Like Everyone Else You Were Born Into Bondage. The Bondage of Your Minds` Limited Awareness. Part one: the Ancient Wisdom

“Know thy self and you shall know God”

This old saying is not just a mirror-like mystical proverb that has long lost its meaning throughout the ages.

Indeed, on the most shallow level this proverb makes perfect sense, since we are made “In His image and likeness”, but let`s analyze the symbolics by more thorough and rigid means, after all our brilliant minds are intended to be used as much as we possibly can.

If we turn our minds` eye towards the first half of this ancient proverb and try to analyze it that is to analyze ourselves as it instructs us, we will inevitably notice something profound in the nature of our mind, of our soul. Namely, its layered structure and the jointly coexistence of the opposites in ourselves. If you observe yourself, you will reach the limits of your conscious awareness at some point, beyond which lies the vast expanse of our unconscious psyche. Your thoughts pop up out of nowhere in your mind, random memories and associations surface in your imagination, you react in ways the reasons for which are hidden and unknown and you are under the control of your moods and emotional affections.

When you try to follow the cause and effect chain that is behind all these, the reach of your awareness hits the impenetrable barrier of the boundaries of your consciousness, where it dissolves into the darkness of your psychology. And these unexplored depths of your mind contain exactly what you need to know in order for you to solve your inmost controversies, settle the uncertaincies and better your personality, while in this process of self-observation and self-analyzes you expand the borders of your self-awareness and consciousness on the whole. This is essentially the process of knowing yourself.

When you discern the existence of your unconsciousness, you have made the first step. The second step is to acknowledge the existence of your imperfections that is behavioral and characterological inferiorities and draw-backs that affect your communication and relations with others. It is this deepend awareness about your psychological world that widens and heightens the state of your mind so that you become not just the subject who experiences his/her thoughts, moods and reactions, but also the object of your observations, who creates new thoughts and emotions that react to this higher self, that observes yourself. So, there are three essential entities here: your thoughts, your “I” experiencing your thoughts and your Self observing your “I” experiencing your thoughts. You become both the subject who observes and the object of observation.

It may sound somewhat confusing at this point, but it will clear up further on in our lectures.

In fact, the presence of observing subject and observable object is a fundamental and universal law in order for any knowledge to exist. And this law applied on a universal scale creates life and all forms there are in the cosmos. When you observe yourself and gradually realize the causes, reasons and mechanisms of your psyche you create knowledge and expand the dimensions of your mind, you fill your inner universe with new life and new forms that only existed in potential before your minds` eye brought them to life. All this may sound very inspiring and even exotic in a mystical kind of way, but the process of realization is a truly incredible experience that goes far beyond all words.

Now that we discerned the essential components for knowledge formation, we can briefly turn our attention to the second part of the mystical ancient proverb at the beginning of this post.

Just as when you observe yourself and generally realize your mental factuality, so that you can confidently declare that “I am” (existing), by the same principle this Universal Entity or God declared the same for Itself. The Universe is the mind of God, the universe is the observable object that God, as the observing subject, realized and declared that “I am”. God IS, because the universe exists. Just as we are because our minds exist and realize our existence. God has no name, God is everything but a mere human being with human face and emotions and God certainly has no religious preferences. It is quite ridiculous to say that the Universe is evil or good, christian or muslim. All this grotesque religious tension is due to our limited awareness and primitive understanding. And “evil and good” are purely human qualities/concepts and apply only to human beings. This is a very ground braking and hard to wrap your mind around, but don`t try to swallow it all up at once. Analyze, imagine, observe, think, estimate and synthesize.

It is time to grow up and move on to the next level of our mental evolution, it is time to realize the universe at large. And this is it. In brief. Very brief. Yes, God is Everything. Not just everything around us, we live in the Mind of God, we are made of God. Of course, this does not makes us gods, but we are truly divine beings. Everything is Divine! Do try to think objectively and release your mind off religious dogma and stagnant narrow mindedness. Think, analyze and expand your mental horizons. Use your mental potential, do not satisfy with old, primitive limits. Evolve! We will discuss the nature of reality and go deeper into our understanding about God later on in this series of lectures, somewhere at the beginning of 2009 by schedule.

