“Consciousness is that in which all experience appears, it is that with which all experience is known and it is that out of which all experience is made.”
Rupert Spira.
Experience is anything but objective. Thoughts, memories, ideas, sights, sounds, taste and smell we experience all of these through our bodies and minds. In truth the world is devoid of colour. We perceive it as colourful thanks to the sensors in our bodies and the interpretation of same in our brains. It is in short, all generated inside of our heads. Therefore, it can only be subjective. Human beings are unique in many ways, not least of which is our awareness of time; our ability to perceive past, present and future.
Aware of our own mortality we are conscious of being conscious; this level of consciousness is still filtered subjectively through our experience. That is different however, to self-awareness. As we experience life and form our mental models drawing conclusions about life we begin to operate in a default manner. Most people stumble through their lives without really understanding they experience in a default manner and fail to grasp the concept their experience is their’s alone and therefore entirely unique to them.
Similar Experiences
I might have a similar experience or we may believe it to be a similar experience when we discuss it, this is our ability to perceive the experience of another. If it is something unfamiliar or if the activity forms part of our own experience we have direct access to that experience through our ability to ‘map it’ onto our own. Imagine if we’d both been to the beach and enjoyed a swim, it is fair to say we will have both experienced the sights and sounds of the beach. The tactile feel of sand on our feet or the temperature of the “cold” water we experienced whilst swimming.
In reality, all those sensations are a product of your perception creating an effect inside of your brain which you then interpret. There is no way to be sure the sensation of sand on my feet is the same sensation you feel when you stand on sand. It may be similar but it will not be the same: Each experience is unique to each individual. 7 billion people will have 7 billion uniquely perceived experiences and yet…
Cohesion Agreement
Yes, we act with cohesion. In part, this occurs through agreement. We agree that something is a particular way and then we go on and live that truth. A simple yet somewhat silly example is our agreement around what constitutes a boys colour and what constitutes a girls colour. Blue is for boys and pink is for girls right? That is by agreement. In fact the opposite agreement was in place not some generations ago (https://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/10/pink-used-common-color-boys-blue-girls/) Take a look at statues of Mary, she is wearing blue while Jesus is wearing robes more closely associated with dark reds and pinks… So you see, it is through social mechanisms we have acquired labels for the experiences and by agreement.
Why Is This Important?
Quite simply Perception is the foundation of experience. There is no determined way we have to experience life once we become consciously aware of our filters, agreements and decisions. How do you do that? By taking proactive control of our attention. When we proactively choose what we put our attention on and decide what we wish to be consciously aware of we change our experience and we change our physical world. We have the power to quite literally create and or destroy whatever we wish, simply by welcoming or denying its existence in our conscious awareness. You are deciding every minute of every day what your world is like; you may just not be aware that is what you are doing. If you don’t like it change it!
Yes, it is that simple. Truly it is! However, it is far from easy, Living Consciously is very challenging. Firstly, understand how powerful you are and then to take control of your thoughts, words and actions to bring about the world you want. Therein lies another huge challenge. What is the world you want? What matters to you?
Keep Your Options Open
We have been hammered for decades about setting goals and how they need to be specific and clear. The Gurus of goal setting have been telling us the greater definition and more real you can make the goal the better the chance you will achieve it. There is some validity in this perspective however I invite you to consider the consequence of the act of deciding. To decide is to limit the outcome.
The moment I decide, when buying a car, it needs to be a red Honda Civic it is not possible for my new car to be a Toyota or any other brand. I have killed off that option by deciding. The root word “Cide” is Latin for kill and turns up in such notable words as homicide, pesticide and suicide. I’m sure you get the picture. We kill off all possibilities other than those we have decided on when we decide specifically what our goals are going to be. What if the sales yards didn’t have a red Honda Civic? The attainment of my goal would be compromised or delayed. Much better to limit decision to what I want the car to do and exclude those that don’t measure up…far better chance of walking away happy with a new my car.
Don’t Limit The Universe
Being focused on a specific outcome is great if you are across all the options and can knowledgeably make the choices you want (like when you know the available makes and models). Life is not like that, life is infinitely variable and unique to each and every one of us. Only aware of our own consciousness, the third certainty of life is you don’t know what you don’t know. There is every possibility in deciding on one path you will kill off perfectly viable options you are not even aware of. This could leave you on a narrow path to your goals.
My goal is to be happy and healthy with unlimited resources. Why such a broad outcome? I do not want to become attached any version of what my future may look like. This enables the means to come from and be whatever turns up. Also know I am already happy and healthy and have all the resources I need…I can’t wait to find out where the unlimited resource will come from…only the Universe knows.