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May 27th, 2009 by Gary Hipworth
When we get right to the point of all the talk about enlightenment and religion and whether there is life after death, or what Buddha said, or Maharshi, or Alan Watts or Jesus or anyone remotely interested in discovering truth, beauty, intelligence or compassion, what is the meaning of it all?
This was brought home to me in the most frightening personal way when the terrorist attack occurred in New York. My partner Jo on that very day arrived home from her trip to Canada and New York on a United Airlines flight via New York. Only two weeks earlier, Jo stood on the top of the World Trade Centre, which as we know is no more, and thousands of people perished in another senseless act of violence. Only good luck and timing saved Jo from death.
Coincidentally, whilst Jo was away, I had been
reflecting on my own change of consciousness that occurred many years ago.
In a nutshell, after many years of self-discovery research and experimentation, I woke up one morning and
became aware that my consciousness was very different than it normally was on awakening…thought was absent and
there was a sense of stillness and peace. This lasted about 2 hours. Since that amazing experience, this peaceful
state comes and goes in my life, so it seems nothing is permanent.
This also makes me see why killing any living
creature, when one has a choice, is evil.
Thought makes us believe that we are somehow superior to other animals. Take thought out of the equation and it is
a different story!
Mind you, a creature that thinks it will be healthier by drinking the milk of another species or eating meat filled
with chemicals and god knows what else is already in big trouble.
However, what was really still troubling me was
the question I posed in the first sentence of this article. I feel a million times better about life and the world,
but is that it?
Do I simply bliss out for the rest of my life, with no thought for the morrow? Can I understand what did happen to
my brain and is it a repeatable situation for others? Is there such a thing as evolution and if so, does it have a
purpose? Do I have a connection with any of this?
I needed some insights because there seemed to be a piece of the puzzle still missing.
Maybe I am just greedy and selfish for more bliss and bugger everyone else?
I let all this percolate for weeks and then the insights started flowing. I will simply list them in no particular order of importance:
9 Insights On What a Change Of Consciousness Means To Me
1. The highest value is life itself, or to put it differently, compassion for all living creatures. Not just my life, or your life, but the whole flow of life in all its forms on Earth and elsewhere in the universe. The miracle is now, at this moment when I reflect on this simple but astonishing fact. If we value ideas more than life, then we kill others because of their different ideas, and this has been the problem with humanity for thousands of years.
2. For life to keep going in a fast-changing environment, it must get more and more intelligent. This means it must sometimes adapt or change its internal structure just to stay around. Life is playing a nightmare game where the rules of the game keep changing because everything is truly connected with everything else and everything therefore influences everything else, both living and non-living processes. If a species is too successful (humans) this very success changes the nature of the game! Hence our environmental problems. The implications are astonishing for each individual! Each person must get more intelligent and creative and take equal responsibility for the mess we have all co-created if there is to be a better future for all life. I can’t leave it to others. We are all in the same boat, and it’s leaking!
3. Those gurus or authorities that claim that consciousness is the only reality and ‘things and bodies’ are an illusion are making the huge mistake of looking for a solution to their mortality. The tragic aspect of this is that they recruit millions of followers who are also looking for a way out of an impossible situation. And the same gurus don’t want to precisely define this elusive ‘thing’ called consciousness? For me it’s simply awareness of existing, and it is an integral part of my being, including my body. I can switch at any moment from normal human consciousness (mind) to natural consciousness (no-mind) by becoming aware of my total environment, both inner and outer, and not desiring anything from this awareness. So can anyone who is not completely besotted by their own personal story.
3. Enlightenment for me simply means being my own light and making the most of my one chance at life in the context of the current world situation. It would be absurd and dangerous to accept any one person’s views on life or follow anyone else. Closed cults and groups are very dangerous for the same reason. At a higher level of mutual understanding and influence, self-reliant and interdependent people (another paradox) become united in moving towards a common goal – is this One Humanity? It is probably going to come down to the quality of our individual relationships that will determine what happens to our planet and our species in the near future, not just the quality of our leaders. That means I need to work on my own close relationships first.
