When I talk about the move here to more physically embody the opening, it’s useful to ask – what is being embodied?
We can embody our identity, drama, and/or suffering.
We can embody various levels of being that are conscious for us, like the mind or the bliss body.
We can embody our presence.
We can embody awake consciousness.
We can embody unified consciousness (Unity stage).
We can embody Brahman, pure nothing.
We can embody Divinity, pure luminance.
Next we can ask, where is it being embodied too? How far forward is that depth being supported into the expression of this form?
For example, are infinite consciousness and the body quite distinct? Or do we experience the body as in consciousness? (We’re talking about the lived experience here, not a learning.) Or as an appearance in consciousness? Or as an expression of consciousness? Or as nothing but consciousness? A similar process can happen with Brahman, and with Divinity.
It’s common for the prior shift to not be fully embodied before further shifts happen. Consciousness can still be on an abstract level when the Unity shift happens, for example. The denser the layer, the longer that takes to adapt.
Another way of framing “embody” is the degree of integration. For example, with awakening (Self Realization), we start with integrating consciousness itself. The awakeness moves in where the experiencer was (so to speak). Then it might move forward into the levels of our being that are conscious and clear enough to support it: bliss, intellect, mind, emotions, even the physical body.
As noted above, we may have integrated consciousness part way when Unity unfolds. And so on. So there can be many layers of integration taking place. Much of that won’t be too obvious. But it happens through living and enjoying life.
Being human is complex, but it also means we can embody the whole thing – not just our body, emotions, and mind. We can embody the universe, universal consciousness, Brahman, and Divinity.
This doesn’t mean we become a living god, even if we experience becoming one. We’re in a human nervous system – that has its limits. 🙂
Davidya
Haha! That last bit 😉 But wow, this shifted something in me. I’m recognizing that my experience has mostly been ‘experiencing the body as in consciousness’ (my lived experience) but that I often denied that because it wasn’t reflected back to me as a child (which ultimately forced me deeper into myself to find a sense of foundation). If the mind is conscious, would we have ‘thought’ memories? For example, I remember taking a shower as a child and contemplating how it could be that I just ‘knew’ when enough conditioner had been rinsed out of my hair so that there wasn’t too much or too little left in it, and shortly after that I experienced a shift, where it felt like my mind came online and from then on I was plagued with experiences of ‘overthinking’ the amount of conditioner in my hair, and could never get it right again. This was around 7 years old. From then on I became more fascinated with retracing my thoughts – daydreaming, one thought leading to the next and the next and the next, and then when I caught myself daydreaming, being so curious as to how I got to the end thought, and retracing the thread back to the original thought or point of ‘disconnection’ so to speak. What is that?
Hi Jenifer
It sounds like shifting back and forth from mind to witness / observer. The ability to trace thoughts back is in the mind but you need a step back to see it objectively like that.
The earlier shift happens for almost all of us as the mind becomes more prominent during school years. It becomes the forefront of our development. But that perspective gets in the way of simpler, more intuitive being.
We can develop the skill of shifting modes but most people become identified with the minds narratives about themselves and the world. This is often trauma-informed ie: narratives the mind comes up with to help us feel in control and safe in the face of overwhelming experiences.