Tagged: soul consciousness
What is the mind and no-mind?
When we become aware of our inner state, we start understanding “what makes it tick.” If we want to communicate those findings to another, then a particular language is invented to describe the experiences.
Those listening or reading the explanations but without the experience, will be caught up with just the words.
For instance, if a religion talks about “being soul conscious,” immediately there is a misunderstanding from those without the experience. Then, those individuals want to “achieve soul consciousness,” they want to “work on it,” etc. That only shows their conditioning.
If Ahnanda mentions “No-I,” it is the same as the Buddhist “emptiness,” and the same as “soul conscious.”
Readers caught up with words but unable to look at their inner experience, will try to intellectually understand what “no-I” is.
You cannot. For “I” am denying that which you think you are.
Thus, another word that may convey a similar experience is “no-mind.”
However, the question now becomes: “What is the mind?”
Here some “definitions:”
1) The mind is a set of cognitive faculties including consciousness, perception, thinking, judgement, and memory.
2) The element of a person that enables them to be aware of the world and their experiences, to think, and to feel; the faculty of consciousness and thought.
3) In common parlance, ‘the mind’ most often refers to the seat of human consciousness, the thinking-feeling ‘I’ that seems to be an agentic causal force that is somehow related but is also seemingly separable from the body.
Those definitions are only pointers to know that we are talking about a “table” and not an “apple.” Unless you look at your own table, you will not know ‘table.’
Your emotions, your conditioning, your traumas, your expectations, your taboos, your beliefs all of that is the mind.
All of that will give you a unique identity which is different than anyone else.
Therefore, unlearning, healing, dissolving, surrendering that mind… all of those “spiritual key words,” mean the same thing, or rather: It “is pointing to the same experience.”
When we use the mind, we are caught up with dictionary definitions, concepts, methods, analysis. We wish to understand our mind by using those things. That will not happen.
As the mind surrenders, there is “no-mind.” As there is openness, there is integration with all that is.
Call that soul consciousness, call that emptiness, call that no-mind, no-I, call that oneness, call that God…
Labels and more labels.
Some readers love a particular label used by a Spiritual Guru. If another uses a different label, then that becomes “false” for them. The mind entertains in those debates, meaningless “theory.”
You will know that the mind is going away, when enjoyment of Life arrives, you become relax, you will “go with the flow”… until then, relentless pursue your dreams, stress yourself out, strive to make “a difference,” be “number 1,” experience the accomplishments taking you nowhere, experience the “hamster wheel” of the mind…
Once the mind is tired, frustrated, it gives up… then you can finally sit down and observe… You will understand without trying to. 🙂
The “office world” does not teach that.
The range of experiences
One of the paradoxical aspects in self-realization is to discern the “illusion” of the “I,” the “self.”
“Illusion” is not the right word to use, but it conveys the meaning. The “I” is not an illusion for the majority of human beings at this time. The “I” is a “reality.”
When that awareness of the “I” becomes stronger, then suffering comes as the catalyst for change into “searching” for another avenue… until we find “no-self.”
Life experiences may take someone into that. Intellectual understanding will not give a person the necessary experience to change his consciousness.
Paradoxically, we are everything when there is no awareness of “self” but at the same time there is an essence, which some call “soul.” However, the “soul” does not have the awareness of individuality, which some call “soul consciousness.”
Thus, “soul consciousness” is only a state of consciousness. That state of consciousness is not the ultimate, it is not “good,” and everything else is “bad.”
The range of experiences will change as our consciousness changes. That change is not dependent on the will power of the “I” but rather it is something that happens at different times when the individual is “ready,” that is when there is an assimilation of diverse experiences which takes the individual to the full range of experiences.
Through a “black or white” mentality, we have been indoctrinated to label the lack of “I” as “good,” “ego-less,” and the fullness of “I” as “ego,” “bad.” That labeling is like using “training wheels” to ride a bike. We are riding the bike.. yes.. but truly we are not… 🙂
Let me explain the above in simple language.
Have you seen a survey with the “likert scale”? It goes something like this:
Do you believe in God?
1. Strongly disagree 2. Disagree. 3. Neither agree nor disagree. 4. Agree 5. Strongly agree.
In life, all of those “ranges of agreement” depend on a particular state of consciousness. That is all there is. None of those “choices” indicates a level of superiority or inferiority. As a matter of fact, in the continuity of life, we will experience all of them. However, it is a circle so after experiencing “strong agreement” what comes next?
