Being You
As children we are often filled with the wonder of being
conscious. The idea that only
I have these particular experiences.
I can empathise with other people but when they eat I don't experience the taste;
when they see a movie I don't experience the emotions. Unfortunately, the vicissitudes
of life knock this sense of wonder out of us.
In order to understand this uniqueness that we have, we have to understand what
we are. People perform most of their tasks mechanically. When you first learn
to drive a car you have to concentrate on every move but after a while it becomes
automatic. You don't think about turning the steering wheel or applying the brake.
In fact, it’s possible to drive for miles while in a daydream.
Conventional scientific teaching tells us that there is an objective universe that we experience through our senses. If we are not conscious then our sense of sight is like a lead coming from a camera which is disconnected, or like a computer that is not is currently running the software to process the pictures. It has been found that it is possible to recollect details that they may have been unaware of at the time. The scenes that pass you by whilst you were driving are still somewhere in your mind and can be recalled under hypnosis.
For most people, their consciousness is like a point which registers on one thing or another. Mysticism is about expanding your consciousness. Your mind is aware of how you drive the car whilst also aware of the street and the road signs etc. At this level of development nothing is subconscious because your consciousness has expanded to encompass that which is, for most people, unconscious behaviour. This is how advanced mystics are able to stay in states of suspended animation by controlling their heartbeat and perform other such feats.
I've mentioned before that when you dream you create everything within the dream.
All the characters and also the inanimate objects, each has a symbolism within
the dream and it is possible to be consciously aware within the dream and to interact
with it. What we call reality is really the dream of God and it is interesting
to see life as a dream, and all the events that happen to us as events within
a dream. When you have expanded your consciousness sufficiently you are able to
influence and to be conscious within the dream that is called reality. Eventually
with expanded consciousness the distinction between what you call ‘you’ and what
you call others, or things, breaks down. All people and all objects, including
yourself, are part of the same dream.
As the great Sufi
Jalaluddin Rumi put it:
Life is dreams within dreams, within dreams.
