The Nature of Consciousness: Part III
Our nature at the mountain peak
Aside from hide and seek, aside from the beat of the drum, there is a third all-pervasive part of our nature that points to the nature of consciousness. The desire to transcend our individual finite bodies. The desire to go beyond the immediate and experience the timeless.Abraham Maslow, the influential psychologist and philosopher, developed a hierarchy of needs to explain human motivation. His theory suggested that people have a number of basic needs that must be met before they move up the hierarchy to pursue more social, emotional, and self-actualising needs. At the peak of his pyramid was self-actualisation. He described this as, “everything that one is capable of becoming,” this could involve going beyond your individuality, but equally it could involve reinforcing it. I would describe a desire for transcendence as being about going beyond focusing on the physical body and psychologically affected mind. About connecting to, or experiencing something beyond the limited separate self or ego. About going beyond the separate brush strokes to experience the whole canvas. The paradox, as with many aspects of consciousness, is that our body and minds are the gateway to transcending. They are like the door that can either be wide open or shut firm.
From where does this desire for transcendence stem? Are we driven by fear, or to seek pleasure? Sometimes, but the urge goes beyond that, it stems from the desire to know our true selves. Not as bodies experiencing consciousness, but as consciousness experiencing being human. An experience of the centre of our being. The deepest part of us that is not our body, thoughts, emotions or senses, but the centre, the soul that is vaster than all our parts. Where would this desire sit in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? It would sit at the top and the bottom. A person seeks to transcend, both when they have the luxury and time to do so, but also when they are at their weakest. A person seeks to transcend the self both at a music concert and on their death bed. The desire to transcend presents itself at every stage of Maslow’s model.
This urge is found in humanity from time immemorial across all cultures. It is shown in our desire to excel in arts and sport, to create, to invent, to reach ecstasy, peak experiences, and states of flow. To be part of club, group or cause, to seek ever-lasting life. There are a multitude of ways that we seek to go beyond the limited self and become timeless and unbounded. For the artist or scientist, these may be moments of creativity or invention. You have probably experienced these transcendent moments in your own life. Maybe you were walking in the woods and felt a oneness with nature, or maybe a feeling of connection with others at a concert or religious ceremony, or while meditating? Maybe it was while volunteering, helping others, or while climbing in the mountains. Maybe they were only brief glimpses, but as a child you spent hours in this state, or your glimpses stretched out while relaxing on holiday. For a Buddhist monk practising deep meditation, the glimpse becomes a gaze. Both the desire and the experience of transcending the separate individual are something universally felt.
For some the experience of transcending is easier to obtain than others. Some dedicate their lives to it with prayer or meditation and discipline. For others it is found in activity, spending time with loved ones, or with the help of hallucinogenic plants. The individual focused and filtered awareness expands or merges into a state of infinite awareness. When we transcend, our rational thinking mind fades into the background, and is replaced by the one ever-present background. The communication channel with our separately experienced consciousness and the universal consciousness opens wide. The heart feels pure, and the mind clear. Creativity flows, inventions inspired. Each person may have their own way to describe these experiences and a rationale for their desire. All these examples point to a yearning that goes beyond nature and nurture, an urge to connect with, to know, to experience our true selves as pure infinite consciousness.
The common threads found in these examples of transcendence are: experiencing a sense of oneness; experiencing a feeling beyond a limited physical body and bound by limited time and space; feeling a deep connection with others, with nature and everything around; going beyond or escaping the rational mind; moments of inspiration, creativity, or intuition; a feeling of harmony, peace or bliss, and a feeling of being completely present in the now. Although some people may feel this following an achievement, it is more akin to being than doing. That is, it is not about achieving a specific goal, nor doing any specific activity, but reaching a state of being. Although the activity might help, it is the state that is key.
Religion is another interesting case, with circa 6 billion people in the world subscribing to some form of faith. Religion is in no way immune from distortion, misinterpretation and misappropriation, however, beyond sacrifice and worship, transcendence of the finite physical form is a persistent theme. Singing or chanting and use of light are often central to religious practice, as are the themes of unity and everlasting life.
