MIND, MYTH & MAGIC

AN INTRODUCTION TO THINKING,
CONSCIOUSNESS, SELF-KNOWLEDGE
& EVOLUTION

It is this universal fabric of consciousness that binds us together in all our uniqueness. But consciousness and thinking, aren’t they the same thing? Like many things in this ill-defined area of enquiry, the answer is both yes and no. Through action thinking defines our interface with the world. It is, however, consciousness that defines our thinking. It is consciousness that shapes our perceptions of the world, consciousness that creates the deeper aspects of the individual, consciousness that creates each of us in all our aspects. If thinking and consciousness were the same thing there would be a lot of fat people who would not be fat. But, clearly, the desire to lose weight, however intense, is not enough. That is because thinking is an effect of consciousness, it is not consciousness itself. The modes of expression that define our eating and drinking habits come not from the level of thinking but from deeper levels of the mind. They come from those deep levels where we are made as people.

Coming to grips with conceptualizations that describe the mind and the processes of thinking can be difficult. The brain might be limited in substance and processes but the mind is unquantifiable and unlimited, at least in theory. (In fact, it is stress that describes, defines and confines mind and, therefore, consciousness.) Although consciousness, if it is considered at all, is generally thought to be a lateral process, it is also hierarchical. Describing the nature and the mind, thought and consciousness is extremely difficult verging on impossible. Even the ancient Indian Upanishads, part of the Vedas, which are about little else, rely on metaphor, allegory and analogy to provide easy to understand explanations. And so shall we.

So, let us consider the mind as a pond or lake. All the activity on that body of water is on the surface. Waves, whirlpools and eddies ripple across the water and it is constantly moving, constantly changing. The surface of the lake, however, is not the whole of the lake. Beneath the active surface level there are deeper levels where the activity becomes less and increasing silence and stillness are experienced. At the bottom of the lake it is totally still, silent and serene. So that is the nature of the mind -- all the activity is on the surface level and beneath all that activity there are increasing levels of silence and stillness. From the deepest depths of that lake, thought arises spontaneously like a tiny, tiny bubble. And it rises towards the surface. As it does so it becomes more and more coherent and cohesive. As it nears the surface level we become aware of it and when it bursts on the topmost level of the mind we either act on it or discard it.

That is the nature of thought -- from deep within outwards. From deep within the mind a seed of a thought spontaneously appears, rises towards the surface and is gone. It is easy to see that process in action for thoughts that are not retained or discarded are always expressed in the world in action and reaction.

Although I have discussed the processes and mechanisms of meditation elsewhere on this site, they also have a relevance in this context for they go towards defining much more than merely the processes of thinking. As the nature of thought is outwards, the nature of meditation is in the opposite direction. To return to our lake metaphor, the action of meditation is to experience thoughts at earlier and earlier stages in their development. In doing so, the mind plunges into the depths of the increasing silence towards the source of thought.

That action is one of experiencing the entire self for everything each of us is exists in those deep levels of the mind. Whilst we might believe that we exist on the surface level of thinking, that is not the case. It is merely the level at which we interface with the world. Our real selves exist at deeper levels of thinking than those that are generally accessible to our conscious selves.

According to Freud, this is the sub-conscious mind and is the repository for socially unacceptable ideas, wishes and desires. And, of course, it is all of that but much, much more. It has been called the unconscious mind but that is an equally confusing misnomer for it is far from unconscious. The super-conscious mind would be a better name since it is these levels of the mind that create the individualities that define us as people. If we are unable to control our urges and desires, that is because they are made and exist on levels of the mind that are not generally accessible to us.

Our access to these deeper levels of the mind is not restricted but it is obscured by the activity on the surface level. Just as when we look at a lake we only see the ripples on the surface, the world and our part in it demands that we do not get distracted from our point of action.

So far we have been discussing the lake in terms of the central area where the main action takes place. This almost circular area is the conduit for thought that we engage in day-to-day activity. However, that is not the whole expanse of the lake. It is an irregular shape, different for each of us, in which there are shallows, bays, mud flats, beaches, rivulets and rills. The waters are mostly clear and sparkling and the beaches clean and warmly sanded. These are the places where dreams, fantasies, visions and insights are to be found. However, not all is pristine on the fringes of our lake. In places the waters are murky and turbid, coated with green algae and pustulant oily slimes. Some of these areas contain the deritus of life, rusting supermarket trolleys protrude from the mud like the bones of dead creatures, tin cans, much-thumbed and soggy porn magazines and used condoms litter some of the beaches. Here we bury the unpleasant memories, the trials and tribulations of life, the spoiled dreams, the shattered desires, the frustrations and, sometimes, the anger. These are the outreaches of the mind where dark things can dwell.

