This sense of subjective self or ‘I’ is a layered realism, bordering and swaying into the domain of virtualism. This sense and feel that ‘we are’ or ‘I’ Am’, is expressing itself in many layered existentialism of unconscious, subconscious and conscious domains. The trouble is – The ‘I’ is in every bit of all different expressions of ‘Self’, yet, truly or actually, ‘I’ is seldom fully or perfectly in any of the variegated appearances of ‘Self’. This dualism or mystical realism is baffling. More intimidating is the fact that all the shades and dimensions of ‘I’ and their action/behavior emanate out of and pertain to one body and mind of an individual yet he or she is seldom willing to own the culpability of its stupidities; happy only to own its attainments.
This subjective self or ‘I’ is a collective causality of cooperative and co-opting elements of body and brain of which some are tangible and others intangible. Therefore, ‘we are’ not only body, not only mind, not only thoughts, not only emotions, not only attitudes, not only fears and insecurities, not only bundle of memes but a sum-totality of all, even while being everything. This means, consciousness or sense of self is always a holistic expression of totality and entirety, even when singular elements of its constitution are always there and indispensable for its holism. In other words, ‘I’ have ‘parts’ but its actual expression or core property is always as a ‘whole’. If any single ‘part’ is missing, the ‘whole’ ceases to exist. The stupidity of design of consciousness, or this sense of ‘I Am’ is that the ‘parts’ are not always aligned to the ‘whole’ and the whole is not always in control and command of parts. Naturally, stupidities and hypocrisies flow in as innately as water and wind.
The subjective self or ‘I’ is always emerging, shifting and changing because of its very nature of being a ‘process’ and not a fixed and tangible matter. Consciousness is an expression and property emerging out of complex and multidimensional processing of huge amount of info in the ever-shifting internal as well as external milieus. Therefore, the very single body-mind of ‘I’ has many functional selves, even while structurally there is only one entity of ‘I’.
Importantly, as this sense of subjective self or ‘I’ is a function of entropy of our body-mind system, the consciousness in its very nature has the propensity for entropy-expansion. This means, in our daily lives of subconscious self or ‘Unaware-I’, we are inclined to and oriented towards destabilization, un-organization, randomization, abstractions, virtualism, confusion and conflicts, etc. The very entropic property of consciousness ensures the above states for us. Interestingly, as the domain of subconscious brain state dominates the mind space to the extent that science compares subconscious to a soccer field where conscious self is just a small goalpost; average human being is predominantly a stupid at freewill and a mechanism of chaos, confusion and conflict.
However, as the dialectical mechanism always ensures, the very conscious self or ‘Aware-I’ itself emerges and evolves because of the stupidity and disorganization of subconscious. The thesis-antithesis-synthesis process is applicable to consciousness too. When the subconscious or unconscious actualizes a cognitive ‘realism’ for self or ‘I’, the same brain states, which have evolved top layers handling logic and thoughtfulness of reason, engenders a virtual domain or space of ‘Conscious’ self; provided the person has enough evolved conscious mind state. This ‘higher consciousness’, by innate nature of its dialectical origin, supplies the elements of skepticism, facilitating another dimension of cognitive realism. This dimension is human’s ‘entropy-suppression’ process that keeps system sanity at optimality.
Therefore, consciousness is probably the microcosmic model of evolutionary mechanism that the cosmos has as a macrocosm. Every system has its entropic expression and the same system innately has an embedded and ingrained mechanism of entropy-correction or entropy-suppression for sustained ‘optimality’ of system enterprise. This dualism of cosmic system that is its infinite evolutionary energy, is also the primary and embedded property of consciousness. The dualism of consciousness works on dialectical cyclicality of entropy expansion and entropy suppression – confusion writing the initial script of life-living drama and then sanity of propriety enacting the best protagonist on the theatre of life.
