It may seem odd to combine “ignorance” with “enlightenment.” But knowledge is structured in consciousness. Until we have the conscious range to take it all in, there are still gaps in our knowledge. Missing knowledge is “avidya” or ignorance.
For example, in Self Realization or Cosmic Consciousness, we are awake to the Self within. The observer has awoken to itself. But this is only the first stage. Lorne Hoff has referred to this as enlightened ignorance.
I have talked about Lesha Avidya, the faint remains of ignorance that qualifies Unity and above. But this is a reference to the faint remains of person needed to live exalted stages in a body. Yet even in Unity, we don’t know how all this came to be nor its purpose. Even in Brahman stage, we’re not awake to the power that creates all of this.
This is compounded by developmental gaps. Someone can be very awake in consciousness but still have emotional shadows or poorly developed life skills. Spending a lot of time in renunciate settings doesn’t help you develop interpersonal skills, for example.
While consciousness is deeply informative, if there is little refinement going on, we’re missing the entire process of becoming. All the layers between consciousness and the world can be couched in fog.
Many people are waking up now, which is a beautiful thing. But there is much more yet to unfold.
Davidya
HI David, what is the Ultimate? How do we know that it is really the Ultimate? Or is there something behind and intrinsic to the Ultimate: a more ultimate Ultimate??? And how can anything beyond Ultimate Consciousness be known?
Hi Andreas
I don’t use the word myself. Every time I thought I knew what the ultimate was, I transcended it into something still deeper.
These days, pure Divinity unfolding in ParaBrahman seems the source of the source and original cause. But I have a sense of a deeper, purer version yet to unfold.
I should add that awakening to a new stage of reality is just the beginning. Just as we’re not fully teenagers on our 13th birthday, so too we have to live, integrate and embody each stage. Thats an extensive project, especially to catch the physiology up.
Actually – you point to the issue of people declaring the ultimate. How can we know what is beyond our knowing? We can refer to others who’ve gone further.
Post-consciousness, you know it be being it. Brahman is known by Brahman, Parabrahman by Parabrahman. It’s not sensory knowing and all that but is lived. That process begins in earnest during the Unity stage when we become whatever we experience.
PS – don’t expect the mind to be able to grok what is outside of its experience. While we can develop lots of concepts about what awakening, etc is, the reality is never that as it is beyond concepts. In fact, our concepts can be the last barrier to awakening. So its good to culture a general understanding but not to take it all too seriously lest you be bound by it.
An indicator there are exalted concepts? Capital letters and words like Ultimate. 🙂
Well said David, as always. Thank you for sharing your experiences as they are.
Thanks, Theresa. Appreciate the feedback.
Hi David,
I saw this on twitter today. It is exactly what I needed to hear! Rather uncanny to say the least. It’s amazing to run into a ticking time bomb that was set in motion over 2 years ago. Being pointed to take notice of developmental gaps is in particular very helpful. (I recall you wrote once about being rather surprised at what could be still be kicking around, post a big shift.) The nudge to turn attention to refinement is greatly appreciated.
Hi Chris
Yes, and we’re in a time where a lot of what is unresolved is being brought to the surface. This can clear the deck for greater refinement.
Well said. The process of becoming is a delightful one. Why else would the Divine incarnate? xo
Agreed, Sarah. It’s just that we get caught up in the surface experience and disconnected from source and from the bliss of becoming. We turn bliss into suffering!
l really enjoy reading things you comment on or post to help fill in the gaps of our ignorance. Your comment regarding early Unity caught my attention today. Sometime, could you comment about
“becoming what you experience”. ie. drawn and supplied by the senses but experienced as conscious reality at a very deep level within our unbounded being. Perhaps even beyond the intellect.
Hi Gary
In Self Realization (or CC), there is a single recognition where the observer aspect of the Self wakes up to itself through us. (and then integrates over time) However, Unity is waking up to the Self in everything else. The world is in layers so we unify in layers. There is the initial recognition of Self, essentially recognizing that inner awakeness also underlies everything being experienced. ike the screen behind the movie. But then that deepens and spreads through all the layers of experience.
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Then just living life, we progressively recognize whatever arises in experience as mySelf. Everything becomes intimate. If there has been a GC stage in there (refined perception, etc) then all those layers are also unified.
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It’s not just the senses in the traditional way. It’s the energy and the thoughts and as the texts say, even distant aspects of the universe beyond perception.
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The result of this is that our sense of reality can shift quite regularly. But in an ever-more inclusive way. That becomes the new normal.
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So yes, even the intellect, and everything beyond the intellect. Eventually we unite with consciousness globally and at every point, then in God Realization, with expressed God. That sets the stage for Brahman.