phoenix consciousness

We are in a continuous state of birth-and-death. The aspect of ourselves that we call our physical body has about 1/4th of its cells being born, 1/4th dying, and about 1/2 in middle age. As such we are birth-and-death. No need to fear death. You are death. More accurately, you are birth-and-death.

This is the state of the phoenix, always dying and being reborn, forever birthing into dying and dying into birthing.

Phoenix consciousness follows the practice of no clinging. No trying to hang on to and revive what has already passed. No hanging on to a description of oneself, to what might have been or should have been. No trying to force oneself into some rigidified mold handed down from the past by oneself, by society, or by the culture.

In not clinging to pre-established form, one opens awareness to the wisdom of the living universe. This has been called cosmic consciousness and mystical consciousness. I prefer to call it Awareness.

(In martial arts, a similar consciousness state is called zanshin. Also see Michael Murphy's The Future of the Body.)

All those folk we homo saps have set up (and it is a set up) as saints and holy and spiritual masters and sons of god are, in terms of the evolution of human consciousness, forerunners of what is to come and is happening now. Each of them spoke of Awareness and were often killed by those of hedgehog consciousness for doing so.

The second birth often spoken of in the spiritual domain is the birth from hedgehog consciousness to Awareness. Jesus said: "You must be born again." Buddha spoke of "going beyond." Lao Tzu said: "There is no need to run outside for better seeing, nor to peer from a window. Rather abide at the center of your being."

Phoenix consciousness. Perpetually arising out of the ashes of what has gone, into the fire and light of Awareness of the living universe and its wisdom.