* A taste of a new state of consciousness * What is beyond material forms? * The wonder of space * What is the mystery of consciousness?
Tasting a newly discoverable state of consciousness
Have you ever wondered what it is that hides behind your eyes, looking at the world through them? What is it that experiences its environment through your body? What is it that knows your emotions and what is it that knows your thoughts? Please, now - in this moment - turn your attention to the Consciousness that is reading these lines! Listen to the observer within you!
What you can experience is an existing, real "something" and not some abstract metaphysical concept, new age, esoteric or religious thing you have to believe in. You don't have to believe in it, it's there in everyone, as an awake, intelligent space. You can experience it directly.
A new dimension that has so far escaped our attention. In fact, it is the only dimension that exists, into which the objects and forms of the external world are projected, and here you experience your bodily sensations, emotions and thoughts, which are nothing more than phenomena of this dimension.
Basically, we can distinguish three - very different - states of consciousness:
The ordinary, traditional state of consciousness, unaware of the space in which patterns and forms (the image of the world, thoughts, feelings, emotions) appear.
The state of identification with the formless: what initiatory, mystical or spiritual teachings call the "Divine."
The experience of wholeness, which is conscious of both form and formlessness
The state of consciousness of identification with forms
It is our ordinary, habitual state of consciousness, when we are immersed in a multiplicity of forms. Our culture focuses its attention solely on forms; therefore, wherever you look, you see only objects: in the room you see the table, the chairs, and then your gaze wanders to the furniture and scans all the forms present. Similarly: when we examine our mind, we only pay attention to the contents and forms that appear in it: bodily sensations, emotions and thoughts.
Sometimes a strong emotion, such as anger, takes hold and you are the “anger’. You identify completely with the emotion of anger and you even forget about your surroundings. You are angry and you don't notice the rake at your feet, you step on it and it hits you in the face - then you wake up from your dream of anger and you stare at the rake that appears out of nowhere.
In a shopping mall, you see a technical marvel, you feel the urge to get it, and you are so overcome with desire that you walk past the flour shelves and forget that you were on your way to buy flour - you are not seeing reality.
Whenever we pay attention to a form (be it a piece of furniture, a flower, a chair, a thought or a wave of emotion) we become absorbed in the form we are observing, we "stick" to it and either experience the other forms in the environment less acutely or ignore them completely.
Space as an elusive reality
We do not perceive the space in which the forms are created, because our attention is immersed in the identification with the forms, in the emotions and thoughts that arise, and our attachment or aversion to certain forms distracts us from experiencing the space of forms. We become so absorbed in the play that the stage ceases to exist.
It is a familiar experience that, when watching a film that excites us, we completely forget that we are only experiencing a "film", an apparent reality. We are so immersed in the magic of the images that we can even experience strong emotions: we cry at the death of the protagonist, when in reality it is a mirage, an illusion in which we are immersed. But only the screen is real.
Relax and let go of all the thoughts and emotions that are bottled up inside you.
Look around! Notice the objects around you. Scan your eyes over all the objects in your environment and take note of them. Pay attention to the emptiness, the space between objects. Feel the "nothingness", the void in which objects appear. Feel the objects emerging from the space. Listen to the space!
It seems like a simple exercise, but we are faced with unexpected difficulties. Although our intellect knows that objects exist in space, it is not able to pay attention to space itself, because we believe space to be a void, a "nothing", and therefore, armed with this belief, our consciousness is unable to perceive "nothing". It thinks that space is "nothing" and therefore does not exist and does not pay attention to the non-existent, even though we all know that space must exist. If it did not exist, objects would be superimposed and we would not be able to distinguish them. It is precisely space, the spaciousness between objects, that makes it possible to separate objects from each other and to know that they exist at all.
Our culture considers matter as the only reality that exists, and therefore focuses its attention on matter alone. Everything that is material is important to us, and everything that is not material is ignored, neglected. Our conscious attention is focused on matter, and therefore we regard as non-existent the space in which all forms of existence appear, the silence on whose surface sounds dance, and the consciousness in which the contents of consciousness - thoughts, emotions, sensations of the world - emerge.
There is no form without space and no space without form - forms appear in space and all forms occupy space. This is why the Buddha said in the famous Heart Sutra "Form is emptiness, emptiness is form."
The wonder of space
If you manage to focus your attention on the emptiness, the space between objects, a special shift of consciousness takes place within you. You feel the same as you did when you focused your attention on the attention within you.
You identify with what your attention is focused on.
Before concentration, everything you observed, experienced, was material: your furniture was solid, your body was solid, you perceived only the manifested things - you were deeply immersed in the world of matter and completely absorbed in all its details: the inter-contextualization of things and phenomena.
As you focus your attention on your attention or the space between objects, your awareness shifts and you experience a very strange state that fundamentally challenges your existing belief system about yourself and the world.
You are experiencing a new dimension of yourself, and this new dimension is nothing other than a primordial, unnamable, meaningful, living, boundless spaciousness, a spatial void in which bodily sensations, emotions, thoughts and material forms emerge and disappear like waves on the surface of the ocean.
You know that it exists, that it is the One and only Life, and that it is ultimately the essence within you, the one you call "I" ("I am - feeling"). It exists as an ancient living empty space, a self-aware consciousness that encompasses everything. Nothing else exists outside it, everything that exists within it comes into being: in its space and as its manifestation.
This state is characterised by calm, deep silence, peace and all-pervading love. You know that this mysterious "something" is beyond time, has no beginning and no end, has never been born and will never die. If no forms appear within it, it is not self-aware, it simply exists "passively", it is - as in a dreamless dream.
As he creates forms, he becomes aware of the existence of forms, and as he recognizes himself as the creator and sustainer of forms, he becomes aware of his own existence.
It creates forms in the spaciousness of itself, in the space of consciousness, it permeates them, it appears as life in them, it plays the role and the life of the forms.
As soon as the form is worn out and no longer suitable for the only Life to live life through, to experience itself, it escapes from the form and identifies with another form to experience itself again as another form. The more forms he becomes aware of himself, the more colours he experiences his own unique qualities.
It is best approached by paradoxical statements such as: There is only It, the forms that arise in It are all impermanent, and because they are temporary, ephemeral, they are in fact illusions.
It can be approached less conceptually: nothing can be known about it, only directly experienced. Perhaps that is why the Jewish mystics said that God's name cannot be pronounced, and why the Christian religions echo this in their commandment "Thou shalt not take God's name in thy mouth".
The Buddha never spoke of God, precisely because he knew that as soon as he called God, his followers would identify him with their images and concepts of God. The only "something" that exists - which ultimately remains forever a mystery - cannot be grasped by human reason, because it is beyond understanding:
He is the knower of thoughts, the mysterious Consciousness.
Excerpt from the book "The Mysteries of Consciousness” by Ervin Kery