Consciousness and The Mind- TALK by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

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Posted by: oneness on Aug 16, 2007

This event was part of a series of events which were open to all with a sincere interest in the emerging global consciousness of oneness.

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Consciousness and the Mind, October 22, 2006 Talk with Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
So friends, this is the fourth and final gathering,
which is devoted to exploring the consciousness of oneness from
a mystical perspective and trying to see how that relates to
everyday life and how we as individuals can contribute
to this present time of global crisis, and also global transition,
which, as far as I can see, involves stepping from a consciousness of
duality and separation into this bigger perspective of oneness,
of global oneness, global consciousness, however you like to call it.
And, how really to bring that inner essence, that inner understanding
that we are all one, and what that means, and how to bring that into life,
because we live in a life and a culture that is so fragmented,
so isolated, so full of divisions. And also, there is understanding that this
oneness has an energy of its own, has a consciousness of its own;
that, if it is embodied, if it is lived,
can, I think, help transform the world itself.
And the last meeting we had involved taking that
inner understanding of oneness and relating it or communicating with it;
communing with it directly with the anima mundi;
the soul of the world, the being that is the consciousness of the world,
because, there is this deep and ancient understanding
that just as we are an individual living spiritual being, so is the world.
And that in a way we have to re-empower the world.
We have to give our spark of divine consciousness back to the world; back to life
in order that the world can transform itself.
That it is not enough for us to try to heal or to transform.
And one of the essential things you learn in spiritual life,
in mystical life is that you can't do anything on your own.
And the same is true is, of course, of the whole.
And it is important to make this reconnection, to remember
the world as a living spiritual being.
As when the first astronauts saw it from outer space.
They saw the world as one living whole.
And that is, of course, just an image. What we can do is to make
that a lived reality. To-- in a way, to welcome that divine
consciousness that is the planet on which we live, in which we live.
To welcome it back into our daily life, just as it used to be
thousands of years ago for everybody who lived here in which
they could not imagine doing anything without it being--
whether you were baking bread or hunting game or weaving
or making pots. It was all part of an intrinsic wholeness in which
the individual was facilitating a deep relationship with
the spiritual being that is this planet. Because it is a very, very
beautiful spiritual being, even if at this moment it is troubled.
Troubled by a people who have forgotten it. By a people who--
who have abused it and also forgotten its divine nature.
So, that was really the last meeting we had in the summer,
was really an evocation. In a way, what I realized afterwards, was that
I wasn't actually talking so much to the people in the room.
I was talking to the spiritual being that is the world.
And making a relationship to it-- not in just in an individual
setting, but in a group setting because something can happen
when people come together from different walks of life;
from different spiritual traditions that-- whether one person is
talking and other people are listening doesn't really matter.
It is the shared intention because everybody has come here
for the sake of oneness. Or if you like, they are oneness--
the consciousness of oneness coming together for a shared purpose.
That's very, very important.
I know you are completely conditioned to see yourself as
separate individuals who for your own reasons decided to
spend a few hours together on a Sunday afternoon,
listening to me and sharing. But from the perspective of oneness--
I feel--you are bits of that divine consciousness of oneness,
that is drawing itself together to celebrate that
divine consciousness that is really life.
So, just to be aware of that aspect that somehow when
people come together with the intention-- intention is always
very important--of the shared intention of oneness,
then that allows something else to take place.
And that--as mystics, one knows that often what takes place
is beyond what one could imagine. Just a mystical relationship
to God is always beyond what one can imagine.
And just by the fact that one can actually evoke, as a group,
this soul of the world; this creative being;
spiritual being that is life itself, that is creation itself, is really
a tremendous mystery.
There used to be ancient rituals that were done in many, many
different spiritual traditions, whose purpose was to evoke
the spiritual principle of life.
Long ago it was a natural way to begin any gathering just as in a
shamanic gathering one might evoke the ancestors.
There were also many spiritual gatherings in which the
being of creation itself was invoked; was welcomed in
to any gathering. Because, it was understood we are all part of this
spiritual being that is called life; that has a much higher purpose
than most of us are aware. We have kind of made life so much less
by just seeing it in a physical senses as something to give us
food and clothing when, of course, it is so much more
just as--as individuals we are so much more than just physical beings.
