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English

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This publication consists of a series of short notes I previously posted on Facebook. It follows my earlier book "On the Way: Growth and Transcendence of Personal Consciousness". On the Way describes the stages of mental development we grow through during our lives, whereas this work focuses more on the insights we acquire toward the end of life.

Sujets

Philosophie

Métaphysique

Metaphysics

Eastern

Philosophy

Philosophie et théologie

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Publié par	eBookIt.com
Date de parution	15 février 2017
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781456628154
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0050€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

POINTERS
WHAT YOU FIND WHEN INVESTIGATING WHO YOU ARE

John K. Landré

Copyright 2017 John K. Landre
All rights reserved
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-2815-4
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

Alles Vergängliche
ist nur ein Gleichnis;
das Unzulängliche,
hier wird’s Ereignis;
das Unbeschreibliche,
hier ist es getan;
das Ewigweibliche
zieht uns hinan.
Goethe
Everything transitory
is only a metaphor;
the deficient
here becomes the attained;
the indescribable
is here accomplished;
the eternal feminine
draws us up.
(My translation)

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Thank you, Drizz, for bearing with me.
PREAMBLE
This publication consists of a series of short notes I previously posted on Facebook. It follows my earlier book “On the Way: Growth and Transcendence of Personal Consciousness” . On the Way describes the stages of mental development we grow through during our lives, whereas this work focuses more on the insights we acquire toward the end of life.
Let me first briefly repeat what On the Way was about. During our lives personal consciousness slowly grows through five distinct phases, each next one including and transcending the previous ones.
Phase of consciousness I. Security II. Social Most trusted input Instincts Emotions Category of needs Survival Belonging/Duty Worldview I cope in a hostile world I belong to a problem world Main preoccupation Am I safe? Is the world as it should be? Major skill development Instrumental Interpersonal
III. Rational IV. Mystic V. Enlightenment Factual observations Intuition Witness consciousness Self-esteem Compassion Egoless: no needs I participate in a world project I am part of a larger whole I Am Am I as I should be? Spiritual seeking No inquiry: here-and-now awareness only Mental/Creative Contemplative N/A

