Awareness and Consciousness in Spiritualism

In Spiritualism, Awareness and consciousness constitute the former as the subject and the latter as its object, context, and content. Meaning awareness is that quality, and consciousness is its quanta. Both have a force-field relationship and are the essence of the perception of all living creatures. They are responsible for creating all the concepts devised by the human mind to decipher and determine, through evolution, the tangible, and the intangible in totality—the whole universe.

Awareness is that sole unchanging existence, which is primordial and eternal and is the highest attribute of Energy, which precedes all we perceive and conceive. It is that transcendental state of non-duality. The rest, meaning, whatever we see and observe in the entire universe, unfolds all because of this supreme ability of energy, which we refer to as awareness, for they exist to introduce, over time, one concept after another.

Hindu Scriptures and the Reality of Awareness and Consciousness

Besides the above mentioned, Hindu scriptures elaborate further: ‘Reality is one without a second – changeless, spaceless, timeless, and limitless.’ That which changes cannot be real; reality is absolute, non-dual, and independent, not requiring any support. Meaning there cannot be two realities at any one moment. One is real, and the other, whatever we observe and perceive, is an illusion. Therefore, the conclusion is what exists is only the highest attribute of energy, which is awareness, the substratum of all that exists.

The remaining existences in matter and consciousness are a temporary play of waves and energy particles superimposed on the real by our consciousness. In contrast, they appear and disappear in space, time, and causation.

Therefore, awareness is the ultimate source or determinant factor regarding spiritual knowledge. Since consciousness arises after the mind becomes aware, it allows the mind to be conscious of what it observes. I repeat, all objects in the universe exist merely because of this highest attribute of energy manifesting as absolute awareness in mind, which—after extending into thoughts—become conscious to experience and infer upon what we perceive, consciously or subconsciously.

Exploring the Philosophical Conundrum

Consciousness is being individually, uniquely aware, and responsive to the mind’s feelings in the duality of this or that. It is that centralized thought of what we are without which we have no other way of knowing that we exist. In other words, it is my wakefulness that culminates into my individuality. The moment I wake up, I am already aware; after that, I become conscious of who, what, and where I am.

From the subatomic to the stars, probability waves of aware energy vibrate and reverberate around the universe. These waves remain intangible unless we observe them through our eyes as particles of light energy popping in and out of existence. They ripple and reverberate like waves of water in a pond. From amoeba, algae, and apes to humans, all have gone through stages of awareness through billions of years of evolution.

According to spiritualism, these possible waves of energy collapsing into particles seem to possess a fundamental characteristic of being aware, for they undergo a sea change of evolving and transforming through an evolution as we see them today. Therefore, I repeat, the intensity (-ness) of aware energy, signifying awareness, is the cause and the substance for this metamorphosis, and this spiritual feature of energy of being aware is the highest attribute of the all-encompassing energy of the universe. Aware energy enables us to observe, measure, and determine all we know of the universe.

The Mystery of Consciousness: Science’s Quest for Understanding

Consciousness, on the other hand, is the greatest mystery of human life. Science is confused when it comes to an understanding of our abstract conscious entity. It agrees but does not know how this conscious principle awakens the brain-body connection. No consensus exists among philosophers and scientists regarding the true nature of reality—awareness or consciousness.

Also, whether it is a construct of the mind or a state of paranormal and supernatural. The confusion continues from belief to faith, and verifiable evidence has yet to materialize. Unfortunately, instead of probing that potential force of spontaneous aware energy, which triggers the mind to become conscious, science is more concerned with its resultant field of consciousness.

This confusion probably arose from varied interpretations of our ancient philosophical scriptures, considering the soul to be the eternal and final attribute of energy in the form of universal consciousness. Meaning presuming its continuity or eternity from one life into another remains a mystery, a matter of blind faith. However, one thing is sure, if subatomic waves and particles can become aware and consequently conscious in living entities, we can safely presume that the intensity of individual consciousness exists while we are awake and alive.

