our conscious perception.  Yet, that does not mean that we are not striving to consciously evolve to step into and thus become that magic.  We are.  That is the point here…Too expand, and to greater degrees come to know and witness life.

This book is about understanding the relationship of consciousness to life and the varying degrees in which consciousness becomes manifest.  This book is about realizing that the more conscious the conscious individual becomes of consciousness itself a progression takes place.  The more conscious the person become of the “life force” within the more able the person becomes at manifesting a reality to which they desire.  I like to think of this as the expansion and progression of consciousness.  I am eluding to the fact that humans, as they become "evolved" and progress, they become more able to shape reality in a way too which we thought was not possible.  In a sense human consciousness has enabled us to discover and implement many great advances to which seem “unnatural.”  In this it seems as if we have progressed and evolved further than the nature we find around us.  Yet as we go on in this book, we will see that this egoic conception of human consciousness is what has caused us too separate ourselves from nature and thus create a dual state.  The renaissance of human consciousness expansion is about connecting back with the natural wisdom of the Earth.  Pairing archaic wisdom with conventional wisdom is what moving out of duality and into the new era of humanity is all about.  This is what the Ascension that is upon us is all about.

Consciousness, as it is defined today, is defined as 1) the state of being awake and aware of one’s surrounding and 2) the awareness or perception of something by a person.  Both definitions focus on the self-reflective type of consciousness that is found in a human.  Humans have the profound, yet often taken for granted ability, to be aware of their own awareness.  As well as being self-reflective beings we are also are very much “left brain” beings.  Linear reasoning such as logic, rationality, mathematic executions and language functions such as grammar and vocabulary are often times functions of the left hemisphere of the brain.  In contrast, artistic ability, creativity, and sensitivity are often functions of the right hemisphere of the brain.  As far as humans go, consciousness becomes fully integrated when both the left and the right hemispheres of the brain function equally.  This alludes to pairing both archaic and conventional wisdom that I just spoke about.  Yet as it stands currently our society has developed in such a way that conditions us to develop an over reliance on left-brain functioning.  This development has stunted our perceptual awareness in many ways.

Due to social conditioning and reliance on a left-hemisphere type of conscious expression we are, to a degree, cut off from our ability to register another sentient being’s consciousness, sensitivity, and or perception.  We have also, on a collective level, become desensitized to aspects of creation on a grander scale.  The consciousness of a celestial body [i.e. the Earth], or that of the universe as a whole goes un-noticed.  Unlike our ancestors that worshiped and subsequently communicated with other seemingly non-living entities of existence we have become desensitized to this sort of activity.  As we function now, at least on a collective level, we tend not too “register” other aspects of universal, earthly, or sentient consciousness as being self-reflective and or “advanced” in any way.  We either 1) perceive another sentient beings consciousness as inferior [e.g. that dogs are less conscious and aware than humans] or 2) we disregard “non-living” entities as even having the ability to be conscious [i.e. the earth, water, or a forest]. 

What I propose in this book is that consciousness is the all-encompassing energy of creation itself.  Consciousness is this energy that we can not only sense but also realize as our own and thus communicate with it as it extends to realms seemingly beyond us.  Consciousness, the energy that moves evolution, is a phenomenon that exists to infinite degrees.  From the seemingly inert rock, to the seemingly unintentional movement of dark matter, to the deliberate intent of the human being, consciousness is expressing itself.  Therefore when we look at consciousness in this way we expand on the conventional ways in which we define consciousness.

This book will explore consciousness to greater degrees and observe how we can become not only more sensitive to aspects of our own consciousness but also how we can expand our sensitivity of other realms of existence and thus understand the connective force general to life.  In this way we will understand consciousness not only rationally and execute perception from this domain of awareness as we typically do, but we will learn to become more sensitive to consciousness and expand our experiential perception of the “oneness,” and thus execute a life that is more aligned with the greater divine.  When we live our lives more attuned with the movement of consciousness itself we become a human conscious beacon of divine creation itself to infinitely higher degrees.  We become more experientially focused as opposed to just being conceptually focused.  This is how we will partake in consciousness evolution on an individual scale thus facilitating the greater ascension process that is under going at the collective level.  We will witness our connection to the greater divine through our consciousness and thus enable ourselves to live in sync with life.  Instead of living life with all the challenges and turmoil that is often apparent to left-hemisphere dominated living [egoic living], we will discover the ability to step into consciousness itself and thus realize the fact that we are and were always divine, connected, and unified.  Therein lies the key too the human dilemma.  This is how consciousness evolution and the subsequent ascension leads too liberation, freedom, and peace.

