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2. ORIGINAL CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE HUMAN MENTALITY What lies before everything we think we can know? Rest with that consideration a while. Don't be too quick to read on. “Turning the light around” also suggests how our attention needs to be directed. Instead of being preoccupied with the external world and our ego-driven concerns, we need to routinely spend some time examining the source of our thoughts. What is the basic nature of mind, consciousness and awareness? What is it that drives our thoughts, attitudes and beliefs? What motivates people to behave as they do? Inspiration is a joyful, invigorating experience. It’s not something you can force to happen. You might say that it just happens instinctively. You can’t really plan on it or make it happen upon demand, but you can prepare conditions that are conducive to its occurrence. These “conducive conditions” are established by removing the psychological obstacles that impede the instinctive creative process. The obstacles to this process generally amount to the demands, expectations, conceits and discursive thought processes that people have been taught or trained to rely upon. It’s hard to tell this to people who are currently in the habit of relying on such “obstacles.” They’re understandably resistant to the idea that many of the means they have been habituated to rely upon in order to achieve their goals, social status, basic survival, or to obtain knowledge, may actually be causing widespread, pervasive, unforeseen difficulties and unhappiness. The human mentality, under the influence of misinformed or misdirected indoctrination programs and egotistical conceits, is like a self-righteous, power-hungry tyrant that abuses his country. This tyrant is not willing to consider other points of view, but asserts his authority without regard for where he may be in error. However, if we can remove the misinformation, reverse the indoctrination, and dispel those egotistical conceits, the human mentality is able to behave like a benevolent leader who actually listens to what his advisors have to say and does what’s best for the good of all his people. This is the human mind restored to healthy, fully integrated functioning. The key to this Golden Flower method lies in realizing that there is this primordial conscious energy that gives rise to all life and ultimately unites all things. This energy has been called chi, “the breath of life.” To identify this energy with breathing suggests just how fundamental it is to life. The Golden Flower method aims to help people learn how to sense chi, and to enable them to muster the will and perseverance necessary to undo the faulty conditioning that impairs their natural ability to feel it, appreciate it and thrive upon it. A lucid understanding of the nature of things cannot be grasped with intellect alone. A keen sensitivity for how things feel is also required. This applies not only to awareness of one’s own mind and body, but also to awareness of the outside world. It doesn’t do to simply objectify things, either the physical body or things outside of oneself. Intelligence and sensitivity become impaired when ego and faulty conditioning are allowed to corrupt natural functioning. If you attempt to explain these issues, or learn about them, by intellectual means alone, you’ll just detour yourself. Sensitivity and instinctive awareness are not optional. People commonly have access to vigorous intellectual training; what people tend to lack is the ethic that ensures that their instinctive capacities are also maintained in a healthy, respected condition. We live amid this vast sea of chi, from which all things emerge and back into which they all eventually go. Just having an intellectual awareness of this is not enough to get a person to effectively transform their misguided thoughts, attitudes or behaviors. It needs to also be felt. It needs to be palpably experienced if it is to be convincing enough to motivate personal transformation. Theory is not enough. Actually feeling chi for oneself proves profoundly inspirational. So long as a person holds to superior, egocentric, human-centric, excessively intellectual or proprietary attitudes they are likely to dismiss the very essence of life: the energy and consciousness that is chi. Consciousness resides not only in our brains, but is laced throughout our physical bodies as well. The so-called spirit is not something that is separate from physical life, nor are so-called spiritual matters. “Spirit” refers to energy– it is none other than chi, the very energy which animates life; the very energy which condenses into form, and which also forms the basis of our thoughts and feelings. It is none other than human ego that corrupts the mind, making people feel isolated and insecure. Ego then offers any number of rationales to fleetingly soothe this sense of insecurity and hold a person’s mind under its divisive influence. No matter what material wealth or power a person may acquire it is never enough to completely quell the insecurity that ego fosters. Bear in mind, there is a grave difference between ego-driven fears and a creature’s natural sense of caution. Our individual lives are interconnected with this broader sea of energy and consciousness that resides all round us everywhere. When we are awake we perceive the physical world through our outwards-directed senses, and our brains seem to be the seat of consciousness. When we sleep, and we dream, we’re also informed by consciousness that resides throughout our bodies, or even by consciousness that resides beyond our individual sense of self. Dreams represent the roaming of consciousness beyond the limits of our physical or egocentric realities. When we are in the thrall of ego, often the only means our bodies, true selves or Nature have to communicate with us is through dreams. The struggle between ego and natural consciousness can often make for restless sleep or nightmares: our hopes and fears can take on unsettling shapes. By turning the light around– reversing unfortunate conditioning– we free our true, natural selves from the unwholesome influence of ego. There is no impulse to transcend the physical world when ego’s prominence over our minds is checked. Health, happiness and all our natural faculties are restored to the extent that ego is removed. Life in the here and now is very important. It is not something we should neglect or sacrifice in favor of being somewhere else, some other time, or for some fantasy regarding what the future may hold. Transcendence, in terms of getting over ego is perfectly valid, but to think that physical life must be transcended is a grave error. Genuine spirituality cannot exist apart from physical life in the here and now. Do not waste time searching elsewhere. So, turning the light around is all about identifying, deconstructing and dismissing ego-driven thoughts, images, habits, attitudes and behaviors. There is no program that can genuinely restore the vitality of a person’s mind or body without addressing ego and all the troubles it causes. Ego needs to be dislodged with a concerted effort or else it will just continue to cause ongoing troubles. Sincerely bear the insights of this Golden Flower method in mind, and put it into practice, and your health and understanding will improve. Your energy, your mind, your instinctive awareness, your strength of character, all will improve. This how practical wisdom, the kind that can make a genuine difference in a person’s life, gets revealed. This is how matters of spirit are explored, be they about energy, awareness or attitude. |
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