Consciousness!

the first and ultimate frontier.

i always had a crush on you,
since i met you, early on.

consciousness my love!
my love supreme.
my love divine.
my number one.

Well, where to start?

Maybe with God!

They said the God is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. Thats quite a
statement, to say the least! It sounds pretty much Infinite. Above and Beyond the
Beyond.

This is what i heard when growing up Roman Catholic, in the Christian Faith. And
then they presented it , the beyond the beyond looking like a old man with a
white beard somewhere above the clouds.

Soon i felt that this can’t be it , did not make sense to me and i said Adios
pretty quick. And turned to other ways to relate to The Infinite, Ever-Present,
All-Seeing, All-Powerful One .

The Ultimate Reality.

The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.

The name that can be named is not the eternal Name.The unnamable is the eternally
real.Naming is the origin of all particular things.
Free from desire, you realize the mystery.Caught in desire, you see only the
manifestations.Yet mystery and manifestations arise from the same source.This
source is called darkness.Darkness within darkness.The gateway to all
understanding.

from: Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tzu.

Tao Te Ching is the foundational text of Taoism.

Although it sounds all Chinese to me, i easily understood the meaning.

No God The Father needed there !I also can easily interpret the second verse of
the Tao Te Ching.

The world knows beauty as beauty.Therefore it becomes ugly.The world knows good as
good.Therefore it becomes bad.Being and non-being produce each other.Difficulty and
ease arise together.Long and short define each other.High and low depend on each
other.Sound and voice harmonize each other.Front and back follow each other.
Therefore the sage attends to affairs without doing anything,and teaches without
saying a word.
All things work while not seeking recognition,grow while not claiming credit,decay
while not regretting their passing.

I guess, even young and inexperienced as i was, intuitively i understood this

poetic explanation of the unspeakable Ultimate Reality, the Tao , the Darkness
within Darkness, as well as the arising of duality and the world by naming the
million of things by the mind.

Nowadays, with the hindsight of a whole lifetime on the path , those lines
resonate in me even deeper. They point to the eternal Tao that exists before any
manifestations, concepts or labels.

It is the nameless, formless source, ground and essence of all manifested phenomena
in the world as well as other worlds that arises once naming and designation
occurs.

The verses hint to the Tao being like a vortex of unseen potentiality and
creativity.
A metaphysical void or emptiness which generates the 10000 things but itself cannot
be perceptually or rationally grasped.

Only through direct embodied intuitive insight, beyond intellectual knowledge, can
one realize and align oneself with the mysterious Tao, the Ultimate Reality.

That by itself has no name!

Of course, this is all very nice and wise and poetic but is it also practical?I may
have asked myself back then?

I was probably looking for more practical ways to realize the mystery of the
unnameable and i guess this quest lead me towards the Teachings of the Buddha.And
the paradoxical concept of full emptiness aka Sunyata

Sunyata

In Western interpretations of the Buddhist concept of emptiness it is often mis-

interpreted as nothingness. But it is actually meant to mean emptiness that is
full of all potential manifestations.

Full emptiness

A similar paradox like The Tao, remember?

It definitely sounded very interesting to me.

I am not a Buddhist scholar or something but i understand from my reading of

Buddha’s original teachings that at the center of reality and metaphysics there is
simply.

Sunyata , the empty center that carries all potentialities of all manifestations
in itself.

No God, no deity above & beyond

At least this has been so in early Buddhism.

The great thing of early Buddhist teachings is that they are precise and quite
psychologically accurate and also pretty mind-blowing for the Western mind-set. And
on the other hand they offer very practical and precise ways to apply this concepts
in everyday life.

More of that later on.

I think i can understand the concept of emptiness or Sunyata as the fundamental

Buddhist teaching that says that all phenomena lack inherent existence or
independent essence. All things that we perceive and conceive of are dependent on
causes and conditions and are impermanent and constantly changing.

Emptiness points to the interdependent and conditional nature of manifest reality.

No one thing or being has an isolated, self-contained identity or existence.
Everything comes into being dependent on other things, nothing arises independently
or has an eternal unchanging essence from its own side.

