Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Refinements of Consciousness

The word food does not satisfy hunger, nor the word water satisfy thirst. Both are labels only. However, they are pointers to something that is more substantial, actual, and needed for our physical survival.

In the more subtle realms of consciousness, labels are also valid pointers. These, subtle levels, however abstract, may also be pointed to.

Consciousness cannot be denied as it is a basic truth. You are aware and conscious of I am. Yet it becomes a little more circumspect when we begin to refine our terms as to exactly what consciousness is, and how we might understand it better.

When I speak of levels of consciousness it is but a refinement, a tuner of sorts into the subtleness of consciousness. Perhaps a little harder to grasp, but no less real than consciousness itself.

If you are traveling from A to B, no point on the journey is better than another as regards the objective. Each point is but a position between the two.

Just as a landscape has points of perspective, so do the various levels of consciousness. In a landscape, one can point to a bend in the road, a ridge, or a particular view. Just so, in the field of consciousness, points of perspective can be seen, and depending on the definitions used, be labeled and described.

In the refinement of our description of levels of consciousness, perspective is a key. The levels are defined by perspective, including beliefs, attitudes, and positionalities.

The world which appears in consciousness is determined by the positionalities that create the perspective. Though the scale and the demarcation points may be arbitrary, based on how the scale and levels are defined, the labels applied will point to something just as real as consciousness itself.

The levels can be roughly defined as a movement from fear to love. All the corollary attitudes between the two can be laid out. And how the world appears at points on the scale can also be outlined.

Realization and Enlightenment are points on the journey. Different points to be sure, than earlier perspectives which may have included suffering. Perspectives and attitudes prior to enlightenment can then be compared to earlier positions. It is only the difference that allows one to say, "Ah, now things are better."

Consciousness is a continuum. It is not static. Realization and enlightenment are not static states, though many assume that is so. Realization may be a satori that progresses no further, but sometimes it may. Just so, enlightenment is not necessarily static either. It may or may not progress further. In some, there is a further deepening and expansion.

It is due to this continuum that the understanding of realization and enlightenment is confusing. People think that realization or enlightenment is a one shot deal, all inclusive, final. It is not. A cooked goose can be more or less well done, and certainly different in shape and size.

There is a level of consciousness which can be assigned to realization. There is a level of consciousness to which enlightenment may can be assigned. Not an absolute assignment, but certainly indicating a certain level of consciousness. Most would consider it a higher state, or level, than what we would call the normal human condition.

Yet even these, realization, enlightenment, are not carved in stone, static, or final, in the sense that no further revelation may occur. Further development, advancement in understanding may still occur. Sometimes it does.

Consciousness is on a journey. A glorious and messy journey. Call it the play of Lila, or the mess of samsara, most want better than worse, and peace over conflict and suffering.

It is not an error to consider consciousness as a continuum with various levels. We are participants at different different positions, or levels if you will. We call some things good, some bad. We name up and down. To ascribe levels to what we experience in consciousness is not a sin.

We who have sought enlightenment have to admit that it appeared to be a better state, or condition, than what we were in. At least considered it better, perhaps a higher state, and had it as a goal. Perhaps we called it a search for truth, knowing nothing of the term.

Whether seeking truth, or enlightenment, or ultimate peace, we found it more desirable than our present condition. So, for the purposes of pointing, for education, we can say that enlightenment is higher on the scale than misery.

However arbitrary the scale, positions may be ascribed and labels applied. Is not jealousy lower, and unconditional love higher?

Whether or not there is a goal in the Absolute, we in our participation, our journey, perceive higher and lower levels of consciousness. We appear to strive for higher ground. And though there is no Rx, and no path, we are all at different levels.

Food, water, or levels of consciousness, all are words, concepts, yet pointing to something. Levels of consciousness can be described, and labels applied. It's useful for pointing to the subtleties of consciousness. Isn't enlightenment itself a label?

Saturday, November 21, 2009

A Quiet Mind

At some point projections end -- most of them, anyway. When they end, peace seems to reign -- stories don't get created, and rumination ceases. It's rather delightful. Some call it peace of mind.

I always thought it silly to try and develop a quiet mind. Somehow, I always knew that a quiet mind, like happiness, was the result of something else -- a side effect.

That something else isn't realization, because, after realization, there is still considerable unraveling to do.

Basically, getting rid of projections is the journey. Projections are 99% based on conditioning. It's what your ego believes can happen, might happen, or will happen. Some of it may be true, most of it is just a nightmare dream-scape.

There isn't some sudden realization that will give you peace of mind, although it may help. Realization shows other possibilities, other options. But then there is still work to do.

Years ago, I could walk into a room, and looking at the people in the room, automatically start myriad, dysfunctional, internal conversations. These internal discussions were based on how each person looked, how old they were, how they stood, etc.

