The paradox of consciousness
Just some speculation on consciousness which came to me while meditating… or should I say trying to meditate!
The more conscious our species became the more we lost that instinctive intuition for nature, not just our place in nature but for our true nature, or connection to the nature of existence.
The more conscious we became the more we could think and question that inate knowledge or feeling but the less we could understand it.
Because that state is impossible to explain or understand with language it’s can only be understood by experience.
But consciousness was leading us to want to explain and categorise everything else in the world. And so leading us away from paying attention to things like our inate inner being.
This may be how religion started. Because we became disconnected from the true nature, but it is a vital part of us so we crave and seek it. Religion with its promises and metaphors sought to explain the unexplainable in order to give solace to that part of us that feels the barrier that consciousness has put between us and the inate nature of being.
It also explains a lot about how civilisation has evolved, and the greed of humanity, even capitalism!
After becoming conscious, the break with the nature of being has left us always seeking what is missing, what has been lost.
And so we sought to fill that void with material things, with knowledge, with power.
We are now raised as Alan Watts pointed out to always be aiming for the future, if we just achieve and keep striving, we’re told we will get our reward. So we’re told to work hard at school and then at our jobs and that eventually we’ll achieve… somthing.
We’re sold the fact that if we just work hard enough we can earn more to buy this or that which will bring happiness, but it never lasts. We’ve traded ‘being’ for ‘doing’! If we just do enough it’ll be ok, rather than finding our contentment in just being! Because what we’re all really seeking deep down, even if we don’t realise it, is that connection to the true nature of being which was severed when we embraced consciousness.
We’ve built our whole society around it without realising what it is we’re truly trying to find.
And even if we do realise it, we still seek it with the mind! Again via religion or knowledge.
At least that’s what I’ve been doing!
If I just learn enough about this or that, then I will be able to understand what is missing!
But this is never going to work either. Because it’s not actually missing. It’s always there inside us all, every moment!
There are still some hunter gatherer tribes on this planet who haven’t forgotten this connection.
Yet we try to lure them to become ‘civilised’ because it’s seen as more advanced. It’s not, we are the ones that have lost somthing, they have retained a better balance, they still know the true ways.
Why do you think psychedelics and meditation are becoming so popular? Because we’re seeking that connection and we’re realising it’s not through work and things and thinking! We’re looking at ways to bypass thinking, consciousness, to reach awareness because we’ve so lost our connection with it.
We can’t access it with the mind.
The way is not with thinking, it is through thinking, beyond thinking, by acceptance and awareness.
Like Eckhart Tolle says we have to let go of the thinking mind, the thinking mind is the barrier! The only thing you have to do is be!
And that’s the hard part.
The more conscious our species became the more we lost that instinctive intuition for nature, not just our place in nature but for our true nature, or connection to the nature of existence.
The more conscious we became the more we could think and question that inate knowledge or feeling but the less we could understand it.
Because that state is impossible to explain or understand with language it’s can only be understood by experience.
But consciousness was leading us to want to explain and categorise everything else in the world. And so leading us away from paying attention to things like our inate inner being.
This may be how religion started. Because we became disconnected from the true nature, but it is a vital part of us so we crave and seek it. Religion with its promises and metaphors sought to explain the unexplainable in order to give solace to that part of us that feels the barrier that consciousness has put between us and the inate nature of being.
It also explains a lot about how civilisation has evolved, and the greed of humanity, even capitalism!
After becoming conscious, the break with the nature of being has left us always seeking what is missing, what has been lost.
And so we sought to fill that void with material things, with knowledge, with power.
We are now raised as Alan Watts pointed out to always be aiming for the future, if we just achieve and keep striving, we’re told we will get our reward. So we’re told to work hard at school and then at our jobs and that eventually we’ll achieve… somthing.
We’re sold the fact that if we just work hard enough we can earn more to buy this or that which will bring happiness, but it never lasts. We’ve traded ‘being’ for ‘doing’! If we just do enough it’ll be ok, rather than finding our contentment in just being! Because what we’re all really seeking deep down, even if we don’t realise it, is that connection to the true nature of being which was severed when we embraced consciousness.
We’ve built our whole society around it without realising what it is we’re truly trying to find.
And even if we do realise it, we still seek it with the mind! Again via religion or knowledge.
At least that’s what I’ve been doing!
If I just learn enough about this or that, then I will be able to understand what is missing!
But this is never going to work either. Because it’s not actually missing. It’s always there inside us all, every moment!
There are still some hunter gatherer tribes on this planet who haven’t forgotten this connection.
Yet we try to lure them to become ‘civilised’ because it’s seen as more advanced. It’s not, we are the ones that have lost somthing, they have retained a better balance, they still know the true ways.
Why do you think psychedelics and meditation are becoming so popular? Because we’re seeking that connection and we’re realising it’s not through work and things and thinking! We’re looking at ways to bypass thinking, consciousness, to reach awareness because we’ve so lost our connection with it.
We can’t access it with the mind.
The way is not with thinking, it is through thinking, beyond thinking, by acceptance and awareness.
Like Eckhart Tolle says we have to let go of the thinking mind, the thinking mind is the barrier! The only thing you have to do is be!
And that’s the hard part.