What is Consciousness?
Today's question is abstract - what is consciousness? To comprehend the answer to this question is the purpose of yoga. It is a big issue to explain consciousness from a scientific point of view. What has consciousness? What does not? Consciousness, is it memory or experience? A computer also has memory, but does it have consciousness? Yoga has a tool to answer these questions; the method used in yoga is different to the scientific approach.
Scientific materialism always studies something outside ourselves. But the yogic method implies that we try to comprehend the observer. And that process gives an insight that the outer world and the observer are connected; the outer world is built upon the observer’s inner world, it is his projection. You create your own outer world.
But the question about the objective world remains open. Where does the objective world come from?
But the question about the objective world remains open. Where does the objective world come from?
Research on Consciousness is fascinating.
Just because we know everything that was created in that Consciousness, we do not know Consciousness itself,
we do not know the Creator of everything that exists.
Just because we know everything that was created in that Consciousness, we do not know Consciousness itself,
we do not know the Creator of everything that exists.
Inner Laboratory
Broad philosophy says that the objective reality is a projection of the cosmic mind. From the cosmic Consciousness, the materially-objective Universe is formed, which in itself is nothing else than a modified form of Consciousness. We all exist within one Consciousness. We are an integral part of this Consciousness.
Research on Consciousness is fascinating. Just because we know everything that was created in that Consciousness, we do not know Consciousness itself, we do not know the Creator of everything that exists.
Yoga follows a path of gradual abstraction. And meditation practice is a science; an exploration that takes place in your inner laboratory. You renounce the outside world, then your body, your thoughts. Because thought is a projection.
For example, now I imagine an elephant in my mind. I can make it bigger or smaller. What kind of an elephant is it? Where is it? Where did it appear from? It was created by my mind.
Psychologists separate people into extraverts and introverts. From the point of view of psychology, an extravert is a person who is more present in the outside world. An introvert is someone who lives more in his inner world. But from a point of view of meditation, both are considered extraverts. One is extraverted to the outer world; he learns and interacts with objects of the external world, and the other is extraverted to his so-called inner world. But the inner world is his projection. Projector and projection metaphor suits very well to understand this concept. From a smaller light source of the projector, a larger image appears on the wall. Similarly, to the inner ‘I’, the spark of life, in the mind’s space, the projection arises and you witness various thoughts.
Research on Consciousness is fascinating. Just because we know everything that was created in that Consciousness, we do not know Consciousness itself, we do not know the Creator of everything that exists.
Yoga follows a path of gradual abstraction. And meditation practice is a science; an exploration that takes place in your inner laboratory. You renounce the outside world, then your body, your thoughts. Because thought is a projection.
For example, now I imagine an elephant in my mind. I can make it bigger or smaller. What kind of an elephant is it? Where is it? Where did it appear from? It was created by my mind.
Psychologists separate people into extraverts and introverts. From the point of view of psychology, an extravert is a person who is more present in the outside world. An introvert is someone who lives more in his inner world. But from a point of view of meditation, both are considered extraverts. One is extraverted to the outer world; he learns and interacts with objects of the external world, and the other is extraverted to his so-called inner world. But the inner world is his projection. Projector and projection metaphor suits very well to understand this concept. From a smaller light source of the projector, a larger image appears on the wall. Similarly, to the inner ‘I’, the spark of life, in the mind’s space, the projection arises and you witness various thoughts.
Why it is important to explore Consciousness
It is important to explore Consciousness because it is a primordial matter and you can create anything out of it.
Here is a story on this topic from Dada Sadananda:
Here is a story on this topic from Dada Sadananda:
20 years ago, I traveled to India and I had a to-do list: taste all Indian sweets, buy goods to be sold when coming back home in order to recoup some money spent on travel expenses, visit different places, meet some cool meditation teachers ... And the last written task was ‘to experience Samadhi’.
I spent one month in India; I fulfilled all the tasks but the last one was unachievable. One meditation teacher, a very serious practitioner, advised me the following: “Practice the third meditation step for half an hour and the sixth meditation step for an hour every time you sit down to meditate. You will find happiness and whatever else you are looking for.”