But now let us return to exploring our selves, because we have to first solve our inner misconceptions and lift our limits in order to understand the Universe and grasp it better.

And this is the meaning of the old wisdom “Know yourself and you shall know God (better)”

And the most pressing issue people need to solve globally is the limited and even lack of self-awareness and self-control. This is a process that every person has to initiate in him/herself.

The global change must begin in the mind of the individual! No one is going to do it for you, there are no magic wands, pills or brain technologies. You can fry your brain with frequency modulators or get high with psychedelic herbs if you like, but the true process of mental advancement is exactly a process, that becomes a state of your mind and a standard in your life and interaction with others. Take your life-long dose of inspiration and live by the standards of higher awareness and deeper understanding!

Do not use the old, passive ways of thinking and do not say “Well, that`s just the way I am” when addressing an inferior aspect of your character. You have the potential to build your personality and transform your inferiorities into qualities! There are no defined limits for the human mind. Just look around you, our whole civilization is a product of our human minds. All the knowledge we have and I want to emphasize on all is a fruit of the human minds. Is this not so?

Do not be simply driven by your instincts and mechanical reflexes. Observe, think, analyze.

Here is a simple and important exercise for you to begin with:

Since aggression is a major issue for humanity today, next time when you feel angry or aggressive emotions take over you, stop. Seize yourself and step out of the emotional affection. Now turn your awareness inwards and analyze. What is the reason? Why do I react this way? “He/She makes me angry.” Yes, but search for the reason not in the person there, but in yourself! Of course, this scenario is not universally applicable, for there are situations when the reason is indeed in the other and not in yourself. Say, you are angry to someone because they are ruing their life without being able to change their self-destructive behavior. Still, anger will not solve anything. Anger and aggression are primitive emotions that never solve anything, but just make things worse. So, in the longer term try to fully take control of these negative emotional states and remove them from yourself.

Have you ever thought about how excessively we use the word “hate”? “I hate milkshake; I hate work; I hate getting up early; I hate winter; I hate him/her; I hate, hate, hate….” We hate everything from inanimate objects, to situations, to abstract concepts, to our friends and family. Why do we hate so much and so easily? Why do we have to use this word at all, even in this careless and humorous way?

But the inadequate use of words and concepts is yet another topic to discuss at another time.

You must be overwhelmed by now with all these issues that you even did not considered as such and thinking “Cheese, life is so much easier when you are not that much aware of everything.” Indeed, the life of an ignorant is an easy and simple life. You just don`t bother to think about global events like the reason for religious tension, political conflicts, human behavior and nature of reality. But, again our brilliant minds are intended for to be used and used by the most out of it! Also, and this is a major misconception as well, geniuses are not born, they are made! The brain is just like a muscle – the more you use it, the better it gets!

To know yourself starts with questions, questions asked to yourself about yourself! Mental advancement consists of self-observation and self-analyzes, to search and realize the reasons and psychological motifs behind your emotional states, affections, reactions and behavior. To grasp and understand the cause and effects that shaped your character and personality throughout your life and to consciously modify and better all those negative and inferior traits that plague your self-esteem, confidence, communication and relationships.

This is the highest meaning of being a human, beyond that of evolution to simply reproduce yourself and beyond that of the social system to contribute to local and global economics like a brick in the wall. To heighten your mind is the intransitive meaning and deepest mystery of human life. And to heighten the global standards of consciousness is the only solution to humanity`s crisis.

“Knowing is not enough – you must apply! Willing is not enough – you must do!”

Bruce Lee

Please, feel free to comment.

What Is the Difference Between Your Psyche and Your Soul?

What is consciousness? What is to know yourself?
This elusive entity that signifies your awake self in your everyday mind set that experiences and realizes the world.

Consciousness is a term with relatively wide meaning. It has been used even before the birth of ancient Greek philosophy as a term addressing the general thought activity in your mind, your thoughts that assimilate and interprete the information you get from the world around you.

