If evolution is all about becoming more aware, then life is about consciousness. What is “consciousness?”

I gave some of this to you about 8 years ago, and have expanded it to make it more comprehensive. We begin life aware of what is immediately in our sensory field. As we age, we become more aware of things which are not immediate. Throughout life we are “conscious” of one thing or another, as well as many things we’re not “consciously” aware of.

An example of this is when we’re focusing on one thing while actually sifting through our subconscious impressions of something else. So awareness works on both conscious and unconscious levels which implies that we can be aware even when we don’t even know we’re aware.

As we move through time and gain experience, our views change, which eventually leads to shifts in our comprehension. As our comprehension changes, we naturally find ourselves aware of other points of view we never imagined before then. So while we’re always aware of many things on many levels, it can also be said that our awareness, or consciousness, evolves as a result of our experience over time.

When something gets the attention of our senses, we reference those sensory inputs to our mind, hoping we can use our assumptions, prejudices, and inferences to figure out what those inputs mean. Depending on what we are and are not aware of, our conclusions lead us into either a) higher and broader awareness and consciousness, or b) the ditch of illusion or error, depending on c) how sound those conclusions are, and d) how far we take those vectors of mental activity.

The mind works off of “sequence and selection,” classifications and division of “this from that.” Each time we use the analytical, reductionist powers of our mind to examine our awareness or what we believe we are conscious of, it leads to an understanding. Of course, given the infinite possibilities of errors in perception and reasoning, we always have to keep in mind the computer term GIGO, or “garbage in, garbage out.” If what we assume is erroneous, then no amount of extrapolation will make that true.

This is why we are encouraged to cultivate Viveka, also known as “Divine Discrimination,” or in street terms, our BS Detector. While none of us are born with this as a perfected function of perception, over time and experience either we become more aware as a result of our discernment or we choose not to pay attention to those things which could bring us expanded awareness and a greater consciousness. However, while our conscious mind can deceive itself, our subconscious mind still gets the message, whether the conscious mind recognizes it or not.

That’s why 20/20 hindsight both a plague and blessing of the human condition. Usually, if we know better, we make good decisions and choices. But if we don’t we fall into various types of error. In this sense, many life experiences must be chalked up to “it seemed like a good idea at the time.”

The blessing is that when we become aware of how our choices have led us into error, we can immediately change how we frame those errors by forgiving ourselves for being ignorant. However, our errors must be examined so we can become more aware of what was, and how it could have been different, without judging what we did or didn’t know as being “bad” or “good.” That’s because getting too hung up on past errors puts us in a state of second guessing the past, which is not productive. What we perceive to have been, and what we perceive could be, are still illusory thieves who are stealing our present by focusing on past and future perceptual assumptions.

We can sidestep falling prey to these thieves by cultivating detachment from the perceptions we have about ourselves and whatever reality we believe has happened, or is happening, By cultivating detachment, we don’t cling to understanding and forms of “being aware” or “not aware,” or “being conscious,” and come to a peace about the process of simply “Being.” Once we contact that “Being,” then we can pursue knowledge without attachment to outcomes or “knowing.”

The pursuit of knowledge over time, whether self-knowledge through meditation, study, or even one of my readings, ultimately yields insights that could never have been imagined before the experience of that mediation, study, or session. Over time, a prior experience can yield insights we never dreamed of before the moment the experience (as a function of time) ripened into knowledge and/or wisdom.

I came up with a formula for evolution of awareness as we journey through the dreamscape of the intersections of Fate Street and Freewill Street on Eternity Boulevard. I would offer that our awareness evolves this way:

Experience + (Consciousness x Time) = Movement In View.

The awareness of how our view has moved as a function of time is how our consciousness has evolved through our experience. And ultimately, it’s all NOW, even if we’re measuring the appearance of past, present, or future as we have perceived it in our mind’s eye.

Our “consciousness” operates on levels beyond appearance, measurement, or even experience. All of these are the means by which consciousness names the forms of existence. But we’re ALWAYS “Conscious.” That’s inherent in the nature of our Eternal Self.

Please take a moment to consider what I’ve just offered you. You may find that you will experience a greater awareness by viewing your experiences as conditioned by time and consciousness leading to where you are right NOW. You'll know that you're on the right track by feeling how your heart has been opening to a vaster Love for how you came to be the beautiful YOU that's reading this. Then feel your connection in that Love to All-That-Is. We're all in this together.

Reprinted on crystalwind.ca with written permission from Robert Wilkinson. Copying this article to other blogs is strictly prohibited. It is copyright protected. 

© Copyright 2023 Robert Wilkinson

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