Consciousness, Mind and Awareness

What is Consciousness?
With the rise of metaphysical movements, esoteric spirituality and the mental sciences especially during the last few centuries, and presently in our postmodern 21st century world, Consciousness is a term that has become synonymous to the traditional religious notion or idea of God.   This development is evident particularly in the fields of theoretical physics, quantum physics, cosmology and neuroscience, among others, as scientists grapple with profound questions dealing with the brain, the mind and human consciousness, itself, as well with age-old questions regarding the origins of the universe, life and existence, itself.

You can’t define Consciousness, but you can certainly experience it.

 
Consciousness Experiencing Itself through Mind
Consciousness cannot be defined but it can be experienced. We experience Consciousness through its states and stages that press upon and express through the mind, creating impressions as well as reflections of form. (This is discussed in my post titled: “Mystical Transformation and the Human Mind”.)   Mind is the avenue on which and by which Consciousness unfolds and becomes.  Consciousness unfolds… and mind correspondingly expands… so that conscious awareness can grow and become more of what is.

Mind is the medium by which Consciousness becomes aware of itself, relatively and finitely in and through manifest forms, and absolutely and infinitely in Beingness and Selfhood.  Read my blog about this aspect of Consciousness in my post titled “The Mystical Path of Life: The Self Contemplating Itself”.

These things we perceive with the five senses are objects of mind, with no relationship to Truth.

All appearances are sense-objects — not of God, or Truth.

All that is objectively witnessed must be understood to be mental images or mind projections – never spiritual reality.
(Joel S. Goldsmith, from The Infinite Way,
Chapter: “Wisdoms of The Infinite Way,” 176)

 

Conscious awareness is how Consciousness experiences and is experienced in return. There is a masculine aspect of awareness that is intellectual and cognitive, and a feminine aspect that is pure feeling and intuitive. The former opens awareness to the external worlds of the mind; the latter recedes awareness from the external and opens it to the hidden inner dimensions of the soul.

The steps necessary to be taken to facilitate awareness of Self as consciousness have been well detailed historically.   Numerous techniques and behaviors have been prescribed to facilitate the removal of obstacles to expanded awareness; these can be found in the practice of various spiritual disciplines.   The one process common to all such teachings is the progressive elimination of the identification of self as finite.— Dr. David R. Hawkins —
 

 
Enlightenment
When Consciousness realizes itself as both the transcendent Beingness of all things and the immanent Selfhood of the individual, Consciousness is fully awakened and self-aware. This occurs when we awaken to it individually in the experience referred to as mystical enlightenment, spiritual illumination, satori, Self-realization, God-realization, cosmic consciousness, or unity consciousness (to name a few descriptive terms).   

Here is a documentary on the awakening of consciousness.  It presents the dynamics of consciousness working in, through, and as the energy that is mind.  It explains the urgent need for spiritual enlightenment at this particular point in our development.  

[Acknowledgment: Thanks to HairyCookieMunster for the YouTube video above on "awakening."]

Below is a four-part exposition on the subject of unity consciousness, which you can view and contemplate.

[Acknowledgment: Thanks to FreedomOfTheSoul for the YouTube video above on unity consciousness.]

The mind in which Consciousness is fully awake functions as the Buddha Mind or the Christ Mind. It is a spiritually transformed mind: an unconditioned mind functioning as an infinite and divine mind.   Such a mind mirrors its own pristine undisturbed purity and reflects the integral wholeness that Consciousness really is.  It is symbolized by the Uroborus, the serpent biting its own tail to form a closed circle of infinity on itself.  It is also represented in numerology by the number 10: the One that is the All.  The enlightened mind in one individual benefits all others.

 

And I, if “I” be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.    (Yeshua, The Gospel according to John 12:32, NASB77)

 

[Acknowledgment: Thanks to worldofoneness for the YouTube video above featuring Sri Bhagavan.]

 
A Mystery
You can watch an informative documentary on Consciousness titled “Why Is Consciousness So Mysterious?”   The documentary explains why Consciousness is such a mystery through a sampling of current thinking on the subject as viewed by various disciplines.  Click on the image below to watch the documentary.

 

Consciousness is a mystery that cannot be fathomed by the finite human mind particularly through the workings of the intellect mind.   However, Consciousness is not beyond individual experience.    In truth, Consciousness is meant to be experienced in all its infinite aspects and manifestations, including its own self-aware aspect and individuation, by all sentient beings.   It is the Self contemplating itself.   
 

Consciousness simply IS!

 
Being infinite in nature, Consciousness unfolds forever.

[Note: This page will remain in a state of ongoing unfoldment, just like Consciousness itself.   The direction of its flow will be determined and developed by your blogs and posts.  Share your thoughts on the subject of Consciousness by posting them below.]

 

 

I caught the happy virus last night
When I was out singing beneath the stars
It is remarkably contagious —
So kiss me.
- Hafiz, Sufi Mystic -

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What do you wish to do next on the path?

• Let me review Oneness.
• Take me back to The Mystical Life.
• Feed my soul.
• I’ll take a break now.
• Let me start all over.