Furthermore in old esoteric systems of different periods and cultures we meet the concept of levels of consciousness, that are higher and wider than our everyday awake state of the mind, that is our “I consciousness” it is the entity you address when you say “I”.. think about this for a moment – What do you address when you say “I”? What are you? Try to describe yourself. Examine the content of this “I”, it is one of the most used words in any language, the “I” pronoun! But so rarely it is put on the place of the observable object, most of the time the “I” observes and judges the world around, as if it doesn`t notice itself at all. As if by default the human consciousness is designed to be one-sided and the conscious “I” so narrowly aware of its own self. This is so because, as incredible as it may sound (considering the long history of mankind), the human mind is not yet fully awake and still lingers in its primitive darkness of instinctive behavior and limited self-awareness.

The old wisdom speaks about self-realization and expantion of the limits of your consciousness as the highest goal and divine meaning of human life. Spiritual evolution, divine insight, Satori and illumination – all these are the state your mind acquires gradually following the path of realization. And there is more to it, there is self-control, so difficult for the ordinary human being, there is the improved communication with others and better relations, there is the inmost harmony and balance that give the person strength to advance and achieve higher peaks than the average person. And most of all there is intransitive meaning and inspiration!

In psychology the concept of consciousness is used to address the I-consciousness or Ego that is all your thoughts, dreams, memories and perceptions of the world that form your persona on the one hand, and on the other it is used as a wide term addressing your whole psyche.

Psychology can be viewed as a modern method for self-realization and improvement, just like the ancient esoteric wisdom. Though psychology as a field that explores the human soul is still in its infancy today.

Although human beings are born sensible and potentially intelligent, human consciousness develops very little and on a superficial level through the growth of the child until it becomes a fully grown adult with somewhat settled personality that in most cases will remain generally the same for the rest of its life. Intelligence needs practice in order for it to grow and develop and so does the human consciousness and self-awareness, these are the two sides of a coin, the coin of completeness. Practice makes perfect.

The concept of mental advancement has been known to humanity since ancient times. And certain individuals had been able to advance significantly above the average person of their time, becoming open or hidden spiritual leaders of their generations.

Undoubtedly humanity is slowly advancing in our spiritual evolution, but mostly our advancement is one-sided expressed in external development, while the inmost and unexplored darkness in every individual soul remains unknown.

Say some two hundred years ago people did not had the knowledge and general awareness about the factology and mechanisms of their psychology, nor they had the notions of neurosis or behavioral stereotypes. They did not knew nor thought about the reasons for their emotional unease at times and mostly had no idea how the character forms as a unique psychological set. People back then in the past lacked all the scientific knowledge we have today, yet they felt that inmost darkness in their souls, the limits of their awareness where it could go no further. People since before the written history intuitively perceived the presence of something beyond their senses, something hidden and intangible that was behind the visible aspects of nature. Alchemy, for instance, had the unconscious as an object of exploration and transformation through symbols and associations, although the alchemists didn`t really knew what exactly they were dealing with.

And long before contemporary psychoanalysis, ancient teachings developed methods and practices for mental advancement and symbolic tools for self-realization of the narrow human consciousness we are born with.

“You will find yourself only in yourself” said Lao Tzu, and on the central ark stone above the entrance to the Delphi oracle there was engraved the short inscription urging people to “Know yourself”

Self-awareness and expanding the limits of human consciousness were ideals that inspired great persons to lead entire nations and lay down the foundations of great religions like Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Unfortunately, religious institutions and human narrow-mindedness and greed hid and obscured much of this pure knowledge in order to gain administrative control over the masses.

In the center of this practical method of knowing yourself is self-observation. Self-observation is a state of the mind, it is active and alert consciousness that operates on two sides, not just one. That is, you perceive and analyze the world around you, while in the same time you are aware of the world within you, so that if say someone provokes unpleasant emotions in you you will reflect on and search for the reasons about it, not simply react on impuls mindlessly.

Whether it be an aggressive reaction, insult to someone, saying something stupid or inappropriate or not being able to control your shyness etc. If you think about it, you will realize how much of your behavior is controlled by mechanisms and urges beyond your conscious will, like a toy in the hands of intangible entities, the entity of your unconscious mind.

Self-awareness is not some kind of meditation or exercise for a certain time of the day – it is a state of the mind! Self-realization is not something that happens suddenly at once. It is a gradually unfolding process as a result of the self-observation and analysis.