So, if we can begin this gathering just to--for a moment to reconnect
with the spiritual being that is life itself; that is creation itself.
So she is again present with us because without the presence
of life, of creation, there is no point in doing any work for the whole.
It is like leaving out the bride from a wedding.
We can run around with good plans and ideas, but
if we don't invoke at the very beginning the sacred presence
of the soul of the world; this ancient, ancient being--
some call it Hagaya, but she is older than any names
we have in our language. And as I say at the moment
she's a little bit sad and troubled. Not quite understanding
how her sacred nature could be forgotten; how her
temples could be desecrated; how her physical body could be
treated so badly, when it is so beautiful and has many, many
hidden qualities which--it's as if we don't allow her to breathe.
And so now she is here. I can feel her presence in the room,
this being that is life. She's not far away. She's just been forgotten,
you know. And--and you just look outside at the colors of the leaves,
and it's so infinitely beautiful. And the light falling on the trees.
I was reading earlier today one of my favorite little books which is
The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence who is this
17th century lay Brother. And he had his first most powerful
mystical experience I think when he was 18 and he saw a tree in winter.
And just the awareness that the next spring, that whole tree
would be re-born, it woke him to the presence of God. Then he really
spent the rest of his life re-establishing that initial experience of the
living presence of God; this divine being. So, she is one.
Life is one. Creation is one. There is--and it is how do we as individuals
work with this living consciousness of oneness. And what is our role.
And what are we really here to facilitate. I personally don't think
we are here to solve the problems of the world. Because I have a
firm belief that the world is not a problem. And I think somehow
treating her like a problem is denying her both her wisdom;
her knowledge because she has been through many, many
apparent crises in the millions, billions of years of her history.
And she has a deep, deep knowledge and understanding
and ancient, ancient powers that are hidden from us.
So, I don't like treating people as problems because I don't think
people are problems. They can get into difficulties. There can be misunderstandings.
And from a spiritual point of view, almost all of these
come from forgetfulness. But human beings are never problems.
We are not something to be solved; to be repackaged; to be kind of--
because human beings themselves are so mysterious and so ancient.
And we may have difficulties. We have things we have to learn.
And the world also has difficulties and things it has to learn.
But once we welcome her in as a living presence as a--
as a being born out of oneness; out of this, if you like, idea in the mind of God.
Of how he / it / she could express, could manifest his hidden oneness.
This divine spark of oneness how it could come into existence
and then reflect itself back. This is in the Sufi tradition, the whole of creation.
I was a hidden treasure and I long to be known, so I created the world.
That the whole world is about revelation.
It's about the oneness--the hidden secret of oneness within the divine becoming manifest.
And I remember my first experiences of oneness,
it actually surprised me because I didn't get them deep in meditation
and I spend so much of my life in meditation.
But it was about 15 years ago when I first came to America.
And I didn't have so much to do and I used to wander a lot in the hills
in Inverness where I lived. And one day as I was walking down a particular trail,
I looked at the trees and the plants beside me
and I saw they were all one. It was just like a momentary--
I saw, "Oh it's all one." Visually, I saw that it was all one.
I didn't see anything as separate; anything as different.
I saw that it was all one. And then I kind of looked away
and then I looked back and it was still all one.
And I kind of--it completely fascinated me. I saw I could actually switch a level of consciousness
and I could look at the tree again, and it was an individual tree,
and it was different from the tree next to it.
And then I could shift my consciousness again and it was all one.
And the whole tree was one, and it was one with the tree next to it,
and one with the land, and it was all one.
And I was really fascinated by this. And then--I actually for a while
I thought it only happened in nature and only when I was in nature
did I experience this oneness. And then I found no, when I went to the--
when I went to the store, when I--everything was one.
I could see logically that things were different and individual but--
but what intrigued me was it was nature; it was the goddess; it was creation
that had revealed to me this great mystical mystery
that everything is one. And that we are this oneness that--it is extraordinary.
