Here, Now AND Far Away

The story we tell ourselves about the world & ourselves is how we perceive & understand these. Though we each contribute some unique tweaks to the story, most of us feel embedded within the one same "consensus reality." Our current worldview is heavily influenced by science, which most agree is reasonable as far as manipulating the material world is concerned.

Other factors influencing our particular worldview & self-concept include:

1) mental health, intelligence & education,

2) specific religious / spiritual / philosophical position,

and perhaps most importantly,

3) psychosocialspiritual maturity.

The emphasis in our culture is fixated on rapid acquisition of wealth, material possessions, extreme experiences, fame, influence, power, etc - in short, egocentric materialism.

"Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Matthew 19:24

Most of us enjoy (relatively) luxurious lifestyles & are not keen on giving this up. But "rich" may not simply refer to material possessions. The more fundamental barrier to psychosocialspiritual maturation is unwillingness to let go of "self."

"Somebody once asked a well-known Indian spiritual teacher, 'What is renunciation?’ He replied, ‘Renunciation is the giving up of any sense of self’. ‘And for that do you have to give up all your possessions, give up all that you own?’ The teacher answered, ‘Above all, you have to give up the owner.'" Ajahn Khemasiri, “Seeing The Way Volume 2, 2011” Aruna Publications.

Perhaps our most surprising addiction is to words in every form - spoken out loud, "self-talk" (in our heads), written (what I'm doing now!), read, quotes & concepts (I have a real fondness of these also). Our ability to use language is intimately linked to progress at the level of normal, consensual reality but it also binds us to this narrow, limited consciousness by creating, patching-up & maintaining the fiction of a permanently enduring solid sense of self. A basic advice for meditation is: let go of words & related concepts, ideas, "the story of me."

And yet, psychosocialspiritual maturation or evolution of human consciousness is a normal, healthy developmental process that, to varying degrees, occurs spontaneously. This maturation can be intentionally accelerated, in a controlled, durable fashion, through ancient practices like meditation. It can also be suddenly sped-up by trauma (“post-traumatic growth”), certain drugs (eg psilocybin, ayahuasca), & various other factors.

“One conclusion was forced upon my mind at that time and my impression of its truth has ever since remained unshaken. It is that our normal consciousness, rational consciousness, is but one special type of consciousness whilst all round it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence, but apply the requisite stimulus, and at a touch they are there in all their completeness, definite types of mentality which probably somewhere have their field of application and adaptation. No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves there other forms of consciousness quite disregarded. How to regard them is the question – for they are so discontinuous with ordinary consciousness. Yet they may determine attitudes though they cannot furnish formulas, and open regions though they fail to give a map.”

William James. “The varieties of religious experience.” New American Library, NY, 1958.