Human thought activity is closely related to memory. We memorize different pieces of information from different sources and in the process of thinking we assimilate and synthesize this information into knowledge and understanding. Most of the information we use to create our views, theories, ideas and discoveries comes from external sources including our five senses. But it is not until we transform and sift out this information with the tool of our thoughts and imagination that it turns into knowledge. Knowledge is information that you understand and fit into the big picture, not just something you have memorized from the books.

In our contemporary world we are overflown with information, we live on the fast lane with autopilot-on most of the time. So rarely do we stop to look around and think, to reflect on intangible matters such as the hidden reasons behind our behavior, the motifs that drive us, to follow our emotions and thoughts to their source.

The journey into yourself is a lifepath and a state of the mind when your thoughts penetrate into the deepest levels of reality and your psyche. It is when you are able to wield yourself, not the other way around. It is a tough journey and only the most determined are able to make the first steps, which are the hardest. And the journey itself is a deeply rewarding process that becomes ever more fruitful the more you persist. We have barely tapped into our potential and our ability to create a world of peace and unimaginable prosperity!

“Psychic, or "psi" phenomena fall into two general categories. The first is perception of objects or events beyond the range of the ordinary senses. The second is mentally causing action at a distance. In both categories, it seems that intention, the mind’s will, can do things that – according to prevailing scientific theories – it isn’t supposed to be able to do. We wish to know what is happening to loved ones, and somehow, sometimes, that information is available even over large distances. We wish to speed the recovery of a loved one’s illness, and somehow they get better quicker, even at a distance. Mind willing, many interesting things appear to be possible.

Understanding such experiences requires an expanded view of human consciousness. Is the mind merely a mechanistic, information-processing bundle of neurons? Is it a "computer made of meat" as some cognitive scientists and neuroscientists believe? Or is it something more? The evidence suggests that while many aspects of mental functioning are undoubtedly related to brain structure and electrochemical activity, there is also something else happening, something very interesting.”
prof. Dean Radin

P.S. The answer to title`s question: They are the same thing

A Storm is Coming, Storm of Inspiration! And When It Arrives, It Will Shake the Universe!

“In the eyes of Eternity, mountains are as transient as the clouds.”
Zen

Everything is transient and every thing has an end.
Considering the unseazeable movement and vibration of every particle in the Universe, every thing is born into existence, develops through the stages of its life and eventually returns to a state of nonexistence, at least not in the cosmic realm we are aware of. Whether it is a tree, a crystal, clouds in the sky, biological cells, people, planets or stars.. all is transient. Even the Universe herself has an end, that will eventually arrive. Not in the lifetime of our Sun that is, and probably not in the lifetime of many other stars that will burn around long after the Solar System has disappeared. However, we should not really care about times as distant and as unreachable as this far, not more than a mindful grasp for the imagination to stand in awe for a moment and wonder… then return to Earth and to the now, where we have much more meaningful and pressing things to do.
One thing is Eternal and this is the Creator Force and Vessel of this cosmic reality we exist in.
Later on we will take a glimpse beyond everything we know into the unimaginable reality of God Itself.

Now, let`s return our thoughts to the transient nature of the cosmos and every smallest detail of it. This transiency is so deeply imprinted in everything, that it manifests itself even in abstract things like our thoughts, feelings and emotions, fashion tendencies… Our life and whole human history are composed of transient moments, that give rise to and follow each other. Tomorrow is never the same with today, because it is one step further up the spiral of time, or further down depending on the point of view.

The lifespan of a human being so short, so brief like a spark on the background of the black vastness of space. Despite the physical insignificance of the human being, we are amazing in this that in our short-lived existence we are able to encompass the whole Universe in our minds. There are no limits set to human mind, nor there are to human imagination!

Let`s take a plunge with the powerful tool of your imagination into the vast expanses of this cosmos we live in. Let`s begin by comparing different numbers, so that we give dimensional perspective to the visual model, we gradually create in our minds. To understand the world and your place in it, it is a must that you gather and combine all of the different elements into one big picture, so that you can examine the whole. This formula is valid for the betterment and thoroughness of understanding at large, whether it be the universe, society or yourself.

Developing the capacity of your imagination is an important part in the process of mental advancement. The information we synthesize in the thought process and turn into knowledge does not come to full life as one whole picture until we assimilate and comprehend it through the eyes of imagination!