In these areas of the mind the unexpected, the unusual and the unknown can be encountered. This is the arena in which psychics, telepaths and spiritualists play. This is the unknown and unexplored terrain in which shamen dream their dreams and encounter their spirit guides. If there are monsters lurking in the psyche, this is where they live, hiding in the rushes or submerged beneath the sickly waters.

If this all sounds starkly unfamiliar, that is as it should be. For these are areas of the mind that we rarely encounter. They are generally of little concern to us. We are far too engaged with all the activity in the central area.

Having said that, access to these areas of the mind is not denied us. We just need the right key. For some of us that key is provided by natural abilities and the predilections of karma. But for most something more is required. To open the door to these areas of the mind, it is necessary to step outside the normal modes of thinking. And the only way to do that without major challenges to the mind, body and spirit -- not to mention the time -- is through the use of hallucinogens. The major hallucinogens expand the mind dramatically in every direction but even mind-mannnered and gentle cannabis opens the door.

This lateral expansion of the mind goes beyond normal thinking processes and beyond the meditation process. Of course, in the due course of practising a consciousness expanding meditation the whole of the mind -- both individual and universal -- becomes accessible, the outreaches where psychic and other ‘supernatural’ abilities exist do not naturally become available until the central core of the mind is clear, clean and free of the influence of stresses. This state is the state of consciousness known as Unity Consciousness and is the first stage in the process of Enlightenment.

Sounds good, huh? But how do we achieve such states?

It is a difficult question to answer for two reasons. The first is that each of us exists on so many levels that pulling them all together to form a cohesive, comprehensive and consistent picture of ourselves can be all but impossible. Although what we are as people remains essentially the same from day-to-day, we are at the same time constantly changing, responding to events, reacting to situations, moved and modified by moods and circumstance.

But a more influential reason is that of subjectivity. The act of viewing oneself as an individual identity is, perhaps, the ultimate definition of ‘subjectivity.’ Our view of ourselves is based on many things, some are real and many are less so. What we would like to be, what we hope to be, what we wish we could be, what we feel others would like us to be, what we need to flatter our self-worth, what we need to identify ourselves in social terms and many other factors reduce the image we have of ourselves to an exercise in near delusion. What is more, though we might feel that others have a more objective view of what we are than ourselves, their view is also tainted by the slur of subjectivity.

It is clear from many sacred texts that knowing oneself has distinct value -- subjectivity or not. In every spiritual tradition a key value is placed on the state of knowing oneself. Knowledge of the self seems to provide profound benefits that would appear to go way beyond mere understanding of what one is. The problem is that how does one get to those areas of individuality that exist beyond and below the actively thinking mind.

As stated previously, as people we function on one level of thinking but exist on others. Below the active level of the mind are other, deeper, levels in which the real person is made and exists. In order to know ourselves it is necessary to visit and explore those areas of the mind. The only way that I know for sure (whatever that means) to access the areas of the mind where we really exist is through experiencing thought on those levels -- at early stages in the development of the thoughts.

And that just happens to be the mechanism through which meditation operates. Being as vain as anyone could be, my own experience is that through meditation I have not only explored those levels but cleaned them of deritus. Whilst I would never say that I know myself completely, I do claim to know myself as well as anyone could. But that is just my vanity.

While, for me, knowing myself has a lot of value it does not possess the profound values that seem to be attributed to the state by the sacred books. Surely there is more to knowing myself than this swirling, miasmic, shape-shifting, deluded and delusional ball of energies? Other than my own lack of substance, what other virtue is revealed by such self-knowledge? Where is the profundity, the power and the glory of the state of Knowing the Self that is alluded to in the great books of spiritual inspiration?

KNOW THYSELF SHALL
BE THE WHOLE OF THE LAW

Needless to say, there is a deeper value to knowing yourself that merely understanding who you are. It is, in fact, one of the many misunderstandings relating to this area of study that the self referred to is not the individual personality and character but something much more profound and much deeper. The true meaning and value in the statement ‘Know thyself’ defines not only who you are in individual terms but also who you are in Cosmic terms. What is more it includes an understanding of where you are, what you are and how you got to be here at all.

Waterproofs on, we are heading back to the lake. Remember those bubbles that spontaneously appear deep, deep within our body of water? Well, where do they come from? They must come from somewhere, but where? Somewhere deep, deep within the mind must be the source of thought.

Once again it is to meditation that we turn as our resource in explaining this deep phenomenon of the mind. As we experience the bubbles of thought at earlier and earlier stages in their development, in less and less coherent and cohesive forms, we are plunging ever deeper into the mind lake. As our thoughts become increasingly incoherent, vague and dreamy, we know we are approaching their source.