Strong disagreement.
Unless we are caught up with a dogmatic view which will pressure us to perceive things under a limited boundary.
If we could grasp the above, we could appreciate that someone who is “ego-less” has only reached a particular state of consciousness, which is not static as everything in life changes.
Because our vision of life is “static” and dualistic, we label someone as “saint” or “sinner” not realizing that this state of consciousness will change in the experience of that individual. It could be in this life, in the next one…it does not matter. It will happen. This realization is known as having an “unlimited vision” of Life.
When we discover that, we could observe the absurdity of pretending to change someone’s state of consciousness by following a method.
A fruit will not be ripe enough and quickly by following a “method.” That fruit will be ripe naturally according to time. All experiences not a particular one are important for that ripeness to appear.
How Eckhart Tolle “reached” his state of consciousness?
By following a method?
No. It just happened. How about Mooji?
Same thing.
How about Yogananda?
He was born with that, but still he needed time to become aware of it.
Consciousness changes at a particular time and when it does, we may need to acknowledge it for we cannot deny the “new reality.”
That is why, it becomes more and more important to enjoy what we are able to perceive at this time and having the openness to allow for something else to arrive in our lives. When we synchronize with the movement of life, we are in balance.
Things will happen when they are supposed to. Does it mean that I have to sit down and do nothing waiting for things to arrive? 🙂
If there is that understanding because of this writing, then we have not understood a thing. That is alright, for that understanding will change in its due time. This is not intellectual business but experiential.
Soul consciousness
The first time we asserted that “ I am not a body, I am soul” that was the first time that a definition entered our minds to later become a dogma, that is something to give us the impression that we could possess the truth.
From that point, the search was over. A comfortable belief appeared and all we need is to find an adequate definition to follow. What is a soul? The definition is… Then, “I” have to become that definition.
That is “spirituality” for the masses: What is love? It is this. Then, I have to act like that.
Or a guru says: “Love is not this,” then as long as I don’t do what love is not, I am working within the limits of love. 🙂
Spirituality does not work like that.
True, we are not the body but neither the personality we have created.
We could continue on denying everything that “we think” we are not to finally find a label: “soul” without the experience of that concept.
Paradoxically, when we find that emptiness (without label,) the “eye of the hurricane” which is the center of the hurricane, which is made up of nothing; we could only be everything at that time.
This is not logical. This is paradoxical.
Here is when the paradox of believing to be just an individual, becomes the Totality.
That is why it was mentioned in another article that soul consciousness is the experience of Totality.
Everyone of us will need to explore inside our perceived self, so these words are no taken as another concept, another definition, but rather to find our own path, our own experiences and be open to discover something completely different which defies any beliefs or perceptions that we have gathered as “truth.”
It is in the honesty of “doing our own homework” for the sake of finding out without trying to accommodate our findings to fit a belief system, how a different door could open.
It is up to us to open that door or to keep it closed.
The truth and beliefs: Questions by BK followers
Below some questions by Brahma Kumaris followers.
Avyakt7 currently, does not wish to be engaged in any belief system, although avyakt7 respects someone else’s beliefs.
Avyakt7 will not emit judgment whereas your belief about a belief system is wrong or right, or the explanation that you received is “right” or “wrong.” Avyakt7 has no opinion on those issues.
Dear BK readers,
Let us go into the main lessons of your belief system:
The first lesson is that “I am soul.” The second lesson is “God is a soul.”
My question is: Can you know God unless you know yourself?
God and “you” have the same eternal nature. Unless the experience of that which you believe in, is experienced in yourself, there is no possibility of knowing what you believe God is.
Do you know Avyakt7? Because you read these writings here, do you think that you know avyakt7? Because you have spoken with Avyakt7, do you think that you know him? Because you have seen his picture or a video, do you think that you know him? How can you know avyakt7?
By being him, of course. Who is him?
Isn’t “he” a soul? 🙂
Isn’t God a soul?
Aren’t you a soul?
In spirituality, knowing is being it. In the “normal” world, to know means to have the head full of information about something. We cannot know what swimming is by just reading about it. We cannot talk about Spirituality without observing and knowing ourselves, because in that we could know everyone else.
