AURELIS & Expansion of Consciousness
The term ‘consciousness expansion’ is peculiar in many ways. How can consciousness be expanded? What does this ‘broad-minded’ mean? Is this mainly a feeling, or is it much more than that?
[see: “Expansion of Consciousness“]
AURELIS skill
Expanding consciousness in all openness, kindness, and compassion, soft, firm, and realistic, in full acceptance of who you are and who you want to be, with deep respect first of all for yourself as a total person, is an AURELIS skill.
Of course, it’s also a utopia.
The term ‘utopia’ comes from ‘eu’ and ‘topos’. It means a place where it is good to be.
The important thing here is to strive for such a place (= state of mind), even if you know that it is far away or perhaps cannot be reached in principle.
It ‘doesn’t matter’ whether it can be reached.
And this itself also belongs to this skill: to strive for it even when you know it doesn’t really matter. The beautiful and the ‘pure’ lies in the striving.
But it’s not a simple thing to do.
Me vs. me
To make it – hopefully – a bit easier, I would like to contrast selfishness with superficial altruism: the ‘I’ of me versus the ‘I’ of others.
One can make short work of this as follows: never will the ‘I’ of me put the ‘I’ of others above itself. Asking someone this as part of an ethic would therefore not be serious.
An altruist of this superficial I-me type projects his own ‘I’ into the other and thus continues with the same ‘I.’ If the projection is no longer correct (the other wants a life of his own, his own morality), then ‘I’ feels wronged: “He has taken advantage of me. No thanks!”
An ‘I’ transcends itself only to a total person.
(Note, dear reader: this is all about you personally. It is even the only reason for this text!)
This total person can be someone else, for example, with a crush. It can also be yourself in meditation, whether on a cushion, in the tram, or at work.
Meditation ‘on a pillow,’ as you may already know, is not just half an hour of worrying or daydreaming. It is an in-depth overhaul for the AURELIS coaching instrument that you may be. With this, you coach others. With this, you coach yourself.
Consciousness expansion is an AURELIS skill.
“What’s in it for ‘me’?” is an empty question of the same category as “Why would ‘I’ do this? “What do I get from this?”, “Is this what makes them love me?” or even (a bit more difficult): “Can ‘I’ help other people better because of this?” Transcending the ‘I’ towards expanding consciousness is not evident. The opening of the flower bud is not that obvious.
Ego inflation
It may also go wrong when ‘expansion of consciousness’ comes crashing down against the limits of the ‘I’. This will then absorb its ‘power’ itself.
This is what is called ‘ego inflation’. The ‘I’ thinks it is capable of enormous, even grotesque things; or is just ‘worthy’ of them.
From there, it will make one or more of the following attempts:
• to take a dominant stance against other little egos
• to make oneself utterly independent of one’s depth
• to search for an enjoyable life course to which one is ‘entitled’
• to expect others to be very helpful in this, because after all, “I am ME!”
• to expect things to come to ‘me’ simply because of taking some mechanical actions (taking a pill, reading a book, thinking a thought…)
• to search at an increased pace for the maximum ‘I’ can get without giving
• ‘I am immortal,’ via rebirth or heaven in a banal, conceptual way.
This can be disastrous.
It is, therefore, better not to strive for great convenience in this. Even if it is not easy, the effort one makes is valuable in itself because it is a sign of profoundly human respect for your deeply human self. The effort itself is an autosuggestive invitation and support from your deeper self to grow all the way from within.
Among drug addicts, for example, one notices how an all too ‘easy expansion of consciousness’ can lead to reverse consequences. It pulls you apart with skin and hair.
Enlightenment?
Is the aim of serious “expansion of consciousness” in line with what in other traditions is sometimes called “enlightenment”, “awakening” or “initiation” or something like that?
Maybe it is.
Does it matter?
Maybe it does.
Maybe it does not.
Enlightenment
can be a sun
and just as well
a tiny flame of a candle.
Equally beautiful.
Equally pure.
Zen story
A headstrong student monk asked an ‘enlightened’ Zen master what he did before his so-called enlightenment.
Answer: “Chopping wood, fetching water.”
And what then did the monk do after his so-called enlightenment?
Answer: “Chopping wood, fetching water.”
The student wisely kept his mouth shut.
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