What Is Consciousness?
Our today’s topic is abstract. We are going to talk about what consciousness is. To comprehend practically the answer to this question is the goal of Yoga. It is a huge problem to explain consciousness from the scientific point of view. What possesses consciousness and what doesn’t have it? Is consciousness memory or experience? Computer possesses memory, but is there consciousness? Yoga has a tool allowing getting answers to these questions, because the method of research in Yoga is different from the scientific one.
In the material science we always explore something which is beyond ourselves. Yogic research method presupposes that we are trying to comprehend the observer. During this process one comes to understanding that the external world and the observer are closely connected, that the external world is formed in accordance with the internal world of the observer. It is observer's projection. Thus, you create your own external world.
But the question about the objective world remains unanswered. Where does the objective world come from?
But the question about the objective world remains unanswered. Where does the objective world come from?
Researching the Consciousness is a very exciting experience. Because we know everything, whatever has been created out of this Consciousness, but we do not know the Consciousness itself. We do not know the Creator of all the creation.
Inner Laboratory
Big philosophy declares that the objective world is the thought projection of the Cosmic Mind. Objective material Universe, which itself is nothing, but an expressed form of Consciousness, is formed out of the Cosmic Consciousness. We all exist within one Consciousness. We are an indivisible part of this Consciousness.
Researching the Consciousness is a very exciting experience. Because we know everything, whatever has been created out of this Consciousness, but we do not know the Consciousness itself. We do not know the Creator of all the creation.
Yoga follows the path of constant detachment. Meditation practice is a science, which one learns inside his/her inner laboratory. You withdraw yourself from the external world, then from your body, from your thoughts, because the though is a projection.
For example, I am now seeing an elephant within my mind. I can make it bigger or smaller. What kind of elephant is it? Where is it? Where does it come from? It has been created by my mind.
Psychologists divide people into extraverts and introverts. An extravert from the point of view of psychology is a person who expresses him/herself more in the external world. An introvert is the one who is mostly focused on his/her inner world. But from the point of view of meditation both of them are extraverts. One is extraverted into the external world – he/she is constantly exploring something interacting with the external objects; another one is extraverted into his/her own, so-called inner world. But the inner world is his/her projection. The metaphor of the projector and projection is a very good illustration in this case. From a tiny source of the projector a big image appears on the wall. Similarly, from your inner “I”, from the spark of life, internally within the scope of mind, there appears a projection and you “see” different thoughts.
Researching the Consciousness is a very exciting experience. Because we know everything, whatever has been created out of this Consciousness, but we do not know the Consciousness itself. We do not know the Creator of all the creation.
Yoga follows the path of constant detachment. Meditation practice is a science, which one learns inside his/her inner laboratory. You withdraw yourself from the external world, then from your body, from your thoughts, because the though is a projection.
For example, I am now seeing an elephant within my mind. I can make it bigger or smaller. What kind of elephant is it? Where is it? Where does it come from? It has been created by my mind.
Psychologists divide people into extraverts and introverts. An extravert from the point of view of psychology is a person who expresses him/herself more in the external world. An introvert is the one who is mostly focused on his/her inner world. But from the point of view of meditation both of them are extraverts. One is extraverted into the external world – he/she is constantly exploring something interacting with the external objects; another one is extraverted into his/her own, so-called inner world. But the inner world is his/her projection. The metaphor of the projector and projection is a very good illustration in this case. From a tiny source of the projector a big image appears on the wall. Similarly, from your inner “I”, from the spark of life, internally within the scope of mind, there appears a projection and you “see” different thoughts.
Why researching the Mind is important
It is important to research the Consciousness, because it is the primordial matter. Whatever can be created out of it.
Here is a story of Dada Sadananda related to this topic:
Here is a story of Dada Sadananda related to this topic:
20 years ago I went to India and I had a to-do list: to taste all the Indian sweets, buy some goods, which I would have sold upon getting back and return some money I spent on the tickets, to see different places, to meet experienced teachers of meditation… And the last point was to experience Samadhi.
I had stayed in India for a month, I had all the points checked, but the last one I could not manage. A teacher of meditation, a very serious practitioner gave me the following advice: “Do the third lesson of meditation for half an hour and the sixth lesson for an hour every time you sit for meditation. And you will reach your goal.”
I followed his advice. I had been meditating for a very-very long time, and then something happened to me. People call it differently. It was a very special and blissful experience. It cannot be explained, you might try to describe it, but description would not be enough. In fact, you do not know what it is. You perceive only external expressions: you are seeing the endless light, feeling love, and bliss, and so on.
When I returned home, people told me, “Oh, you have changed, something has happened to you.”
