Consciousness in the Continuum

CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE CONTINUUM

.. Although the word ´Consciousness´ has come into a Renaissance of late, and is much bandied about, it is a word that was once discarded (in the 18th century) for the more specific ´Conscience´. ´The Church´, which ran a good many of ´the schools of higher learning´ (universities) at that time may have had something to do with this development, as ´consciousness´ was seen as an ´amoral´ variation of ´conscience´ . And something ´amoral´ was definitely not what seemed in the best interests of the Church. And ever since, people have mixed these two words up, often saying one word when meaning the other. But as ´Consciousness´ is a large theme within ´The Attunement Center´ offerings, I thought it best to delve into the word and it´s deeper meanings before we moved on much further. G.C.M. . Originally in Latin, we have the word concire, which meant ´ be mutually aware´,a compound verb formed from the prefix com-´with, together´, and scire-´know´, (the source of the English science). Hence, ´to know something with (within) oneself´ implied in a neutral sense ´consciousness´, but also a moral awareness, a differentiation between right and wrong for example as generally used. The derived noun conscientia carried both of these meanings, general, and specific moral, via Old French into English. A parallel Latin formation, using the root sci-, the base of scire was conscius ´aware´, acquired by the English in the 17th century as conscious._ Dictionary of Word Origins
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.. Consciousnes is a precious gift from Our Creator. Not merely to be enjoyed, as it can be at no other level of Creation, but rather to be ´employed´. For a human being there can be no other gift of such immense potential and value. For consciousness is no less than the perfect interface with the Life and Intent of our Creator. This sacred gift allows us the wonder filled experience of Love, of Truth and ultimately of Life Itself. Consciousness allows every level of our outer capacities of body, mind, heart and the capacity for spiritual expression to actually have the opportunity to meet with the Source of our Being. This Holistic Pow-wow takes place only at the ´Sea of glass, clear as crystal.´ It creates the possibility of fulfilled Responsibility, the possibility of co-creating with ´That´ which created us, no less a reality than ´heaven on earth!´ What could be more challenging or more noble? And how can one ever return enough real gratitude for such a sacred shot at finally doing the right and fitting thing? It is easy really. By unreservedly offering oneself upon the Altar of Life Itself as a willing and delighted participant in discovering what it is that is to be our contribution to the Whole.
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For consciousness, though a gift, is only given to be employed, to be employed in the manner that the Giver desires, not as we may desire. Here is the secret of creative and practical spiritual living; Learning how ´to let´ that process take place. And this is why it was said long ago ´that the Father seeks those who will worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.´__Courtland Miles

´The document produced by Vatican II, Dignatatis Humanae... treats human freedom very seriously and appeals to the inner imperative of the conscience in order to demonstrate that the answer, given by man to God and to His word through faith, is closely connected with his personal dignity. Man cannot be forced to accept the truth. He can be drawn toward the truth only by his own nature, that is, only by his own freedom, which commits him to search sincerely for truth and, when he finds it, to adhere to adhere to it both in his convictions and his behaviour.´__ John Paul II.

