Throughout the ages, every human being lives in his own separate world in loneliness and division. Every individual lives only for himself and all nature bears the imprint of the selfish human life – chaos is everywhere. The world has become a dunghill, many animal and plant species are extinct, and humanity threatens the survival not only of other living beings but also of itself. Trying to overcome loneliness, people create families, tribes, nations, our modern society, but in essence the individuals are still divided. What is the reason for this? It can be summarized as follows: Each and every person’s life is determined by the quality of his sensory perception and the development of his consciousness. And so, the next question arises:
What exactly are perception and consciousness?
Seen from a specific point of view, perception is an inner vision of the world and the people around, received through the sensory organs and refracted through the mirror of consciousness. However, this inner vision is quite imperfect because the human senses capture impressions within relatively narrow ranges and thus the picture obtained is rather incomplete. The consciousness, on the other hand, determines the way humans perceive the world and themselves, and in addition to the conscious part of it, there are subconscious and unconscious parts (as described by the works of Sigmund Freud). The subconscious is the storage room of memories that could be more easily recalled than the unconscious memories and past experiences stored much more deeply in the human life system. Both subconscious and unconscious, however, have significant impact on the conscious mind and explain the sometimes strange ways people react in certain situations.
And so, because the human senses have a limited range of activity and the consciousness of the present-day human is egocentric, i.e. perceiving itself as the center of existence, the people cannot understand the others, their inner world and the reason for their actions. Based on the egocentric consciousness, most of the humans always think they are right in their actions, even if none of those around are of that opinion. Thus, occasions and events that benefit them will evoke their approval, and those that do not suit them will often lead to attacks and criticism on their part. Moreover, the upbringing and culture of the personality are unfortunately not sufficient to prevent this, for inner resistance and tensions are a direct manifestation of the ego’s intrinsic nature, and even if they do not manifest itself outwardly they exist and are directed towards the recipient.
In this way, people withdraw from each other, create space between themselves and become separated and lonely. In such situations, the underlying impact of subconscious and unconscious on the conscious mind could also be perceived by the objective observer. Because the fluctuating feelings and emotions of the wounded ego could be explained, at least partially, by the subtle influence of past memories and experiences, maybe forgotten but still existing deep within.
What is interesting, however, is that very often the recipient of the above-mentioned criticism is not consciously aware of the negativism directed at him. This is due in part to his limited sensory perception, but also to the fact that very often his actions were not intended to harm the other, even though the latter perceived them that way. Nevertheless, the criticized one intuitively senses the negative attitude and reacts to it with more or less conscious hostility. This is why the great spiritual teachers of mankind recommend thinking, speaking and doing good.
Unfortunately, however, this remains impossible because of the structure of human consciousness – it is bipolar and constantly moves between the two poles (e.g. good and evil, joy and sorrow, happiness and sadness, etc.). Thus, attempts to stay on one pole only are doomed to failure.
Of course, the aforementioned situations are no secret to people who are becoming aware of themselves and the world around. Since ancient times, there are mental exercises, meditation practices, etc. that aim at creating a perfected human being who has mastered himself and the world around. In this way people achieve an expansion of their perceptions from the gross material realm to the subtler spheres of this plane of existence. In reality, however, these practices merely amplify certain aspects of the human senses and consciousness and expand the scope of their action, achieving clairvoyance, clairaudience, etc. They do not change their intrinsic nature and therefore cannot solve the problems of nowadays humanity, which have arisen as a result of the imperfect perception and consciousness, leading to a lack of understanding of others, but especially of themselves.
So, it is obvious that the present human consciousness and senses are very limited and their cultivation in a particular direction cannot bring about a fundamental change. Nevertheless, this change is of vital necessity, although it is a task that seems unsolvable for today’s human being. But is that so?
The solution is to go beyond the natural individual with his senses and consciousness and to look for a completely new and different consciousness. Actually, this new consciousness is not new at all, but is in fact very ancient. All the sacred scriptures speak, sometimes in more or less veiled language, that humans come from a higher world and carry the potential to return there again. However, to be able to accomplish this a complete change of consciousness is required, a rebirth of “Water and Spirit”, as Jesus said to Nicodemus (John 3:3-7). Humans are said to be created in God’s image (Genesis 1:27) and therefore they carry the potential for the development of omnipresent consciousness, which is one of the characteristics of God. It is a consciousness equipped with new, sublime senses (Hebrews 5:14) which could penetrate the hidden. The most important quality of this consciousness is that it perceives itself as a part, a cell of the whole. In this way, one will be able to love and cherish everything and each being as one cherishes oneself. Thus, the lack of understanding of others and himself, the consequence of the limited perception and egocentric consciousness, will disappear, and with it all cause for criticism and discontent. And the person who has realized his own inner potential will be truly happy, in harmony with himself and the world around and united with the All.