Vipassana Meditation is The Method in Buddhism that can lead us to experience , and
realize that.

As far as i understand quantum physics, similar views have come into view in that
fascinating field of science in recent years. The deeper we go into sub-atomic
matter, the less matter is there and the greater are the uncertainties and
paradoxes and mysteries that we encounter.

Even a intellectual understanding of Sunyata helps to relativate our ignorant

tendency to cling to concepts and perceptions of intrinsic existence where there is
none. It helps cut through our grasping at things as concrete, permanent realities.
Seeing the emptiness of oneself and phenomena opens the door to wisdom and freedom
from suffering, as it erodes the very basis for clinging, craving, and the idea of
a permanent, substantial self.

How to do that, beyond a merely intellectual understanding?

Understanding and realizing emptiness takes serious meditation, contemplation and

deep self-examination to unravel our deep habits of projection.And as a side effect
contemplating emptiness brings about tolerance, compassion, flexibility, and peace.
A thing worth trying.

But, what is it actually that one is experiencing in meditation?

In my own experience with Vipassana meditation, that's the method that Buddha
taught originally to his students, i would call it consciousness.

The awareness of focussed awareness directed at itself, the source of it.

And i find that this state is also the center of me , the I that is witnessing
it all, and is not really somebody , and also is not changing over time. I have
been at it already since the later 1970s, so i should have noticed that. I did
not get old, yet Cris did.

Definitely what i find is something where i lack the words to describe it. So, in
the absence of a better word, i use the term consciousness.
But to be honest, i am not totally clear what consciousness really means or is.
Yet!

Thats the real reason i write all those words here. Why i even contemplate the
issue.

I wish to find out.

Contrary to the precision and depth of explanations one can find in thousands-of-
years-old Eastern metaphysical teachings, the modern Western language sounds like
Kindergarden babble when it comes to consciousness, mind, self, ultimate reality
and the rest.Utter confusion.

Here are some examples of this unclarity:Stream of consciousness; A person’s

continuous flow of thoughts, feelings and sensations, also used in context of a
literary work.Or: Raising awareness: Used to describe the act of making people
informed about a particular issue.Or: Losing consciousness: When drunk or when
passing out.Or: Heightened consciousness: Increased awareness or sensitivity, often
used in a spiritual or philosophical context.Or: Social consciousness: The
awareness of important social issues and problems within society.

Consciousness, to be conscious is also generally mixed up together with

awareness , to be aware.

In modern everyday English, the word consciousness and the phrase to be

conscious are generally understood to refer to the state of being aware of one’s
surroundings, thoughts, and feelings.

The Dictionary is more helpful to define consciousness, as we usually use the word:

Waking State: Consciousness is often equated with the waking state, and the ability
to perceive, interact, and communicate with the environment and others in an
integrated manner.

Subjective Awareness: Consciousness is also used to refer to the private,

subjective experience of being aware of perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and
actions.

Awareness of Internal and External Phenomena: Consciousness is the state of being

aware, either of something external or internal. The word consciousness is
ordinarily associated with common waking consciousness, but it is recognized that
various modes of consciousness other than normal waking consciousness exist. Such
as dream state, dreamless sleep, hypnosis, mystical states.

Self-awareness is defined as:

1. Knowledge of your own thoughts, feelings, motivations, and values. This
involves recognizing your emotional state, identifying the reasons behind your
actions, and understanding your underlying beliefs and principles.
2. Objectively evaluating your strengths and weaknesses: This involves being honest
with yourself about your capabilities and limitations, without over-inflating or
downplaying your abilities.
3. Ability to reflect on your experiences: This involves taking time to analyze
past events, learn from your mistakes, and grow as a person.

Psychology, and especially the Depth Psychology of Carl Gustav Jung already gets
much more specific about consciousness :

Disclaimer: I really like Carl Gustav Jung, the guy as well as his work. He not
only freed psychology from the limits of Mr. Freud’s infantile views but he also
got us into very deep waters when it comes to exploring collective consciousness
and The Unconscious.