I had stayed in India for a month, I had all the points checked, but the last one I could not manage. A teacher of meditation, a very serious practitioner gave me the following advice: “Do the third lesson of meditation for half an hour and the sixth lesson for an hour every time you sit for meditation. And you will reach your goal.”
I followed his advice. I had been meditating for a very-very long time, and then something happened to me. People call it differently. It was a very special and blissful experience. It cannot be explained, you might try to describe it, but description would not be enough. In fact, you do not know what it is. You perceive only external expressions: you are seeing the endless light, feeling love, and bliss, and so on.
When I returned home, people told me, “Oh, you have changed, something has happened to you.”
It was the experience with Consciousness, the experience of approaching a purer form of Consciousness.
Consciousness is something, which does not possess form.
There is a song:
Consciousness is something, which does not possess form.
There is a song:
Tumi rúpátiita aparúpa chanda
Sabár tumi ánanda
You are rhythm transcendent, incomparably beautiful.
A joy You are to everybody.
It is said here that the Consciousness is impossible to describe though it is there.
Researching the Consciousness is important because it is the primordial matter, anything can be created out of it.
Here is one more observation of Dada Sadananda related to this topic:
I often speak in public. Sometimes it is difficult, sometimes – easy. Do you know when it is easy? When there is inner feeling that I know, I am going to say something, but I do not know exactly what it is going to be. In other words, I feel the presence of this formless substance. And I know that now I am going to start speaking and this formless something will acquire its form. It will acquire the form according to the time, place and person, the form, which is the most appropriate for this moment.
The same happens, for example, with the poets and musicians. A musician is feeling some melody inside, but it is not yet the melody. It is “Tumi rúpátiita aparúpa chanda” - transcendent, formless, incomparably beautiful rhythm. This is Consciousness. Consciousness is a spiritual thing, it is beyond mind – you cannot describe it, explain or control it. You have to surrender to it. If your mind is trying to get the Consciousness into some frame, into a cage, trying not to let it express and flow naturally, it just slips away. And your light dies out, emptiness remains. There is a form, but nothing inside. In order to “catch” the Consciousness you should come to It and say, “I agree, I obey. I have tamed my mind and it has surrendered.” That way the Consciousness might express.
But the discipline of the mind is not enough. The irony is that usually you are chasing something external and cannot grasp the internal.
Searching for the Consciousness means that you will be leaving aside all external manifestations and will be going inside asking yourself: “Who am I? What is this “I”?” What is behind this “I”?” What is the nature of this “I”?”
What kind of substance is this “I”?”
The mind, which is directed inwardly, becomes introverted. It gets attracted by its source: what am “I”, what is my root cause, where is this “I”, what is real “I”. In the process of this research, the mind is getting saturated with purer and purer forms of Consciousness.
But the discipline of the mind is not enough. The irony is that usually you are chasing something external and cannot grasp the internal.
Searching for the Consciousness means that you will be leaving aside all external manifestations and will be going inside asking yourself: “Who am I? What is this “I”?” What is behind this “I”?” What is the nature of this “I”?”
What kind of substance is this “I”?”
The mind, which is directed inwardly, becomes introverted. It gets attracted by its source: what am “I”, what is my root cause, where is this “I”, what is real “I”. In the process of this research, the mind is getting saturated with purer and purer forms of Consciousness.
Searching for the Consciousness means that you will be leaving aside all external manifestations and will be going inside asking yourself: “Who am I? What is this “I”? What is behind this “I”? What is the nature of this “I”? What kind of substance is this “I”?”
Indian philosopher Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar once said:
“I do not say that I know the Supreme Entity, I do not say that I do not know the Supreme Entity, because the Supreme Entity is beyond the scope of knowledge.”
The Supreme Consciousness is something intangible, it is the subtlest of all the subtle, the most exciting, mysterious, the newest and the most divine.
Read also
- Everything, that is happening, is happening not in vain, but due to a particular reason. Facing some life difficulties, people tend to ask: why did it happen to me? An immature person would murmur, grumble at life – such position is not constructive. A practicing person uses either knowledge or action approach in all life circumstances.
- Many people think that the main obstacle on the way of spirituality is ego and it should be limited and belittled in every possible way including self-deprecation. There is an opinion that the more you belittle yourself the better. Thus, we are to answer the question: is it natural to strive for Greatness or is it unnatural?
Is it natural or unnatural to be engaged in self-deprecation?
We all are in the process of evolution. What is evolution? This is the development from imperfection to perfection, transformation of the mind from crude state to subtle. All of us are in this continuous process. It is a natural process and we can consider it correct, because it is natural.
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