29 Jun 2008 @ 04:12, by Glistening Deepwater
The following article is a quote from my comrade John Ringland which he created at my request for a laymans terms overview of his understanding of the nature of the reality in which we find ourselves, the article was to address an ongoing conversation at Global Mind Shift, and the articles to which he refers are available on his newslog here at NCN, 'Toward a Unified Metaphysical Understanding" which is linked to on my sidebar.
It is beautifully written and serves as a valuable introduction to his more complex and meaningful work. An understanding of this idea is vital if we wish to penetrate the illusion that is preventing us from creating a viable civilization on this planet.
We hope this helps :)
“Given that it doesn't seem contentious here to propose that there is some form of universal consciousness I will try to explain things from that starting point without prior explanation.
These ideas are just given by way of throwing an idea into the mixing pot and not by way of trying to impose an idea on anyone. Please feel free to discuss these ideas openly. To assist with the discussion I will try to put some of the above mentioned article into layman's terms – which is very difficult due to the nature of common language but I will give it a shot.
Firstly, it is not true that “nothing exists”. I am hesitant to say that “something exists” because the words 'some' and 'thing' have many inappropriate connotations for this context.
That not-nothing which exists has an aspect that can be described as awareness and an aspect that can be described as that which the awareness can be aware of. These are not two separate things but, metaphorically speaking, different sides of the same coin.
There is a singular stream of this not-nothing but it flows and folds back on itself so as to create what can be described as a 'field' of awareness and a field of that which the awareness can be aware of.
It is an intrinsic property of the awareness that it is only aware and is not aware that it is aware, nor is it aware that it is aware that it is aware and so on. Hence it is often described as pure awareness.
Within this field the awareness experiences discernible difference, I.e. the field is not uniform and homogeneous. These discernible differences are experienced by the awareness as phenomena within awareness.
Hence when awareness becomes aware of phenomena within awareness it accepts those phenomena as they appear and it is not aware of anything else about them. This is the foundation of what is later called naïve realism. For example, when those systems that we call “fundamental particles” interact they are aware of each other and respond to each other as they appear to each other, otherwise they could not interact, but they are not aware that they are aware, nor are they aware of the nature of awareness and of the phenomena within awareness.
This naïve realism gives rise to the experience of 'objects' which are assumed to be real, separate, external objects and are responded to as such. This is the foundation of what is later called positivism, empiricism, materialism (belief in matter) and so on.
As the awareness and objects of awareness fold back into each other they create more complex phenomena such as those systems that we call stars, planets, organisms, minds and sentient human beings. Once full sentience is reached the systems have enough feedback loops to be not only aware, but also aware that they are aware and aware that they are aware that they are aware and so on.
This brings us to the level of human beings that mostly experience themselves as objects in space and time, which interact in a 'world' of objects in space and time. This situation can be very well comprehended as a type of virtual reality. Not the kind that we currently use where the observer has an external perspective and the virtual world is just a replication of surface appearances. I mean a virtual reality that is deeply metaphysically realistic, in terms of all inner processes and not just of outer appearances. Within the virtual reality sentient beings emerge out of the co-creative matrix of awareness folding into awareness and experiencing the phenomena within awareness.
These high level sentient beings have the capacity to become aware of the nature of awareness and of the phenomena within awareness and to penetrate the veil of appearances. When this happens other beings refer to this as enlightenment. This is described in the article Virtual Reality Analogy Alongside Science and Mysticism where I also provide a long list of quotes from the cutting edge of science and from all major mystic traditions, which help to shed light on the situation.
It is this “virtual world” of appearances within the mind that most people call the “physical universe” and assume that there is nothing else to be known. But there is no external material world (see Ask Yourself This), all that they experience is the phenomena within awareness and the allegedly external objects that are apparent to their high level mind. But the 'mind' is a conditioned product of biological evolution and cultural indoctrination.
They assume that they are all perceiving and operating within an 'objective' context and that everyone else experiences and operates within the same context but they are really experiencing and operating within a very personal, mind-made, subjective context. This is the fundamental difference between Western and Eastern perspectives.
Without penetrating the veil of appearances they are operating within a space of misapprehensions that are confounded with reality. Hence their actions are holistically inappropriate and ultimately destructive to the situations that they find themselves in. This occurs regardless of their intentions, hence the saying that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
What do others think about these ideas? Are they a viable foundation from which we can “start from scratch”? Please don't just accept or reject them, but “look through” them and see how the world looks then, read the quotes in Virtual Reality Analogy Alongside Science and Mysticism and see if they make sense in this light, and think about them, test them in your own life and then discuss them openly without attachment and fear of conflict.”
Please feel free to contact us with any genuine queries or rational critique, we welcome feedback and dialogue around these ideas, and are interested in the ideas that arise from this understanding.
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