And like most mystical secrets it's extraordinary also that we have forgotten it.
That we have this extraordinary--we have isolated ourselves to such a degree
and I think created enormous, unnecessary problems and difficulties
that are really self-created.
Because human beings were never meant to be isolated.
Yes, we can be individual because every leaf on every tree
is also individual and each tree is different to every other tree
and that is a celebration of divine oneness.
It's one of the great mysteries that real individuality celebrates oneness.
It doesn't make logical sense, but it's-- experientially it is--
Like each of you here, you're completely unique and your uniqueness
is a celebration of divine oneness.
It celebrates the whole mystery of oneness through your uniqueness;
through your individuality. But only actually in relationship to oneness
can you realize who you really are.
Otherwise you are kind of lost at the end of the tunnel going nowhere.
You've discovered who you are and for what? For what purpose?
We are all one in so many ways. And life is a way to come to know that.
But, what I want to talk today is about the relationship between consciousness and the mind.
I don't normally talk about the mind.
As a mystic, we are trying to kind of forget the mind.
In fact, the particular meditation that we do in our Sufi path,
is you leave the mind behind, which is a great relief.
Because, it seems this Western mind has become kind of--
it's like those computers that run faster and faster and faster,
and probably entertaining, but
I'm not sure that one accomplishes a lot more with a faster moving mind,
because one gets even more engrossed in the mind.
Anyway, we, of course, as a culture are obsessed with the mind.
And our whole--much of our culture is built on the mind.
And the mind keeps us busy. It is a--the mind is not consciousness.
I don't know if you--if this is something that everybody knows or doesn't know.
You actually discover it very, very quickly in meditation
because you leave the mind behind and you are conscious.
I think the Buddhist call it bodhi; budi.
You are conscious; there is pure consciousness
and there is no thinking. It's an enormous relief because thinking,
as far as I experience it, there are these thoughts that come one after the other.
And sometimes they are useful
and creative thoughts--artists have useful and creative thoughts--
but for a lot of the time they seem to be completely useless.
It's like recycling garbage. And it just goes on and on and on
and, you know, the mind seems to be able to pick up thoughts
from all sorts of places; you don't even know in the end whose thoughts you are thinking.
And it doesn't even allow you to experience life because it's thinking you through life.
And you can't taste a strawberry; eat an apple because you keep on thinking and you--
people think even when they make love, apparently.
I mean,
So, what you discover in meditation is that consciouness is not the mind.
Because you can actually leave the mind behind
and be conscious somewhere else.
It's a consciouness without duality. There is just presence. You just are.
And you can actually--you learn it first in meditation but then you can
experience it out of meditation. You can just be, pure being.
It's a very simple, very essential state. And of course, that consciousness,
if you are in it--it is a state of oneness. It is oneness.
The self on that level, it is oneness. Everything is one.
And then you come back out of it and you come back into the mind
and you get caught again in the ego because the mind and the ego function together.
They are like blood brothers and they kind of--
they have a pact to keep going as long as possible.
And then you are you and--I remember sometimes I would come out of meditation
and suddenly I'd be back in an ego and the ego would have problems
while the self doesn't have any problems.
And suddenly you discover you have these problems again,
and for a little bit, you were free of it all.
And other people can go--some people do it in meditation--
other people often, for example, in nature, they can lose themselves in nature.
Nature has often been a great reminder--it's one of the few reminders that people still seem to treasure.
That it reminds us of a oneness--of to do with life. And many people can--
whether they are in the mountains or they are just walking in the hills here;
it is so beautiful around here. There are so many trails and
you can forget yourself. I don't know if you've noticed that when
you are going for a walk, you know, initially you are thinking.
I usually go for walks on my own and I meet people on the trails
and it's amazing the ridiculous conversations people are having
as they are immersed in this beautiful, beautiful nature.
They are talking about their stock portfolios, or their mother-in-law or, you know.
And you can see they have no idea. They are going for a walk
you know, and yes this is incredibly beautiful nature but
they're not there. There's no real experience of where they are
because you know, they are having this talk about this mortgage
rates and whether they can afford the mortgage rates going up
or whether they should make a better investment in something else.