It is interesting to consider the opposite to a sense of unbounded connection; a sense of isolation or separation. In conflict or competition with other people and nature. Feelings of being surrounded by hostility and obsessed with individual preservation and gratification.
The true nature of consciousness is to be experienced, to be felt, to be known. This is where we find our true nature. It is well hidden, and at times it can be difficult to experience, especially in a modern world with a plethora of distractions. However, it awaits, ever-present.
Is universal consciousness neutral?
With the explosion of scientists’ recent interest in universal or fundamental consciousness, they are straying into the area of the non-scientific with descriptions such as; “a primal or fundamental energy with freewill and an urge to know itself”. It sounds like a mildly interested neutral energy, but devoid of qualities like love, fear, benevolence, joy, beauty, imagination, or bliss, ie. the things that we would associate with being human. However, when we look at the world we generally equate these things with organisms that have higher levels of consciousness, ie. we don’t imbue a fly with love or imagination. Would it then make sense that universal consciousness is devoid of these qualities? Are humans akin to a random isolated occurrence of these qualities with the rest of the universe a neutral disinterested vacuum? Can we explain away these qualities as purely tools for survival?
Which is more likely, that these qualities came from physics, chemistry and biology, or that they come from a life-supporting consciousness?
Are human and animal minds alone in having agency, with the universe a void of purpose? Why do we find nature beautiful, from a peach-coloured sunset to the silent flight of an owl?
The answers are found in how universal consciousness communicates. In those moments when we feel most connected with an all-pervasive energy or consciousness, in those moments when we transcend. Do we feel a neutral or malevolent energy? Ask an artist after they have just been in the state of flow, or ask a seasoned meditator. Ask yourself the same question. The answers are likely to be things like light, connection, love, intelligence and benevolence. Perhaps this is merely a reflection of inner state, however the purity and clarity of these moments suggests not. These are the moments when our thoughts become silent, the baggage of psychological history fades, and the present shines clear. Conversely, in those times when you feel most separate or isolated, anxious, or fearful, you either struggle to connect with a wider consciousness or you find only malevolence all around.
You cannot intellectually know consciousness, it is not hidden in a formula, theory, or concept, but you can experience it. An energy, an intelligence beyond the grasp of the human intellect. An intelligence that gives breath to life, gives order, cradles the universe. It is life, it is balance, it is all. The finite aspect of ourselves, a mere fragment, unable to grasp its mystery, its vastness. Yet our infinite side can touch it, can experience it, can know it. Consciousness comes with the gift of communication, and in these moments of connection you can know universal consciousness. It communicates with the part of you that loves, imagines, intuits. It communicates with the infinite unbounded part of you, the part that is pure awareness.
Consciousness and the state of our world
Consciousness has created a fascinating and mysterious game for us to play. It is a game full of twists and turns. However, when it comes to consciousness’ game of hide and seek, the modern world has placed many obstacles in our way. Let’s take the example of light. For most of our existence light played an important role in helping us transcend our non-physical nature.
We lit campfires and candles, and placed stained glass windows in churches and mosques. We hung lanterns and sent up fireworks. We gazed at sunsets and starlight. There is a reason why God’s first words in the Bible were “let there be light.” In Hinduism, Diwali, known as the festival of lights, celebrates the victory of light over darkness, and knowledge over ignorance. In Buddhism light is often used to represent enlightenment and wisdom. We all feel this. When we say, “she lights up the room,” we don’t mean she walked in carrying a 1000W torch.
Light and connection go together. Darkness and separation, light and oneness. Like physical light, consciousness dissolves the dark boundaries of separation to create unified awareness.
In the modern world light still plays this role, it still conquers the darkness, and not just the physical, but also serves as a gateway to the non-physical. It is still used to that affect in art, theatre, film, music concerts and religion. However, it is also used in the service of production and consumption. In the service of that dominant ideology – capitalism. Offices and screens are lit up so as we can keep working till late. In shops and at home, more bright LED lights keep us busy consuming and being entertained. At night, city lights block out the starlight.
