Trying to understand the concept of consciousness better

[Seththomas]

Hi all,

New to the site and really loving the content. Thanks to Leo and all the forum members. 

I am currently reading "The Six Pillars of Self Esteem" and also just watched Leo's video on "High vs Low Consciousness" but I'm having trouble putting a finger on what it is. At the beginning of his video, Leo says it's the journey toward having a more accurate perception of reality. At the end he says that becoming more conscious is essentially what all of his other self improvement videos are about (which is why it's hard to distill in one vid). In contrast Nathaniel Brandon describes consciousness as being "aware of some aspect of reality" or using our power of choice to bring better consciousness to everything we do. 

So it sounds like Brandon is saying that consciousness is kind of a focused decision to have our minds "engaged" as we go through life. Realizing that we have power to understand or not understand, think or not think. Leo's definition sounds like improving the quality of our consciousness is essentially a catch-all term for the sum of the work we do in self-improvement, i.e., learning how to stop people pleasing, becoming enlightened, etc. The latter definition leaves me wondering "Why bother giving it a name at all? It's just the work we're already doing." 

Am I missing something? 

 

Seth

 

[tsuki]

2 hours ago, Seththomas said:

"Why bother giving it a name at all? It's just the work we're already doing." 

@Seththomas The nature of conceptual work is such that you first gather examples that seem unrelated and build theories that connect them. There is, however, a point in which there is no need to do such a thing because you have seen "the bottom". That, which connects all examples. Enlightenment work is what is common to all of existence.

By definition, nothing can be done with consciousness, because it cannot refer to anything outside of itself. 
The point of making this distinction is to say that there is a "destination", but a direction cannot be given to point towards it.
At your current level of development, you cannot logically understand what consciousness is. You need to do the work.

As you develop yourself more and more, hopefully - you will gravitate towards a place where you can talk about it.
The point however is to express your knowledge sincerely, not repeat hearsay of spiritual gurus. At some point, you will need to learn by teaching.

Edited March 26, 2019 by tsuki

[Jack River]

What concept...all I see is I??‍♂️

[tecladocasio]

@Jack River You Egotistical Narcicist .

[Jack River]

2 minutes ago, tecladocasio said:

@Jack River You Egotistical Narcicist .

I do consider myself to be pretty SELFISH?

[FoxFoxFox]

@Seththomas Attempts at objectifying consciousness will invariably miss the mark. It just can't be done. Consciousness is synonymous with God, the Self, Shiva, Allah etc. and who can truly say they can describe what God is with words?

The way to know consciousness is to be consciousness. Of course, being consciousness already, you can't help but to know it. The problem is that we then try to objectify God and that leads to all sorts of misconceptions. We then go and write books about to perpetuate the ignorance. There is really no such thing as high or low consciousness. Consciousness does not have intrinsic qualities. It is the emptiness that allows everything to flow within it, like how the ocean allows for fish. What is called "high" consciousness is just the Self with less and less concepts covering it. 

If you are interested in knowing consciousness, stop trapping it with your logic and concepts. Allow it to flourish of its own accord. That is the only real knowledge. 

[TheAvatarState]

Do@Seththomas What a great question. First off, you have to realize that there are MANY levels to understanding what is Consciousness. You are new to Leo's content and nonduality, so I'll try to explain it simply from this perspective.

Consciousness is much more than just a human's capacity to be self-aware from a certain relative perspective. In fact, that's not what it is at all. For now, think of consciousness as a range (from low to high) that describes one's capacity to be aware of actuality. What most people see and how they operate is RADICALLY different from what is actually here. Most people run on a framework (ideology) that distorts and limits what they perceive, and the crazy part is that they aren't aware they're doing it. In this way, low consciousness is characterized by a lack of critical thinking, denial of direct experience, and reliance on ideology, while high consciousness is characterized by open-mindedness, self-experimentation, and integral thinking. Seeking to understand and surrender these attachments will raise your level of consciousness.

You are correct that raising your consciousness is the goal of all spiritual work. What you're not seeing, however, is how powerful a nuanced understanding of consciousness can be. "Awareness" can be used interchangeably with "consciousness," and it often paints a clearer picture in our minds.

It is no fluke that raising consciousness happens to be the "catch-all" blanket term for spiritual development. This doesn't render the term meaningless, it actually adds clarity to every other teaching or practice along the path. When you ask, "what is the purpose of this meditation?" you can immediately say, "Oh, I'm just raising my baseline level of consciousness." When you ask why you're journaling or doing self-inquiry, you can immediately say, "Oh, I'm mapping out meaning, taking on new perspectives, and exploring metaphysics. This raises my awareness of actuality." Consciousness is not only the how , but also the why. 

[Leo Gura]

@Seththomas What is consciousness? is the most profound question in the universe. To fully grasp what consciousness is so astounding that it ends you entire old way of life.

When you ask What is consciousness? you are really asking What is the substance of all of existence? That's a monster of a question. It may take you 10-20 years of work to get the answer.

I have a video: What Is Consciousness? Maybe check that out.

In short: consciousness is nothing, consciousness is everything, consciousness is God. But just hearing that as words does very little for you. You must undertake a journey to personally realize what consciousness is. This requires multiple deep enlightenment experiences.

Very simply, to ground your inquiry, pull out your hand right now and hold it close to your face. Look at it closely. Your hand is consciousness. Realize that. And then begin to wonder: What is consciousness? What is it's very essence? Here it is, but WHAT is it?

HINT: Any object you look at is consciousness. There is nothing but consciousness. Consciousness is not a thing, it is a sort of ever-present, self-aware, space.

VERY IMPORTANT: Stop thinking of consciousness is a secretion of the brain or somehow arising out of matter. The brain and matter are both made out of consciousness. Consciousness is prior to physics or physical reality. It is impossible to understand consciousness from within the materialist paradigm.

[cetus]

50 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

In short: consciousness is nothing, consciousness is everything,

@Leo Gura A flute without holes is not a flute -Basho 

[Forestluv]

2 minutes ago, cetus56 said:

A flute with no holes is not a flute -Basho 

Love this. The flute is both bamboo and the space between bamboo ♥️ 

[cetus]

@Serotoninluv

 Caddyshack Zen:  "A donut with no hole is a danish"

[Forestluv]

38 minutes ago, cetus56 said:

@Serotoninluv

 Caddyshack Zen:  "A donut with no hole is a danish"

That gopher was totally enlightened.