What’s God Consciousness? – Deep Psychology

On this article, we’ll discuss God consciousness, how one can prepare it, the confusion round it, and the way it impacts your life.

Let me be clear that I’m not speaking in regards to the mythic, biblical God, however the direct apprehension of the final word nature of ourselves and of life. In that context, God is only a placeholder phrase, and any variety of different placeholders are equally legitimate.

Let’s start by distinguishing this from the frequent conceptions of God, that are both mythic, literal and conventional, or rational, atheistic and secular.

The Bother with God

We should additionally recognise that the phrase “God” has been tainted and abused over time by the decrease ranges of human improvement. Because of this, we fashionable people have developed an infinite aversion to something God-related, and haven’t any strategy to discriminate between the mythic, fundamentalist teachings and the professional ones.

In on a regular basis language, we are inclined to suppose when it comes to believing in God versus not believing in God. The implication is {that a} Godly life is by necessity constructed upon perception, and is subsequently fanciful and fictional, and {that a} Godless life is constructed upon motive, and is subsequently logical, right, the default alternative. The latter is the place of the Vehement Denier.

True Believers deny this, claiming that Biblical dogmas should not beliefs, however the literal phrase of God, as-is. Scientific proof and motive fall on loss of life ears. They develop into obsessive about Bible verses, word-for-word teachings, myths and tales, metaphorical placeholder pictures, morality and rituals. They love the pointers, however few have ever skilled the Pointed To.

And even when they’ve a imaginative and prescient of God at any stage (whether or not Delicate, Causal, Witness or Non-dual), they nonetheless interpret and talk it by way of their Mythic lens, which does nothing however repel the Vehement Deniers additional.

True Believers and Vehement Deniers are considerably proper in their very own manner, however each additionally are inclined to miss out a core truth of the non secular life: the deepest, fullest non secular life shouldn’t be constructed on perception, however upon apply and direct apprehension. With out these, you might have a flaccid non secular life.

The 2 teams are diametrically opposed of their views, but each miss the important thing level. It’s just like the ugly sisters: they’re at loggerheads, however they’re finally nonetheless sisters, caught in the identical intractable sport.

The best mystics and saints to have lived had been essentially non secular practitioners. They weren’t believers. They had been, in a way, nice empiricists. Do as they did and use the sensible methodologies of any Nice Custom, corresponding to meditation, prayer, chanting, yoga, and so forth, and ultimately you’ll come to instantly apprehend God. That’s, you’ll expertise God consciousness.

Now that we’ve cleared that up, let’s clarify what it’s wish to glimpse God consciousness.

Glimpsing God Consciousness

God consciousness shouldn’t be an thought, or a perception, or a narrative, or an indication of psychosis. It’s a direct apprehension of the final word nature of who we’re and what all of life is.

There may be quite a lot of confusion as to what experiencing God means, even amongst individuals who don’t converse from a fundamentalist perspective. That’s as a result of there are not less than 5 main states of consciousness, every of which may evoke a sound, direct expertise of divinity.

For what it’s value, I’m going to pick non-dual God as my focus. It’s not that Gross, Delicate, Causal and Witness God aren’t necessary, however that the Non-dual incorporates all of them and is the very best expertise of God we will have, not less than at this level in human historical past.

What’s the non-dual expertise of God? It’s:

• Oneness: the instantly apprehended, felt sense that your id consists of every thing round you, together with all sights, sounds, sensations, refined phenomena, and pure consciousness itself. It’s all you, with no separate “you” to understand it. Every little thing is a part of this oneness, is an artifact of it.
• Love: while you really feel recognized with every thing, together with the unmanifested, you are feeling a terrific sense of affection and safety. You aren’t somewhat self seeing the world; you’re an all-embracing Self experiencing itself in fantastic richness and fullness. Nothing is exterior you. Nothing can hurt you. There’s nowhere to go, nothing to get, nothing to lack.
• Divinity: oneness could seem bland and static, however that’s not the case. The odd turns into divine, since you realise that every thing is just an artifact of God. Every little thing is divine. Every little thing is an expression of the one true nature of all that exists.
• Final Actuality: accompanying the prior two is the understanding that this all-embracing, omniscient oneness and divinity is the final word actuality of life. All different conceptions of the final word actuality are mere theories or approximations.

I must also word that these dimensions should not easy “on-off” variables. They exist on a continuum.

The difficulty is that except you even have the expertise, you’ll insist that individuals like me are bullshitting you, making an attempt to promote you one thing, or get you to hitch their Bible membership.

Let’s use the metaphor of Neo waking up from the matrix. If anybody had tried to clarify the Matrix to Neo earlier than he took the purple tablet, they’d have failed miserably. Regardless of how they’d tried to clarify it to him, he’d have been totally unable to entertain the concept it was all a simulation.

And even when he had been to simply accept it, it nonetheless wouldn’t be sufficient. He would inevitably fall quick in making an attempt to grasp the magnitude of his delusion. He can be unable to step exterior his acquainted world and fathom the fact of his state of affairs.

Solely by taking the purple tablet and being unplugged by Morpheus and the crew may he perceive the matrix and the depth of delusion he was topic to. There is no such thing as a different manner.

