Are we totally different beings? Or do we all go through a search process that takes us to varying levels of consciousness, increasingly abstract and spiritualized?
Before trying to answer these questions, we must not forget that difference and equality are mere classifications.
As animal beings, we have a type of basic, concrete consciousness: the self-awareness of the physical body and its vitality guarantees our survival.
Observing ancient history, we see ourselves as primitive human beings, with a feeble articulated language, which pointed directly at objects. The sensation of time was only the today, and the hour was now! And, of course, there was no planning for the distant future. Life existed. And space was just where the physical body was.
At this level, our routine was eating, sleeping, reproducing and raising children to spread the species. After all, our sensations, guided by the five senses, directed our feelings according to the circumstances. The routine was to quench hunger and thirst, react to the imminent danger, seduce and be seduced.
Let’s stop to think about it. Isn’t it true that this awareness of “staying alive in time and space” persists till today, in a thousand different ways, within all of us?
Social awareness drives us toward collective construction. We live as a family, and we work hard to maintain it as such; we play social roles that protect group survival. But, however sophisticated our consciousness may be, isn’t it also true that, if self-knowledge is extended to the perception of emotional and mental needs, it is still focused on the moral-rational scope?
Yes, while living in society, it is important to show solidarity. Because of this, we try to restrain ourselves to respect others, follow the rules of proper behaviour and pass on information to the next generations. Therefore, we make every effort to perpetuate the tradition or transform it, update it, break with it and, paradoxically, we end up creating a new tradition, always polarized between the opposing pairs of good / bad, correct / incorrect, fair / unfair.
After all, what do we look for when we relate with others? Probably we hope to obtain better forms of physical, emotional and mental survival in relation to other human beings. Anyway, wasn’t that the reason why we created Science, Philosophy, Art, Religion?
We place great value on mental action and we mirror the group’s feelings and reactions. Our language – symbolic, media, typical of social networks created by technology – guarantees the cohesion of the social herd. And what is our notion of “time”? – Just a line that starts from the past and goes to the future, passing through the present (which is ephemeral and needs to be harnessed – each type of person choosing what it means to “enjoy the time”). Thus, life passes very quickly. At this level of consciousness, it seems to us that “space” is the virtual place where our emotions and our minds are.
In this century, which seeks health and longevity, our routine shows us that eating is nourishing, sleeping is fundamental to be well the next day, reproduction is an optional right, educating children is a shared action amongst various social institutions. Anyway, our main actions are summarized in informing, studying, working, living together – to continue maintaining and improving the status quo of individual and group survival.
Tired of a life that goes from the cradle to the grave with no meaning other than survival, we strive to go beyond the level of rules and dogmas to reach the ineffable, the unspeakable, the sublime, the sacred.
It is then that some will be attracted to initiatic schools that, in all times of history and in numerous points of space, have always pointed to “something else”.
All of them propose a new consciousness, which will enable us to transform ourselves into a New Being – and, for this New Being, thinking will no longer be concrete. This wisdom, which is not limited to collecting information, requires a much deeper dive into real self-knowledge. According to Hermes Trismegistus, Buddha, Plato, Plotinus, Pythagoras, Lao Tzu, Valentin Andreae, Marsílio Ficino and many others, whoever possesses this type of abstract cosmic consciousness will no longer cultivate the intellect. For this person, it will no longer be enough to relate with others in closed groups, but with all of humanity. He or she will not be limited to moral rules, raising and educating children, passing on information to new generations, perpetuating tradition, transforming tradition, updating tradition. For this Being, space is the Universe and time does not exist!
For us, 21st century seekers, it remains for us to imagine, as in a beautiful and sacred fiction, that one day, all of us – indistinctly, each with their own time and way – will start to think and communicate abstractly, without words , without images, without concepts, without metaphors, without symbols, without analogies.
At an even higher level, subtle abstract thinking will show that our self-knowledge can expand itself for the perception of The Whole and all beings and their vibrations. Contact with the external life will be not only to obtain the best forms of physical, emotional and mental survival by relating ourselves with other human beings, but also to transform as manifest energies of the Whole.
Then, our routine will be able to completely transform. Our nutrition will be etheric, our sleep will be watched by consciousness. Thus, we will magnetically unite with various beings and will transform them as we transform ourselves.
With a solid base of initiation schools of all times, we can already have a dream that, in this superior stage, our main actions will be summed up in feeling-thinking-acting as pure Love. Our attention will be global (we will have “a thousand eyes”!). Being-feeling-thinking-acting will be only one global thing, that does not depend of time or space. After all, our notion of time will be comprehensive, from understanding that time is an illusion (it can be either a line or a geometric shape that overlaps).
In this sacred setting, eternal life is the Whole, and the Whole is eternal – without beginning or end.
Returning to our initial questions, we observe that we are individually very different, but also very equal in our process of existence – each one in his/her time and in his/her vital space.
And, therefore, we propose the following reflections: in our daily lives, how many times do we travel between these three fundamental levels of consciousness? Are we moving in the path indicated by all these schools that propose a process of real self-knowledge that allows a total transformation of our consciousness and of our being?
