Shallowness of Character

Our ordinary life only touches the fringe of personality; it does not cause a commotion in the deepest parts of the soul. Even when religious consciousness is awakened, most of us lightly pass over it so as to leave no marks of a bitter fighting on the soul. We are thus made to live on the superficiality of things. We may be clever, bright and all that, but what we produce lacks depth, sincerity, and does not appeal to the inmost feelings. Some are utterly unable to create anything except makeshifts or imitations betraying their shallowness of character and want of spiritual experience.

D.T.Suzuki wrote those thoughts in the introduction of his 1924 work Essays in Zen Buddhism. We are a quality of consciousness living in a self-created reality of limitations in order to know the fringe as well as the whole of consciousness, but we don’t remember what consciousness is so we continue to ignore the gestalt formations and manifestations that percolate within us. Consciousness forms patterns of identity and they move faster than the speed of light.

These patterns act as psychological particles or they can operate as freewheeling identities that act as waves that flow through other identities. They form endless combinations and psychological gestalts that function as psychological particles in time and space while other portions function outside time and space. These elements of consciousness represent the unconscious aspects of the species, which become particleized in physical existence.

There is a psychological atmosphere that surrounds the earth, and our mental and psychic journeys move through this medium. There are rhythmic waves in the atmosphere that are more intense at certain times so the ordinary meets the extraordinary in a rhythmic dance of unity. We might call this experience an awakening or a religious experience depending on our perception of that inner sense. All consciousness has aspects that communicate with all realities. We are just becoming aware there is more to us because the psychological atmosphere is opening up and our egos are putting the shallowness of character aside and creating an image of self that has more depth and sincerity. This self is a blend of several other aspects of consciousness that moves through different psychological planes.