Freedom From Ourselves

We all want to know how to be the best version of ourselves.  We want the world outside of us, the world that "happens to us" to be nothing but wonderful.  We all want to be loved.  We all want to be appreciated.  We all want to be a success.  We all want answers.   Essentially, what we are all seeking, to various degrees, is a sense of self that makes us feel complete and subsequently "free."  This desire to be "free," to feel as if we are moving towards settling all the inner and outer desires of our life, is what, we believe, pushes us to become who we desire to be.  But how are we to be "free" if we are always pursuing something?  How are we to be free if we always desire something?  It is only human to desire, right?  It is only human to keep pursuing, right?  Let's look into this...

Our anxieties, our self-incrimination, our self doubt, our feeling of lack all derive from something so simple...

Through the conditioning of our culture we push and push and push to reach some sort of inner and outer achievement, acquisition, or status too where we feel fulfilled.  Our freedom than becomes dependent upon our accomplishments or some specific status we desire to achieve.  We say to ourselves... "I will be a good man, unburdened, when I do such in such"..."I will be a great woman when I find the way to calm my heart."  Freedom, in this state, is contingent upon the success of the goal we seek to accomplish.  Seemingly, we are "more free" from the burden of ourselves, of the inner self that judges, when we can cross off our personal checklist that too which we desire to do, have, or become.  But let us examine the logic in all of this.  If we are trying to work backwards, attempting to negate the desire born from within by accomplishing something...from where do we start?  The answer is that we have been conditioned to believe that we will always have something to which we seek to achieve in order to achieve some "better" status of who we are.  Subsequently, we always feel as if we have something missing in our lives...we will than always feel as if there is some gap between who we are now and who we believe we are to become.

Please be aware...If we are conditioned to find freedom in doing, having, and or becoming...how are we ever to be free?  This game of always having to do, be, or accomplish something is never ending, is it not?  You say you will be free when you attain such and such amount of money in your bank account, you say you will be free when you run off too your piece of land, you say you will be when you find love etc., but the mind that is always chasing freedom in pursuits and accomplishments is simply that...chasing...and is a mind that is always chasing peaceful and at ease? 

{As a side note, can we see how the entire consumer society is based upon this conditioned principle?  Are we not feed, in a conscious sense, a seemingly infinite amount of advertisement that tells us what to desire, tells us how to behave, tells us how to love, how to eat, how to have fun etc.?  We are taught to seek freedom in our indulgences, but how free are we if we are tethered to gratifying something that is in a perpetual state of desire, that something being the conditioned ego?

Where did this sense of indulgence that we feel even come from?  Is this something innately human or is it something that is conditioned into us?  I will leave you to answer that, but question this...would money exist in a "free" society, would "better" and "worse" exist in a free society, would "rich" or "poor" exist in a free society...would war exist in a free society?  Only when we become aware of this conditioning process can we begin to move forward as a society and as individuals.  Well, what is "moving forward" anyway...well, I will leave that for your heart to discover...I digress...}

The individual that does not look into ones own mind to witness the conditioning, is always going to be tethered to some idea or too some notion of having to do something.  The idea we have about ourselves is conditioned into us.  Of course we all display unique temperament, but to what degree is the "John" that we have come know a product of social conditioning?  Are you not more than the "mental box" to which the conditioning keeps you in?

This clinging onto a projected image protects us from actually being with the "what is."  The image propels us into the fantasy world and the world of the ego.  The ego, the idea of oneself or what that idea of oneself is "soon too become," is an illusory energy formation.  When we concentrate on the ego and live from this place we believe we are warding ourselves from misery, loneliness and the like, becuase we believe we are giving our lives some sort of direction, some sort of identity which to follow.  Yes we are giving our lives "direction," but are we even aware of where this "direction" leads us, energetically speaking?

