Venture Fourth Weekly Work<br>Consciousness

What follows below is just a collection of thoughts, a rummaging through my head with an attempt to write out some basics of what Aaron has taught me about consciousness. There may be some repetition; I've not attempted to present a formal paper. Some of this will be repeated on Saturday. I'm e-mailing it so you have the opportunity to become familiar with the terminology.

Stages ands states of consciousness are not synonymous There are many ways to categorize states and stages. I see stages of consciousness as a flowing movement. States are more precise. We'll begin by looking at the various stages and states. They can be named in many ways. Different systems of thought divide the stages into 3, 5, 7, 9 or other numbers. All seem to agree there are 3 basic states, gross, subtle and causal. These relate to Nirmanakaya, Sambhogakaya, and Dharmakaya. Beyond the causal (Aaron tells us he is from "beyond the causal plane") is a non-dual state. I don't have a term for it other than nondual awareness.

Gross is of the everyday world (Nirmanakaya) This is the physical level. Gross is like the waking state where we are aware only of the gross experience (nama-rupa)

Causal is the highest state (Dharmakaya) . It's given that name because it goes back to the root "cause" , That-Which-Is. Another way of saying this is that because the Unconditioned exists, the conditioned exists. However, causal still touches the world of conditions. The "beyond the causal plane" transcends conditions. Causal is sometimes likened to the state of sound sleep, where all gross and subtle phenomenon cease. High causal is one step beyond causal. In Vajrayana high causal corresponds to the Clear Light, or Shunya (shunyata / emptiness).

Subtle goes beyond the physical senses, and is the astral body (Sambhogakaya). Subtle is everything in between gross and causal. Here we have that Sambhogakaya bridge. Subtle consciousness is linked to the dream state, apart from the solid realities of the senses, yet with thoughts, images, etc. based on subtle energy.

Bodies: The energetic expression of the physical level is called the physical etheric body. (from "ether" the state between energy and matter) Here we find the elements that support matter. This is part of the gross state. Next is the subtle or astral body. Astral body is transitional between the Physical and the Spiritual. Last is the causal bodies. Within each state, all three bodies appear.

The stages of consciousness are like intersecting planes. We move back and forth between them, although one is the predominant at any given time. But through any one day, we may touch on many stages of consciousness. The mythic consciousness of the child many appear in a somewhat whiny, "I want that; I don't like this," type of thought. A deep moment of compassionate seeing may lead into Christ or Buddha consciousness. Yet neither is the norm for that person at that time, and neither is held long. One level, perhaps the rational, or psychic, may be the norm for that person at that time. This level would be the habitual or predominant state of consciousness.

The levels of consciousness with the terminology that we'll use today: (these labels are drawn for various systems of articulation. Aaron has chosen them. This is excerpted from 04.11.17 W transcript (underlining added) You may wish to read the whole transcript.

In a very brief capsule, we first find the magical consciousness, the young child. The young child doesn't have too much sense of reasoning. If he cries and a bottle appears, he doesn't see the whole chain of events, only feels that by some magic his cry brought forth what he needed. The older child advances into mythic consciousness with a deep set of beliefs, often based on the magic of which he has dreamed. Within mythic consciousness there is a strong sense of good and evil. Everything is in terms of black and white, no grays. The fundamentalists of any religion are often deep in mythic consciousness, unwilling to release belief systems even though experiential understanding brings new information.

The next level is the rational consciousness level. Here we begin to use the physical senses and mind to understand the universe. Rational consciousness is totally empirical, only what the senses can see and tell.

Vision logic consciousness is still based in the rational, the logical, but it climbs a step up the mountain to a bigger perspective, begins to see with a clearer vision, touches more on intuition. It is not yet ready to open to the subtle energies but it allows the possibility of data beyond the empirical, both from the outer world and from the self as intuition.

Then we move into psychic consciousness where the various non-physical senses open: clairvoyance, clairaudience, and so forth. As this level deepens, we open to the subtle level of consciousness in which energy is experienced and exchanged. People may begin to see auras. When you walk into a room, you feel the energy in the room and you trust what you feel. Or when simply talking to another individual, you pick up the verbal cues, as what is said, but the non-verbal cues, including the energetic level of cues, is more important than the verbal.