This all leads us to the finality of our assertion of a singular hypothesis or scientific philosophization and it says – Intelligence and sanity of a human being is in higher awareness of this dualism of consciousness and its unwavering acceptance. Wellness is in healthy, effective and smooth functioning of the dialectical cyclicality of consciousness. And, empowerment is in conscious mastery of artistry of engineering & management of dualism of ‘I-Cognitions’ for optimality of thoughtfully opted goals of life-living…
For complete and detailed understanding of the idea of Consciousness and all its aspects, including the critical principle of entropy-expansion and entropy-suppression, do kindly refer to author’s earlier eBook, ‘Optimality Of I Potentiality’. All other 43 eBooks of the author are available for unrestricted download at all major stores.
As the term ‘awareness’ is cardinal and critical for wellness and peace, it needs to be understood in every possible details. The word awareness is probably most un-understood and mis-understood word in human cultures. Most people take this rare and labored achievement for granted. Tell a person that he or she is not aware and they shall be angry at you. Everyone has this self-sustained belief that he or she is always ‘aware’. This is a misconception, even when most of us always feel and believe about being aware as the subjective sense of consciousness is always muffling us, like a second virtual skin. Science has established that in our daily lives, we are ‘aware’ only for few minutes at best, even while over 98 percent of our life-living is carried out in subconscious state. Science says, awareness or conscious sense is just a fleeting and ephemeral epiphany, which needs persevered practice for prolonging it.
Scientific studies reveal that over 90 percent of human population does not breathe the correct way! Why? Simply because we are not aware! Our body needs right breathing because we survive and excel on Oxygen. We all take breathing as taken for granted because it is an auto-process controlled by unconscious layers and monitored by subconscious layers of our brain states. That is primarily why most meditative processes begin by asking a person to focus on inhaling and exhaling of air through nostrils. It is however only a basic process to enter the ‘Door’ of conscious domain. One needs to journey deep inside as this breath watching alone cannot reach us to awareness destination. It requires more. Most people are happy doing aware breathing and think, they have hit finality!
The primary reality is that most processes inside our body-mind mechanism are subconscious and as they are ruled by an auto-process, a wired proposition, we do not need to bring things into aware and conscious domain. Being aware is a holistic notion, which entails having conscious and definitive registry of infinite processes and causalities that work inside us and outside in external milieus. It is the level of awareness that decides the potential of empowerment of a person. There is no limit to how much and to what extent we can be aware of as there are infinite causalities and processes going on inside and outside us. Awareness is a life-long learning and unlearning process. But it has a process too. We need to know that.
Awareness is a dialectical process. From our childhood, we are made to get exposed to different types of information and every new information that makes us aware of a realism, opens up a gateway to one or two level up of awareness. We learn the language first, then we get aware of poetry and later we get aware of how poetic excellence creates magic with self and consciousness. Therefore, awareness comes in steps and if we miss out on one or two steps of the ladder of information and knowledge progression, we cannot get to higher levels of awareness. This means, there cannot be a short-cut or easy route to awareness. Awareness is evolutionary mechanism. It requires continuity and perseverance of practice of the art.
Then, the most critical part of awareness process is its dialectical nature. We get to one level of awareness and that makes us stand on the door of dualism. Every next level of awareness requires that we ‘learn’ something new of higher levels but at the same time also ‘unlearn’ something that holds us back from moving up the ladder of awareness. For example, a child learns things in his or her life and becomes aware of the idea of divinity and religion that his or her family and current societal and cultural milieus extend. He or she follows it and keeps evolving. Surely, the next level of awareness requires that he or she unlearns his or her existing awareness about God and religion and use the higher levels of his or he awareness to present a logical critique, using his or her energy of skepticism to what he or she knows so far. If he or she is stuck with what he or she has already ‘known’, then he or she cannot move up the ladder of awareness about divinity and religion because both the domains offer infinite conscious thoughts and emotions as we keep evolving to higher levels of awareness. Therefore, learning and unlearning are equally critical in awareness evolution. As most spiritual traditions seldom stress on unlearning processes, rather, they make you ‘stuck’ to their ‘version’ of ‘Reality’. Naturally, the practitioners fail to rise to higher consciousness; as he or she refuses to enter the dialectic process of awareness.
