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Originally Posted by outback  * I always thought consciousness was a byproduct of the body, so I explained not being aware of anything before birth to not having a body. How does one explain "not having a beginning" within S/R? If I always were, then why don't I remember it? |
My studies explain that the Earth is a school wherein the main courses of study are LOVE and ILLUSIONS OF SEPARATION. The students at this school are all reincarnating spirits. Each lifetime lived can be equated to a specific "class" within the main courses of study. No one will argue that the the most learning takes place when the student is totally focused on the material without distraction. Obviously, knowledge and memories of past lives lived and our non-physical reality would serve as a major distraction to our current purpose. It's difficult to be completely immersed in any experience when you're constantly aware that the experience is an illusion, right? This is why they turn the lights down in movie theaters and people frown on cell phones and talkers and other distractions.
If you think of your life as the "ultimate illusory experience," and how you are investing decades of time into this intense educational illusion, then you logically do not wish memories of your true reality to be constantly "kicking the back of your seat," do you? Therefore, we all metaphorically sign a spiritual contract to block these memories and knowledge in order to get the most out of each lifetime experience. Make sense?[/QUOTE]
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* Consciousness controls the actions of all beings via the thoughts/beliefs it holds.. But it doesn't handle all the details? For example, if my consciousness intends peace, love and harmony for all, it doesn't have to spell out the procedure as to how this is going to be accomplished? Another aspect of this is, how does the belief of "people are untrustworthy" or "people are loving" manifest "exactly"? Who is handling the details? If the consciousness is handling them, then why am I not fully aware of all the details of what is being manifested?
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Similar answer to the previous. Consciousness DOES handle the details, just on a higher level than your waking ego is aware of. The personality you think of as "you" is not the entire "you," but rather a sort of emissary sent to Earth to learn and experience from a unique perspective from every other "emissary." The true and real you is, basically, the One God Consciousness, which is capable -- perhaps through a sort of "spiritual bureaucracy" of some sort -- of handling all the details, leaving you to concentrate on the mission at hand.
Imagine you are the lonely astronaut exploring a new world. You cannot be concerned with every little detail of all that it takes to place you on the surface of that speck of dust a billion miles away, nor of the thousands of support staff, each of whom has a specific responsibility that all culminates with your footprint in alien powder. Your job is enough to handle already, so you trust that everyone else is doing theirs.
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* I always thought the body experienced things which helped it grow. Now that this body is the same as all the other ones in a single unitary perspective, how can consciousness grow? Growth requires time and we just said time is within the consciousness container, so by definition, consciousness shouldn't be experiencing growth or learning... Why isn't the consciousness container all-knowing in the first place?
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This is perhaps where I differ from Steve's concept of subjective reality. Certainly, while I can conceive that everything that is may well exist WITHIN the One Cosmic Consciousness we refer to as "God," I'm still not sold on his idea that you are all mere projections of MY mind, and that this current life that I am living is the only one of any consequence.
I lean more towards the concept that the One Cosmic Consciousness, or OCC, had no choice but to MULTIPLY itself as the only possible way in which to grow. Time is, supposedly, a property of the PHYSICAL universe so that we are able to separate one event from another in order to better study the ramifications of same. Each lifetime lived is as unique as a snowflake, and by constantly creating new experiences, consciousness cannot help but grow.
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* Since I related my consciousness to a physical body (the brain to be specific), I kept thinking the body controlled what my consciousness could know/feel/perceive etc. If that is not so, then what does the "subconscious" have to do with anything? If the consciousness is all there is, then how come there are "background processes" that always run "seemingly outside of my consciousness" working against my intentions?
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Perhaps the conscious intentions of your waking ego -- your Earthly personality identity -- are in conflict with the lesson you came into this particular lifetime wishing to learn. Your higher self is always aware of your true purpose within each lifetime, and will take steps to try to steer you towards situations best suited to accomplishing that goal.
Suppose your soul intended this lifetime to be a lesson of empathy towards the struggle of minorities, so you chose a life situation where you were born and raised poor and black on the south side of Chicago. But your parents won the lottery, and you all moved to a wealthy white neighborhood and put all memory of struggle behind you. Good for your material desires, but your soul didn't come here to learn how to invest in mutual funds, so you perceive the universe as somehow working against you. By escaping the ghetto, you never experienced what it was like to grow up poor and black. Your intentions may be in conflict with your purpose, and therefore life seems to be working "against you."
This is just one possible scenario. There are countless possibilities for conflict between the desires of the waking, physical self and the higher self. The first step in resolving such conflicts is to realize and accept that your life does indeed have meaning and purpose, and that said purpose has nothing at all to do with acquiring wealth, romance or power except where the acquisition of these things is necessary for your spiritual growth and evolution.
Realizing that the greatest growth occurs through taking on challenges and overcoming obstacles, the best way to know if you are "in sync" with your true purpose and higher self is to look to those areas in life where you find that you are most challenged and constantly confront one obstacle after another. This is the Universe's way of signalling you that you are "on track."
Ever used an electronic device called a "stud finder"? It locates the 2x4's inside your walls so you can pound a nail into solid wood. Imagine your consciousness as a stud finder, and the 2x4's are the challenges and obstacles within your life. Point your focus towards the areas that challenge you; not towards the seemingly easy, hollow, drywall in between. You will find that when you home in on challenges and take them on with joy, all of the things that you THOUGHT you wanted in life will either come to you much more easily, or that you will no longer find them all that important anyway.
~ RS