We live both AS a consciousness state and WITHIN a state of consciousness. When I say that we are living AS a consciousness state, I mean that we are unaware of our state of consciousness. We have not separated ourselves from our state of consciousness. We cannot look at the state we are in. There is no we, no I. We are “caught up” in our consciousness state. The consciousness state is us.
When I say that we are living WITHIN a state of consciousness, I mean that we are aware of our state of consciousness. We feel that we exist independently of our state of consciousness. We move around within it and look at its components and marvel at its mystery. The consciousness state is both us and not us. We are an observer and are aware that we are an observer.
When I live AS a state of consciousness, there is no subject-object split. I am neither subjective nor objective. I AM. When I live WITHIN a state of consciousness, I am the subject and all else is object. When WITHIN, I am not aware that I am both subject and object. When WITHIN, it seems clear to me that I am the operating factor and all else is operated upon.
As soon as I say that I live AS a state of consciousness, I am no longer living AS a state of consciousness. As soon as I say that I live AS a state of consciousness, I live WITHIN a state of consciousness. As soon as I say that I live AS a state of consciousness, I have cast myself out of that Garden of Eden into exile. I am outside looking in. This is why “those who know do not speak and those who speak do not know.”
When I live AS a state of consciousness, I am a flow of knowing, of gnosis. When I live WITHIN a state of consciousness, I have removed myself from the flow of knowing. I live in ig-gnosis, in ignore-ance. I ignite myself with my own being. A certain darkness settles, an ig-night.
A holo-archy of states of consciousness exist. This holoarchy is similar to but different from a hierarchy. In a hierarchy, one is on a rung of a ladder. One is separate from the ladder and from all the other rungs. One has one’s state of consciousness and aspires to the states on higher rungs (or slips and falls to a lower state). A holoarchy is a set of nested states of consciousness. One can open to wider consciousness. The opening to wider consciousness has no end.
When one lives AS a state of consciousness, one lives holoarchically. One is an ever-widening sphere of consciousness, a sphere with no surface, no bounds. Information flow is immediate and certain. One lives in im-mediacy. No mediation is needed. One lives as certainty, an inclusive certainty.
The reverse is true when one lives WITHIN a state of consciousness. One lives hierarchically. Information flow is mediated. One needs a mediator and is either in a search for one or has found one. The mediator tells one what is real and what is not. Mediators who live AS a state of consciousness differ from mediators who live WITHIN a state of consciousness.
Let us call living WITHIN a state of consciousness Exclusive. Let us call living AS a state of consciousness Inclusive. Exclusive consciousness sets up barriers and excludes. One becomes objective (and even objectionable). Inclusive consciousness can be thought of as surrounded by a semipermeable membrane allowing free informational energy interflow. When there is no membrane, inclusive consciousness becomes a state of ecstasy.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hi George:
ReplyDeleteThis is a difficult one, George, because so much depends on semantics. To me, consciousness exhibits quantum-like behavior. Your “As” consciousness definition tracks perfectly with my view of consciousness. We are like proverbial goldfish swimming in a bowl of water, yet unaware of the water, of any existence beyond the water. As you put it: “We have not separated ourselves from our state of consciousness … There is no we, no I.”
I have some trouble with your “Within” consciousness, where we “move around within and look at its components and marvel at its mystery.” This impresses me as being very much like the quantum “observer effect,” where the very act of observation alters the quantum reality. Only here, the act of consciously observing our consciousness actually alters our perception of the state of consciousness ~ not the state, only the perception.
If that’s the case, then your “Within” is only a function of your “As” consciousness and not separate from it. Therefore, we have only “As” consciousness and we “cannot look at the state we are in.” “Within” consciousness is an illusion and any separation of the two is a trick our tiny brains play on our mechanics of perception.
And I'm comfortable with that.
~G.