And--but you can lose yourself in nature and then be immersed in
this oneness that is around you. Just it's completely natural.
And of course, many peoples or cultures--all the cultures that have not
developed this thinking capacity as we have live more naturally
in that consciousness. They just are aware it happens.
They don't think about where they are going to go hunting.
They just go. They are attuned with this oneness in nature and they don't
discuss it afterwards. And they don't process it. They just
are present in life. And live a much simpler lifestyle.
We can't go back to that. There isn't--we live in this apparently
complex culture but just to be aware there is this awareness of
oneness, either you can have it in meditation or you can have it in
nature; you can have it in daily life, which is not involved thinking about anything.
You don't think. You just are.
And it's very real and it's very potent.
But you probably don't do a lot when you just are.
When you're there in nature and you're just part of this oneness or you're sitting in meditation,
there's actually not much point in doing anything.
Because everything is just the way it ought to be at that moment in time.
This is one of the basic mystical revelations. That everything is just the way it ought to be.
There is no judgement. There is no better or worse,
because that is also duality. Better or worse is duality.
Everything just is. And, if somebody is starving, they are starving.
And there is a deep sense that is how it is. Now, let's say it is a state of being
and although I said the world is not a problem,
there are problems in the world. And the world is dying.
And to me that deep sense of everything is just the way it is, is not
if you like, the final answer. That, just to be in the state of consciousness
of oneness is not the complete answer.
It is traditionally if you read the yoga scriptures,
that is what you aspire to. And once you've reached that state,
they say everything arises by itself. You see, traditionally you,
as I said, have these experiences of oneness. You leave the mind
and the ego behind. And you go through every spiritual path,
whichever it is, has stages on the journey to teach you how to do that.
And there are practices you do to do that. And some of them you
leave your body behind; some you're present in your body.
But you basically reach another state of consciousness;
consciousness of oneness. It is in a way the heritage, mystics
have always kept for the world. There is this pure state of consciousness of oneness.
And classically that's when you realize
your individual self; the atma is the universal self.
It's a very beautiful state. And it is incredible expansion of consciousness.
And when you are deeply immersed in that,
there is nobody to do anything at all. There is no doer.
There is infinite pure consciousness. It's all cosmic experience.
And in that cosmic experience, everything is perfect,
and everything is just the way it ought to be.
But, what I've been shown is thats in a way only half of the story,
just as there is the in-breathing, there is the out-breathing.
The in-breathing is what takes one back to the source.
And you could say, well let's just all go back to the source.
But my sense is that it would take rather a long time and
there is an enormous amount of force in the world to keep people away from the source.
I'll give you a very simple reason why,
because when you're at the source, you're completely fulfilled and
nobody can sell you anything. One shirt, one pair of trousers,
a nice bowl of soup and a piece of bread and you are fulfilled.
It's not a good marketing ploy. And you would be surprised or not surprised,
how much of our culture is built upon selling you something,
upon creating needs that you don't have.
And it's that actually that is destroying this planet.
Because it creates this incredible, unsatisfiable hunger for stuff
that involves pollution,desecration and everything.
So, just to say where we go back to the source and there we sit in this oneness
or we are this oneness because there you are the oneness of God.
Everything is God. Everything is wheresoever you turn, there is the face of God.
This glass of water is the most divine thing I will ever see.
And the water inside it is also
[sips water] completely divine; completely intoxicated with the presence of God.
And there is a little bit of mind here to bring the glass of water to my lips
[sips water] and drink it.
But there is no thinking about it. There is just enough mind to create this simple action.
And that's how you bake bread.
And you do the simple things you need in life.
But I don't think that that is going to solve the problems in the world.
I say the world is not a problem but it has problems.
And--so it is not enough just to leave the mind behind and go into this state of pure oneness.
Once you know how to do it its easy but
it also takes quite a lot of time to learn how to do it.
It is our natural state. It is the state of the soul.
It is completely non-judgemental which is why when you die and you go back
to that consciousness inside of you, there is no judgement about your life.
