Studies in Consciousness: The Truth Is A Manifestation of All Possible Worlds at All Times
by Richard Harvey on 01/20/18
One of the secrets of
writing is that you can create a compelling argument for just about anything at
all. Regardless of its logic, truthfulness or fact just about anything can be
created as verification to justify a point of view or a manipulation of reality.
Clearly this has
relevance to almost every subject under the sun. But nowhere is it more
prevalent and proliferating than in the areas of spirituality and
consciousness. Long the province of charlatans, mystics, scientists and
religious zealots alike, the spiritual-consciousness field is peppered with
half-truths and unprobed beliefs. Partly of necessity, because the traffic of
meaning between the spiritual and the material realms is unreliable at best.
But partly also because people like the truth to agree with them, to support
them in their self-interest and they like to talk about the thing that
interests them most: themselves.
The truth however is
less partisan or preferential. It is really strictly speaking, at least
spiritually, impersonal. Let's take a few popular, but nonetheless erroneous,
beliefs from the Mind-Body-Spirit (a.k.a. the New Age) field and look
critically at what they are really saying:
1. Only
consciousness creates the world.
Everything is
consciousness. It doesn't create anything, it already is everything that is, or
is not. Both pre-manifestation and post-manifestation, emptiness and all possible
potential. So consciousness does not create the world, it is self-sourcing, it
is the real world!
2. There is a new
spiritual teaching that enables people to rescue themselves and mankind.
People do not need
rescuing, neither does mankind. Both need to see themselves for who and what
they really are, then no rescue is needed or appropriate. The idea of a new
spirituality that saves or rescues is a prime example of taking a relative
theme like heroism and drama and converting into spiritual terms, even though
it doesn't work, because it is not relevant.
3. Our belief in
the fallacy of the existence of the objective physical reality that does not
depend on consciousness is limiting.
The belief in existing
objects is only limiting when we do not see the world as it truly is, a
reflection of the absolute and all objects that arise in consciousness only.
This gobbledy-gook is popular, perhaps stemming from the popular idea
that maya equals illusion or that samsara is
not Nirvana or whatever. Read more deeply into your own
religion: maya is a relative reflection of the divine in the
world of time and space.
4. Only the
consciousness of a human being contains all elements of existence. The consciousness of a human being is the same
undifferentiated consciousness that exists in, through and outside, and
pervades all of existence and all existing objects of this and any other time.
The great sages are levelers, they insult our arrogance and complacency. This
consciousness that I arise within as an individuated form is exactly the same
-- exactly the same -- as the consciousness of a dog or a stone -- why? Because
there is only one consciousness.
5. Alter human
consciousness because it includes all other elements; if a person were to use
the knowledge, the world about us would change crucially.
Consciousness of a
human being or anything else includes all elements. This already crucially
influences the world; there is no need to instruct people in how to do this,
merely help them to see what they are creating already!
6. Knowing how to
reach harmonic development together with the universe enables us to have a
healthier physical body and happier life, and the world will develop
accordingly.
When a human being is
over-concerned with health, happiness and harmony, they inevitably miss the
larger point which is that the world, like human beings and everything else,
arises and subsides in consciousness. Since all this, from the point of view of
reality, i.e. where we really are, is happening simultaneously, spiritual
evolution and harmonic development are strictly speaking merely relative terms
with no real relevance to the spiritual, transcendent and divine. To play with
the incidence of synchronicity and convergence for the sake of self-interest
carries its own consequences and perils. But most importantly, when you become
involved in it, you miss the main point of psychological and spiritual
endeavor, which is the search for the truth which is substantially more
expansive than these material and quasi-spiritual concerns.
Finally...
7. Everything
around us -- the earth, the sun, space, Nature, people and objects -- are based
on the structure of our consciousness, which includes the consciousness of the
Creator. When we discover what the spirit and consciousness is, we can manage
our state of being, we can build the world and control every
creative action and manifest results.
But this is what
we doing already! Furthermore, does the earth, the sun etc. really exist around us?
Are they not more truly in us (from the point of view of individual
psychology)? Or from a deeper truth are these manifestations and us not really
the same thing, i.e. consciousness? Does consciousness have a structure? How
can the All truly have a structure? If it did wouldn't the world be rational
and reasonable and make sense? Rather than be uncertain, irrational, arbitrary
and random? Do we really want to control (what? We are all consciousness!) and
manifest results when we are already doing precisely that, without being aware
of how and what and why and when we are manifesting anything? In any case what
do we mean by results -- this world, the truth, is a manifestation of all
possible worlds at all times waiting for us to witness and become one with it.
BLOG entry #131
This article by Richard Harvey was originally published at http://www.therapyandspirituality.com/articles/ and it is part of
an ongoing retrospective series of blogs. ‘Studies in Consciousness: The Truth
Is A Manifestation of All Possible Worlds at All Times’ was first published in
2011.