. On the other hand, Science, much to it´s chagrin, has had to begin to come too terms with consciousness. And it has finally started to shed some light on the puzzle. Light that is not just abstract or philosophical, but intimately familiar to anyone who gives it a moment´s thought. The physicist Penrose has suggested in his wisdom, that the notion that the human mind can ever fully comprehend itself , could well be folly. In fact scientists will have to acknowledge the existence of something beyond their ken- something that might best be described as soul or spirit. The Damasios, a husband and wife team of neurologists from the University of Iowa, have found what they call regions ´which may serve as convergence zones in the brain´s left hemisphere´. An area in the temporal lobe which pulls together information about the names of objects, animals and people, for instance, while another area in the frontal cortex appears to act as the nexus for verbs. A third area oversees the task of assembling nouns and verbs into sentences. The Damasios suspect that convergence zones -thousands of them , spread through the cortex-do more than just process language. They may also coordinate every other sort of information the brain needs-perception, memory, emotion-to be fully functional. And if that is true, the convergence zones, merging disparate disparate pieces of information into a semblance of a whole, could be responsible for that most elusive of brain phenomena: consciousness, the sense of being in the here and now. There are no shortage of other theories however. The Salk Institutes Dr. Francis Crick (the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA) and Christopher Koch, at Cal Tech, is that consciousness is somehow a by-product of the simultaneous, high frequency vibratory firing of neurons in different parts of the human brain. It´s the meshing of those high frequencies that generate consciousness, according to Crick and Koch, just as the various tones from individual instruments produce the rich, seamless sound of a symphony orchestra. Crick acknowledges that this is a highly speculative theorem in his book The Astonishing Hypothesis (which carries the ironic subtitle The Scientific Search for the Soul). At New York Medical School neuroscientist Dr. Rudolpho Llinas also thinks coordinated electrical signals give rise to consciousness., though his idea is subtly different than Crick´s. Using a highly sensitive device called a magnetoencehalograph, which indirectly measures the electrical currents within the brain, Llinas measured the electrical response to various external stimuli. What he observed was a series of perfectly timed oscillations. Says Llinas: ´The electrical signal says that that a whole lot of cells must be jumping up and down at the same time.´ These oscillations he believes, are the basic building blocks of consciousness. Llinas says?light is nothing but electromagnetic radiation. Colors clearly do not exist outside our brains, nor does sound. Is there a sound if a tree drops in the forest and no one hears it? No! Sound is the relationship between external vibrations and the apparatus of the ear and ultimately the brain. So if there is no brain present, there is no sound.´ Thus he feels that all of these external things have no objective reality beyond man: as with a rainbow, you can perceive it, but never touch or measure it. Now while scientists may observe certain things and develop these theories, what lies behind these incredibly complex and coherent patterns? Roger Penrose, a mathematician from Oxford University, argues that consciousness may arise from Quantum mechanics, of all things, from the same process that governs the behavior of sub-atomic particles. (While the scientists theorize, realizing that they must somehow come to grips with this basic question, I suggest that the answer lies behind what can be observed, that it may be found ultimately in the design and control inherent in Life itself, which conducts this elegant symphony.) _ Time Magazine, with a closing comment in ( )´s by the editors

Consciousness and conscience are two different and distinct gifts. Consciousness allows each one of us to perceive ´all that is not us´, whereas conscience relates to that part of the human being that may be labeled ´us´, at least that part of us that Knows! For instance, while we may possess a consciousness of various religions or systems of morality, it is actually our conscience which is the ´inner voice´ which tells us what rings true and what rings false. Thus ´Conscience´, relates to an individual´s sense of Integrity, that which he or she holds fast to, or refects no matter what storms may rage within the environment surrounding them: And ´Consciousness´ may be expanded to encompass more and more of the pure and ultimate truths and principles of Being. But ´Conscience´ will always express the ´practicality of the Greater Wisdom´ by reason of it´s ´Reflective Integrity.´ __Courtland Miles

When one knows that the Great Void is full of ch´i, (Life Force)one realizes that there is no such thing as nothingness__Chang Tsai, on the all pervasiveness and fullness of consciousness within ´the void´.

Ultimately, only God can save man, but He expects man to co-operate. The fact that man can cooperate with God determines his authentic greatness. The truth according to which man is called to cooperate with God in all things, with a view towards the ultimate purpose of his life-his salvation and divinization- found expression in the Eastern tradition in the doctrine of synergism. With God, man ´creates´ the world; with God, man ´creates´ his personal salvation.The divinization of man comes from God. But here too, man must cooperate with God!__ John Paul II ´Crossing The Threshold of Hope´

In the Hindu Upanishads there were four states of consciousness reported. The first three were rejected as being unreal, or illusory. They were seen as relative , not as the absolute state of ´conscious knowing´. The other three fell into the categories of the human faculty merely having an opinion, a transient concept, or a belief. However, true consciousness was seen as being ´spiritually certain´. A certainty that the individual and the world of sense around one shared together the same ground of being. For instance the person and the tree near him are one, because they were both phases or expressions of the One. A modern interpreter from India identifies this state as ?pure intuitional consciousness, where there is no knowledge of objects internal or external?.´The Mandukaya Upanishad´ contains a most illuminating definition of this. ´This fourth state is not that which is conscious of the subjective, nor that which is conscious of the objective, nor that which is conscious of both, nor that which is simple consciousness, nor that which is an all-sentient mass, nor that which is all darkness. It is unseen..., transcendent..., the sole essence of the consciousness of Self..., the completion of the world!´ _ Man´s Religions, John B. Noss
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Confucius said: ´The superior man attends to the spiritual things and not his livelihood. Such outer expression will follow, as night follows day!´

He also said, ´A great man simply follows the natural law of things.´

Such are the expressions of a consciousness in attunement with the Way of Life.