Third important aspect about awareness relates to the very crucial brain mechanism of ‘Recall’, ‘Relate’ and ‘Replicate’. All information that we have or we get exposed to is stored in brain states in the form of synapses. There is insufficient knowledge about how brain stores and processes information but we know that not everything we learn or get informed is available for later recall and replication. It is believed that brain has its own process of assigning value and worth to an information for the purpose of memory. Information or learning that is associated with conscious and aware inputting has better chances of future recall. Science accepts that there are definitive pathways created in brain states when it stores some information. Therefore, when we recall it later, the pathways need to be reactivated. Therefore, if the pathway is weak, faint and unrelated to already entrenched precedents of utility and worth of our brain states, the recall process is abstracted and our brain states either fail to replicate the information or in most cases, it virtualizes the information, churning out a poor copy of the stored information.
Therefore, it is very important that whatever information or learning we feel we shall need in future, we must be in higher state of awareness when assigning it to our brain states. Also, there must be definitive logic or emotional worth assigned to a stored info so that its pathways in brain states are deep and thick. Moreover, for better recall and optimality of replication of memory, we should also assign clear ‘relational’ element to it. For example, if I am undergoing an experience of meditation, I shall ensure that whatever feelings I am going through, I register them with high awareness. Also, I ensure that I repeat to myself time and again that this particular feeling was like something important in my earlier experiences so that I could relate to the feeling when I recall it later. Human brain accepts metaphors easily so I can say to myself, this sedate feeling of meditation was like sitting under the mango tree in my village home in hot summer day. As my mind consciousness has already created deep and thick pathways for my village experiences, because of earlier assigned emotional utility and worth to it, I have great ease in recalling and replicating my meditational experience awareness later.
Scientific studies reveal that our subconscious brain states entrench communication and engender awareness in two broad ways. First stage is the first seven to eight years of early life of a child when he or she accepts all information from his or her parents, family, ambient socio-cultural-geographical milieus and this become his primary domain of awareness. That almost decides the destiny of the child as this ‘Pre-Consciousness’ awareness works as base benchmark to judge utility and worth of all later experiences and information. However, this primary awareness can be altered later when the child is adult and his or her consciousness has matured. This can be altered only by inputting a conscious element or information of learning and unlearning and repeating it time and again. Like, nobody is born with driving skills but as we enter adulthood, we practice for long how to drive a vehicle and later, this awareness of driving becomes a subconscious task. When we achieve good driving skills, we do not even remember how we drive. But, such learning and awareness possession comes only through conscious inputting of the new desired awareness and continuously practicing it.
This is the primary hypothesis of newly emerging field of experiments in Epigenetics domain, which maintains that a person born poor shall not only remain poor for life but has more likelihood of fathering or mothering poor children. Why? Because the Epigenetics science says that poor people pass on the heretic genetic expression to their offspring and as the kids born to poor parents receive such early information from their parents and ambient socio-cultural-physical milieus that create and sustain ‘Causalities’ of poverty and deprivation, they too continue to be poor. This is just the reverse with kids born to rich parents. This ‘destiny’ however can be unlearnt through awareness of higher consciousness.
The Epigenetic science however insists that this subconscious realism can be changed through linguistic, thoughtfulness, emotional and psychological inputs of our own ‘Conscious Self’ when we enter adulthood. It is the phenotype that can be changed and this in turn alters the early entrenched subconscious communication of our brain states and body functionality. So, the deprivation phenotype can be consciously altered by altering the communication to the body-mind media by ‘Conscious-Enterprise’. And, what it takes? It takes to alter the ‘Milieus’ by ‘Conscious Awareness’.