We need to be sure in mind when we discuss consciousness. First, it is local to the object, meaning it requires a thing to be conscious about and attach to one out of the dual factors that occur in the mind. Only after that the mind rationalizes and chooses one out of the two for its likes and dislikes. Second, it is entirely dependent upon awareness. You can be conscious of something only after you are aware of the same.

Spiritual Awareness vs. Consciousness: Understanding the Difference

Spiritualism centers around two closely related yet distinct concepts: awareness and consciousness. Like the sun and the ocean, the force-field relationship unites the independent source with the dependent waves. Awareness and consciousness, though distinct in expression, can be synonymous when considering the unity of quantum energy. To understand life, a seeker must grasp the crucial difference between the two.

Spiritual awareness is untainted non-dual energy, which makes the mind spontaneously aware of kick-starting its aliveness. It is that force of energy which radiates its field of illumination in the form of consciousness. Awareness is without consciousness, but consciousness consists only of awareness. Only after the mind is aware does it become conscious, not otherwise.

Consciousness is the limited self, while awareness is the non-dual energy that makes the mind aware. Thus, awareness is that force that radiates through its field of consciousness. Perception relies on awareness; without it, we can’t be conscious of the universe’s existence.

Consciousness is being aware of and responding to one’s surroundings. It constitutes everything that we perceive and experience, providing meaning to our life of all that exists. It is the after-effect of awareness, making the mind attentive and conscious, and is dual by nature. Consciousness needs to attach to something for the mind to be mindful. Consciousness experiences life, while spiritual awareness is aware energy beyond thoughts.

Hence, consciousness is not an ingredient or a thing as presumed, which supposedly travels from one life into another. It’s the sum of your conscious and subconscious experiences stored in memory. It forms your unique individuality from all that you experience in life. Consciousness is a construct of the mind, whereas awareness is not. Both awareness and consciousness combine to create your observable (through awareness) and understandable (through consciousness) reality as real.

The Potent Force

Every form of energy has a potent force with a respective kinetic field. Regarding our subject, energy on visual stimulation in higher frequencies creates visual awareness. After obtaining information, it radiates a field that communicates synchronously throughout the brain’s network of neural pathways. This force of aware energy radiates a field of consciousness—lowest, say, in the case of a rock and highest in the case of a human mind. Therefore, awareness is the ultimate primordial constituent of everything because being absolute is ascribed as the one and the only unchanging, permanent existent—that which is ultimately real.

Consciousness, on the other hand, dissipates with the death of a living object. However, the force of awareness retains its identity like the eternal sky. The essential difference between awareness and consciousness is that the former is the force of energy, like the sun, and the latter is its field of radiance, the sunshine that it emits. Both are inherent and intrinsic to each other, like the sun and its rays of light or, say, also like the manner sparks that emerge from the flames of any inflammable source.

When the mind initially becomes aware, it is thoughtless and spontaneous; it proactively starts to experience without thinking. However, when awareness enters the brain, a particular field of operation emerges, and a certain aware feeling arises—thinking begins, a thinker appears, and the mind becomes objectively conscious or subconscious (not fully aware) of what it chooses, experiences, infers, and realizes.

The Primordial Existence

Primordial awareness is the original purest state of the aware spirit. When the brain engages, it creates duality for discrimination and inference, consciously or not. Awareness and consciousness relate as one, like fire and its spark. The potential force retains its identity, but the field it radiates has a particular qualitative limitation as it spreads.

Like the sun’s light energy extends into the infinite dark energy, eventually dissipating into the vastness of our universe. Once released, the force and its field of power, like light energy, can never reunite as one.

Let us go through this thesis again for better clarification. Consciousness operates in a state of duality and depends on a subject-object relationship. It needs to attach to something or any relative factor to be conscious. However, without awareness, there can be no consciousness. Aware energy is that link between the subject and the object. It is that transcendent state of non-duality, which we call the spirit. It is there before and after consciousness appears and disappears, meaning before birth and after death.