We share the same nature.
When we understand deeply the above, we can abandon the idea of being a “devotee” of God and turn our journey into the honest quest of knowing yourself.
That is called with many names by many spiritual teachers: Soul consciousness, dying alive, detached observer, self transformation, self realization, emptiness, nothingness, detached participant, self- awareness, consciousness, Buddha and of course, illumination…
Now let us go back in to the “soul.”
The word “Soul” is just information, a label to denote something which can only be experienced. When that something is experienced, then we can put different labels to that something: Some may call that spirit, others, emptiness, others light, self, bindi, atma, purusha, etc, etc.
The third lesson in your belief system is about the cycle of time.
Let me ask you, is the “soul” bound to time? No, because it is eternal. Then, how is it possible to experience time?
It is a contradiction… That is why, we cannot explore these things with intellectual understanding, with “0” or “1” answers.
We are both, we experience time and we are time-less. It just depends in our consciousness.
That “contradiction” that we found is the “door” to further realizations.
We cannot talk about the timeless with words bound in time. We cannot understand the timeless, when our consciousness is bound in time.
Last question: In which moment of the cycle of time do we truly know God? 🙂
If you say “now,” Please read this response again from the beginning. Note that in the Golden age, God is not there and that is the moment of highest consciousness, when those beings know themselves. When they are “equal to the Father.” 🙂
Throughout Avyakt7’s life, the search for the truth was the main point and driving force in my life. First, it was understood as a label, as something intellectual to understand, to write down and tell everyone. To know God was part of that intellectual understanding; but that wasn’t enough.
Then, Avyakt7 went through different changes and found the truth in knowing myself, going through the journey of observing the only thing that Avyakt7 can change in the whole world.
The queen who lost her necklace was looking for it everywhere until she realized/ became aware/ conscious that she was wearing that necklace all along.
We could believe in anything, doubt in anything… but finding the necklace is where fulfillment is no longer an idea to believe in.
Best wishes from the heart!
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1. “In a class I heard that there are souls who reside in the soul world when they do not have a role to play in the drama. So, this means those souls are with Baba for a longer time than the souls who start the drama from Golden age. Isn’t that what we all want in the end- to spend more time with Baba? Why would we want to start from Golden age?”
2. “Dear Avayakt7, Bapdada’s role specifically in terms of service: three types of service Bodily, Wealth and through the mind. Is the topic of maximum number of souls served the basis of your position in the beginning of the cycle? If that is correct then Brahma Baba being number one is a little flawed inspite of his avayakt role. There is a feeling that Dadi Prakashmani had more to do with expansion. I understand that this is specific to the BK Belief system but wanted your view on the whole aspect of service connected to the position you would get.. or is this is a story of the carrot being waved? Would love your response.”
3. “Does God ever become “imperfect”? In BK gyan, they say that God has come in the body of Brahma and give knowledge to human being in order for them to make effort and become deity. We all know that the “perfect” stage is only in the soul world which means “zero”. When souls come down on earth to play their parts, the mind then be created and their stages gradually decline into 1 ,2 ,3… till 15 and body consciousness grasps in. So when God Himself comes into the field of action, does He become 1 rather than still in “zero” stage? Because you know when souls start to use physical organs, information start to flow in, create fluctuation which is the mind.”
God & the Devil: Going beyond good and evil
When our whole being is beyond duality, we are in a state of oneness that is known as soul consciousness.
The topic of duality is very important to understand beyond a simple intellectual trip. We need to experience that in our own lives. This is the basic difference between someone who is a spiritual walker and someone who merely shares great ideas, someone who has a sharp intellect, who can bring words for the intellectual mind of others to understand, that is a philosopher.
The spiritual journey starts by being aware of one side of duality. That is “good.” Then, that which is good has a representative, that is God. Furthermore, a spiritual walker may start rejecting the side of duality, which is not “Godly.”
That is the beginning of the fight against evil, bad, Satan, Maya, the devil, etc.
Please note that in this stage of spiritual consciousness, there is a clear and distinctive difference between good and evil. Here is where most monotheistic religions have helped by creating codes, commandments, laws and so forth to be followed, so the follower has something concrete to follow. This rejection of evil to embrace only what is perceived as “good” is the beginning of reformation of the self. Before that, there was no distinctive idea of something like duality but just traditional morality and norms learned by living in a particular society.