Our personal sense of ‘I’ or self, or call it the layers of consciousness is just a media of the body-mind causalities. This means that we may keep thinking happily that ‘I’ or myself is seeing and accepting a Reality but the fact may remain there that actually, the specific Reality is playing it out using our body-mind as media to express itself in a way, which makes us accept a Reality the way we do. That is why there is an ancient prescription to humanity – ‘Don’t Be, You Shall Be.’ The prescription is to come out of the consciousness of ‘I’ that is in an auto-reaction mode working mechanically and stupidly as ‘Media’ of twin internal and external causalities – the first causalities of body and mind and second causalities in the milieus.
It is to be realized with utmost humility and sincerity that consciousness itself is just a media of body and mind and the ‘I’ of average person simply works as media to play out the realities that internal and external causalities make him to. This has to stop and an individual needs to detach himself or herself from this auto-mode reactionary ‘I’ or self, which acts and behaves like a media, without ever understanding the ‘self’ and the causalities that it works with and works on him or her. So, the primary cognitive change is to be aware of self and causalities and detach the consciousness from the internal and external causalities; as far as possible.
We need to understand and accept that evolving and growth has two stages – auto-mode learning and conscious unlearning. From infant stage to adulthood, an individual keeps assimilating information and available knowledge from its milieus in subconscious state of ‘auto-mode learning’. Very few individuals, who have managed to evolve strong consciousness as early as 14-16 years of age, may begin to start the parallel process of ‘conscious unlearning’ or pruning of subconscious auto-mode learning. However, after the stage of adulthood, say 20-25 years of age, an individual needs to accept that he or she as a ‘Media’ must change. The media must shift its primary situation from a ‘Reactionary-Subconscious Being’ to a ‘Receptive Conscious Being’. It means; the higher consciousness begins to shape up as aware and holistically inclined ‘authoritative command’ center to effect engineering and management of the body-mind media’s causative auto-behavior and action.
Then the primary question is; what is this higher consciousness, which emerges as protagonist of conscious engineering and management of ‘I’ or self? Higher conscious is not an external mechanism of body and brain but a specificity of the body-mind media itself. The seed of higher consciousness is planted by an individual when it begins to attain a stage of maturity, age-wise or experience-wise and both, to have enough information-connect with his or her internal as well as external milieus to allow and accept the powerful energy of skepticism.
To doubt, to question to accept something different and non-conformist to one’s own knowledge and belief is the seed stage of higher consciousness. It has been mentioned in ancient wisdom that 'those who begin the process of higher consciousness, before they reach the stage of consciousness are the blessed ones. This happens when parents play their rightful role and allow a child to grow in a family environment where skepticism and questioning is encouraged and rewarded. This shall implant energy of skepticism deep in subconscious, helping the child to grow his or her conscious self, preparing the platform for the child to evolve his or her higher consciousness early and strong. Then comes the role of society, culture, religion, polity and economy, where a growing man or woman must continue to have the same liberty to question and evolve.
In simple one line – Higher Consciousness of an individual is his or her understanding and acceptance of the idea of Holism Of Reality. This holism of reality is seeded by the powerful energy of skepticism. A young child or a maturing teen may be accepted as moving towards evolving to higher consciousness if he or she asks questions and is not only allowed but also encouraged by family, friends, peers, society, politics and cultures to keep asking questions and strive for alternative answers. And, more importantly, all the while keep respecting other’s questions and their respective answers. This is also the role of all milieus to install mutuality of respect in every individual towards ‘others’.
This is not happening in contemporary world, rather the politics and economy is smothering liberty of questioning and skepticism, thus killing the very prospect of evolution of higher consciousness in average minds. Families, societies and cultures are also adding their stupid ‘restrictions’ on the innate or evolved inquisitiveness and skepticism of growing individual. This is ill-preparing individuals to handle insanity of external world, thus adding more stupidities and hypocrisies to the already chaotic world and life-living.
