A Look at Universal Consciousness and beyond
Life can be understood as a kind of dream.
Universal consciousness is the source, creative imagination is its nature.
The source dreams.
Life before death is part of the dream; life after passing is another part.
What we believe determines what happens or is experienced after birth and after death.
When fully enlightened we know we were never born.
The dream in its never ending variety and drama continues, but we in our essence simply witness it.
The enlightened know themselves as pure being. They perceive that all so-called knowledge is knowledge in one form or another of the dream and ultimately illusory, temporary or - relative to the non-changing ultimate state - simply false.
The mind accesses memories and based on these imagines a universe of space and time, or objects and events. Memory gives existence and continuity to a universe. Neither memory nor its contents are the Real.
Anything that can be placed in memory or recalled from memory is temporary or momentary reality. The absolute source is not something that can be known and then occupy a place in memory.
This is a paradox. All experiences can and do reside in memory. But the absolute while attainable is not an experience. You cannot know the absolute, but you can become it. It is a state that makes experience and memories possible, but it is prior. The doorway to the absolute is universal consciousness.
Universal consciousness is primary in any universe or creation, all contents of that universe can be understood as analogous to waves in the sea. Consciousness itself is what we are invited to deepen and broaden.
The ordinary mind can only see what moves in creation, what vibrates or changes. Therefore from the mind’s point of view we can accept waves on the sea of life as ever moving patterns in consciousness, their source arising from memories of previous universes. We can witness and marvel at their endless permutations, but the sea (what contains all potential expressions) is primary and what we must initially seek.
Identity with the ocean leads to that which makes even the ocean itself possible (the absolute beyond).
Universal consciousness is perfect order, beauty and harmony. Such harmony inherent in the universal is called Sattva guna in the Vedic teachings.
The universal state is formed most basically of spirit (purusha) and matter (prakriti). These give rise to infinite intelligence, love and light (infinite mind or universal heart, each is or contains the other).
Within infinite mind are the sensory, memory and thought potentials, the intellect and ego (a perceiving center); and also the infinite mind contains the five elements (earth, water, fire, air and ether). All of these give rise to a universe and are contained in the universal field of awareness (which is made possible by the ultimate substratum, the unknowable, un-namable, indescribable Absolute).
What we commonly think of as our “self” is a bundle of memories, fears, desires and hopes. It is the result of identifying with the reflection in mind of our true essence; a reflection that appears in time and space but is not our ultimate nature. Past and future exist in the mind only. The Real gives them momentary reality. The Real is our natural state. The Real should be our goal.
What exists most fundamentally is the light of awareness. It is the heart of universal awareness. The fact it exists means that there is something even more basic, more fundamental. But that which is more fundamental does not exist, though it makes existence and the light of awareness possible.
The pure light is the doorway to this ultimate order of reality. Seek the door first; it will open to that which is beyond of its own accord. Focus or meditate on the subtle sense of I am within your awareness. This will lead to the pure light and ultimately that more basic dimension from which it emerges.
Experience has a beginning and end. Experience occurs within the absolute, but the absolute has no beginning or end. Infinite possibilities do exist within the universal self (the universal consciousness, the Light of Life).
But it is not our false “self” or bundle of memories and desires that actualizes the potentials of the universal self within.
The universal actualizes its potentials by Itself, within its Self. We are invited to witness the machinations and absurdities of our little self (our ego and all of its false attachments) as a means to transmute its grip, to dissolve its influence in directing our lives. This allows us to become a witness to the motion of the universal element as it endlessly flows, creates and actualizes its powers. This puts our true Essence in charge, so to speak. At least it starts the process.
Our ultimate source will never be found among things, among that which can be experienced, possessed or remembered. It is prior.
God is the totality of universal consciousness; the Self when experienced in its pure and natural state is that universal source. When God is experienced face to face, the self and the creator merge. This is a precondition to awareness of the absolute. Merging with the absolute is the final motion. The absolute makes God or universal consciousness (with all its contents) possible.
Refinement of perception allows subtler states of consciousness to come into experience. But a body of some form (whether gross or etheric) is required to experience the various potential states of consciousness. No body, no experience is possible.
The world is real in the sense it appears and disappears in consciousness. The error made by most humans is in the interpretation of the world. The world is not in reality separate from our self, though we imagine it to be so. Ultimately we are its source and it is contained within our consciousness. But this experience we must grow into, by removing what is false within.
This requires witnessing our thoughts and emotional states; marveling at their power to control and compel our desires and actions.
Witnessing dissolves the grip of mental and emotional conditioning. This allows greater light to shine within, to guide our actions to meet the need of each moment.
This is the path we are invited to walk. This leads to greater peace of mind, to integrity and authenticity, to acceptance of the inevitable, and to compassion for all creatures. This leads to the lifting of veils and ever unfolding miracles in consciousness. Through this we learn the road itself is the goal.
And as the universal seems to unfold in our consciousness, we find that life grows spontaneously in happiness, bliss, wisdom, contentment and beauty. These qualities are the reflection in consciousness of the absolute; from their experience we can infer the substratum beyond. When we’ve ripened sufficiently, we rotate into a new dimension – we become the absolute.
That which looks like spirit, mind and body is the bridge; it makes the spectrum possible. The knower and the known are contained in the process of knowing. They are all one.
We are invited to realize that it is our character that shapes our destiny; and when will and love pull together anything is possible. Transmute character by melting it in the fire of the I Am, the Real will emerge on its own.
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