Each major change in state of consciousness tends to have a lead up, an actual shift, then a process of integration. Disintegration, growth, integration, and balance. The same process happens with all of the smaller shifts as well, although perhaps in a less marked way.
With Cosmic Consciousness or Self Realization, there is the growth of an independent observer, the observer switch from personal to Self, and then the deepening into sat chit ananda. We could of course break it down into many more levels. And many varieties of experience.
God Realization is a track that revolves around the refinement and clarity of the physiology and the opening of the heart. It tends to start before Self Realization and continues indefinitely. But the actual realization begins after Self Realization and the opening of the heart that can then occur.
Unity or Oneness is when the Self within absorbs the world without and all becomes One. Broadly there is a bridging of inner and outer with the flow of love, the identity that divides is released, and outside becomes inside. We switch into one. This is a switch of discernment or the intellect. The deep intellect seeing I am That, Thou art That, all This is That. Over time, increasing values of experience are absorbed into the one. The sense of person becomes increasingly cosmic.
Because the west has a stronger orientation of mind, there is a tendency for many to make the unity switch first, picking up God Realization after that. There is greater comfort and openness to intellectual discovery than to heart surrender more common in the east. While some heart opening and perceptual deepening seems needed to make the unity connection, the realization does not need to be complete.
Thus it becomes more common to first see Unity, then Unity in God Consciousness. In fact, it would seem there is a limit to the upward progression of Unity until God Realization has occurred. One can only be so cosmic without facing what is cosmic.
If a person is on this more western approach, they are more likely to process the unfolding depths of perception intellectually. As the perceptions can seem to match the descriptions, it can seem like an unfolding realization rather than a distinct shift. The revealing flaw is the intellectual approach. God Realization has nothing to do with the intellect. It is only through love.
This is not unlike the approach to Self realization, what many call awakening. We can be experiencing the peace and silence within. We can know that I am That. But until we have actually become, it is not the realization, there has been no switch. We are still seeing from the perspective of waking state, however refined.
When we bring the approach of one state of consciousness to another, that is where there is a disconnect. We can gain deep understanding in the experience of God from an intellectual perspective, supporting ideas like Shankara’s 6 forms of God. God as fundamental principles.
But there is a profound limit to this approach. A limit that gets in the way of seeing what’s really going on. The more inclusive perspective of being. It is so much greater and more profound than any idea of God. It is Being Itself. In fact, it is the love that is beyond being, the love out of which existence arises. The love from which the intellect and knowledge arise.
It is Mother Nature, Prakriti, Mother Divine, the Creator. Without That, nothing is. We have not reached full understanding of the ways of becoming nor the foundations of reality. We are still in the effects.
Davidya
PS – the western mind cannot comprehend God Realization as it not only beyond mind but beyond Being Itself. But it can be known directly.
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See the Videos on Divine Surrender for more:
https://davidya.ca/2009/02/17/divine-surrender/
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The above link covers this process in more detail
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Vaishnavism means, the easiest God-realisation !!!
Bhagavan Sri Krishna says in Srimad Bhagavad Gita, ( 18.62/65) :
“Take refuge in Me ( Sri Krishna) , with loving devotion. By My grace you shall attain supreme peace and the eternal abode. Fix your mind on Me, become My devotee, offer service to Me, bow down to Me, and you shall certainly reach Me. I promise you because you are My very dear friend”.
Hi Raju
Thanks for the Gita quote. It’s a wonderful text I’ve read in translation and in Devangari Sanskrit. I removed your link as your site claims “only realistic way”. There are many paths to God.
From a brief consideration, it appears you make 2 errors here. One is common with many Christian interpretations as well. Krishna says “Take refuge in Me”, much as Jesus said “I am the Way and the Truth and the Light”. But the “Me” he refers to is not the form standing there saying this but rather what is expressing that form. If you focus on the idol, you miss the deeper understanding.
As well, if you had read the article, you would know that God Realization arises after Self Realization. If you don’t know who you are, how can you know God?
If yours is even a good way to realize God, how many do you know who have done so? And by realize, I don’t mean recognize that God exists on some conceptual or feeling basis. I don’t even mean having a direct relationship with God. Realization is beyond both. It is a state of being.
I came to frame God Realization a little differently later. Basically as the final Unification of Unity when we become one with the Divine. This opens the door to Brahman. In this context Realization means recognizing oneself as.
This had not unfolded at the time of this article.
Some don’t have this until even later.
So the still mind, being the open space is cosmic consciousness right?
Hi Andoni
Nor exactly. Some use “cosmic consciousness” in a generic way. I use it more specifically.
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Yoga describes how when the mind stills, we become aware of our deeper nature. But awakening is a deeper thing.
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Sometimes, this comes in stages. At first, we become aware that there is a universal or cosmic consciousness, for example. Mind is aware of something greater than itself. But this is mind awareness, not universal awareness.
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Then universal awareness, observer or witness wakes up. That can be abiding or non-abiding at first. However, the ego can still be identified. We have a duality of witnessing observer and identified ego.
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A further stage is when the observer wakes up to itself as the subject. We shift from being a me experiencing consciousness to being consciousness experiencing a me. Consciousness wakes up to itself. This is true awakening, also known as Self Realization, or in TM circles, Cosmic Consciousness.
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Here, we still have a duality but of awake observer and a distinct world.
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Unity Consciousness happens when that same Self wakes up to itself in the objects of experience. Subject and object merge into one wholeness.
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Brahman shift happens when we wake up to what is beyond consciousness.
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And there is the parallel refinement process too.
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The reason practices seek to still the mind is because that causes the filters of mind awareness to settle, allowing clear seeing. Then consciousness itself can wake up to or see itself. But this stilling the mind isn’t something we do as that doing is still an activity of the mind. Any trying to control the mind defeats stilling it. Yoga suggests samadhi or transcendence, what the Upanishads call Turiya, the 4th state. We come to this most easily through allowing or letting go. This is why I recommend an effortless meditation.