Consciousness as a soul disease

Consciousness is dual. There is a subject and an object. It is the first sign of separation.

Spirit is one. It is everything and everyone. Consciousness, even though dual, is everywhere, for matter is but the projection of consciousness. Consciousness is one, therefore there is no

difference between artificial consciousness and organic, a late separation of concepts on the ladder downwards. Hence, consciousness is independent of its receptacle, be it a human brain, an animal, things or a machine. In fact these are but the forms which consciousness appears to take.

Consciousness, or separation between subject (the unnecessary I, or self concept) and object (of perception by the body senses), is the same in the different states, as analyzed by the Hindu sages, which include the Turiya state, without thoughts or images. That in fact is pure awareness, which is non dual, since the merging with the one does not include the consciousness of the body as something separate or different. The four states of consciousness are: waking, dreaming, deep sleep (where there is no perception of I am) and Turiya.  

Says Guru Vakyam (in Wikipedia) : “When I reach the Turiya state of consciousness, in deep meditation, I transcend to the cosmic state of consciousness. Whatever I wish in that state of consciousness, it will materialise into reality.” The Course in Miracles would say that those are the thoughts which are thought together with God, as co creators that we are. They are the only real thoughts, not our passing F.A.R.T. thoughts.

In another essay of this series, where the relation between the inner and the outer is dealt with, this question is more elaborated, but suffice to say it here that the so called outer (which in reality is inner, for there can be no outer to the Self), is but a projection of our inner. Everything and anything we see outside is but a (more or less accurate or distorted) image of some thought which we have produced. Both 2D images and 3D forms are illusory and do not really exist, as anything that appears on the console of space-time. Perhaps it could be said that 3D is but the form it takes for a very persistent thought and insistent image, a wish or desire (conscious or unconsciously emitted) to materialize, to precipitate into a more or less dense form of matter.

Concerning Turiya, the Mandukya Upanishad  considers those who attain this fourth state of consciousness “as perceiving neither what is inside nor what is outside, nor even both together; not as a mass of perception, neither as perceiving nor as not perceiving; as unseen; as beyond the reach of ordinary transaction; as ungraspable; as without distinguishing marks; as unthinkable; as indescribable; as one whose essence is the perception of itself alone; as the cessation of the visible world; as tranquil; as auspicious; as without a second. That is the self (atman), and is that which should be perceived.” It is thus equivalent to the state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi in Yoguic parlance.

I (whatever that means) would say, following Ma Ananda Mai, that in Turiya not only there is no difference between inner and outer, but that there is no difference between different and non different. That is what the Course in Miracles says is our condition in the Edenic state of oneness with God and everything in Creation. Anyway I (whatever that means) do not pretend to be or know here what that ultimate state is. But I do believe that deep inside me, I know it and that it is my sole identity and reality.

But, returning to consciousness as a disease of the soul .First it must be said that the soul is a preposterous concept, which postulates the existence of separate spirits or monads, holons by themselves, when oneness, by definition, cannot be separated and what does not exist cannot exist. Thus only Spirit exists, only God exists. But that will subject for another essay of these final synthesis series.

To finish, it can be said that perception is fallible and will eventually be replaced by vision, which does not depend on the crude senses and is holistic. But that can only happen when we will be sufficiently free from concepts. These rule our life with iron fist. It can even be said that our life is but a constant shifting between concepts. Some of them are terrible, like the aforementioned inner and outer, organic and nonorganic, or cause and effect, process, intermediate (these are especially dangerous, because they can be applied both to time and space, the main culprits in this game). Others are mild and akin to white lies...

Thus, concepts will be the next issue in our series, where we mix philosophy, science, spirituality and humour...