Subtle consciousness ends in what the Christian mystics call the dark night of the soul wherein the perceiver begins to see how much all of this observation has come from a personal self as a center of the experience. Within this dark night, or in the Buddhist tradition, the experience of ego dissolution, the experience of no self, we shift completely out of what has been a mundane level of consciousness, the etheric and astral levels, and into what is technically called a causal level of consciousness. Here we have what is sometimes called Christ consciousness or Buddha nature, the level of living from a place literally of no self, knowing one's deepest connection with all that is.

Even this is not the end, because in the causal level there is still a self no matter how subtle, as perceiver, as observer, but with the disintegration even of that sense of self, the full understanding that this which we have called self is really a collection of body experience, thoughts, and so forth, there is the breakthrough into non-dual consciousness. This is the highest level of consciousness.

This has been just a very brief map. The reason I wanted to offer it to you is to help you understand that much of that purpose for which you have taken incarnation is to raise the consciousness. As you raise the consciousness, you move out of the personal self and toward the non-dual self, and thereupon begin to be able to relate to the world around you with more lovingkindness, much more wisdom and compassion. Fear falls away. There's really no longer fear of anything, because with the opening of causal consciousness you know that the deepest core of being is indestructible. You still will not stand in the middle of a highway inviting the truck to smash into you. In fact, there may be even greater respect for the body because the body is seen as the vehicle for growth in this incarnation. But there is respect based on love, not on fear.

So there is this basic work of consciousness-raising. And then we must ask, what helps us to raise our consciousness and what gets in the way and keeps us stuck in lower consciousness?

Last night in SI class, Aaron's talk spoke of these levels of consciousness as related to the chakras. See info on the chakras at the end of this paper.

It is impossible to diagram the bodies and stages because they exist on different, intersecting planes. The physical body/ etheric body exists in our every day space-time. Within this etheric body are the gross tissue of the body as well as the energy meridians and chakras. The astral body exists at two levels, one which transcends space and one which transcends both space and time. The first level of the astral body involves emotions and the non-physical senses (clairaudience, clairvoyance, etc) .This level transcends space. The second level of the astral body, called the thought level, is sometimes seen as a separate body, but I experience it as an upper floor of the astral body. This level transcends both space and time. In dreaming we are on the astral plane. However, the etheric body also includes the astral, as the etheric body binds everything together. This is where words and even diagrams fail. The causal body is at the edge of conditions of any sort.

There is no way to divide these levels in our experience because they feed into each other. For example, emotions that exist in the astral body express themselves in the physical body. Thus, we can't call an expressed distortion merely physical or energetic. It is both. Back to intersecting planes....

But remember , within each state we encounter all the bodies, just as we meet all the kayas in any moment. The one mentioned is the usual predominant one.

We can see a flow. First see the causal body, the place of absolute stillness and absolute potential. The causal state is like the place where the underground spring of Aaron's metaphor breaks the surface. "Beyond the causal plane" is like the spring itself. The thought arises (upper astral body) and emotion arises with the thought(lower astral body) and is then expressed in the physical (etheric body).

Let us not get into why the thought arises here. That's for a separate intensive on dependent arising! Abhidhamma does explain it though. This is all about vinnana (rebirth consciousness) and karma.

One way I see the bodies is through the aura. I have never studied the various texts on auras. This is merely what I see, not a scientific document. I see four distinct levels of each person's aura. The first is the physical, and usually expresses physical health or illness through color and integrity. This is the etheric level of aura. Next is the emotional layer, and is the start of the astral layer. Third is the thought level, which I consider to be the higher level of the astral body. Last is the causal level.

As an example, I might see the aura of someone who is experiencing physical pain, with the level closest to the body predominantly a red- orange color, with some breaks where the injury is located, or breaks in areas that relate karmically to the injury. If the person is very upset, the emotional layer of the aura will also usually be a hot color and have breaks. If the person is calm, just present with the pain, that inner layer may be surrounded by a cooler next layer. If the person is experiencing no physical pain at the moment, but there is some emotional turmoil, the inner layer may still be hot in color, and fragmented, because this inner layer is not just about the present experience of the body but also about karma. If there is much ease in the body, mind not creating stories, the whole inner three layers may be cool. The innermost layers change more often than those further out. Thus, each person has a predominant aura color and texture that I see, and also changing inner auras. The second and third layer often merge into one.