The identical factor goes with God consciousness. Until you expertise it for your self, you don’t have any thought what it’s. That’s not a judgment, however a easy truth of the matter. You may’t simply study about it.

And like how Neo in The Matrix movie was completely and essentially remodeled when he noticed the fact of his life, having only one temporary expertise of God consciousness can change you without end.

Coaching God Consciousness

Generally enlightenment comes as a sudden, everlasting transformation. However these instances are uncommon, and in any case the preliminary perception is adopted by many hours of dedicated work.

It’s not horny, I do know, however within the overwhelming majority of instances, enlightenment comes after years of non secular apply. And it tends to not a one-time, orgasmic excessive however a strategy of mastery that slowly sneaks up on you.

As Shinzen Younger says on this video, “though some individuals have a dramatic second of enlightenment… for most individuals it type of sneaks up on them. And except it’s identified to them, they may not even pay attention to fairly how enlightened they’ve develop into… Often it’s a extra gradual course of.”

Luckily, we don’t must depend on pot luck to expertise God consciousness. Nicely-worn paths to God have existed for a whole lot and 1000’s of years, East and West. And because the outdated saying goes, “Enlightenment is an accident. However we will make ourselves extra accident inclined.”

Meditation is the prime know-how for God consciousness. It has been rediscovered and rehashed dozens of occasions internationally, but the basics of meditation reappear time and time once more in all traditions.

And since I’m a meditator, my most well-liked methodology is meditation. For round seven years, I primarily practiced mindfulness utilizing Shinzen Younger’s Unified Mindfulness system, racking up roughly 1500 hours of formal meditation in that point. This gave me a strong basis in meditation work with a extremely certified and expert trainer.

And this 12 months, I’ve switched into Dzogchen meditation, one of many foremost techniques in Tibetan Buddhism, underneath the digital steering of Lama Surya Das. Its foremost practices are trekchö and Kuntuzangpo’s meditation.

I could also be mistaken, however my take is that with out the systematic coaching of mindfulness I may by no means perceive the poetic, pointer-style non-dual teachings of Dzogchen.

Not too long ago, and to a big extent because of my Dzogchen apply, I’ve come to grasp that enlightenment shouldn’t be a gaining of one thing we don’t have already got. It’s extra like a dropping than a gaining.

In the identical manner {that a} soiled mirror remains to be a mirror and solely must be cleaned for it to replicate gentle because it ought to, finally your reference to God shouldn’t be absent. It can not probably be. What’s absent, nevertheless, is your consciousness of it and the comprehension of your true nature.

For that reason, God consciousness is each an ever-present expertise and an arduous journey. In non secular apply, we slowly peel away the layers of all our false ego-bound, body-bound, form-bound id till we arrive on the One id. All else in non secular apply is an artefact of that.

Study extra with my video Non secular Enlightenment: The Damnedest Factor.

Dwelling God Consciousness

You may marvel in regards to the results of (some stage of) stabilised God consciousness in your life. For a really detailed and wealthy account, you could possibly do lots worse than learn William James’ The Sorts of Non secular Expertise. Sure, that’s the identical William James that’s the father of contemporary psychology.

However James himself admitted that he had by no means skilled what he documented from the stories of non secular adepts. So for a first-hand, anecdotal account, let me supply a brief account of my expertise, for what it’s value.

These results are current even after I don’t really feel notably related to God. I like to think about them because the lingering results of repeatedly, very similar to how the muscle tissues of a weightlifter essentially stay robust even when they’re momentarily drained. That mentioned, additionally they don’t substitute God consciousness itself.

I’ve an nearly everpresent sense that I’m being guided by one thing bigger than me. My life is accurately, and it’ll stay so if I keep contact with God. This has been challenged in latest occasions as I’ve skilled large adjustments, expanded my consolation zone and felt the pressure of doing so, however even in robust occasions it stays.

This brings an enormous sense of belief no matter circumstances. I don’t have to power issues. I can lean again somewhat and belief that issues are deeply taken care of, even when the floor seems uneven. On the similar time, it doesn’t preclude pragmatism and motion; it supplies a grand context for my every day doing.

I even have a superb sense of peace and repose that I’ve hardly ever skilled earlier than. This goes past the outward, momentary circumstances of my life. It’s the understanding that “all is properly and all might be properly”, as CS Lewis worded it, whatever the circumstances. This isn’t an mental understanding, however a felt, visceral expertise of my innate, unshakeable interior peace, which is divine in origin.

This additionally brings nice disappointment, as a result of I’ve to observe myself and different individuals working on the Wheel of Samsara, desperately looking for fulfilment in all of the mistaken locations.

And the ultimate factor I’ll say is that I see God in all, with no exceptions. There’s a built-in understanding that every thing that occurs, everybody I meet, and every thing that exists is all God-in-manifestation, or a part of the resultant nature of God.

Typically individuals make the error of dividing the world into “Godly” and “not Godly”. That which is excessive, or ethical, or loving is Godly, and the remaining shouldn’t be.

I don’t see issues like that. Certain, there could also be ranges of divinity, however every thing is finally divine. It’s solely our soiled mirror that veils that fact.