Savage Luxuries

There is no nation whose soil is not soaked in blood. There are those individuals who have lived pacific lives, and there have been local periods of peace and prosperity, but such history as we have concerning social evolution is a mixed bag of horror and hagiography combined with steady progress in manipulating nature. There is, however, a small golden thread running through all this that we could perhaps call the "pursuit of enlightenment". Quite naturally this thread has been caught up in, and spun out of, religious forms. In just the same way as myth charged descriptions of the cosmos have given way to the observations of astronomy, the pursuit of enlightenment must shed its shell of historical decoration. Pragmatic fact based descriptions of reality may have distanced the gods, but they have brought us closer to that reality of which the gods are a legitimate symbol. The mystery of being is immediate when we have no symbols to hide behind.

There are many technologies of meditation: technologies of posture, breathing, imaging, and so forth. It seems to me that these aids can be a hinderance to that opening of awareness which is the fact of enlightenment. If we simply set our consciousness to the contemplation of awareness nothing more is necessary. Enlightenment comes of its self with the maturation of awareness.

Ideologies, secular and religious, are savage luxuries that the world can ill afford considering our woefully advanced technologies of destruction. Enlightenment is the universal solvent that can dissolve historical incrustations and free once and for all the spirit which has invigorated seekers since the dawn of time.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Imagination is the magic wand of being: something comes into being where nothing existed before: a configuration is wafted out of the latent potential of non-existence: an idea. The power of idea to reconfigure reality has made the world as we know it.  Unlike human beings; of themselves ideas are inanimate and amoral.

Imagination is perfectly described as a mythic wish-fullfilling demon. Mythic demons are not inherently good or evil, they are merely an extension of their master's ch'i. In Goethe's charming little tale an unenlightened being dons the sorcerer's cap and takes up the sorcerer's wand and sets in motion forces he can not control and that (barring intervention) will ultimately destroy him. This perfectly describes the situation of contemporary humanity.

The apprentice (identified with his limited consciousness) celebrates power and is unaware of his limitations. If his identity were in the awareness he would be conscious of his un-evolved state, and perhaps have some defense against the seductive sway of idea.

The guiding principle in meditation is for the apprentice to consult the master: for consciousness to consult awareness. Do not paper over awareness with ideas, rather let awareness be master of all. Imagination will then find it's proper place in making a better world as consciousness bends knee to awareness.

Phase Shift

Consciousness is properly the facilitator of awareness: awareness is what we are, and consciousness is what we do with it. We are simultaneously aware of being conscious and conscious of being aware; but it matters hugely if the seat of the identity is in one or the other. Since consciousness is peripheral to awareness, the cultivation of consciousness leads to decorating the surface of our being. It is consciousness grooming consciousness.....the cosmic comb-over. When consciousness grooms awareness something beautiful emerges: a consciousness infused with awareness, and an awareness infused with consciousness. Consciousness is most valuable as it serves awareness. When awareness is bond-slave of consciousness chaos is inevitable, and some grotesque crystalline quasi-religious form will inevitably take shape. It seems to me that most systems promising freedom dangle "raising consciousness" as a carrot in front of the awareness donkey. The donkey ends up walking in a circle harnessed to some grinding wheel.

Awareness has no structure. Awareness is simply aware. Awareness is supple by nature and cannot be crystallized: awareness draws no conclusions. Consciousness is structure. A consciousness not infused with awareness will draw conclusions all over the place, because consciousness simply can not abide ambiguity and will readily embrace rigidity. When consciousness accepts the primacy of awareness it is freed from the need to pin the imaginary tail on the inconceivable donkey. The ambiguity problem is solved because the natural state of awareness is radical pragmatism. It is the difference between ice and limpid water.

Meditation

Awareness is the precursor of consciousness. Awareness is the field in which consciousness operates. In meditation we cultivate that pure awareness which is the core of life its self: the most rudimentary fact our our being. In cultivating pure awareness we expand the opportunities of consciousness, and our everyday consciousness is increasingly infused with awareness.

Secrets in Plain Sight: Awareness and Consciousness

A distinction can be made between awareness and consciousness. Awareness is the fact of existence, and consciousness is the movement of existence. If we are identified with our consciousness we can never be properly aware.