The outer layer usually stays a lot the same in my experience, changing very gradually. It moves from hotter to cooler, from darker to lighter, as a person matures in spiritual practice. With the opening to the causal level, the aura becomes more white. I see Aaron with a very white inner aura (causal level) with very subtle pale, cool blue overtones and a very radiant pure white outer aura (beyond the causal) . There are no physical or astral levels to his aura. So these layers of aura for me show the physical, astral and causal levels of the being.

Let us look at some of the other models of levels of consciousness. These exist in every spiritual tradition. For example, in the Taittiriya Upanishad is the concept of five selves. I quote from a web site: http://www.kheper.net/topics/Vedanta/koshas.htm

"This is one of the first writings to present a systemmatic metaphysic or theory of first principles. It speaks of the individual as divided into five selves (atma, initially - as with all such terms - "breath", and then "self" or "soul"; the term elsewhere, and especially later, came to characterise that aspect of the self which is synonymous with the Absolute)".

In Buddhism, they are the vinnana, or consciousnesses (citta), which are mundane and supramundane. The sense consciousnesses and mind are the physical level. Then the subtle consciousnesses. Finally the supramundane consciousnesses or lokuttara citta.

We all experience all three states of consciousness. Even the infant experiences them. We experience the stages of consciousness though the filter of the predominant state of the moment.

These 3 states are sometimes offered with a parallel to levels of sleeping/ awakeness. In daily life we see forms, objects, things as solid. In dreaming sleep there is only subtle consciousness and the idea of objects, but no objects. Beyond dreaming sleep, even the thoughts cease. We experience all three states every day.

Physical body consciousness is aware of things perceived through the 6 sense gates. The astral body perceives through subtle consciousness. This is like the vipassana process where we see objects arise and fall away, and rest in that "one who knows," that which observes the physical but with a more spacious perspective. Finally we move into the subtle body. Those who are energy workers are using thr\e subtle body. Then comes the Pure awareness level; as we open into the Unconditioned; we rest in a place where nothing arises or ceases.

Normally we just fall into one or another level. Most people can only enter the subtle and causal level when asleep. In meditation we learn how to open to these levels of consciousness while awake. This awakened mind can direct itself to and rest at ease in any of the three levels. With lucid dreaming, we experience the subtle realm while awake-conscious, rather than only in the unconsciousness of dream-sleep. Within the so-called enlightenment experience, we experience the causal level with consciousness or awakeness.

There are subcategories of these 3 levels. What makes it hard to categorize is the fact of overlapping planes. Certain states look like they exist in two levels. For example, that which is though of as the lowest level, magical consciousness that we see in children, can also seem to manifest in a very alike-looking way at the causal level. Here it is fed not by fear/ belief based only on the outer senses, but by non-dual mind and experience. They aren't the same but may appear so.

Anybody can experience any state. There's a big difference between having a "peak" experience, "that is a short term experience of the subtle or causal realm, and being able to integrate that experience. With the peak experience, one has suddenly touched the mountain top but doesn't know the way. With the integrated experience, all the levels that led to the peak experience are there, always available and integrated. We'll come back to this fact when we discuss so called "mental illness." Furthermore, states are interpreted by the highest stable stage of development. Movement into that peak experience of the nondual will be differently interpreted by someone who is stable in the stage just below the non-dual, and someone who is in a very early level of consciousness. We interpret everything, both states of experience and the taste of the soup through the predominant level of consciousness.

From ken Wilber: "At any stage of your own evolution, of course you can have all sorts of amazing altered states, nonordinary states, and profound spiritual experiences. Nobody is denying that. But those states will come and go, passing through your psyche in a way that cannot be reliably maintained because the psyche has not yet grown enough depth to stably contain the vastness of these higher realms. That is why we say that the potentials contained in states become actual stages with increasing evolution."

Chakra meditation from Aaron, from 04.10.13SI

Please begin by grounding yourself in the body. Feel the buttocks touching the chair or cushion.