There is an understanding of why things are the way they are
and what you need to learn from it. But there is no judgement.
Because judgement implies something is better and something is worse.
So there is no judgement.
But what interests me is "How does this oneness,
how does it interact with the mind? How does it interact with what we
think of as our consciousness, our I?" In other words, how can we live in this world
that is dominated so much by mental culture
from a place that honors the oneness that is inherent within us?
And not just inherent within us. The oneness that is inherent within life
because this presence--this spiritual being of life that we have invoked here;
it is fundamental to her being
and to her well-being. We know that there is ecological oneness,
so we have really--if we are going to save the planet we have to live in harmony with this ecological oneness.
And what I have been shown is there are ways to work with oneness.
And that a lot of the problems in our, if you like,
impotence at the moment to really, to solve the problems is that
we are trying to solve the problems from a place of duality.
From a place of separation; from a mind-set of separation.
And the mind does not have to work like that.
That is something we have been sold that is pure conditioning.
A mind is very, very beautiful. If you ever see somebody's mind, or your own mind,
kind of separate from the gunk it has inside of it;
it is very, very beautiful. It is something quite remarkable.
You can sometimes see that in scientists who have trained their mind to be very pure.
It is like crystal. It reflects the light beautifully.
A really beautiful mind can take the thought of God and bring it into manifestation.
Because the mind is part of this manifest world.
And as I said, there are ways to work with oneness through the mind.
The first step is to, to try to leave behind this mind-set that everything is separate.
And to bring into one's mind, and I'd like you to try it now; to bring into your mind
this seed of oneness. This seed of the consciousness of oneness.
Because my sense is that everybody's mind has actually a blue print in it for the future.
Just as you have in your DNA; in your physical DNA and also your psychological DNA,
you have all the potential; all the blueprint for how you can live in this life.
I don't know if you knew that. For all the possibilities,
you don't make anything new very much.
You just choose which of the blueprints to follow and change them a bit.
nd, one of the beautiful things actually is in the depths of the human being,
there are all the blueprints for all the possible types of life you could have.
This was illustrated and understood in the I Ching,
the Chinese book of changes; it's an ancient Taoist classic;
that understood all the--they had 64 possible basic variations that could happen.
The hexagrams of the I Ching.
And they understood that there are those basic human potentials 8x8.
And everything is a variation upon those themes.
But what I'm saying is in your mind there is actually a blueprint for consciousness of oneness.
It is there--it was--anybody who is going to have the potential to step into the next era, has it within them.
Anybody who has the potential to have experience of oneness has it within them.
It is our birth right. It belongs to us. We can choose to live it or not live it.
This is--human beings have choice. Just like you can choose which of the blueprints;
the possible futures you want to live.
And if you ever study the I Ching, part of the purpose of doing the oracles of the I Ching
is to learn which of the choices you have at that moment.
Which of the steps you can take.
And because human beings have free will, they can live out different destinies.
Some people have more choice than others.
So the mind which is very beautiful being; an elemental being, it has the blueprint;
if you like, the computer code to live in a state of oneness.
To bring oneness into life.
And like most things, one just has to welcome it.
One has to welcome it into one's self.
It is a simple step. It is actually a mystical path.
It is the first step you take. You take one step away from yourself.
And then you're alligned with the divine which is also oneness.
It's part of nature of the divine; it is part of the nature of life.
Everything is one. It always was one, it always will be one.
It is just, human beings have been given the experience--of the illusory experience of thinking they are separate.
That's all. For some reason part of human evolution has been to discover the apparent separation of oneself;
the imparent individuality of oneself.
And we are individual, but our real individuality is only realized in relation to the one.
And remember this oneness is not some abstract spiritual mystical concept, please.
In these talks, I have tried to stress that oneness is an inherent part of life.
It is inherent to life.
If life was not one, it would fall apart.
And part of the reason that we live in such a fragmented time
is because as human beings we no longer honor the oneness of which we are a part.
That sacred substance within life.
Which is one with God. Which is the oneness of God.
