The nature of Consciousness

April 28, 2007

Many seem to think that Consciousness is simply light, but it includes Being, Universal Life Force, the force of discriminative Intelligence and Love, love in the sense that it dissolves and dissipates tensions opening your vision to a Reality that is already here.

When one practices yoga, meditation, etc., the depth of awareness, which is the Witness aspect of Consciousness, manifests in the recognition of pre-existing subtle energies, for example, the noticing (seeing) of the movement of the energy in the nadis, energy patterns within and outside the body and into the domains of the higher centers without the use of the physical senses. At the same time, as radiance increases there is a dawning within the sense of awareness of the recognition (recollection) of the singleness of the seer, i.e the Witnessing Consciousness, and that this is always apart and never a part of what is seen, similar to the light in the movie projector versus the images that are projected on the screen.

The Consciousness or Self is both the Light and the Screen, which is why It's called "Self Effulgent" without which there are no images to be seen. So what we see in terms of images, including the knowledge and information and feeling of meaning and importance within the images, is actually derived from the Consciousness, not the other way around, as we otherwise suppose.

When through yoga and meditation this sense of Singularity of the Self begins to emerge within one's field of awareness, it pulses and causes a churning within the entire nervous system generating a force of radical disengagement through which the sense of "I" is isolated. This isolation of the seer is the whole purpose of all religions and Yogas. It's stated within the first 3 aphorisms of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. It's what all the Gitas are about. It's the essence of the Teachings of the Saviors, Saints and Sages.

Thus, what begins to emerge is that, while many have the idea that consciousness disintegrates, through daily activities, in fact, as we continue Sadhana, It begins to integrate and consolidate into a Singularity, which is single and all-pervasive, and discovered to be always free of thoughts images and impressions. As this process or force of disengagement continues, the activities of the mind become more and more automatic, effective and efficient, with less and less directed attention.

Many seem to think that attention is vital to function in society, but what happens is that as we become aware of the radiance and depth of Consciousness, the force of Light, Being and Intelligence, as well as Love, which dissipates and melts tension, becomes greater than the Light we apply through attention, so that all conscious effort and with that, the sense of being the doer, me and mine begins to dissolve.

This is why in the Bhagavad Gita, for example, Krishna tells Arjuna that we only imagine that we are acting, and in fact, the actions are happening by themselves due to the interplay of different levels of energy vibration, namely the gunas, acting on eachother.

When we are involved in activities, whatever they are, whether pursuits and objectives, coping and resolving issues of tension, there is a feeling of the force of life and presence of being. But through Sadhana, the feeling of this force of life begins to take on a singular force of grounding, which, far deeper and more magnified, outshines the light used for focused attention. Thus, attention is automatically disengaged and with it comes a sense of relinquishment, of dis-attachment. The need to "cling to" simply evaporates.

Take as apt analogy how at night we can use the light of the waxing and waning moon to see by, but when the sun rises, even though we can see the full moon in the crystal blue sky, it is no longer needed for seeing. So to, when the Sun of Consciousness in the Heart is awakened to, we no longer need the moon of the Mind, which is only the reflection of Consciousness, to see and know.

The importance, benefit and use of reading scripture, in which this is explained variously through life examples in stories and through various approaches to teaching, as part of a Sadhana, is that the Truth in the stories and words is recognized by That which has always been True within us, and we begin to feel a sense of singular recognition, which in scripture is called "hearing" - which leads to the sense of recollection / reflection, which feels like coming out of a stupor or fog or a state of amnesia. This culminates in steady abiding, where the sense of "I" pulses as "I" and no longer "I - this" and "I - that."

All that scripture is is a reminder. The Saviors repeat a constant theme, namely - "Hear me. I tell you the Truth. This Truth is Primordial, Eternal and ever Present. Hear me and Recognize It Now within you." Through the practice of Sadhana, meaning yoga and meditation, there is a deepening and expanding, as described above, which, when followed by scripture, results in this sense of primordial "hearing" and the Transfiguration of the Soul.

When, after Sadhana, we read scripture we are affirming the remembrance of who we really are.

We are all born with certain inherent tendencies and predispositions, which cause us to make impressions and store images of what we see and experience in a certain way. As we mature, we begin to project a world in which these images are taken for what is true and real, and through repetition in every act of the day of the interplay of projection and response we have from the people and events in our apparently separate world, there arises a sense of trying to figure out who we are from the perspective of these stored images we project and superimpose on a world that is, in Reality, the undifferentiated imagination of the Creator, who is Consciousness Itself. Now, the Creator interjects Itself in the form of Saviors, Saints and Sages, whose Life and Words are the Living exponent of who and what we really are. Thus, the result of reading their Lives and Teachings is that, as with the formation of the limited identity, again, through repetition of the affirmations of who we are presented in scripture, a sense of consideration arises within us. In the same way, as this consideration helped form the identities in relation to the limited adjunct, the ego, now the same force of consideration, which is the discriminative force of Self Knowledge or the sense and feeling of "I" identity, through repeated hearing that "who I am is the Eternal Self" begins to consider this and tries to figure it out and locate That. This consideration results in the emergence of the Singularity of the Self, which, like a sun, is both inward drawing and Grounding, yet expansive and pervasively irradiant. Suddenly, your experience of who you thought you were is transfigured.

All this is really the core or hub of the wheel of Teachings of Yogi Bhajan, which is often lost in the sheer volume of the spokes he put out each actually centered in this hub. By drawing attention to this persistent hub, the spokes gain significant meaning in the instigation of the awakening / recollection process.

Once one begins the Kundalini Yoga Sadhana, this process become becomes inexorable.

Pieter

www.adityahrdayam.com

www.kundalini-matashakti.com