Breathing in, breathing out, touching. (pause) (we will not continue to note each pause on the transcript)

Many of you are floating above your bodies. Come on in! Breathe. Relax. Here we are together in a lovely room, a group of seekers, brothers and sisters in spirit, in this lovely space lit by candles. Be here.

Relax. Breathe, come into the body. I'd like you to take your hands and feel the body. Touch the arms, hand to the opposite arm. Touch the face gently and lovingly. Touch the legs. If you are sitting on the floor, touch the feet; in a chair, touch down as far as the knees.

I'd like to ask you now to contract the body. Tighten the jaw, fists, belly, shoulders. Feel it and know "contracted, contracted". And then, release, noting, "Open. Spacious". And one more time, contracting. Know the experience of physical contraction. And then release.

Feel the energy in the base chakra as it touches the cushion. Feel it as earth energy. The base chakra is the chakra of being, of expression into the world, of life, of energy, physical, mental, sexual. It's primary expressed color is red. Feel the possibility of life pulsating through the base chakra. Here we also may find fear related to survival, which closes the base chakra.

The second chakra, the spleen, is just below the naval. Bring your hands to it, perhaps one hand in the front and one hand in the back. Feel where that energy center might be. This is the human in relationship to the self and other people. It is more the seat of fear than the base chakra is. In the base chakra, we are so basic that there is not as much fear usually held in the base, except for that deepest survival fear. But as soon as there's something to relate to, fear comes up. This chakra is about sexuality, creativity, personal relationships, personal emotions including sorrow. It is also about reaching out to others, about energy and relationship, and embracing life. See if you can soften, literally gently rubbing the belly and/or the back. Bringing kind attention to this energy center. You may wish to see it filled with orange light. That is the primary color it carries. Breathing in, breathing out.

Now raise the hands and focus to the solar plexus chakra, just below the rib cage. Put a little pressure there. This is tonight's chakra (a presidential candidate's debate on TV) about the human relationship with the world. It is from this chakra that we get politics, and presidential debates. These men may be speaking from their third chakra. We would wish they were speaking instead from the heart chakra.

The third chakra relates to power, control, and societal relationships. Here we find power issues and also discipline and commitment or self-based will power.

As you bring touch to that solar plexus chakra, and perhaps envision yellow light flooding it, feel the possibility of opening, of spaciousness there. For the human, these lower chakras often become constricted, with more focus on the personal self. But this is not the true nature of these chakras. Within these chakras we can experience a oneness with all that is. So on the relative plane, this is the individuated personal, and on the ultimate plane, this is the personal level of this particular being as expression of all that is.

In the solar plexus we may feel constriction around power or control and see it as an individual issue. When we understand that all beings react with the hardening of this chakra when there is fear, that all beings want to be safe and happy, we come to see that hardening more simply, as conditioned experience. We find that we can rest in the uncontracted 2^nd and 3^rd chakras, experiencing immense compassion for beings who do not feel safe and in control, who do not know the ultimate safety that every being has. That is not the safety of this incarnation but the safety of its wondrous reality as expression of the divine.

So these chakras that are so habituated toward fear, power, and control can become the tools of our opening. We cannot discard these chakras because without them we lose our contact with this heavy density plane.

If you are going to lose that contact, why did you bother to come? You can't be in the incarnation yet avoid the relative reality, and still do the work you came to do. So this is the lower half of the pole, grounded deeply in the earth vibration.

We come to the heart chakra. The predominant color is green. The heart is the bridge touching the lower and the upper chakras. Breathing in, feel the energy moving from the heart down to the solar plexus and the second and base chakras, and back up again into the heart. Feel if you can, the way that the heart is grounded into this physical reality you call your own name, and into this density we call earth.

Touch where the heart might lie, pressing against the sternum. Put on a little pressure but soft, a light touch. Take a deep breath so that the chest expands out into that touch, not hard enough to be painful but felt. And then release, letting the chest collapse a bit.

Be aware of the heart organ, which is not the same as the heart chakra but ties in with it. The heart meridian does run through the heart organ, although the chakra lies slightly below and to the right of the heart organ.

Now please bring your hands up to the throat, a very gentle touch. Just at the place above the collarbone where the flesh becomes soft. The color here is blue. These next 3 chakras are the upper end of the pole. The body contains it all. You are angels in earthsuits. The upper chakras relate to that angel, to your true divinity, and help you to recollect that divinity. The lower chakras remind you of your decision to move into human incarnation, for both your own growth and in service to all beings and to the Light, to love.

