If you're like most people, you live almost entirely in your mind. There's a constant internal dialog going on, the mind always talking to itself. "I need to do this...", "What if that...", "Yesterday I...". As soon as one thought is finished, another pops up. This is going on non-stop, so much so that really paying attention to all these thoughts would start to drive you nuts, so all the thinking starts getting pushed into the unconscious where it goes on automatically, habitually.
This is dangerous though, and the fact that nearly everyone else is doing it too doesn't make it any less so. Your thoughts influence enormously how you perceive your world. In new age jargon, this is the "you create your reality". Your beliefs are the lens through which you see the world, though for most, it's more accurate to say your beliefs are your world. To let the mind ramble on unconsciously is very dangerous because it will go on absorbing, and modifying beliefs without any conscious direction from you, and these beliefs will direct your whole life.
When you're unaware of your own thoughts, you're like a leaf blowing in the wind, and it becomes very easy for people to manipulate you. The media can just repeat something over and over again, and whether or not it's true, the majority of people will start repeating it as fact. Most mainstream forms of media, advertisers and politicians have refined manipulating people into an art. They even know the emotional triggers people have that feed into unconsciousness, one of which is sex. Get people a little bit aroused, get the mind excited and it becomes easy to sneak thoughts into them. Other common triggers are things like violence, fear, or the promise of money. If someone can convince your mind that they can fulfill your desires, they can very easily control you.
When you're caught up in your own mind, it's difficult to really hear what another person is saying too. Your own thoughts take precedence in your mind, and they can very easily distract you. You go on half-listening or half-reading what another is saying and at the same time you're listening to your own thoughts. You get overloaded, too much to take in at once, and so you go on auto-pilot and you operate almost entirely unconsciously.
Unconsciousness reacts, and a reaction is always based upon the past. If you live unconsciously, you will just repeat the past over and over again. It's very easy to live that way, and it's very safe, at least by societal standards. I said it's very dangerous before because you allow yourself to be manipulated by psychopaths who exploit you for their own power and greed, all the while denying your own Soul, but by societal standards living unconsciously is very safe. There's a comfort in knowing your life is already all planned out for you. It may be deeply unfulfilling and maddeningly repetitive, but there's a feeling of security in that consistency and a deep fear of breaking out of it.
In my life, I have no idea what's going to happen tomorrow, I don't even know what's going to happen this afternoon. If you truly live in the moment, if you really live consciously, all you know for certain is what's occurring in this moment, the past is just echoes, and the future is endless possibilities. In living presently, everything opens up, life moves from the known to the unknown to the Unknowable, the Ultimate. For the unconscious person, this is terrifying. When the unconscious mind is faced with the unknown, it starts jumping to all the negative possibilities. It starts focusing upon what it might lose, and in dwelling upon all these negative possibilities, the mind actually puts energy into creating them. A conscious person knows that they don't know what's going to happen, that they can't know, it's an unconscious person that believes they've got their whole life figured out.
If there's any sin, any evil, any wrong in the world, it's living unconsciously. You can blame the warmongers who control your governments, but they're only there because they can manipulate the minds of the unconscious masses. It's unconsciousness that's the root of all these problems. Unconsciousness is the greatest evil, though you've been conditioned to believe otherwise, you've been taught that consciousness, that having your own thoughts, leads to wickedness. Of course, nobody told you that so plainly, you were taught it in a much more subtle way.
Most religions teach that people are inherently evil. In fact religion has to teach this, it's survival is dependent upon that belief since if you were inherently good there'd be no need for religion, would there? Even in the absence of religion, society still operates this way, that's why you need to be taught virtues and ethics, to be taught what's right and what's wrong, and it's why society needs rules to enforce these behaviors. You never really learn to tell right from wrong with these systems of morality though, what they actually teach is how to behave mechanically, unconsciously. You're taught to listen to this external system of morals and to trust in the "authority" of the people in charge. Through this contradictory system, which is supposed to make people good, one of society's greatest evils is perpetuated, war.
People aren't inherently evil though, that's little more than an ancient myth that unfortunately still lives in the very core of our society. Science has recently shown that it's in our base nature to be caring, compassionate and helpful. Not only that, but we naturally feel better when behaving that way. From an evolutionary standpoint, of course this is true, because helping each other out makes us stronger as a whole. Even for a materialist, it's giving love and being loved that leads to lasting happiness.
We're taught things like greed. In the madness of our capitalist society, we're even taught that greed is good. We're taught that there's not enough for everyone, and that we've got to get what's ours before someone else does. We're even taught that the richest and greediest are helping society as a whole, and through giving them more money and power, everyone prospers. I get the feeling that most people are starting to see that belief for the ridiculous lie that it is, but the selfish greed we've been taught still remains. It disguises itself through rationalizations such as making "good financial sense".
All these things work against consciousness. Consciousness is always fresh, always new, always seeing things in different ways. It's not something planned out beforehand, it's something that happens entirely in this moment. We've been taught that behaving unconsciously makes us good people though, and that truly making our own decisions, by breaking free of the rigid societal structures, we'll bring chaos upon ourselves and threaten society as a whole. It's true in a sense, consciousness is a threat to unconsciousness, but behaving consciously won't make you evil, quite the opposite, you will discover a much deeper sense of right and wrong. You will have your own compass, your own direction. People behaving this way would be an enormous benefit to society as a whole, but the people currently in power would lose all the precious illusion they've built up, so they're aggressively against true consciousness.
It's not just our governments that are corrupt, it's people's minds. That's the only place corruption really exists anyway. The most helpful thing you can do to free yourself from the current system is not to fight against it, but to look within yourself, pay close attention to everything you think and feel. Free yourself from all corruption, all unconsciousness and fear. It will not be easy at first, nor will you be finished overnight, but you will be giving yourself a priceless gift. If people were only as devoted to their own awareness as they are to their jobs, the world would already be vastly transformed for the better.
The things I'm talking about here may seem fairly mundane, not nearly as exciting as chakras and higher dimensions, but what I'm talking about here, awareness, is the key that unlocks all those things. Spiritual people are always talking about awakening, but what is awakening? Isn't it simply awareness? Isn't that what happens every morning when you wake up? You were sleeping, and now you're awake, now you're more aware. Spiritual awakening is just a heightened level of awareness, it's awareness of more than just the physical realm. You don't need a bunch of bells and whistles to get there, no need for a spiritual books, gurus, chanting, all you need is awareness.
Greater awareness of the body and mind will naturally lead to awareness of the Soul. It's the unconsciousness of the mind that distracts from the Soul in the first place, but unconsciousness cannot thrive when the being is aware. Pay close attention to everything, do not let your mind ramble unconsciously. It will likely drive you a little nuts at first, and while the manic state of the mind is not a pretty thing to watch, keep at it. Really, all you're doing is acknowledging the way your mind really is. With awareness, little by little, the mind will start to calm. Not by fighting against the mind, not by struggle, but through simple awareness. The worries and fears that thrived in unconsciousness start to shrink when exposed to the light.
I've noticed a lot of people use spirituality like some mental bubble gum. You chew on something for a while, then when it has lost its flavor you spit it out and look for something new to consume. It's a form of entertainment, some excitement and distraction from an otherwise boring life. I don't want to give you any distractions from your life though, I want you to pay very very close attention to all parts of your life, so close that it becomes impossible to ignore any part, whether ecstatic joy or extreme pain. In this you will be transformed, your feelings will become guideposts in how to live your life, not as an imitation of someone else, but as a celebration of your true self.
The Galactic Free Press
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