In this post I would like to deepen the reflection about the deception started by self-awareness a bit more.
The self-awareness which the highly developed consciousness created by human beings has led to the creation of an ego. Because of this ego we have reduced ourselves of being defined and dependent on events around us.
In my last post I briefly discussed the possibilities we have to return to the original, deprogrammed, nature of this consciousness, but what actually is reality is that most human beings are not concerned about returning to the original nature of their consciousness because the concept of an ego is taken for something real, or they might understand the illusory aspect of the ego but do not overcome the stage of creating some theoretical ideals without putting them into practice or realizing them through experiencing them.
One of the characteristics of human beings is that they consider their different kinds of suffering as something individual. But analyzing each ‘individual’ suffering you can come to the conclusion that the common basis to all kind of suffering is the perception of the world from the point of an artificial created ego. It is one of the techniques of the ego to sustain its own reality to see suffering as something individual.
Once we start to understand the nature of our deception we are often confronted with what you can call a double layer of the mind. Our mind creates lots of inspiration to deal with the deceptive nature of our ego, but unless we are ready for radical reaction, also these inspirations, like other worldly phenomena, will be just temporary of nature and will disappear sooner or later. That way contemplation for example can turn into nothing more than an imaginary escape without bringing us any further in understanding the nature of our consciousness: you will reflect and meditate about things you read or hear, you might even create some theoretical ideals, you might even feel good, but it does not necessary mean that you start to experience yourself and the world in another way, since you get stuck into the theoretical conclusions you developed through reasoning without putting them into any action.
It is perfectly possible for the human mind to agree with certain conclusions without actually putting full attention to it. This is what I call the double layer of the mind, and is another technique of the ego to sustain itself. This essential part of our consciousness, the self-awareness, is actually not so much interested in change since it is more interesting in maintaining the ‘me’ it is aware of. Creating theoretical ideals are a welcome compromise between the different layers of the mind: as long as you do not put them into action and really strive to experience them, nothing much will actually change.
One factor being able to bridge these different interests of the mind and of our consciousness is a strong will. Often strong will for change is lacking or at least tempered by the mind. Just think back of your own life how many times you made the decision to change, but finally nothing happened at all, or after short time you returned to old habits. Best practical example is the good intentions everybody makes on New Years Eve.
Another factor than can turn theoretical conclusions into action, is strong emotions. Everybody in his life must have had moments in which he or she was overjoyed or completely angry. In such moments the reasoning factor of the mind not to do anything is switched off. In such moments you probably say or do things you normally would not: you act without the mind analyzing the advantages and disadvantages your acting could create for that what you consider to be ‘me’. In such a moment you act according to your unrestricted nature at that moment. You are not bothered at that time about the conventions and rules of your environment and the events around you, which on its turn define or at least influence the perception of what we consider to be ‘me’
Knowing not necessarily leads to action. On the other hand acting on base of strong emotions created by the inner self is never separated from conscious action. This kind of acting, leading to changes of the inner experience, is rather to be considered as being released from the self-sustaining reflex of the ego of reflecting about the consequences the action coming forward from theoretical ideals would have on its own further – deceptive – existence.
Many of the holy scriptures or spiritual teachers have an authoritarian and dogmatic character. Acting just based on the theoretical ideals brought forward by such external factors therefore will not create changes to the inner experience. It more has the effect of repetition and imitation. Real change in the perception of the consciousness will only be triggered by experiencing strong emotions without letting ‘the voice in your head’ – or the voices of others – restrict and manipulate them.
Around this same topic I would like to discuss further which actually are the effects if human beings use their ideals not to change the inner but the outer world, and which consequences this has, something I already reflected about from another perspective in my post about Institutions, but I guess I will save this for a later post.
Reflections 