Jung describes the distinction between conscious, subconscious, and unconscious

states of consciousness in this way:

Consciousness: Is defined as the function or activity which maintains the relation

of psychic contents to the ego. He distinguished it conceptually from the psyche
itself, which is comprised of both consciousness and the unconscious. In Jung’s
model, the ego is not the same thing as consciousness, but simply the dominant
complex of the conscious mind. Becoming conscious is seen as a continuous process
of assimilating what was previously unknown to the ego, involving a progressive
understanding of one’s motivations and influences by unconscious aspects or
complexes.

The Subconscious: Jung’s model includes the personal unconscious, which contains
forgotten or repressed memories, as well as the collective unconscious, which
refers to shared, inherited unconscious knowledge and experiences across humanity.
The personal unconscious is described as everything of which an individual is not
at the moment thinking, everything once conscious but now forgotten, and everything
perceived by the senses but not noted by the conscious mind. It also includes
involuntary thoughts, feelings, and actions, as well as future things taking shape
in the individual.

The Unconscious: Jung’s picture of the conscious is like a small island in the
ocean of The Unconscious. The unconscious is seen as the storehouse of instinctual
desires, needs, and psychic actions, and it directs the thoughts and feelings of
the individual from the realm of the unconscious.

In Jung’s psychology, the distinction between conscious, subconscious, and

unconscious states of consciousness is central to understanding the functioning of
the psyche and the process of individuation.

Now, Jung also explored deeper layers of consciousness.

Something that he called collective unconscious.Which is very interesting for my

quest!

The Collective Unconscious is a concept that refers to the shared, inherited

unconscious knowledge and experiences across humanity. Jung believed that the
collective unconscious is populated by instincts, as well as by archetypes: ancient
primal symbols such as The Great Mother, the Wise Old Man, the Shadow, the Tower,
Water, and the Tree of Life.

He considered the collective unconscious to underpin and surround the unconscious

mind, and distinguished it from the personal unconscious, which contains forgotten
or repressed memories. According to Jung, the collective unconscious is the source
of all archetypes, origin stories, myths and legends, and he thought these stories
were not just figments of our imaginations but expressions of the collective
unconscious.

I feel that this is as deep as we can get with Psychology.

But unfortunately all of that still does not really talk about what this mysterious
consciousness actually is.And here i am not talking about human consciousness or
whats going on in a human’s field of awareness, but the pure consciousness , the
full emptiness , Sunyata, the unspeakable Tao, the material on which everything
runs , so to say.

While consciousness has been declared The Hard Problem in Western Philosophy,
Psychology and Neuroscience, there have been more and more stories coming from the
field of Quantum Physics and Quantum Mechanics that talk of new and mind-boggling
research, theories and cutting edge speculations about the smallest elements of
sub atomic reality and their relation to consciousness.

Oh lala! No comprende amigos!

Obviously, i don’t understand this field intellectually.But i can see a pattern, a
direction of the research.

That's why i even bring it up. Here just one little Quote:

The Quantum Theory of Consciousness suggests that everything, including inanimate

objects, can have consciousness to a certain extent, as they all contain
information, can receive and process information on the vibrational and quantum
level, can show quantum entanglement, and experience resultant change accordingly.
Quantum Theory of Consciousness supports the idea of panpsychism, which indicates
that everything in the universe can possess consciousness to some degree.
Consciousness is a fundamental and universal feature of reality. Some form of
consciousness, sentience, or experience exists at all levels of physical reality
and nature, not just in biological organisms. Consciousness is built into the basic
structure of the universe.
Underlying all existence is a unified, primordial consciousness or cosmic mind
which grounds all subsequent manifestations. Material reality emerges and emanates
from this primordial awareness. As physical matter becomes more complex in
structural organization over time, more articulated and differentiated forms of
consciousness also complexify and emerge.
Consciousness in some sense permeates all physical existence. There is no absolute
division between organic mental phenomena and so called non-sentient, inanimate
matter.

I find it fascinating to see, how lately some Western neuroscientists and quantum
physicists, the scientists who explore the smallest elements of matter, advance
theories and explanations that sound amazingly similar to Eastern spiritual
teachings about Śūnyatā, full emptiness , The Tao , The Ultimate Ground Of
Being .