Because, in traditional cultures when the bread was baked,
it was baked honoring that oneness. Or when the bread was eaten,
it nourished that oneness. When the cloth was woven,
the threads of life were woven into a pattern that honored the oneness of life.
And so when that cloth was worn,
the wearer instinctively was reconnected to the oneness; was aware of the oneness.
This was part of the natural rhythms of life just like the cycles.
The simple cycle of spring and summer and fall and winter reminded people of the oneness.
It's not separate from life.
Yes, mystics have experienced it in a slightly different way,
as this extraordinary, dynamic consciousness which is very beautiful.
I think it's probably the high--one of the highest possible evolutions of human experience
to experience that oneness; that pure consciousness of oneness.
Very, very, very beautiful.
When you see that everything is God; everything...
It was interesting, actually--I was just looking through some notes
and I saw this--I remembered this quotation from Einstein about oneness, which I found:
"A human being is part of the whole called by us universe.
A part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves,
our thoughts, our feelings as something separate from the rest.
A kind of optical delusion of consciousness.
This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires
and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.
Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by
widening our circle of compassion.
To embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense
in which we have obtained liberation from the self.
We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive."
And I would suggest that this new manner of thinking that Einstein advocates
is a consciousness of oneness,
not on some abstract metaphysical sense but...
how does oneness work in life?
The mind is very, very beautiful. The mind actually can adapt and change much more quickly than we think.
We have just imprisoned the mind in this limited desire ridden culture.
And it says--has within it this other blueprint which is the blue print of oneness.
In which everything is connected.
This is like Indura's web. Everything is connected.
Every part speaks to the other part. It is very, very beautiful.
It is very quick moving.
One thing I discovered about oneness is it moves much more quickly than duality.
Because duality always has the dynamic of conflict.
And when there is conflict, things get stuck.
There are bottlenecks, there are arguments, there are disagreements.
Duality does not move very quickly. Everybody has a point of view.
And everybody wants to prove their point of view.
In oneness it doesn't work like that.
In oneness every part is included. It doesn't have to be the same as any other part, no.
Its individuality is unique.
That is part of the expression of oneness.
But every part has its place and it moves much more quickly;
it's a very fluid; it is completely organic.
And that is why the consciousness of oneness is much, much more efficient.
It is much more cost effective than duality.
There is enough to go around in the world because it is one.
But it is how to bring that consciousness of oneness.
That initial awareness that we are all one.
That I think many of you here have already.
You know we are one. You know ecologically we are one planet.
Some of you may even have had direct mystical experiences
of oneness to see the world in a grain of sand.
You've stepped out of yourself if just for a moment
and experienced this vast of dimension of pure oneness.
It's our birth right. It belongs to each of us.
But how to use that; it's not enough just to sit in the state of being.
That's what I am trying to say.
But how can we bring that consciousness into the very foundations of life?
So that we can actually create a conscious civilization based on oneness.
Now, what is interesting is just as we have actually individual mind,
we also have a collective mind.
And they say the moment the collective mind is obsessed--
actually it's a very odd collective mind in North America at the moment.
I don't know if you're aware of how odd it is.
It is both contracting and expanding at the same time. It is in a kind of slightly paranoid state.
It is trying to fulfill or fill a certain deep anxiety.
And doesn't know quite what to do about it.
It kind of goes shopping and goes through the same consumerist motions that it's been taught to go through.
That make people work these long weeks, you know,
these long hours every week and commute, you know, hours and hours
so that it can buy stuff for the weekends.
But this underneath, there is also a deep anxiety about this.
There is a sense that something isn't right but it doesn't know what isn't right.
This is this collective mind.
And it knows that it's not sustainable.
But it doesn't know what to do about it.
And the danger I always feel is that, you know,
there are conferences where people get together to discuss what they should do about it.
And lots of very well-meaning people, come up with great ideas
about what to do about it and they talk about it,
and I'm probably too simplistic for that.
I actually think life itself knows how to heal and transform.
And if we can just allow it to do that.
And--you see, as a mystic, one of the things you learn to do is to remember God
and to give the divine a space.
And--so one can be changed by God as He wants to change you,
because He knows best.