Again, are you aware of the conditioning?  If we are directing ourselves constantly to be attaining more, seeking to become more, seeking to have more of anything, whether it be love, money, sex, or social recognition, etc.,...are we not declaring to ourselves and to the universe that we have a void to fill?

In actuality, the ego, which we believe is guiding us to freedom is actually doing the reverse to us.  It is keeping us tethered to wanting, to desiring, and the like.  The ego wants more of itself...it wants more "me" and will seek this through attempting to satiate its desires.   These ideas of how we should be, what we should do, what we should attain etc., are nothing more than "mind stuff" which projects us into the future and away from the now.  How can there be any freedom when we believe salvation exists in attaining something that is bound to the future?

The ego and the isolation it presupposes is the illusion that leads us to believe and see as fact that we are "islands" amongst each other.  Yes, we are individuals, but we are more than that.  We are both individuals and a collective human race simultaneously [as well as collective living ecosystem which extends to the cosmos and beyond].  Yet, the consumer society and those who benefit most off of it, have a vested interest in keeping the illusion of individualism alive.  Our true nature is that we, as individuals, inhabit an ecosystem, an Earth, that is inherently interconnected.  Each part, whether that part be a single human individual, an ocean, or a chimpanzee in Africa are tied in some way or another.  We do not need science to prove this to ourselves.  The feeling inside knows this truth.  Yet, if we have been cut off from this feeling within through mass conditioning, of which has influenced us to live primarily from the mind and not from sensation, we get lost in the endless abyss of the mind and thus lose sense of this feeling within.

As for the sake of humans, there would be no society without the individual, yet there would be no individual without the society...When we cling onto the ego for individual identification we become unaware of the great connection we all have.  It is this connection, when lost, that we leads us to feel an overwhelming sense of isolation and subsequent fear.  The "I" must compete against each other to secure what the "I" needs.  The elite in control of media [who live solely from fear] have us believing we are "one nation under all" yet, when nations are pinned against one another it becomes, in theory, a global race to the bottom for resource acquisition.

The thing is, if we as countries are competing against one another we are inherently competing against each other as individuals even in our own countries.  The profit motive, the motive which is conditioned into us, is what leads us to believe that war is a "normal" way of life.  We egotistically wave around our nationalistic flags while we have been conditioned to become desensitized to the brutality that all this has all caused.  [And as a side note, do you really think that you were not conditioned to believe that "terrorism" is some real threat to our sovereignty as a nation?  Has the media not attempted to condition us through their relentless campaigns to fear dark skinned bearded men living in caves half way around the world? - seek to see how the media and those who control it have tried relentlessly to keep the ego illusion alive and you in fear].

The struggle we see in ourselves, as well as the world, exists becuase we believe we must compete against another, we must be compared against another.  It is the comparison and judgment of another that leads us to act to fulfill the conditioned desires of the ego.  It is the comparison and judgment of another that leads to us believe that we are indeed actually separate and not inherently connected.

All of our insecurities arise from this separation and we try incessantly to be, do, or accomplish something in order to override this insecurity.  We try to become better than that person, we try to become more cunning, smarter, richer, etc., than the next person.  We try to be "freer" than the next person.  Therefore, if the mind only knows and acts from this separation, from this conditioned sense of self, how can we ever as both individuals and as a collective society ever be free?

What is freedom anyway?  If there is always a desire to become something, to accomplish something, to figure something out etc., is there freedom?  If we are in a perpetual state of trying to uphold the image to which we believe we are can we free?  Are we not limited to the image?, the image being the conditioning of ones life...How are we free if this conditioning attempts to project one forward in their life in a way that keeps our minds in the tomorrows of what we are going to become.  Does this image than, this conditioning than, put borders around oneself, whether those borders be ideological, and such?  If there are borders than around oneself...can you really be free?  Go deeply into that...not with your mind...but with all of you.

Is freedom than the cessation of "having" to do something, "having" to be something, "having" to feel something?