The highest attribute of energy, the spirit, has been accredited to be awakened awareness (Chaitanya), referred to as Parabrahman or supreme power. Param-atma, the formless God or supreme energy, is the eternal reality that encompasses the universe and is revered in Hinduism. After the universal spirit manifests in an individual mind, it enters a subject-object relationship with consciousness. It ascribes the soul responsible for making the mind aware and conscious to experience life.

The individual soul (pure consciousness) is a notch less than the spirit, though in total awareness, attributes as the Antaratma. It benefits the development and evolution of knowledge stored in memory and intellect. Consciousness further reduces in its intensity, which we refer to as Jivatma in the capacity of ego or self-consciousness.

The Journey Within

The awakening of the soul takes place if the mind is alert. An alert mind makes the soul the observer, creating awareness through conscious observation. Further, in whichever direction the mind is alert and attentive, the universal energy responds in the same frequency, and the aware energy manifests and materializes. The degree of its attentiveness determines the level of self-consciousness.

The mind functions independently, on autopilot, from its memory and intellect. However, since energy tends to flow in entropy, awareness emerges to check this disorderly flow of thoughts through its degree of self-consciousness. Commonly, the psychic flow bypasses alert-aware-conscious energy. The subconscious mind dominates in auto-mode, randomly multitasking unless countered by the aware-conscious section. In due course, the culmination of all experiences—subconscious and the conscious—form an individual level of self-consciousness.

The subject prescribes the soul as the final indicator towards the ultimate cosmic energy. After death, the witness-er dissolves into the raw cosmic energy of their origin. You-the witness/awareness, become one with the universe from where you parted. Since you are not that body-mind construct of what you are, but the highest attribute of raw energy, something the ancient sages referred to as awareness, which we now refer to as the spirit signifying who you are.

The mind, as we know, is majorly designed to function independently through its memory and intellect from its sub or lower/past conscious thoughts. It gets conditioned with beliefs in identifications and attachments of this and that forming its illusory ‘me and mine’. A biased mind, operating on autopilot, rides the roller-coaster of duality, choosing based on self-interest and beliefs. For this reason, since most opinions differ from one mind to another, conflicts arise, becoming the cause of mess and misery. An ego-self, a thinker emerges in self-consciousness, presuming one’s beliefs are superior to others.

From Duality to Oneness: Balancing Awareness and Consciousness

On one end, the human mind represents the psychological self, randomly working from its subconscious section in ego-consciousness. And on the other, we have the witnessing consciousness (soul) as the saviour, subtly checking upon that ego-self whenever it crosses any limits. The witnessing self never realizes its full potentiality because the mind predominantly works from its subconscious section operating under desirous beliefs, further increasing its recklessness. The essential character of any energy flow is to expand in disorder unless checked to evolve into its absoluteness, wholesomeness, or oneness from where it parted to experience something.

Therefore, despite being that potential divine, the witnessing self in a human mind remains imprisoned, never realizing its full potentiality of absoluteness in total awareness. There remains a clash between the desirous ego-consciousness and the witnessing self, and, as evident today, the former seems to have a decisive edge over the latter.

Only when your true self (absolute-aware energy) is not attached or identified to any thoughts of me and mine do you become free from that dual living in pleasure and pain to celebrate life in its wholesomeness with the body, mind, and spirit functioning in unity. In such moments of now, you are not only fully aware and conscious but spontaneously proactive to experience and realize without any selfish thoughts, which are typically reactive under emotional desires.

Spirituality is awakening the true self and the effortless liberation from desires and attachments to usher in that peace of mind instead of happiness. When your mind observes thoughts, feelings, and actions impartially and without past beliefs, ego detachment occurs. You are then one with the universe, which, in turn, reveals you are fundamentally none other than the whole of the universe.

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The post Empower Awareness and Unlock Consciousness: Awakening the Mind first appeared on Dr. Gian Kumar, Ph.D.