At the deepest level of our mind-lake is the primordial composite out of which all thought emerges. Whilst this may be the source of thought, it is not the place where the genesis of the thoughts begins. It is merely where thought emerges into reality. Its source lies beyond the thinking mind in a field that is infinite and universal. It is a field that cannot be experienced but one that we experience the effects of in every aspect of our individual and collective lives. It is there at the very heart of the mind, every mind, constant, unchanging, stable, full of infinite creative potential.

This is the Self, the Universal Self, that exists in all of us and it is to this Self (capital ‘s’) that the epithet ‘Know thyself’ refers. Although it is the individual identity -- the self -- that experiences the prelude to this state of universality, individuality is lost in that state of Divine Grace.

Such a description -- Divine Grace -- might seem something of an exaggeration but in the nomenclature of the spiritual texts in which it is discussed, it is one of the few that does not have religious connotations. In many forms, personas and guises, this is the field where God is to be found. The names of God the Creator -- Brahman, Enki, Zeus, Cronos, Ptah, Jehovah and others -- are many but the creative force within the Cosmos is only one thing. The Creative Intelligence that created everything around us and continues to create is reflected in the microcosm of the thinking process and in the creation of thought. But its influence is totally pervasive, universal and infinite. It is the field of bright silence that constitutes the body of the creative intelligence that underwrites the whole of phenomenal existence. It is the both the ‘this’ and the ‘that’ in the ancient attempt to describe this state: ‘I am that, you are that, all this is that.’ It is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. It is silent and unmoving but pulsing with a potential that contains all the perpetual rhythms of life. It is unchanging and immutable but fizzes with creative potential. It is the rock on which all life, including each of us as individuals, is built.

CONFUSION, RESOLUTION
AND EVOLUTION

Established in this unchanging state of ultimate stability, creativity and peace while still functioning in the world is the definition of Enlightenment. In this state one is a Perfected Being. Not only is individual divinity established but one is established in and bound to the Cosmic Will. This is the Absolute State of Gnosis, of absorption into the Cosmic Mind, of association with the Godhead.

Whilst this state might seem an abstract and distant one, it is not. The potential to achieve it lies within each of us. What is more it is no less than our birthright. If life has a meaning, a direction, a purpose and an end, then this is it -- a state of Cosmic bliss, Cosmic power, Cosmic knowledge and Cosmic freedom. This state is the ultimate reason, purpose and objective of evolution. It is, indeed, the Ultimate Evolution.

But, desirable as it may sound, it does seem very distant and unimaginable, so beyond our understanding. And it is. All of this level of existence is lost to our vision as is much that manifests out of it. That is because, putting it simply, our vision is always directed away from it. The action of thought is from deep within outwards and it is to that outwards motion that our sight directed. It is, however, possible to turn the vision inward. And that is exactly what meditation does.

In the context of evolution, ‘knowing thyself’ encapsulates both the individual and universal meanings.

The individual self lives in those deep levels of thinking that one experiences and explores in the process of meditation. But here, also, reside the multitude of stresses that define what we are, how we see things and what we do. These stresses, amongst others, define, constrain and confine consciousness. In the process of meditation, through regular experience of these subtle levels of the mind, in some ineffable fashion the detritus of stress is removed and the parameters that confined consciousness are dissolved. Without the barriers, through regular experience of the deep levels of the mind, familiarity develops and slowly but surely these areas of expanded consciousness become integrated into the being.

This integration of higher levels of consciousness into the being is the very definition of evolution. These higher levels of consciousness have many effects on the way we function in life and our attitudes to it. Seeing life as it really is, understanding our place in the world and our reason for being here, knowing that deep within us is a silent pool of Light radiating out of the immutable, infinite, universal Godhead -- all these perceptions and conceptions change the way we see life. From a trail to tears and suffering, life becomes an benign and glorious path leading to fulfilment.

As one opens up deeper and deeper levels of the mind, clearing each level of the detritus of stress as you go (not a fast process,) each of those levels of expanded consciousness becomes available to us. It is said that we use between 10 and 15% of the mind in day-to-day activity but slowly, as we expand consciousness deeper and deeper towards the source of thought, more and more of our mental capacity comes into use.

It is the stresses within the nervous system that obscure the source of thought from our vision. As these stresses are dissolved slowly the Light of the Divine can shine through. The state of Enlightenment is not an abstract or metaphorical state. It is a very real state in which the individual shines with the Light of the Divine. That is what haloes are all about, you know?

Even before we are completely free of stresses (both old and new) we start to become a part of Cosmic Intelligence. Although it might seem a distant and unrealizable ideal, once we commit to evolution (and meditation is evolution in the fast track) the Cosmos does everything it can to support and encourage us (while, it must be said, that karma does its best to distract and demotivate us.)

The Cosmos wants nothing more than your happiness, pleasure, positivity and love. There is nothing closer to the heart of the Cosmos than evolution and perfection. It is incumbent on us all to make the most of this lifetime on earth and evolution is doing just that.