What is it than to be free of desire?  If there is nothing left to be, do or accomplish, we may state that we are no longer human, we are not living...But go within here, and feel this...can the mind really understand what it is to be free?  What is "free" anyway?  Of course the mind can analyze, interpret, and make rational and logical deductions as too what this experience can be like...but how can any attempt to know something of which is beyond mind be understood by mind?

So where do we go from here?

Simply be aware...and see what you discover.  Witness the conditioning mind and how it is simply an accumulation of the past.  Let go of this by allowing yourself to be who you are in this moment without any judgment.  You do this not by trying anything, not by applying any formula, not by seeking any guru or the like...you do it by simply becoming aware.  When you become aware of the process the awareness burns through the unconciousness like a light into the darkness.  When a tought comes up, just be aware of it.  Witness to see if you judge anything, yet do not seek to change this, just be aware.  This takes a diligent mind, a focused mind...but that is what it is to be fully awoken.  Just be you...your awareness is inherently patient.

Know that you needed to become conditioned to know what it is to live beyond your condition so that you may know, on a deep and profound level, how expansive the human experience can be...so you could know what freedom really is.  This is all a part of our soul's journey...mine as well.  You may not find words, ideas, notions, and the like as too what this experience brings to you.  You may not find the "holy grail," you may not find just what you were looking for...but you just might find the feeling that tells you everything!

The Experience of Transcendence: Understanding Oneness Even Further

When you perceive something and interpret it with your mind, the object or thing that you witness becomes the word, idea, or the concept that you interpret.  What you are seeing therefore becomes the word...therefore you experience the mental image, the mental word.  This is the basis of subjective truth.  Subjective-ism occurs because there is a separation between the observer and observed.   When you see something for what it truly is, without interference from the mind, you experience the observation simply as it is.  Herein lies the experience of absolute truth for the "observer" and "observed" mend into one, into one experience.  Observation at the level of duality creates a cognitive truth whereas the experience of reality without the interference of mind creates the experience of absolute truth.  The latter is the experience of transcendence.

Truth cannot be uncovered by any formulation; through any means of cognitive understanding.  Truth is.  It is nothing more, nothing less; for truth...really...is undivided experience.  Undivided experience is when experience is whole.  Undivided experience is.  Nothing more, nothing less.  Truth, absolute truth, therefore is experience that is untainted by the mind because it is the mind that taints experience by creating separation and thus ending the "undivided experience."

The separation occurs because, through the product of the conditioned mind, the observer sees the "observed."  The observed becomes something to be named or identified.  This is the basis of duality.  However "real" this may seem, it is only real in the cognitive sense.  We must realize that "real" is subjective.  Absolute truth, as the experience that it is, cannot be defined through a word, a idea, or an concept.  The mind cannot touch experience.  Only perception, untainted, can touch and hence taste absolute reality.  We will go deeper into this as we proceed.

Concepts of the mind do not reside within the physically perceived reality.  Abstractions [thoughts] are only observed because they are projected onto what we observe.  Yet, how can something that is seemingly untraceable within the physical world, that being thought, dictate the way in which we experience the physical world?  Yes, the mind is useful, but its utility is based purely on how it makes sense of stored memory [the conditioned mind].  To live through the mind, to perceive solely through the abstractions of the mind is to perceive and witness life through the past.  Why than should an experience that is isolated within your own mind become the basis too which you see the world as it is now.

Living through the lens of the past, through the conditioned mind, we separate ourselves from the now.  The past and the now can not overlap.  Go deep into this...not with your mind...but with the sense of self that senses.

The observations we filter through the conditioned mind creates a sense of self that is separate, that is "unique," that is "individual," and yes this is "real," but do you not see how this "realness" forbids us from experiencing the grandeur of the undivided experience?  Do you not see how this sense of mind separation is the basis of duality, and hence the ego?  How are we to experience the truth of the undivided reality...the reality which is...if we are too far removed from this reality because we live through the abstractions that the mind and the ego create?  How can the ego, which is an accumulation of all of our yesterdays, come to know and fully experience the now?

...The mind cannot touch the now...