It is sad state of reality of contemporary humanity that such a maturing person, who asks questions, puts skepticism upfront, is often labeled as undisciplined and unruly teenager. The societies and cultures seldom allow, let alone encourage non-conformism and inquisitiveness. The collectivity does so because of its own agenda to keep people in a state of reactionary subconscious media of confusion and conflict. That is why it is for every individual to accept that this task of evolving one’s higher consciousness is a tough task and can be attained only through personal enterprise and personal resolve for persevered practice. Expect no good from society, cultures, polity and economy.
When this higher consciousness is seeded well and begins to blossom into a healthy branching tree, expect the flowers and fruits of holism to come calling. The fruits of holism shall further facilitate detachment of consciousness from the causalities and its contextual and relational elements. The higher consciousness shall lead the journey to disengagement of ‘I’ or self as Media to internal as well as external causalities. It means; an individual shall not be an ‘object’ but gradually shape itself to become a true and real ‘Subject’. This true and real subject shall have the empowered and authoritative Will and Cognition to command all causalities to play out Realities in a way that optimize sanity, system, order, purpose and poise. This real and true subject, the empowered and evolved individual shall be ‘master’ of all causalities of love, fear, anxiety, desire, empathy and associations and not the ‘slave’ of them all.
From ancient times, dating back to over 3000 years, philosophy as well as spiritualism has talked about arriving at this holism of higher consciousness for attainment of sanity, purpose and poise. The Yogic philosophy spoke of evolving consciousness to such a stage where it is aligned and assimilated to the holism of cosmic causality, rising above the microcosmic causalities of body, mind and milieus. The very word Yoga (Union) means this emancipation of an individual from localized and reactionary causalities and assimilation into the more holistic, objective and macrocosmic causality of the cosmos. Ancient philosophies are not religion; they are objective expression of realism of holism, which larger humanity must acquire but always squanders.
The Buddhist philosophy also speaks of the same eventuality but in a slightly different language. The difference is only linguistic; the intent of the content is the same. Buddhist philosophy speaks of observance of all elements of context and relativism of causalities that are there within and outside the body-mind media. It also suggests the principle of final utility of holism by ‘prescribing’ the mystical ‘middle-path’. This middle path is actually the hint at holism as the middle is symbol of having the reality of everything. The Yogic philosophy also spoke of ‘Witness-Mode’ consciousness as situation of higher consciousness, which stands aloof and away from body-mind media and could ‘witness’ with objectivity every sensory causalities that the media receives and transmits.
The western spiritual philosophy of ‘Do not be, you shall be’ also hints at the same notion. It speaks of the realism that if you do not become the ‘being’ that is shaped and designed by the causalities of the body-mind media, you shall become the true and real ‘being’ – the higher consciousness of Holism. Therefore, it seems that human wisdom has always been common because we all have this mechanism of our body-mind media itself to attain and arrive at personal sanity, system, order, purpose and poise. If all ancient wisdoms from all parts of the different and segregated humanity had common thread of realism, it can be concluded that sanity is actually embedded in human mechanism of body-mind media itself. All we need is to arrive at the right consciousness of Holism and unleash the right processes to attain sanity.
Here, it is important to mention that in ancient Indian philosophy, there is a mention of a step further in evolution to ultimate empowerment. We have talked about the need to detach consciousness from the causality and its context and relativism for attainment of sanity, system, order, purpose and poise. The Yogic philosophy and spiritualism however accepts this as only the first step towards total empowerment and emancipation. This is perfectly in line with contemporary scientific realism too. It says, the consciousness, or for that matter higher consciousness is a media too and perfect and total emancipation means detachment from all media. Therefore, an individual has the further journey of ‘unlearning’ the consciousness too. The journey shall end when an individual dumps, disconnects and detaches from Higher Consciousness too and delinks from all causalities, be it microcosmic or macrocosmic. The modern science calls it the non-local consciousness and ancient Yogic philosophy called it the state of Kaivalya – The finality of ‘Onlyness’.
**