Circle Symbolism and Consciousness Part 6
April 23, 2008 – 4:44 pm
Noesis
Consciousness
I’ve now arrived at the question, ‘where is consciousness in all this?’ I would say consciousness occurs due to the reflection of the manifested world of objects upon the pure awareness of the primal subject. As such, consciousness is a mixed state between the two. On the one side, it’s absolutely dependent on the ultimate presence of pure awareness in the primal subject while on the other side the content of consciousness is made up of the emanations and objects of the created universe.
What I’m calling pure awareness is quite different than consciousness in that pure awareness is intrinsically independent of all manifestations. When no manifestations are present pure awareness is. When manifestations are present pure awareness is. Consciousness in contrast is the manifested state of pure awareness. Pure awareness as I’ve defined it is one of the attributes of the primal subject. For the same reasons the primal subject is not constrained by its creations, so is pure awareness - a quality of the primal subject, also independent of manifestations.
In another post, I described the unification of all object/space moments in sentient experience to be the same as an illumined living awareness of a reality as yet undifferentiated. In my opinion the greatest stumbling block to understanding what such a reality is has to do with not being able to conceive that it is not only as real as our everyday world but quite independent of our everyday world for its existence. As human beings, we accept only of what we can explicitly experience, whereas the pure awareness I’m referring to has more the character of the final backdrop to the individual things we notice.
The Show is Already in Progress
The relationship between pure awareness and objects is similar to the blank movie screen and the moving lights cast upon it. When we’re watching a movie we’re completely oblivious to the blank screen but completely affected by the storyline shown on it. The film is composed of transparent and colored areas on its surface which when placed in front of a bright light source like a projector sends out rays of colored lights to land upon the blank screen and unfold a possibly heart-wrenching human drama.
Human consciousness is at base dependent on a universal self-existent quality of sentient experience. In fact all concepts of experience of any sort presuppose some minimal quality of sentience. If this quality of sentience is seen independently of any modifications or qualities it can be known as pure awareness. As such it acts as a reflector of whatever is there. If nothing is there it reflects nothing just as well as it reflects things. Its nature is truly independent of things. It supports shunyata or Buddhist emptiness just as well as samsara which is loosely translated as the same old everyday world. In a similar sense pure awareness is like the movie screen which is independent of whatever is shown on it.
Consciousness however, is something quite different. Consciousness is similar to what we experience when we’re sitting in a movie theater and are fully engaged with the story that’s unfolding. The significant thing about consciousness in light of this movie example is that what we’re seeing on screen may have no actual counterpart in our object-oriented universe, yet we’re capable of being engrossed in it and reacting to it as if it’s fully real. Even when we know it’s not real!
Consciousness is completely dependent on the superimposed forms that appear to modify the living subject in a way similar to clothing. As such in terms of its focus and phases consciousness is contingent on the densities, cycles and phases, and peculiarities of presentations of the manifesting emanations and/or objects. However, in as far as consciousness is based on the primal subject it’s independent of the manifestations of life and is seen to be nothing other than pure awareness.
I’d like to note for the general reader that I’m using the term awareness in a special way to distinguish it from consciousness. You probably won’t find the term awareness in the dictionary as I use it here. In a general dictionary and in common usage awareness and consciousness are used as synonyms, which is why I refer to pure awareness in contrast to awareness and mixed consciousness rather than consciousness.
Some of the apparent paradoxes that result from the concepts I’ve put forward are that the primal subject who experiences no constraints at all finds itself in the guise and clothing of a manifested subject who is by definition who they are solely due to the constraints found in their universe - but not quite. The manifested or consequent subject still retains some measure of freedom and creativity irrespective of their physical constraints. This freedom, however, is only recognized in themselves to the extent they have aligned themselves with the primal subject within them.
They Tell Me I’m An Insignificant Dot
Another apparent paradox is due to concepts of scale and space. Namely, that the created universe of objects appears immeasurably greater in size than the manifested subject. In the extended daily world the seemingly objectified subject appears very small against the backdrop of seemingly endless space, but this inversion of primacy is only relative.
Even greatly reduced in scale and greatly modified in form, consciousness must still be found somewhere in existence because the emanations of the living undifferentiated subject are nowhere else than with it. The manifested i.e., embodied subject appears very small in scale as an object when compared to the vastness of space, but this strangeness is in perspective only. It occurs due to the relative condensation/expansion of what is inherently an undifferentiated continuum transmuted through a singular activity into the complements of space and particles.
Similar paradoxes occur with respect to localization of consciousness. Consciousness is specific to the content of the manifested subject and its relative place within the created universe. At the same time however, consciousness is founded in pure creative awareness, which is independent of any particular manifestation or any localization whatsoever. Descartes dictum “I think, therefore I am,” becomes in my view “I am, therefore I think.”
In the higher order reality consciousness is no longer consciousness of objects but instead becomes pure awareness without any sense of the separate objects found in objective experience. The highest reality is fully real, alive, aware, luminous and quite independent of our reality which is really only one possible expression of the creative potential in the primal subject. In fact our daily world is completely dependent on the invisible originating power of this higher reality. We as manifested subjects experience ourselves as its agents, exploring and working through the creation, in every conceivable manner we can find.
The general law here is that reality goes from the invisible to the visible and dissolves back again. This means when a higher order state differentiates into a dependent dimension, the qualities of the higher order state change as they enter into their new dimensional transformations. The intrinsic and integral qualities of the primal subject are initially expressed as emanations which are similar in kind to the primal subject’s attributes. But as these emanations continue to transmute further they may eventually be fractured and rearranged into qualities quite alien to their original emanations. These fractured, rearranged and frozen qualities are what we call objects.
At The Crossroads Of Life And Consciousness
While new qualities emerge as the subject experiences itself superimposed by matter the new qualities still bear haunting resemblances to their higher order parents. Pure living awareness for example, when differentiated becomes consciousness and manifested life as one pair of axes with space and matter constituting another pair.
Of the first pair, consciousness seems almost fugitive when compared to the in-your-face forces of burgeoning life. But what consciousness gains as independent experience in the subject, manifested life loses by becoming ceaselessly changing, chaotic, irrational and even violent toward the manifested subject. Similarly, what manifested life gains in novelty, surprise, and indomitable necessity, consciousness loses by appearing as a either a mere spectator or externally driven actor in life’s events.
Of course what I mean by life above is manifested life separated out from primal life. Like water separated out into hydrogen and oxygen, primal life separates out into manifested natural life and consciousness. The question then becomes, what would it be like if I could combine the forces of daily life and consciousness into their higher order reality?
s33. “If a dying man does not know this germinal vesicle,” says the Hui Ming Ching,” he will not find the unity of consciousness and life in a thousand births, nor in ten thousand aeons.”