4. Living things are self-organizing and self-maintaining. They create order out of chaos. This is a continual, dynamic process. Moments of bliss (or peak experiences) occur for an individual organism when ‘everything is in order’ i.e. food and other basic needs are satisfied, for the moment. Therefore bliss is a result of order being maintained. If there is disorder in a living organism, it will result in suffering until the problem is resolved. The human body/ mind split (Descartes dualism – curse the man’s rationality but look how we bought into his ideas because they gave us false hopes about an immortal soul) has created disorder, and this split is having its effect in the environment and in our relationships. For me this means letting life flow more and allowing my feelings to be more active and my logical mind less in control.
5. As conditions on Earth change rapidly of gradually over long periods, life has developed a pattern of increasing complexity. In humans we evolved a new brain that invented language and a symbolic, conceptual reality. Why did this new brain evolve? At first, it was for survival, as language gave us a competitive edge, but then a weird thing happened. This symbolic brain imagined an ego or self into existence. We are the only animals that have self-consciousness i.e. we are aware that we exist. Exactly how this process works in the brain is still a mystery, but it is indeed an illusion. How do I know? One morning thinking stopped, and my sense of self also stopped at the same time. What is it that remained? The body’s natural functioning, based on the five senses, without recognition or cognitive interpretation, although thought was still trying to control/ interpret what was happening, and is still is trying to get control of something it can’t understand. “In our infinite ignorance, we are all equal.” Karl Popper.
6. I now understand why my dog has moments of bliss, because when his basic survival needs have been met, he is in bliss. (Except us poor human beings, who live mainly in a world of ideas, and chase after happiness all our lives). How do I know my dog is in bliss? I observe him when he lies on his back and kicks his legs in all directions at once or when he takes off around the garden and runs in circles.
7. My consciousness changed to a natural consciousness because I began living from day to day on a ‘NOW’ basis, and I stopped putting energy into maintaining false values (improving self, ambition, pride, seeking permanent anything). Can anyone have this experience? It all depends on one’s motive. I wanted the truth, no matter what the consequences. Be careful what you wish for!
8. Human beings do not have a choice about whether there will be a new consciousness. The current planetary crisis will resolve itself, one way or another. So we are not in charge of our own evolution although we are active participants in the flow of life. We either harmonize with the whole of life or we self-destruct. Is there really any choice? Wow! What a great time to be alive. It is no longer business as usual. Everything is up for grabs baby!
9. Thought is a very important tool for creative living, but not for psychological identification, because it then creates disorder in the organism. Life, in humans cannot become less complex and go back to the state of so-called innocence or pre-thought. However, thought must be integrated with the organism’s number one value – the continuation of life. In the last few hundred years this game on earth has got a lot more complicated due to population growth, (1800 AD world population was 1,000 million, year 2000 it was 6,000 million and growing exponentially). We also have invented the nuclear bomb and our innate tendency towards using violence to achieve our goals means that we are all living at a time when we could all be annihilated. The reality is there is only One Earth and so there are natural limits on us all. It was recently reported from the international space station that the view of Earth is becoming increasingly hazy due to dust from our destructive ways. This daunting challenge seems to require a change of consciousness in you and me, not simply a new idea about sustainable development. (The latter being only a change in consciousness, or similar to moving the deck chairs on the Titanic).
Those are my insights on consciousness and if you don’t like them, well I’ve got lots more.
And yes, I am greedy and selfish for more life.
Isn’t everyone?
That’s a massive problem too. Not to admit that you want a lot more out of life than you are getting.
It’s called being selfish. Everyone’s selfish because it’s how a living creature is wired. Let’s not be hypocrites
and make things worse by pretending otherwise.
When we accept this truth we are free to be selfish or unselfish without feeling guilty.
