This post comes from my journal dated March 5th, 2007.
We cannot really know anything about what happens at the point of death. How will we know when we are dead? We can be told by others (in fact, that is all we know), but what meaning does that have for us? The only way to know death, is to die. (We cannot really know it. Knowing implies knowledge, and death is completely beyond thought.)
And I have been reading about “Levels of Consciousness,” but I don’t understand. Does that mean different states? For example, if someone is full of hate, that is lower, if someone is full of love, that is higher. Is that correct? Those are simply varying contents of the same consciousness. I question whether there are any levels of consciousness at all.
Unless you are talking about varying states of mind? Sorry, but there is nothing here that implies different levels. All of those things are a part of consciousness. Maybe it is just a problem with the language?
Different levels would seem to imply that there are different types of consciousness. A lower level, and a higher level. But there is really no difference, as it is all a part of the same consciousness.
Kind of like changing the curtains in an outhouse. The view might have improved, but something still stinks.
There is no higher or lower; there is only consciousness.
2 Comments
Absolutely correct, there might be different content of consciousness (because of varying perception), as a “field of perception” there is consciousness alone.
Consciousness, depending on the definition, separates the experience from the experiencer. If something happens to somebody at any given point in time, there is separation.
So if we take perception as the root of consciousness, who then will die?
A great way to put it Tokumei.
There are different or shifting contents, but it is relative to itself. It is certainly easy for one to see, but for some reason, many people resist.
These days I have been thinking of ways one might live peacefully through consciousness. I don’t know that it is possible however, but I also don’t know that it is impossible.
People don’t want to be enlightened anyway. Not necessarily. They just want to find a way to be free or to feel better. There is nothing wrong with that. But the way we have done it so far is terribly destructive.
I just wonder if there is a peaceful way to do it. That is what I have been contemplating these days.