Yes, "I" may be writing this, but at the absolute level, this is not "I," this is something collective coming through me.  The experience of me writing this is an experience in the now, not necessarily a formulation based on the "truths" of yesterday. Yes, it is "I" that has had to focus and decipher between the ego me and the collective me, but if I divide this experience from you it becomes utterly meaningless.  For these words are for us all.  A writer without a reader seizes to exist.  Do you see the profoundness of that?  Do you see the beauty when the object and the subject, the outside and the inside, the You and the I mend into one experience?

The now inherently transcends dualism.

Yes, the object and the subject, the outside and the inside, the You and the I are perceivable...but this perceptibility does not render the dualism of this conceptualization as truth.  Again, truth is.  The truth is the all-encompassing phenomena of now.  Is and Now are inseparable.  They are verbs, not things to be defined.  The now inherently transcends dualism.  Dualism still exists, but only within the whole, within the oneness.

Do you get this?  If not, witness the workings in your own mind.  Witness how it seems that what you are reading is outside of you.  Because "I" wrote this does not mean that it is not "yours."  By how could this writing here, this piece of "intellect" be "something" if it were not to be received by "something," that something being you.  This "conversation" implies unity.  And it is this unity, this bond, that is beyond words, and beyond the mind.  We can say it is a bond, a unity...but this definition does not undermine the experience of this bond...can you notice the difference?  Do you feel this?

Feel this...do not think this...feel this...What does unity feel like?  It goes beyond the word, does it not?

Now you see...there is something that is greater than the You and the I.  There is something that is beyond all of this.  This "something" that is beyond allows this experience to occur, allows this transmission of information to occur.  Yes, this "something beyond" exists in tandem with the world of duality, yet, this something beyond allows us to perceive this duality and go beyond it.  This is where undivided experience can be perceived.  Are you beginning to realize the nature of transcendence that is all around us of which actually shapes our reality?  But when, as a society, are we going to actually let this sense of transcendence shape our reality, or "norms" and our mode of collective being? [This concern is for another post]...

Typically we see the world and perceive it, and hence create our conditions, our norms, and our ways of being through the realm of perception that is just a step beneath the realm of transcendence, of "oneness."  This is the realm [the level] of the mind, of abstractions, of the ego, and of duality.  The concept of you and I as separate is real only insofar as we believe it to be.  The conventional experience of "you" and "I" as separate is supported by this belief and therefore perpetuates the duality between you and I.  Do we not see then how "belief" tremendously shapes our "truth?"

Is it possible to see that this "truth" [the truth of duality] is upheld by a subjective truth...that is that our experience of each other, of the you and I, occurs because we do not allow the something beyond to be perceived.  This experience of transcendence then only becomes something we know about in books, in fantasy, or the like.  If we try to understand transcendence with the mind we simply get more mind.  Transcendence is an experience.  It is a feeling.  It is the feeling that allows you to experience the "something beyond."  In this feeling is the experience that there is something beyond you, something beyond I,  and something collective too where no division occurs.

Undivided experience is something you can see and feel, but it is not something which the mind can understand.  It may try, but the actual trying only keeps the illusion alive that this "something beyond" does not exist.  In reality it is this "something beyond" that is the fabric of our world, of our lives, and of our experience...that is if we choose to experience it.  How do I know this?  Well, I don't.  I feel it!

Eckhart Tolle refers to this "something beyond" I speak of when he talks about the formless and timeless reality as the unmanifiested that animates the fabric of our world:  He states


“In the stillness of your presence you can feel your own formless and timeless reality as the unmanifested life that animates your physical form.  You can then feel the same life deep within every other human and every other creature.  You can look beyond the veil of form and separation.  This is the realization of oneness.  This is love.”

So how do we choose to experience this?  How do we feel this?  Well, I suggest you stop seeing the world through the conditions embedded in your mind.  Simply see the world.  Allow yourself to experience the world without a dialogue in your mind which is defining this experience moment by moment.  It is the dialogue of mind that creates the duality, the separation, the loneliness and the rest of it.  It is the dialogue in the mind that labels the tree and thus experiences the label.  Yet it is the perception, of which is whole and alive, that connects  us all with the something beyond.  The tree than is no longer a tree...it becomes an experience...it becomes you, and you become it.  This is how experience is ultimately undivided.  This is.  This is the feeling of transcendence.

Go on...and melt into your reality...