When our consciousness is trapped in one side of duality, we will not be able to see the whole picture, for our belief will not allow us to see that. Our own belief is not giving us the chance to see beyond.
Do you see why “evil” exists? 🙂 Without writing a dissertation, please. 🙂
Just because “good” exists.
So, it is OK to do “evil”? 🙂
When our consciousness is beyond the beginner stage of awareness of “good” vs. “evil,” we will see that there is no “good” or “evil,” but only consequences. No hunter or victim; just roles. Because of being a hunter, then the hunter will be the victim in another occasion, just because the roles of victim and hunter have been performed.
Remember the golden rule: what you do unto others, you do it to yourself. This is a way deeper understanding of karma.
Therefore, when there is no “you” neither “others,” beyond that duality; there are no consequences. This is what is known as “neutral karma.” A witness, a detached observer.
Going beyond the duality of “I and others,” is the beginning of a new state of consciousness, which is not describable.
Let us go back to duality.
What is the proof of the existence of God? 🙂
Simply, the existence of evil. If evil exists in your consciousness, then God must exist as well.
Why? Because God and the devil, Maya, cannot exist by themselves. One brings the other.
Could a place full of “goodness” such as Paradise, where the devil is not around; could it be possible for such a place to exist with God in it? 🙂
No way. God can only exist when there is Evil. That is the only reason why there is no God in the “Golden age.” 🙂
Of course, the above explanation merely reflects a state of consciousness, it reflects the understanding of God and the Devil as “ideas,” to fit into a religious system or a belief system. It is the game of good vs. bad.
Please see that the day cannot exist without a night. In duality, both things must exist for one side gives birth to the other side. Therefore, that apparent separation is also one thing, but until our consciousness has not perceived that, we will only see two different things. Thus, oneness exists as well as duality according to our consciousness.
That is why, it is important to realize when our consciousness shifts, that is to go beyond duality is to know the unity of all.
Therefore, to know God beyond the duality of concepts, is to know beyond duality. God is neither good nor bad. That is duality. To be in a state beyond duality is to be soul conscious.
When you are soul conscious, you know God beyond dualistic concepts.
Can you love God alone? Only in a dualistic consciousness.
Beyond that duality, there is a different consciousness which will be known by the honest spiritual walker, but not by the intellectual philosopher.
A Spiritual walker has become aware of duality at the beginning of his journey. Then, he has rejected one side and accepted the other side of duality. He has experienced the inner fight. But few will experience acceptance to all, acceptance of both sides of the same coin of duality, just to go beyond it.
Enlightenment through duality
The time comes when our belief that there is only an answer, a right answer for everything, will be challenged by reality itself.
It is “either this or that,” is one of the greatest beliefs which is limiting our perception of many avenues and many paths.
Anyone wants examples to clarify? 🙂
Is free will true, or it is predestination?
It is both and neither. It is both, for both exist according to our consciousness. It is neither because they are just ideas.
Are we mortal or immortal?
It is both and neither. We will die, but we are eternal as well. We are neither mortal nor immortal. We are both. Those are not ideas for there is an experience of that. Consciousness.
Does heaven exist?
It does and it doesn’t. It only exists when we are not in it. Once we are in it, it does not exist. Heaven exists only out of comparison, out of duality.
There is soul consciousness and body consciousness. Are we the soul or are we the body? Both and none. In duality we think of a separation. Without duality, there is nothing to be separated. There is a wholesome unity.
Soul consciousness is a label to denote absence of duality in our awareness: man and woman, life and death, heaven and hell, good and bad, etc.
If we could imagine a consciousness beyond duality, we could look for the origin of that duality: Our minds.
Thinking is separation. Analysis will not allow us to know. When the object separates from the subject, there is just description. A description is not the same as knowing.
That is why, to know is not related with thinking. Knowing is a very distinct faculty beyond thinking.
Logic is just the game of words, which exalts thinking.
If we look at the beauty of the waters of a river at dawn, we will perceive how nighttime changes into day light. Morning time does not exist. Afternoon does not exist. Night does not exist.
