Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal  Thanks for the explanation! I think I've heard of these ideas before, is it from Ken Wilber's stuff? |
States and stages are direct rip-offs of Ken's work. The rest is bastardization, synthesis and recombination of whatever other chaff is blowing around in my mind.
Sunny--I don't think there's any reliable objective way to gauge yourself in this. Hawking has some good ideas about the dynamics of consciousness, but I don't think this is one of them. The fact that everything we experience comes through the filter of identity and physical existence begs the question, how can we measure our expression of our infinite awareness from inside a limited incarnation? It would be like trying to measure the room from inside the fishbowl. Not only do you have no means to measure or reference to measure against, but also everything your whole perspective is skewed by your environment (ie curved glass and water).
For me it's important to always be aware that I don't know where this pursuit is leading, and there's no way I can know. What I can do is examine the stories these experiences leave me with and learn from them a greater truth to live without treating them as an end of practice or end of belief.
This begins to imply a personal measure that can be used -- not to rate one's progress, but to evaluate one's practice. Because an experience that brings the authentic self more to the fore will always trigger an egoic reaction, either in the form of an attempt to co-opt the experience into egoic structures, or through an all-out ego explosion. The goal seems to be to mitigate the effect either by lulling you back to unconsciousness or raising a perspective that is incompatible with the authentic experience.
I can observe the backlash as it arises from the experience, which means my practice is in full support of the state and implies that I am moving towards stage growth. Or I can become aware of it once I experience the effects of it, which means that I am not living my truth and implies that I am not progressing towards stage growth.
But -- to steal from Wilber again -- stages are just conceptualizations; they are not real. Actually that steals from Buddhism before it steals from Wilber: all dharmas are empty. The point is to become aware of your motion towards your infinite potential, not to rate oneself on an objective scale.