Saturday, July 28, 2012

Pieces Of Consciousness

While evidence of our intellectual and technological genius is all around us, there is growing concern that in other ways we have seriously underestimated ourselves. In part because of the blinding brilliance of our technological triumphs, we have distracted and dissociated ourselves from our inner world, sought outside for answers that can only be found within, denied the subjective and the sacred, overlooked latent capacities of mind, imperiled our planet and lived in a collective trance, a contracted, distorted state of mind that goes unrecognized because we share it and take it to be “normality.”

Francis Vaughn and Roger Walsh wrote those thoughts in their 1993 book, Paths Beyond Ego. Our reality is anchored to a dock of dogmas, beliefs and creeds, and we consider that information the foundation for all of our experiences. We don’t realize it, but we only use a slice of our consciousness to perceive our reality. We actually methodically choose to cut our consciousness into pieces, and then feed the pieces to the ego self as we move through the consciousness of time.

Walsh and Vaughan identify other pieces of our consciousness using a method called Transpersonal Integration. Transpersonal Integration opens avenues of thought that have been covered with the sludge of our own though-filled backwater. We begin to untangle ourselves from this bay of distorted beliefs when recognize our dualistic nature. When that happens, our polluted beliefs are overhauled in a diverse mixture, which contains other slices of consciousness. We sense these additions in unique ways.

We create our world of duplicity, and we shape it like a puzzle board. We use thoughts to put some of the pieces of consciousness together, and then feel them physically. These feeling thoughts and ideas have their own electromagnetic reality, and they generate emotions. The ego tries to maintain stability and a clear sense of focus while absorbing this information. As a new focus forms another identity develops. This inner identity becomes a composite of different characteristics and personality traits.

The new identity becomes another aspect of the self in our psychological structure. New tendencies and abilities continue to emerge from this structure. Even though we think the ego is permanent it is constantly changing as it adapts to new characteristics of the whole self. Every piece contains the whole even when we function as a piece of consciousness.

Friday, July 20, 2012

The Sound Of Consciousness

Human beings have three spiritual states. In the first, a person pays no attention whatsoever to God and worships anything. Sex, money, rank; anything but God. When he starts to learn something deeper, then he will serve no one and nothing but God. And when he progresses in this state he grows silent; he doesn’t claim: “I don’t serve God,” nor does he boast: “I do serve God;” he has gone beyond these two positions. From such beings, no sound comes into the world.

Rumi, the 13th century poet and mystic, is explaining ego consciousness in spiritual terms. Although Rumi is considered the father of Sufism he never called his spiritual beliefs by that name. He respected all religions during his lifetime. Rumi was all about connection. He was able to connect his ego consciousness and his body consciousness with the stream of consciousness that flows through all life.

Rumi also said that we are taught to believe:

The angel is free because of his knowledge, The beast because of his ignorance. Between the two remains the son of man to struggle.

Most of us believe in angels. They are qualities of our inner consciousness, and they are around and in us to help us sense our inner consciousness. The stages or states that Rumi identifies are choices that enhance our awareness with our conscious mind. The beast and other forms of consciousness are not ignorant; they are experiencing life to feel their own consciousness physically. They did not develop an ego consciousness so they are already in the state where no sound comes into their world. When we feel the bond that seals all forms of consciousness as one, we reach the state where no sound comes into the world. The ego works in tandem with the conscious mind. In that state the only sound we hear is the sound of consciousness expanding in a stream of knowing.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Aliquant Consciousness

Aliquant Consciousness

In the beginning, which is really no beginning and which has no spiritual meaning except in our finite life, the will wants to know itself, and consciousness is awakened and with the awakening of consciousness the will is split in two. The one will, whole and complete in itself is now at once actor and observer. Conflict is inevitable; for the actor now wants to be free from limitations under which he has been obliged to put himself in his desire for consciousness. He has in one sense been enabled to see, but at the same time there is something which he, as observer, cannot see.

D.T Suzuki wrote those thoughts in his 1927 book, Essays in Zen Buddhism. Defining consciousness is a difficult task. Consciousness is not just the awareness of our reality; it is in and around everything that exists physically as well as non-physically. Understanding consciousness takes more than rational thought so there are aspects and regions of consciousness that exist and function in ways that boggle our understanding. Our conscious mind paints a picture of our reality. Our ego focuses on that picture. Just like a flower that has many parts, our consciousness is composed of parts as well. Each part is a whole within a whole. The inner self, the conscious mind, and the ego are all designed to create the reality we believe we want.

Each aspect of our consciousness functions within a family of consciousness. The family is constantly changing based on our beliefs about it. We are products of a family of consciousness that forms individual aspects of itself in order to experience its own interpretation of an aliquant consciousness in physical form. Other qualities of consciousness interact with our family, and the result is a diverse reality.

That reality is our focused reality. Just outside of that focus is a plethora of realities that exist within the ever-changing regions of consciousness. There are fluctuations and gradations within this activity that go unnoticed since we rely on our ego to identify what is real. What is real extends outward with each thought we have so the result is an ever blooming consciousness that senses other parts of itself, but may not be in any hurry to accept them.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Reconfigured Ideas

If the doors of perception were cleansed Everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, til he sees all things thro’ narrow chunks of his own cavern.

William Blake uses his poetic prowess to open a mental window, and we begin to see the creative power we have within us. In the present, our conscious mind chooses a particular theme for our physical existence, and within that theme there are individual patterns filled with infinite resources that create our personal reality. The conscious mind embarks on this journey to translate reality into physical manifestations. The conscious mind is acutely tuned to physical reality. When the conscious mind accepts too many external generated beliefs, it chooses using the ego rather than the inner self. Our present perceptions are no longer pure input from the inner self; they are homogenized ideas that create a feeling that this reality is greater than our inner reality.

Our self-image is not unconscious; the present ego creates a physical image of us in relation to the world we actually perceive for ourselves. We are trained to perceive the ego or our own cavern, as Blake calls it, as a villain that taints our view of the inner self, but the ego is not equipped to negatively impact the inner self. The inner self is the force that changes the ego. Our present ego has a tendency to dwell on limitations, and when it does, we experience them. The inner self is always projecting a new image for the ego, but the physical senses may be so tuned into the negative results of past experiences we tune out our own inner projections.

The conscious mind can turn the ego in endless directions if the information from the inner self is accepted as real. The present ego has the ability to turn inward and observe its own content and change if it accepts its connection with the inner self and the conscious mind. There are graduations and fluctuations within this activity, so the ego is far more flexible than we believe it is. The present ego has the ability to use the conscious mind to perceive distorted internal as well as external realties using embedded beliefs. That action causes the inner self to reconfigure ideas and present them in a way that short-circuits those distorted beliefs. Some people call that process an awakening or enlightenment. Others call it mind over matter.