Week 2. Spiritual Principle
Consciousness
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Which means...
“All speech, action and behavior are fluctuations of consciousness. All life emerges from, and is sustained in, consciousness. The whole universe is the expression of consciousness.”
— Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
And scientifically speaking...
“In the field of consciousness research—and also in physics and astronomy—we are breaking past the cause-and-effect, mechanistic way of interpreting things. In the biological sciences, there is a vitalism coming in that goes much further toward positing a common universal consciousness of which our brain is simply an organ. Consciousness does not come from the brain. The brain is an organ of consciousness. It focuses consciousness and pulls it in and directs it through a time and space field. But the antecedent of that is the universal consciousness of which we are all just a part.”
— Joseph Campbell
“Scientists may study mainly matter, but they cannot ignore the human mind, or consciousness.”
— Dalai Lama
“I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as a derivative of consciousness.”
— Max Planck
“Consciousness cannot be accounted for in physical terms. For consciousness is absolutely fundamental. It cannot be accounted for in terms of anything else.”
— Erwin Schrödinger
So yes, understanding consciousness is essential to our movement. But as Eckhart reminds us...
“So who is the experiencer? You are. And who are you? Consciousness. And what is consciousness? This cannot be answered. The moment you answer it, you have falsified it, made it into another object. Consciousness, the traditional word for which is spirit, cannot be known in the normal sense of the word, and seeking it is futile.”
— Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth
“Consciousness is already conscious. It is the unmanifested, the eternal. The universe, however, is only gradually becoming conscious. Consciousness itself is timeless and therefore does not evolve. It was never born and does not die. When consciousness becomes the manifested universe, it appears to be subject to time and to undergo an evolutionary process. No human mind is capable of comprehending fully the reason for this process. But we can glimpse it within ourselves and become a conscious participant in it.”
— Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth
“Consciousness is the intelligence, the organizing principle behind the arising of form. Consciousness has been preparing forms for millions of years so that it can express itself through the manifested.”
— Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth
Which means...
“There is only one of us. One consciousness manifesting into different forms.”
— Ram Dass
And science supports this unity...
“Deep down the consciousness of mankind is one. This is a virtual certainty because even in the vacuum matter is one; and if we don’t see this, it’s because we are blinding ourselves to it.”
— David Bohm
“Consciousness is a singular for which there is no plural.”
— Physicist Erwin Schrodinger
Others add...
“Beyond the mind, at the deepest level of consciousness, resides the spirit. This is the part of us that is eternal, unchanging, and imbued with pure unlimited potential.”
— Deepak Chopra
“You and I are the force for transformation in the world. We are the consciousness that will define the nature of the reality we are moving into.”
— Ram Dass
And how does this relate to God?
“Conscience is God present in man.”
— Victor Hugo
“God is conscience. He is even the atheism of the atheist.”
— Mahatma Gandhi
“Consciousness, fully awake to itself, is the Light of God.”
— Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
“I want to know the mind of God… What is the mind of God? Consciousness.”
— Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth
So what does this mean for our movement?
“The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness.”
— Lao Tzu
“To become more conscious is the greatest gift anyone can give to the world; moreover, in a ripple effect, the gift comes back to its source.”
— David Hawkins
“The crisis is not out there in the world, it is within our own consciousness.”
— Jiddu Krishnamurti
“You are the vanguard of knowledge and consciousness; a new wave in a vast ocean of possibilities.”
— Jim Carrey
“There is now a new frontier, not of land but of consciousness. There is no outer ground to conquer, but there is an important inner journey that stretches out before us.”
— Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love
This principle is to understand—at least to the extent we can—what consciousness is.
I will do the best I can, knowing that the infinite existence of unmanifested consciousness can never be fully understood by the extreme limitations of our thinking minds. Still, I will give it a try.
We can all agree that we are sentient beings. Am I right? That means we are self-aware and know that we are thinking. This also means there is thought, and there is an observer of thought.
Thought is the projection of the mind that creates our perception of a physical world of form. This projection gives rise to the observable Earthly experience—what we call matter. The observer of thought is your consciousness, otherwise known as spirit—your true, infinite existence.
Manifested consciousness (matter) appears in the world of form to create our perceived experience of existence here on Earth. This experience becomes accessible through the illusion of time and space (which we will discuss later) via the projection of thought.
Unmanifested consciousness (spirit) is who you truly are—at one with all that is. As our esteemed physicists have stated, consciousness is singular, not plural.
However, our thoughts—primarily our ego—want us to believe otherwise. They focus our awareness exclusively on the world of form (time and space), at the expense of unmanifested consciousness (spirit) or the felt experience of oneness.
Our purpose as incarnated, sentient beings is to change our thinking—to remember that our true existence is infinite, eternal, and all there is (i.e., Heaven)—while simultaneously experiencing the world of form (Earth) created by the projections of our thinking minds.
So, the principle we must understand for the OCA Movement to be effective is this: our true existence is unmanifested consciousness (spirit), which is experiencing an Earthly (matter) existence through the projection of our limited thoughts.
I encourage you to seek understanding of what I’m saying but don’t overthink this principle. It can be consciously felt if you wish. We can all feel unmanifested consciousness—spirit—when we resonate as heartfelt oneness, also known as love.
“When you think, feel, perceive, and experience, consciousness is born into form. It is reincarnating—into a thought, a feeling, a sense perception, an experience.”
— Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth
“To be conscious that we are perceiving or thinking is to be conscious of our own existence.”
— Aristotle
“The main obstacle to our development is our lack of knowledge about the nature of consciousness itself.”
— David Hawkins