Clearly then, the fundamental problem of youth is profoundly personal. In life, youth is when we come to know ourselves. It is also a time of communion. Young people, whether boys or girls, know they must live for and with others, they know that their life has meaning to the extent that it becomes a free gift for others.__

John Paul II -´Crossing The Threshold of Hope´.

No one, no circumstance, can prevent you from being your true Self. If you can comprehend these words this is so for you.

This, therefore , I say to you: Come up hither. You may do so if you will. Accept the responsibility that is yours and yours alone. Be what you truly are.

Martin Cecil -excerpted from ´As Of A Trumpet´

During the long cultural history of India,China,and Japan, an enormous variety of techniques,rituals, and art forms have been developed to prepare the individual for the immediate, non-conceptual awareness of reality. The basic aim of these techniques seems to be to silence the thinking [or self active,(G.C.M.)] mind, and to thus shift the awareness from the rational to the intuitive mode of consciousness.___Fritjof Capra

There are no doubt many more entries that can and will be made in this section of meditative thoughts on ´Consciousness´. But for now we shall make an end of it. Please e-mail any particularly elucidating thoughts or quotes on this central reality to Courtland or Desmond
at attunementnow@angelfire.com
respectively.

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Thank you, and may peace be with you, and about you,as you are One with the Radiance of Source, here and now

As you realize in your daily living the truths which

we have been meditating upon, may you ´let LIFE live you´. For in this is the key to Fulfillment and Illumination.Bless your world,that´s what you came for!

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.Two things hold me in awe: the starry heaven above me; and the ´moral law´ within me.__Immanuel Kant.

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´We greet the sun because the sun gives us warmth and life´. Somebody along the way said, ´these guys are worshipping the sun´. But we´re not worshiping the sun, we just honor the sun by greeting it in the morning and we pray to the Creator. The Creator created the sun, and the moon, the stars, and Mother Earth. We still have just One Creator. Though we say the Creator has no gender, we often refer to him as Great Spirit or Grandfather.
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The Creator put things here for a purpose and that is why we respect the plants, the trees, and even the rock that´s lying on the ground. Our forefathers don´t teach us that the tree is there for the leaves to give off oxygen. It is up to us to see why it is there. In our teachings, they simply teach us to respect these things and to respect other people and other peoples space. Our Creator cannot judge you. The Creator is here to guide you.___Larson Medicine Horse ,Crow Sundance Chief

.. A thousand creeds have come and gone, But what is that to you or me? Creeds are but branches of the self same tree The root of Love lives on and on . __ Ella Wheeler Wilcox

´In Quantum field theory, this field is seen as the basis of all....

The field exists always and everywhere; it can never be removed. It is the carrier of all material phenomena. It is the ´void´ out of which the proton creates the pi-mesons. Being and fading particles are merely forms of motion of the field. _W.Thiering

The distinction between matter and empty space finally had to be abandoned when it became evident that virtual particles can come into being spontaneously out of the void, and vanish again into the void, without any nucleon or other strongly interacting particle being present...

( This is called the physical vacuum.) The vacuum is far from empty. On the contrary, it contains an unlimited number of particles which come into being and vanish without end.

Here then, is the closest parallel to the Void of Eastern Mysticism in Modern Physics. This ´physical vacuum´ is not a state of mere nothingness, but contains the potentiality for all forms of the particle world... As the sutra says, ´Form is emptiness, and emptiness is indeed form´_ Fritjof Capra The Tao of Physics

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The world of your creating is not isolated or separated from the worlds created by others, any more than your divine Self is independent of the divine Self of anyone else. You are divine, they are divine. All are apart of God. God is one. The world of God is one and includes the whole cosmos with all its divine ramifications and states.
_ Aumra

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Your body, your mind, and your emotional nature are a part of the world of your environment. They are not you. You are the one capable of observing and using them. Anything which you observe cannot be you, the observer. These capacities, however, are the means of your creative expression on earth. Through them you may know and reveal your divine Self. __Martin Cecil .

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