The Evolution of Consciousness
DAAJI explores in more detail how we become entangled in worldly issues, how that affects our inner life, and what we can do to remove the impressions that form.
‘Consciousness’ is a popular word these days in the field of mind-body medicine, and also at the cutting edge of research in science and spirituality and the quantum field. The idea of a spectrum of consciousness is not new. Yogis and mystics have written about it since time immemorial, and more recently also western psychoanalysts and psychologists like Carl Jung and Ken Wilbur1.
What do we learn from this literature? It tells us there is a vast spectrum of consciousness in a human being, spanning the subconscious mind through consciousness and all the way to the superconscious realm, most of which we don’t understand.
As we discussed earlier, the great Swami Vivekananda once said, “Consciousness is a mere film between two oceans, the subconscious and the superconscious.”2 He understood the infinite, limitless nature of this spectrum, because his own state had expanded across that spectrum. He could observe and describe exactly what he found.
This was also the case with Ram Chandra of Shahjahanpur, who researched and described the states of consciousness and superconsciousness of the various chakras in the Heart Region, the Mind Region and the Central Region of a human being. In the light of these findings, science still lags a long way behind Yoga in describing the spectrum of consciousness.3
If you meditate with Yogic Transmission or pranahuti, you will experience more and more deeply and broadly this spectrum of consciousness, and go beyond experience into the realm of direct perception and knowledge.
Gradually more and more of this vast field of consciousness will open up to you. Swami Vivekananda once said: “What does consciousness matter? Why, it is nothing compared with the unfathomable depths of the subconscious and the heights of the superconscious! In this I could never be misled, for had I not seen Ramakrishna Paramahamsa gather in ten minutes, from a man’s subconscious mind, the whole of his past, and determine from that his future and his powers?”4 …
REFERENCES:
1 Wilbur, Ken. 1974. Psychologia Perennis, The Spectrum of Consciousness, Journal of Transpersonal
Psychology, Vol. 7, No. 2.
2 Swami Vivekananda. 1947. Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol. 8, ‘Saying and Utterances’.
3 Ram Chandra of Shahjahanpur. 1989. Complete Works of Ram Chandra, Vol. 1.
4 Swami Vivekananda. 1947. Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol. 8, ‘Saying and Utterances’.
Read the complete article in the Collectors’ Edition 2017
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Article by KAMLESH D. PATEL
Daaji
Kamlesh Patel is known to many as Daaji. He is the Heartfulness Guide in a tradition of Yoga meditation that is over 100 years old, overseeing 14,000 certified Heartfulness trainers and many volunteers in over 160 countries. He is an inn... Read More