Maybe, the East and the West will finally somehow meet and join in the end, when it
comes to The Ultimate Questions.

In The East there have been some highly developed folks since long time ago,
called Rishis, Lamas, holy men and women, sages, mystics, yogis and such, who have
known the Ultimate Reality by experience.
No need for blackboards full of mathematical equations, no need for extremely
complicated technical machines like Large Particle Colliders and no need for
brilliant Harvard-educated intellects.
But only equipped with themselves as study object and subject, a sharp and steady
focussed beam of awareness. and unending dedication to the exploration, they
experienced it all and they mapped it all out.

Historic figures like Shankara, Milarepa, Patanjali, Mira Bai, Gautama, Djwal Khul,
Aurobindo, Ramakrishna, Helena Blavatsky are just a few names of such folks who
were dedicated to the task of such a mapmaking of reality. From the Highest, most
subtle Ultimate Un-nameable Un-manifest Tao, Godhead, Brahma, down to the densest
of matter.
Everything that is there beyond the veil , beyond what the eye can see,
underneath the manifest reality.

The whole Great Chain of Being.

The Descent of Spirit into Matter and the return back to source.

In modern times such Maps of Reality have been drawn in great length by people like
Helena Blavatsky or Ken Wilber, and I will not spend much time on it. Enough books
are available written by those folks.

For the sake of my exploration and contemplation in this article, it is not my

intention to go into this very complex mapping here.

Just in case you are interested, here are a few glimpses of such maps:

The Great Chain of Being can also be found in many world traditions and religious
and spiritual contexts.

As well as in the Theosophy of Helena Blavatsky.

As well as Transpersonal Psychology or the Integral Philosophy of Ken Wilber.

Knock yourself out with those illustrations but i suggest to treat lightly. Its
easy to be too intellectual about it all and get confused.

As I see it, this whole incredible chain of reality throughout the dimensions is
manifesting on the carrier wave of the Un-nameable, the full-of-all-potential-
manifestations emptiness .
But since that sounds just silly, let’s call it for now: consciousness as the
ultimate substance of it all .
Although technically that’s not really the right word.The right word would be.
The Un-nameable.
Will try to be more precise about that later on.

What really only interests me here is:How to touch the sky. How to experience and
realize and embody the Ultimate Reality of the Tao.
To do just that, I’d like to leave all the above behind, all the concepts and
definitions and focus and expand on the method and practice that I am most
comfortable with:

Samatha & Vipassanā Meditation.

As taught originally by the Buddha.
And general mindfulness-in-every-day-living that prepare for such meditation.

In Buddha’s teaching, mindfulness is defined as the awareness that emerges through

paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally to the
unfolding of experience, moment to moment.
It involves cultivating the quality and power of mind that is aware of what is
happening without judgment and without interference.
The Four Foundations of Mindfulness, to be mindful of my body, my feelings, my mind
itself, the movements and content of my mind, and the phenomena of the world around
me.
By training in mindfulness of these four foundations, I see reality with more
clarity and equanimity.
Reality as it is. And not reality as I want it to be or not to be.
Big difference!

To develop such calm, focussed, nonjudgmental mind,I practice Shamatha Meditation:

Also known as calm abiding meditation, Shamatha focuses on allowing the mind to
calm down and developing a single-pointed focus of my awareness over an extended
period of time.
The primary goal of Shamatha is to stabilize and quiet the mind, leading to a state
of deep tranquility and relaxation.
This practice involves focusing on a single object, such as the breath or a candle
light or a stone, and returning the attention to the object whenever the mind
wanders.
Shamatha is aimed at cultivating mental stability. A sense of inner peace is the
natural effect of this kind of meditation.

How do i do that, if my mind is like a monkey-on-the-loose?

How to do Shamata Meditation?

