Friday 21 April 2006

Pic of the day: "No matter how much you sing, you can't escape reality." Words of wisdom from the anime Girl Meets Girl.

Unripe thoughts

I'm not playing Oblivion all the time, you know! And even if I were, I would still be thinking. But for some days now I have read various writings by some non-famous Scandinavians sharing their thoughts on life, the universe and higher levels of consciousness. This is a topic that has fascinated me for a long time. Since I am not a professional smooth-talker myself, I am curious about other "common" people and their experiences (or failing that, their thoughts based on other people's experiences, but that's not quite the same).

Unfortunately words by another Scandinavian thinker come to mind, namely the Swede Tegner: "The obscurely said is the obscurely thought." Not only did this plague the poor amateur writers. No, after writing a full gray entry about the topic, I found that I had the same problem. It was not clear enough, not as bright and sharp as it should be. You can find half-dried tree branches anywhere to use as a club. I wanted to give you a bright gleaming sword, glowing with true magic. Unfortunately I don't have that magic. And I'm still hammering on that sword of the mind.

But perhaps you can make something out of this unfinished thing, if I present it the way it is, and not pretend that it is anything more. Here it is, then:

***

I don't think a higher level of consciousness is characterized by amazing feelings of rapture and swirling energies and everything gleaming in preternatural clarity. Oh, sure, that kind of experience is really awesome and fascinating. But it is not the fruit from which you can know the tree. It is just flowers. The question is, what kind of person are you when you have had this experience? If you are still greedy, then clearly you still have a smart ape consciousness, no matter how many fine and abstract words you can use about it.

As one of these writers said, when we dream we don't know that we are asleep. When we wake up, we know that we have been asleep. If there is a higher level of consciousness, then upon reaching it we should realize that we have been asleep, and start to see thing more clearly. If what we see is that we are some kind of cosmic bigwig, then we are surely still dreaming.

Let us compare a toddler and a healthy and wise grandparent. It is clear who has the higher level of consciousness. But what is the most striking difference? Yes, the toddler thinks "it is all about me" and "it is all about this thing in front of my nose". The toddler is full of energy and lives life to the fullest. But it is completely wrapped up in its own little world, unable to see the real world with its many complex interactions, a world which does not revolve around the toddler no matter how much it feels like it. The grandparent sees the connections, the long lines. The grandparent plans ahead easily, effortlessly, living in the past and present and future at the same time, seeing them as part of one long continuous experience. The grandparent has so much surplus of this insight that it can easily care for the toddler as well. This is indeed the priority, not feeling good about oneself.

In the same way, someone with an actual higher consciousness would be able to effortlessly see what needs to be done in the present for the past to turn into the kind of future that is better for us all. This person would go to the place where he or she was needed, even before others knew of the need, and do what needed to be done, perhaps without even being noticed.

People who feed on the attention of others, these have what I will call "toddler consciousness". The toddler is unable to pay attention to itself, and must be attended to. The parent and the grandparent have attention to spare. People who try to impress others likewise have "toddler consciousness". You can see in them the preening little child. Greed, being more able to get than to give, that is also the toddler way. It is a rather low level of consciousness. And when this kind of person thinks he has great revelations and awesome experiences that lift him (it's usually a him) above the masses, that is just the toddler's dream. Whether asleep or playing, the toddler is dreaming, far removed from the real world and the way it really works. Others must provide for such people, while they are lost in their fairy-tale world.