So the mystical part is via negative; you don't know.
I offer to be the only thing I have; my capacity to be used by Thee.
I do not ask to see, I do not ask to know, I ask only to be used.
It is a mystical way of being. It works actually.
It's surprising how efficient it is because I always say, the Boss knows how to use us.
And my sense is life also knows how to use us.
And life is very beautiful. It's actually been through quite a few crises.
And it also surprisingly has blueprints in itself of how to resolve these crises.
It doesn't need a lot of people trying to fix it.
Because--well I just like to think that life being divine knows better.
It knows how to resolve the problem but it needs a bit of human consciousness to facilitate this.
It needs not just individual consciousness, it needs a little bit of group consciousness.
Because a little bit of group consciousness can actually get into the collective,
much more easily than individual consciousness.
I don't know if you're aware that individual consciousness tends to isolate itself from the collective,
because the collective is so powerful, that to do something individually,
you have to kind of separate from the collective.
But a group consciousness--it's like this odd group of people who've come here today--
is actually much more powerful.
It can actually work in the collective much easier.
And my sense is that the collective mind is--it's in this strange state of anxiety.
It doesn't know what to do.
It's going through the motions of buying and selling,
and going to the mall, and doing whatever it does.
But it doesn't--it senses that it doesn't quite work anymore.
And when something reaches that point, it doesn't need a lot to flip it.
It doesn't need a lot to flip it into a different level of conscious,
which is actually waiting. This is a beautiful thing.
This conscious of oneness is actually waiting to be lived.
And I should add that there are a lot of spiritual beings--
whether you call them angels or divas or entities--
who are here to help humanity make this transition.
We can't do it on our own but also we are part of a much bigger whole.
Because oneness is not just a human oneness,
and it's not just an ecological oneness.
It's also a oneness that includes the angelic beings and all the plant divas.
Because they are part of creation too.
And just because we have forgotten about them
or we have said all that exists is the physical world doesn't mean they are not here.
There are many, many worlds, and I really feel very strongly that, say,
particularly the angelic world--
It's interesting how in North American consciousness, actually,
the angelic world is quite present.
Most people in North America really actually believe in angels a bit.
Angels are very close to North American consciousness.
It puzzles me because not many people have actually seen angels,
but most people believe in angels.
So it means they are quite close to our consciousness.
And I say, my sense is this shift from a consciousness based upon isolation;
on separation; on them and us, which is very powerful and creates, you know--
it creates this kind of paranoia.
We've got to save ourselves from them that are trying to get stuff from us,
or however it's played out in today's more and more dangerous world.
There is this presence waiting to help us because also the earth--
the being of the earth is--it is a very spiritual being.
It also has an angelic presence; it also has an angelic being.
But human beings have this pivotal role to play.
And we don't realize that enough that, in a way, it is for us to welcome in the dawn.
It is for us to bring into our ordinary consciousness this consciousness of oneness.
And just see what happens. I don't think we have to plan.
I don't think we have to come up with new ideas.
That's why I've always been fascinated by the internet
because I see how this new consciousness has worked through the internet
in strange ways, changing things much more quickly
and much more radically than people are aware of.
And it's very user-friendly now. And it's very cost-effective.
And it works.
So, what I've been trying to awaken, if you like, is there is this spiritual consciousness of oneness,
however you experience it.
Many of you have experienced it and it is kind of basic to all spiritual life;
divine oneness or just non-duality. It doesn't matter how you call it.
That is intrinsic actually to our human nature.
Because we are divine and God is one.
And there is also the inherent oneness of life.
That belongs to the spiritual being that is the world.
This beautiful, ancient, ancient being that is trying to help us
to help it to go through this transition.
And we are part of it. And we need to work with this organic principle of life that is divine;
that is a spiritual being.
And I think personally we all really just have to say yes.
Because in my experience of spiritual life, that is in a way all you ever have to do is say yes.
Beloved, use me.
I am part of you, I belong to you.
Use me as only You know how to use me.
And then to allow this spiritual consciousness to awaken, if you like,
this blueprint that we have in our mind.
