March 11, 1992
Trying to understand consciousness begs the question of origin. Where does it come from? How is it located? It is unsettling to find no easy answer to such a question. Faced with a chaotic subjectivity, a meaningless void of lack of understanding, we try to objectify the thought of consciousness to bring it to the level of the familiar. Consciousness becomes a matter of deliberation. Let us liberate our understanding of consciousness by looking at consciousness first in a deliberated, dichotomized way and then unifying apparent differences in a subjective totality of conscious understanding.
The matter of consciousness has created a lot of confusion. As we try to describe it in terms comprehensible to us here the difficulty becomes one of perspective. Are we talking about the consciousness from the point of the individual or the whole? This is the dichotomy as I will look at it here. It is tempting to define consciousness in terms of attributing ideas to one individual in the wish to create orderliness of the concept, perhaps to place great ideas into a revisionist context, a historical order. So and so based their ideas on the earlier work of so and so, who in turn received their understanding from those great beings of that past culture. We can find a way to comfortably discern ideas on the basis of their rigorous examination and precedent in history. Of course the imposition of this order again begs the question of origin. Conscious beings reflecting on the origin of their consciousness is always cyclical.
The other way of approaching consciousness is from a universal perspective. Some ideas (ideas are the treasure that make up consciousness as thought) such as the existence of a god are so universal, that is not to say universally accepted, that someone claiming to have originated the idea would be laughed at. To many they stand comfortably on their own requiring no struggle of acceptance though we may still wish to apply the former historical method to such an idea (i.e. the concept of one God). It would perhaps be a fruitful exercise, but it would not prove the origin of this idea, however unique its expression, never mind its validity.
The difficulty and also the answer in defining consciousness comes where the two approaches are merged, where ideas cannot be claimed as solely brought forth by one individual nor as universally apprehended before this individual expressed them so succinctly. We create a problem in our understanding by making the mistake, in the good will of honoring an individual's personal achievement, of attributing to them sole proprietorship of the idea. All would be better served to grant the individual honor for achieving their unique and profound re-expression or rediscovery of the idea.
Now I am ready to talk about consciousness or awareness more directly. The answer of what consciousness is lies in the term "individual" meaning whole or indivisible. Consciousness is the perception of an idea. The paradox and beauty of consciousness is the more whole the perception by the individual, the more unique and powerful is their expression of it, the more closely is the ideal approximated even while its expression becomes intensely limited and focused in the individual. That expression is then stored within consciousness as a new contribution to the whole and henceforth accessible by those able to reach there, a new consciousness of what has always been.
As a side note idea comes from the greek idea meaning picture of origin, gestalt. The ideal then is the idea's archetype or origin perceived by us often in form of an image that further translated down through the mind's eye becomes a symbol. The imaged symbol is the abstract truth seen in a way easily applicable by our conscious mind, limited yet universally functional. Function is the opposite of dysfunction. These symbols then can serve to cure dysfunction caused by personally distorted consciousness, a point for later discussion.
Coming back to the matter of consciousness, we can differentiate between consciousness, unconsciousness, the subconscious, and super consciousness.
Consciousness is our limited perception here on this plane. To it can be brought awareness from the unconscious, the source of all information. A direct integrated experience of the unconscious in its totality by the fully aware person is the state of super consciousness. The subconscious is merely the storehouse of unfulfilled impressions desired by the conscious and presided over by the unconscious. It governs the field of actions and experiences upon which consciousness is experienced. Unconsciousness could also be said to be the super consciousness we here do not know about in our conscious state. Consciousness here then becomes somewhat a misnomer as it is a very limited state of awareness, a dream state of perception, illusory and evanescent. The proper function of its limitation is the protection of the person allowing for the gradual assimilation and integration of truths through experiencing in time and space. Unintegrated experience of the totality of being would, I believe, be very painful and dangerous shattering the personality.
The fragmentation of the personality is brought to wholeness through the intermediary language of symbols, a safe way to tap only the appropriate part of the unconscious, what the person can integrate at the time. This process in turn illumines the persona enlarging its field of perception. Thus more whole and conscious, it is readied for a more direct perception of the truth of the unconscious and the cycle repeats.
This process is wonderful and unique. It is the source of creativity. I also refer to the language of these inner symbols as soul language, a way to communicate the essence of our being in the unique, mythopoeic form of the individual's destiny. Speaking this language is discovering our own inner story, giving meaning to our lives from the mundane to the profound, the very exoteric to the very esoteric. It is the process of our life revealed to us personally. The happiness resulting from speaking the language of our own bliss is great. We are One. Consciousness is the subjective reality of our being.
There Has Never Been An Objective Being. Knowing This, The Rest Is Known.
Upanishads