The conversations would go something like this: Well, she's tall and good looking, she must be haughty, spoiled, and hasn't had to think or struggle much. She gets what she wants because she just happens to look good. So I wouldn't like her and there is no point in approaching her.

And that guy there, with the plaid shirt and yellow shorts -- is a likely golfer, and therefore has money, and is probably very conservative. He and I wouldn't have much in common, and tying to talk to him would be pointless.

Well, you get the drift. These automatic conversations were not something under my conscious control, but they certainly were tied to my fears, and therefore ego based. And this over active conflagration tore at me like a dog chasing it's tail.

After much therapy, and a lot of work, those types of stories, just died. I didn't try and stop them, they stopped because the buried fears, assumptions, suppositions and positions, were dropped. The pain that sustained them was felt and released.

Basically, all my shit was sustained by pain I didn't know was there, or rather, was afraid to feel. Unconscious pain was the driving force of my neurosis, and it was unconscious and out of control because it was repressed. The projection of it distorted my whole world.

At one point, the disjointed universe of my projections caused so much pain, that I found it worthwhile to go looking for the real pain. The source being inside, not out there.

I found a good teacher, and I trusted that whatever I was forced to feel -- to acknowledge, I could handle. It wasn't easy, but the amount of pain uncovered was beyond belief.

The result of that work, and much personal inquiry, is a quiet mind. Now I live in the peace. Unwanted internal conversations don't happen. Only what I am looking at, or doing, is what is going on. There are no internal discussions about it. There is freedom. The silence is deafening, and wonderful.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Nondual Logical Proofs

Why are all the logical proofs of nonduality necessary for some, and yet for others, looking at a flower is proof enough.

It amazes me that a particular teacher's logic, that satisfies their mind as to the absoluteness of nonduality, does nothing for me. Leaves me cold.

And yet, for me, the fact of absolute nonduality is just as real. It was for me an intuitive knowing, here since childhood.

It was however, also true, that the knowing was outside the purview of mind. And the mind, as we know, is a stubborn child. It wants proof! So all my searching was to satisfy the mind, that the intuitive knowing was correct.

The drive to satisfy the mind as to what I already knew, drove the search. If that knowing had not been there, what would have driven such a cursed and painful pursuit?

The mind wants to know, to understand and accept, what intuitively, is already known. Without that intuition, there never would have been a search.

What profound insights the search unveiled, trying to help the mind come to terms with what was already known. Granted, the knowing was via some other mechanism -- intuition, which the mind has trouble accepting. Intuition is to the mind, a stubborn and unruly child.

So the intuitive knowing drives the mind, sometimes literally, outside and beside itself. The pain can be immense, for the mind does not easily come into agreement with intuition. Mind, literally must take itself apart. Push itself to the limit, and beyond.

In the process, this bodymind, experienced mystical unitive states of absolute knowing, that the mind could not deny. The absoluteness and authority of the knowing was unquestionable. Yet the mind still wanted to know in it's own way. Over many years, the mind relaxed, Knowing that it could not have proof the way it preferred.

Currently, the knowing is here. Yet I cannot prove it logically, even to myself. Neither can another's logic prove it to me. But the knowing is here.

Listening to the proofs of other's is laughable. Not to deny the fact that such logic may help others by bringing into question their own limited perceptions and positions.

Just for fun, because that is what this is for me now, let me lay down the closest thing to logic that satisfies this particular bodymind regarding nonduality.

All I need, for knowing the fact of nonduality, is that I didn't make myself. This bodymind is a created object, not unlike all the other bodymind objects. Those objects outside of me did not create themselves either.

Logically, I cannot say that awareness and consciousness are in this bodymind individually or exclusively. Other bodyminds speak to me of their perceptions, their awareness too. We can agree on much, such as a chair being in the room, or the sound of a dog barking.

So awareness and consciousness are not exclusive to me. The only aspect of the field that is exclusive to me, is my interpretation of what is perceived. A story so to speak. My story. But you also have a story.

The common denominator of my consciousness and other's, is awareness. I can see that as created objects, my bodymind and other bodyminds are participants only. Awareness is common to all, impersonal. The personal is only an interpretation.

Awareness is impersonal. Consciousness is just the personalized aspect of it. I partake, as do you. And also the cat, the dog, the sheep and the donkey.

A second proof for me, is to simply look at a flower. The shear amazement that it exists, as it does, and that I see it, is enough. The beauty of it does not allow me to deny the power, the creativity, the absolute authority, of the beingness behind it.

The proofs above do it for me. But they are really just aperitifs for the mind. Not really necessary to the truth. Intuitive knowing is, and was, already there. The mind just needed to be massaged and put to bed.