It is just continuity. It is unity perceived as three different stages, separated in an artificial way to allow for language to describe phases when there is none….but there is. 🙂
A thinking mind will see separation only. 11 PM does not exist but only in a thinking mind. Nevertheless, we call 11 PM “late.” That label creates an idea. When we believe in that idea we create a world of our own. When this world is made out of collective conventions, we live in our own “fantasy world.”
The irony is that we call that fantasy, reality. We call that life.
Mathias: How much time have you existed, Ananda?
Ananda: I am eternal.
Mathias: I have not asked that. I have asked, how much time have you existed?
Ananda: 27 years. I was born 27 years ago.
Mathias: and before that?
Ananda: I think that I have lived before. But there is no proof. I do not remember.
Mathias: Aren’t you eternal then? How long have you existed?
Ananda: My belief says that 5000 years. That is my belief.
Mathias: Mathias has not asked you about your belief. Mathias have asked you about how much time have you existed.
Ananda was in silence. Ananda wasn’t able to respond to Mathias because Ananda was caught up in reasoning, logic and duality.
Ananda couldn’t see that Ananda has lived as long as time has existed. No beliefs in that.
Depth of Spiritual Knowledge: Being and Non-Being
If we could truly go into this writing and nothing else, to really look at it for a little while; perhaps we could understand something to liberate ourselves from our own preconceptions, our own little beliefs, our conditioned dogmas and traditions, our own rituals and slaving thoughts.
There is “being and non-being.” What does that actually mean in BK knowledge or in any other spiritual knowledge?
There is duality. Every religion points to that in one way or another; using childish language or one for grown ups.
Being means what “is” then non-being will be “what is not.” They are not static “realities.” Those states change all the time. One will become the other. The problem is that we choose one state and reject the other. That is all. We call one state “holy” and the other “sinful.” One state cannot exist without the other.
There is day. It is 10 AM. Night is not there. That is being and non-being.
There is “soul consciousness,” because of that; there is “body consciousness.” Being and non-being.
Therefore, an eternal being, will experience non-being that. Maya. The Illusion.
In a nutshell, this is the depth of BK knowledge.
We could build upon this in many ways according to the motivation of the one who is relating this observation, this realization. I can make a religion out of this. A philosophy. A dogma. Followers are needed. Just believe. No need to understand.
When there is being and non-being; we could observe that changes come little by little. It is a gradual movement from one state into the other.
We could conveniently divide that change into 4 seasons. That is the cycle of time.
Just as Spring and Summer are related, so it is Winter and Fall. Not 4 but 2 seasons. Soul consciousness. Body consciousness. Yin and Yang.
It is the absence of heat and the presence of it; or the presence of cold and the absence of it. Being and non-being. Heat increases gradually. Cold increases gradually. Entropy.
Is heat different than cold? The gradual absence of one makes the other. They are not 2 but One.
To understand that concept deeply, so it is no longer just a concept; means to liberate ourselves from all other concepts.
Which other concepts? Omnipresent and individual God. Good and Evil. Pleasure and Pain. Anything that seems opposite. Anything that we have conveniently selected one side and rejected the other side. All of that is gone. Repressions are gone so to indulge in something is gone too. Virtues and Vices. No more dualistic concepts. See beyond. This is not for beginners.
In the gradual change of being and non-being; souls will appear in the scenario of the Drama of life. Every soul has a preordained role to play. That role will be played to help the Oneness of the Drama to change from being into non-being.
Actors of the Drama merely aid into this transformation by acknowledging a role running through them.
Therefore, an actor can believe that “he is doing things,” or he can realize that “he is an spectator of the role assigned to him.” Become a “I and mine,” or a “trustee.” Being or non-being.
Being and actor or Being an spectator. Being and non-being.
That consciousness reflects happiness or sorrow. Being and non-being. Being happy or not. Duality. Even though those states are related with a role, the soul; is beyond that duality.
Religions have created the rest of the story. Someone to worship. Someone to fear. Someone to obey. Someone to lie.
Punishment. Guilt. The sinner. Heaven and Hell.
It is just about where our consciousness is located. Being or non-being.
We are truly eternal beings not realizing our own eternity.
A wealthy man sleeping on the cold floor of conceptual fear.
That is our history.
Being and non-being.
Exploring the Depth of Living 