In the first, instinctual phase we focus on safety. Getting control over our environment is the main goal. Our most important relationship is with things, rather than with other people. We identify with our instincts and we develop instrumental skills.
Rather than with our instincts, in the second, emotional phase we identify with our feelings. We develop interpersonal skills and focus on fulfilling social needs: belonging to the community and doing our duty. Looking good in the eyes of significant others is the main motivator. In the emotional phase the most important relationships are not with things, as in the instinctual phase, but with other people.
In the third, rational phase we identify with our mind and we develop self-esteem. We work on becoming acceptable in our own eyes and focus on defining our mission in life. Our primary relationship is with ourselves and we develop creative and system skills.
In the intuitive, fourth phase of consciousness we become spiritual seekers. Here our main focus is on the area of consciousness that lies beyond the mind. Identification is with our intuition. The predominant relationship is no longer with things, other people, or ourselves, but with a power we imagine to be larger than ourselves. We develop contemplative skills.
Consciousness in the fourth, intuitive phase has three aspects. We first identify with a Silent Witness of our thoughts and actions. Later we may enter what is known as Peace consciousness. Here the ego disappears from awareness and we identify with the totality of phenomenal manifestation. At the third aspect of intuitive consciousness the separation between self and the Divine disappears and only pure Subjectivity remains.
A few, fortunate individuals reach a fifth, Non-dual phase of consciousness. Here all differentiation vanishes and identification is with the field that consciousness exists in. This phase of consciousness is known as “Enlightenment” or “the ultimate Understanding”.
In reading what follows you may get the impression that I am a religious preacher. But I am not. On the contrary. Preachers tell you what you should believe. Yet you may not want to believe what others tell you. Instead you could have a desire to investigate for yourself. What I am doing in these notes is pointing to what you will find when looking into the question of who you are.
The first few notes are short repeats of what has been dealt with in more detail in On the Way . All others are about the last phases of consciousness. For a detailed description of how we grow through the first few phases of consciousness, see On the Way: Growth and Transcendence of Personal Consciousness .
CONTENT AND CONTEXT
This series of notes is about the context of life. It is not about what we think and do but about why we think and do what we think and do. What we think and do is the content of our lives. But behind that is the context, the why. It is through our thoughts and actions that we raise our level of consciousness.
DO FIVE PHASES OF CONSCIOUSNESS REALLY EXIST?
Suppose you are a person in the second, emotional phase of consciousness. For you the first, instinctual phase of consciousness is real: you have been there. So is the emotional phase: you are there. But all higher phases of consciousness are unreal, do not exist, and are unimaginable, because you have not yet experienced them. To you talking about them makes no sense.
Let’s look at an example, the statement that the free market system is superior to socialism. This is a statement a person in the third, rational phase of consciousness may make. To someone in the second phase of consciousness such a statement is emotionally unacceptable and dismissed out of hand. It is not just untrue, it is appalling. Only people who are in transition from the emotional, second phase to the third, rational phase, may find debating the point meaningful. And only to people who are well established in rational, third phase consciousness does the statement become worth considering and, ultimately, factually true.
Here is another example: “A higher form of consciousness than your own exists.” Obviously this statement is nonsense for people in the first three phases of consciousness. For them higher forms of consciousness then their own do not exist.
This, generally, is why my publications are of little interest to people who are in the first three phases of consciousness. For those I have only one message: Stop reading and spend your time on getting to know yourself better first. If you are in the first phase of consciousness, this means getting to know your instincts better until you learn that they often mislead you. In the second phase it means getting to know your emotions better until you learn that they frequently mislead you too. And similarly, in the third, rational phase of consciousness, it means getting to know the objective world better until you learn that it too can mislead you.
But if you find yourself in or past the transition from third phase, rational to forth phase, intuitive consciousness, read on. You may find some of what follows interesting.
GROWING INTO ENLIGHTENMENT
Is reaching the state of Enlightenment a gradual process? Or is it something that establishes itself as a sudden insight?
On occasion a higher level of consciousness then your current one may reveal itself. When this happens you become aware of its existence. This feels as having a “peak experience”. It leaves you with a desire to get back to the state you were in during that experience. When strong enough it may even cause changes in behavior. If so, you have suddenly grown into a next, higher level of consciousness.
But mostly growth of consciousness is a gradual process. Personal needs of a next, higher level of consciousness slowly grow in importance. At the same time needs of lower levels are slowly fading from awareness because they are becoming routinely fulfilled. All the while, during daily living, we continually shift into, and out of, our current level of consciousness.
For instance, emotional, second phase people often are aware of their feelings. Yet when threatened, they may act instinctively again. And during periods when they are not emotionally involved, they may be objective and rational. By learning to routinely satisfy their emotional needs, they slowly grow into rational, third phase consciousness.
Growing into Witness consciousness, Peace consciousness, or Subjectivity is also a gradual, intellectual process. People in Witness consciousness routinely trust their intuition more than their objective rationality. People in Peace consciousness have become comfortable with the fact that they have no free will. And people at the level of Subjectivity have learned to accept that they will never know who they are.
Growth of consciousness is a preparation for “Enlightenment”. Sages, who have reached the state of Enlightenment themselves, advise that for the ultimate Understanding to occur, it is necessary to “kill the mind”. Yet they maintain that personal growth needs to happen first and that this is a mental process.
Personal growth, including the final Understanding, is an autonomous process. It either just occurs to us or it doesn’t. All personal thought and all personal action is beyond your personal control. What you do in preparation for the final Understanding is itself beyond your control.
ETHICS
What we call good or bad and which behavior we believe to be good or bad behavior, changes fundamentally when entering a new phase of consciousness.
In intuitive first phase consciousness we call good the things that make us feel safe. In the second, emotional phase we ask:”Is the world as it should be?” In the third rational phase this changes to: “Am I as I should be?” And in the fourth phase the question of what is good or bad no longer exists and we