I followed his advice. I meditated for a long time and then, something happened to me. People have different names for it. It felt unique and very good. It can not be explained, one can try to describe it, but it will not be enough. Actually, you do not know what it is, you only experience the inner symptoms: you see an endless light, you feel great love, bliss, etc.
On my return home, I was told “Oh, you have changed, something shifted in you.”
I spent one month in India; I fulfilled all the tasks but the last one was unachievable. One meditation teacher, a very serious practitioner, advised me the following: “Practice the third meditation step for half an hour and the sixth meditation step for an hour every time you sit down to meditate. You will find happiness and whatever else you are looking for.”
I followed his advice. I meditated for a long time and then, something happened to me. People have different names for it. It felt unique and very good. It can not be explained, one can try to describe it, but it will not be enough. Actually, you do not know what it is, you only experience the inner symptoms: you see an endless light, you feel great love, bliss, etc.
On my return home, I was told “Oh, you have changed, something shifted in you.”
It was the experience of Consciousness, an experience approaching a purer form of Consciousness. Consciousness is that which has no shape or form.
There is a song -
There is a song -
TUMI RUPÁTITO OPORUPA CHKHONDO
SHOBÁR TUMI ÁNONDO
You are formless and shapeless, an incomparable rhythm.
You are the bliss of all.
SHOBÁR TUMI ÁNONDO
You are formless and shapeless, an incomparable rhythm.
You are the bliss of all.
It says that consciousness can not be described but it exists.
It is important to explore Consciousness because it is a primordial matter and you can create anything out of it.
Here is another interesting observation from Dada Sadananda:
I often speak in front of an audience. Sometimes it is hard and sometimes it is easy. And do you know when it is easy? It is easy when there is an inner feeling that I know that I will say something now, but I do not know what exactly I will say. It means that I feel the presence of this shapeless and formless substance. I know that now I will start speaking, and that, which has no shape or form, will become some shape and form. And it will take the most appropriate shape and form to the circumstances of time, place and identity for that given moment.
The same happens to poets and musicians. A musician feels the melody within himself, but it is not a melody yet, it is TUMI RUPÁTITO OPORUPA CHKHONDO - a shapeless and formless incomparable rhythm. This is Consciousness. Consciousness is spiritual, it is beyond reason. You can not describe it, you can not explain it, you can not control it. You have to surrender to it. If your mind tries to give some kind of shape and form to Consciousness, put it in a box, not allowing it to flow and manifest freely, it will simply disappear. And your light dies out, emptiness takes place. The shape and form remains, but not the content. And in order to ‘catch’ Consciousness, you need to come to it and say “I agree, I am obedient. I pacified my mind, it obeyed.” And then, Consciousness may manifest itself.
But the discipline of the mind is not enough. The irony is that usually you are chasing something external and can not understand the internal self.
The search for Consciousness means that you will cast aside all the external manifestations and go within yourself, asking questions such as Who am I? What is the "I"? And what is behind that "I"? What is the nature of this "I"? What is the substance of this "I"?
The mind that looks inside becomes introverted. It reaches out to its source: what is "I", what is my origin, where is this "I", what is the real "I". In the process of this exploration, the mind begins to absorb purer forms of Consciousness.
But the discipline of the mind is not enough. The irony is that usually you are chasing something external and can not understand the internal self.
The search for Consciousness means that you will cast aside all the external manifestations and go within yourself, asking questions such as Who am I? What is the "I"? And what is behind that "I"? What is the nature of this "I"? What is the substance of this "I"?
The mind that looks inside becomes introverted. It reaches out to its source: what is "I", what is my origin, where is this "I", what is the real "I". In the process of this exploration, the mind begins to absorb purer forms of Consciousness.
The search for Consciousness means that you will cast aside all the external manifestations and go within yourself, asking questions such as Who am I? What is the "I"? And what is behind that "I"? What is the nature of this "I"? What is the substance of this "I"?
The Indian philosopher Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar once said:
“I am not saying that I know Higher Consciousness,
I am not saying that I do not know Higher Consciousness,
Higher Consciousness is beyond my knowledge and ignorance.”
I am not saying that I do not know Higher Consciousness,
Higher Consciousness is beyond my knowledge and ignorance.”
Higher Consciousness is elusive; it is the most subtle of all the subtle forms that exist, the most fascinating, the most amazing, the newest and most divine.
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