This consciousness, as I said, it doesn't belong to the mind.
Consciousness is higher than the mind.
And I can tell you because you still got it when you are dead.
And the mind doesn't last--it lasts a little bit after you are dead, but not that long.
And you certainly got consciousness.
And you get it in meditation.
You can stop the mind and you get consciousness.
But it can come into the mind and it can start to change the mind.
And it can start to change the individual mind and the group mind
and then it can start to change the collective mind.
And my sense is the collective mind is much nearer a shift than people are aware.
And that is also why it is getting a little bit paranoid.
Have you ever noticed in yourself before you go through a big shift,
there is a fear, instinctual anxiety, even paranoia that begins to come up?
It is because, like Yeates said, "The center cannot hold."
And I think one has a choice, either you stay with what is falling apart,
or you turn your attention to what is being born.
And I think it's much--I'd much rather turn my attention to what is being born
and to find out how this consciousness of oneness is going to work.
I have enormous faith in the world,
because, once you realize this divine nature,
I have faith in the world because I also have faith in God.
And the world is an expression of God.
And they say it has been through calamities many times before.
How it's going to work this time, I don't know.
But I'm fascinated to see and to participate in how it is going to recreate itself again;
reconstellate itself. Take it out--
take itself out of this paradigm of duality which is fragmenting it.
Which is destroying it. Which is creating this tremendous greed.
Because if you think of yourself, you know, then there is greed if you are aware of oneness.
It doesn't work like that. And as I say, human beings can be fulfilled;
deeply fulfilled by being part of something.
Rather than getting stuff to show themselves up against their isolation.
So, if we can welcome this oneness in and then see how it uses us; see how life uses us,
as I say, we don't have to come up with plans.
I think that the--you know, this belongs very much to a sort of patriarcal civilization.
You know, guys like to fix things.
I don't know if you've ever noticed that. They love to fix things;
what's wrong, what can I do to fix it?
And guys love to come up with plans. They even to do lists.
I sense that women have a deeper understanding that it's not about fixing things
but about patterns of relationship
and how through those patterns of relationship
something can be sustained and something can be allowed to come into being.
And, I think, first of all, the oneness that belongs to us all needs to create itself through patterns of relationship.
And that is what I find fascinating about the internet that it's--
if you look at what it's done, it's actually created many, many different patterns of relationship.
People all over the world, in different parts relating to each other,
communicating in ways they didn't do before.
It's a very, very human quality, relating, creating a pattern of relationship.
Just as in a way, this gathering here.
People come from different places.
Relating here for the sake of oneness.
And I think our job is to give this consciousness of oneness back to the world. That's all.
To bring it into our life and to see what happens.
Just to allow it even into our mind;
even into this mind that is a little obsessed in the West.
That it keeps on thinking, "Why not give the mind something to do to see how it responds to this energy oneness?"
"To see how it is going to work?"
Because my sense is that human beings are infinitely wise,
and there is--there is a way for it to happen that we can't imagine at the moment,
firstly because we see it as a problem that needs to be fixed.
And secondly because we don't trust life.
We've been taught that life is something we also have to kind of, make happen.
Rather than a divine being that can wake up to its own oneness,
just as we wake up to our own oneness.
So life itself can awaken to its own oneness,
which will be very, very beautiful.
And there is also the possibility it won't happen.
And I just say that just to put that seed there too,
because otherwise, it kind of festers in the unconscious.
Just as there is enormous potential and possibility for change, for reawakening;
there is also the possibility that it won't happen.
That humanity will not take this step.
I don't know what that will mean, I don't even like to look there.
But I prefer to be an optimist. But one can't deny the possibility that
we will continue to create a physical and spiritual wasteland of this beautiful planet.
And then what will happen, I don't know.
Luckily, the Sufis say His mercy is greater than His justice.
So, we will have some--just half an hour of silence, just to go into this feeling of oneness.
If you can to be present within your own consciousness of this presence of oneness.
Just to hold it within you. This divine--because it is really the breathe of God; this oneness.
Just to hold it within your own consciousness.

Consciousness and The Mind- TALK by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

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