Let`s begin with a single step. An average human step that spans the length of a meter. Imagine one meter, it is this long (gestures with hands). 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) is the length of 1000 average human steps. For most people, a kilometer is a no problem distance as a morning jog or a walk to work or school. The diameter of Earth is approximately 40, 000 kilometers, so that if someone decides to walk from start point “A” full circle close to the equator and then returns to the same point, he or she will have to make 40 million steps. Which distance still isn`t that much really, because if we take 7 km/h as an average human fast walk speed and divide Earth`s diameter by seven we get 5714, which divided by 24 hours a day is 238 days of constant walking. Of course, these are ideal conditions and in a real trial those numbers would vary greatly depending on a variety of factors.
However, all those calculations are for the purpose to dimensionally guide our imaginations` perspective.
But hey, Earth is a relatively small planet! Let`s take the mighty Sun as an object of size evaluation. Its` diameter is about 3 million kilometers and if some enthusiast decides to make a round about the Sun with a shuttle that flights with 80, 000 km/h through space she or he will make a full circle around the Sun for some 37 hours. Why that`s not bad at all?! And 80, 000 kilometers per hour (50, 000 miles per hour) is quite a fast speed as per average human standards.
Anyway, let`s venture on!

Consider the ultimate limit of acceleration, that is the speed of light (also electricity and radio waves too) this is the incredible 300, 000 km/s, which is around a mere 1 billion kilometers per hour in the frictionless cosmic vacuum. Now this is an impressive speed.

Having the speed of light with us, we can now venture beyond the limits of our beautiful Solar System home. Everyone has heard about the “light year” unit that is used to calculate distances in the huge black expanse of the cosmic vastness.
The light year is the distance that a photon will travel at around 300, 000 km/s for one Earthly year or approx. 365 days (the calculations in this exercise do not need to be exact).
So, the speed of light is 1 billion km/h and 1 year has ~ 8760 hours, thus 1 light year signifies the approximate stellar distance of about 10 trillion kilometers in a given direction.
Alright, imagine now if you make yourself a nice 10 trillion-kilometer morning jog. lol !

Anyway, numbers begin to seem ever more abstract and unimaginable. Try to imagine 10 trillion kilometers (6.25 trillion miles), try to divide it in meters and comprehend the length of this distance. Make a mental effort ! Challenge the limits of your imagination.

The closest star to our parent Sun has the exotic name of Proxima Centaur and is located at about 4 light years away.
Our shiny Milky Way galaxy has a diameter of about 100, 000 light years .. And the closest other galaxy Andromeda is distanced at a mere 2 million Light Years away. That is 2 million multiplied by 10 trillion and you get the distance in kilometers.
And this is still way too small for the farther objects in the deep and faraway expanses of the Universe!

Indeed, the cosmos is a place of staggering and mind-blowing proportions.
So, if you have been able to visualize and encompass these distance, you probably feel utterly lost and insignificant. This is a kind of an emotional indicator for your well doing in this mental exercise. Just think about the fact that your thoughts are reaching beyond our galaxy, while you haven`t moved your but. There are places, where human thought travels, faraway places where human being will never set foot. Ponder that for a while!

As a conclusion, the human being is an amazing creature that lives in an amazing universe!
In the span of our short life, a human mind has the ability to penetrate deep into the hidden mechanisms of reality and expand its` reaches far beyond the physical location of the individual.
For the modest length of a human lifespan, the human mind has the capacity and potential to relive and encompass the whole of Creation and expand the limits of your mind to a level where it seems as if reality itself exists with the sole purpose to be grasped, realized and understood by the human mind.
And this is the true mystery!

There is an utter meaning in this to be homo sapiens, a living soul, self-aware consciousness that breathes and is made out of flesh. The meaning is imprinted in the fabric of reality and is gradually revealed when you explore the hidden depths of your mind, of yourself. What`s more, your mind is a gateway to other dimensions, there are no limits to the reaches of the mind riding on the wings of active imagination!

Travel the Universe, without moving!
Advance your mind, improve our world!

[Please, do read our “Manifesto .. “ opening post, if you haven`t done so yet]