This throat chakra is about your voice in the world, not just the vocal expression but the voices of all of the bodies: your facial expressions, the acts you do, the expressions of lovingkindness or anger, of fear or fearlessness. When the throat chakra is contracted and not spinning, it is usually because there is some doubt about your ability to send out that voice in the ways that you wish to send it out. There is the intention to know your connection and live that connection, but when the being experiences fear, greed or anger, the throat chakra may seem to close because at some level there is not the willingness to express that negativity. Or, if there is desire to express it, the throat chakra closes because the nature of the spirit plane is love. The throat chakra is within this spirit realm. You cannot use a tool of positivity easily to express negativity.

Gently touch this chakra area while offering loving wishes to yourself and others. Breathing in, "May I have peace". Breathing out, "May all beings have peace". Breathing in, "May I be happy", and out, "May all beings be happy". In, "May I have well-being". Out, "May all beings have well-being". Gently touching this chakra and feeling the blueness of it, feeling how it can open and spin, just through the expression of these loving wishes.

We ascend now to the third eye. It is located about an inch or two into the head, just above the point where the eyebrows would meet. If you feel the forehead, you feel a spot that feels a bit softer, a bit tender. That would be the third eye. Indigo light, blue-violet. Hold your finger there, just one finger against it, and see if you can feel a slight pulsation. It is the third eye that we must awaken for the remembering of our true spirit nature. With the awakening of the third eye, and presence in the base chakra, we begin to deeply experience the feet on the earth, and the head in the heavens. It is from the third eye that you truly know yourself as a divine entity, temporarily within this earthsuit but in no way limited by the human form and expressions.

Touch a finger again on the third eye, and now bring a finger of the other hand to the crown of the head. Again feel for a spot that is just a bit soft and perhaps sensitive. Some of you will feel the energy pulsating there; others may not. The color of the crown chakra is violet, a deep rich violet.

Keep one finger, just one, the forefinger or middle finger of one hand on the crown chakra, and now release the touch of the third eye and bring the hand around behind you to the very base of the spine, one finger touching. See if you can feel the flow of energy. Sit as straight as you are able, back straight, so the energy may flow more easily. As it comes down to the base chakra, send it down to the feet. If you're sitting in a chair, feel it moving through the feet into the earth; on a cushion, simply feel it through the sides of the feet, touching the cushion.

Breathing in, draw energy from the ground all the way up to the crown. Breathing out, let the energy flow down the front of the body and to the base. Breathing in, the energy comes up through this essential meridian, the chakras spinning, to the crown, and then exhale, feeling the energy drop back down through third eye throat, heart, solar plexus, spleen, to the base.

As you exhale and come down to the base, be aware of touching the earth. As you inhale, let go of the touch on the chakras. Literally raise your hands up. Lift your head up. Feel yourself literally connecting with the heavenly realms. You are spirit.

Exhale, lowering the arms, lowering the direction in which the head faces so if the eyes were open, they'd be looking at the earth. Exhale, feeling the grounding. Inhale, raising the arms, lifting the head. Long inhale. Exhale. Lowering arms and face. Coming back to the base. At this low point in the exhale, be very aware of the earth energy.

Inhale. Raising the arms, raising the gaze. Aware of the high frequency vibration that surrounds you. And exhale.

We're going to sit for 2 or 3 minutes in silence, then I will continue to talk a bit. As you sit here, please be aware with the flow of the breath. Exhale, you don't have to use your arms here, but exhale, aware of the grounding. Inhale, aware of the rising energy. Aware of how much spirit fills this room, and that you also are spirit. Exhale back to the material body, emotions, and so forth. Inhale, touching again on spirit essence.

After a minute or so if this if you wish, you may simply rest in that high vibration, letting the breath be shallow, not coming all the way down to the base. Or you may continue to come all the way down and up as you prefer. I'll be quiet now for several minutes.

Venture Fourth Weekly WorkConsciousness

Chakra meditation from Aaron, from 04.10.13SI

Venture Fourth Weekly Work
Consciousness