1. Good Posture: Sitting cross-legged or on a chair with straight back, keeping the
hands in the lap or on the knees, maintaining a straight back, widening the
shoulders to open the heart center, and lowering the chin a little bit. The Posture
should be purposeful but relaxed.
2. Focus on the Breath: This is a fundamental Shamatha practice involves becoming
aware of the breath, letting go of thoughts as they arise, and returning to the
breath whenever distracted.
It is also possible to us a candle flame or a stone in front of you as a focal
point for the awareness. But the breath is always the best choice in my experience.
3. Label the Thoughts as thought : When thoughts arise during meditation, label
them as thinking without judgment or harshness, and then gently return to the
breath. This practice helps in developing a non-reactive awareness of thoughts.
4. Gentle, Balanced Attention: The guiding principle for this practice is Not too
tight, not too loose. This applies to the seat, posture, breath, and the practice
itself.

Vipassanā Meditation

Vipassanā is translated as insight or clear-seeing .

It is a method of looking into something with clarity and precision, seeing each
component as distinct and separate, and piercing all the way through so as to
perceive the most fundamental reality of that thing.
This kind of meditation is designed to bring insight into how things are, not how
we thought them to be.

The ultimate aim of Vipassanā is to realize the reality of mind, life, awareness,
consciousness, and the nameless ultimate Ground of Being, the full emptiness of
Sunjata, Tao, Source .

It results in the ability of direct experiential perception of reality and to

embodied wisdom that does not come from books or learning.This kind of wisdom is
something fundamentally different from knowledge derived from intellectual
reasoning or thinking, reading and discussion.

Sounds very good to me!

How to do Vipassanā Meditation

Vipassana Meditation is closely related to Shamata Meditation. Shamata practice

prepares you to be able to maintain a focussed and steady awareness over a time
period.
A steady mind and focussed awareness is a prerequisite to do Vipassana.
In Vipassana you open the one-pointed focus of awareness to a soft focus
awareness .
It is also called Peripheral Awareness or The Witness .
Peripheral awareness or witnessing, a specific form of awareness, is a overall
perception of:– sensory information coming from the body.
– mental activities and formations that appear in the mind.
– and the overall state and activity of the mind in all its subtleties.
Unlike attention, which isolates and analyzes specific objects within the field
of conscious awareness, peripheral awareness is soft , inclusive, holistic, and
witnessing.
No comments, not making concepts or conclusions.
Pure witnessing.

Is the key to enlightenment.

They say.

Now there could be much to be said about what could be witnessed by the witness
that is me or you or actually! Who?
All those subtleties and distinctions are written down in great detail in
the Abhidharma, the collection of early Buddhist texts.
I am quite a bit reluctant, to do that, to speak of my own experience and view of
that, because it easily leads to conceptualizations of things that are very close
to the un-speakable , close to the non-duality that has no words.

As expressed as Tao, Sunyata , Emptiness at the beginning of this article.

So, in the end, what am I taking away from this contemplation of consciousness,
contemplating the outer edges of understanding the essential components of reality?
And from diving deep into the subtle awareness of such things in Vipassana
Meditation?

Well, I am surprised, I must say!

Although I was never sure what pure consciousness actually is, I always used this
word to name the ultimate substance of reality . I viewed pure consciousness as
the vibration , the carrier wave, so to speak out of and on which all dimensions
and manifestations arise.
Also I viewed that as the way back to The Source .

Now I am not so sure I will continue to use those words so freely.

Now I am not sure I need or want to use any words at all, for naming those Ultimate
Realities.

Because, as the wise old Taoists say:

The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal Name.
The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin of all particular things.

After all, experiencing and knowing is all that’s needed.

Naming maybe is good for communication,but it also carries the seed of mis-
interpretation in it.

And, after all, I actually intended just to Gently Touch The Sky.
Not to grab it!

Here you find a few books to download that i found helpful at some points in my own
quest to understand and grok consciousness, reality and the rest:

The Mind Illuminated, by Culadasa.

The Heart Sutra.
Glimpses of abhidharma, by Chogyam Trungpa.
The Buddhist Psychology of Awakening, An In-Depth Guide to Abhidharma.
Sarvastivada Abhidharma.
I am That, by Nisargadatta Maharaj.
An Integral Theory of Consciousness, by Ken Wilber.
The Secret Doctrine, by Helena Blavatzky.
Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tsu .
If you wish to go deeper in Meditation and really Touch the Sky it is helpful to
have a competent guide at your side.

Look for one, they are there, out there.

please come back another day.

This is a work in progress.