Simultaneously we are robbed of the cocoon of deep darkness than inspires introspection and the starlight that emerges from that dark canvass.
The way light is used is just one example, in the modern world we are surrounded by obstacles, artificiality and distractions. Each individual
also has their own inner obstacles to surmount. If it seems hard to find and know your true self as fundamentally conscious awareness it is no surprise. And yet, there hardly seems a point in our history where self-knowledge is more important to the future of our species and our planet.
When we look at the challenges the world faces at the moment, they are related to separation. A lack of connection with our true nature, the consciousness that goes beyond the immediate. A concept of ourselves as limited physical beings in a struggle for survival or in competition for supremacy. Humanity is part of an orchestra, but we have lost the rhythm, the harmony. We are the trombonist that has forgotten the rest of the orchestra.
The lack of balance that follows from becoming distanced from our true nature shows itself in many ways. In excessive consumption as we seek to fill a void, as we seek a feeling of wholeness. In excessive doing, in excessively plugging our attention into distractive dopamine-dripping entertainment.
As beings separated from each other and hidden from and unaware of our shared source, conflict becomes almost inevitable. As individuals, the further away from a harmonious state of being we are, the more dis-ease sets in. Anxiety, depression, and addiction. Stress turns to illness as we lose the natural rhythms of breath and the balance between being and doing. We are flooded with information, our senses fed continually, but we are starved of connection with our true selves.
Material expansion is part of the game; creativity and individuality a reflection of our desire to explore and experience the infinite possibilities of the physical world. The expansion away from our source, our centre, a necessary part of the cycle. The wave rises up before returning to the ocean. The universe pulses; there is night and day, summer and winter, birth and death. There is the heartbeat and the breath. These are the rhythms of life. Connected and balanced. The seasons, the sun and moon, and natural world follow this universal pulse, continuous materialistic growth doesn’t. Continuous linear materialistic expansion without rest or regeneration is at odds with our true nature and the whole natural world. Burnout and a burnt out world are the result. Exploitation, pollution and destruction of the ecosystem. Personal, societal, and global conflict. Getting lost is part of the game, but in many ways we have become so absorbed that we’ve forgotten who we really are and the game’s purpose.
Why scale the mountain of self-knowledge when you can get instant gratification with a click or swipe? Just as we are polluting the soil that roots nature, we are polluting the mind biome that roots us to our true nature. The loss of connection with our deepest nature doesn’t make the headlines, but it is clear that there is a human crisis. The Earth is adapting to humans, and just like we have shaken its vibration out of harmony, Gaia is shaking back.
However, the game is not lost, not if there is also expansion of consciousness. At a time when chaos seems to pervade the world, people are increasingly looking to find inner peace. The number practising mindfulness or meditation has more than doubled in the last twenty years to an estimated over 300 million worldwide. More and more people are seeing and exploring the connection between inner and outer harmony. Alternative ways of working, such as the four-day work week, are helping people find balance in their lives. When we were all locked away in our homes during the recent global pandemic, many sought and came to appreciate a renewed connection with nature. At the same time people also began to question the purpose of life. In an age where the effects of global events ripple around the world people are looking to themselves and their local communities and building self-reliance. They are finding that we are not mere objects of creation, we are creators, we are composers of the melody of life. From the depths of darkness, the seed of imagination is born which creates the future.
If we can come to a deeper connection with our own true nature and go from inner to outer balance we can live in harmony with our fellow human being and the natural world. The clues are right before us, eternal and more deeply etched than any trend of culture or strand of
DNA. Our true nature is primarily consciousness, living brief human lives, playing peek-a-boo. The stakes of the game have been raised and the modern world is full of obstacles and distractions. However, everyone is a participant in the game, we can all play, and we can all find our true nature. We can all experience the true nature of consciousness.