Total Being
Awakening to Cosmic Consciousness is awakening to being the underlying field of unbounded Awareness in which everything is happening.
Even though there is oneness on the level of Being, there is still a distinction between the silent non-doing pure Awareness, and the activity of relative life. Intellectually and intuitively, it is known that pure Awareness is all there is, but on the level of direct experience, a division still exists between the contents of consciousness and Consciousness itself.
On the level of Consciousness, there is no further to go. You have become pure Awareness itself. The sense of Being is no longer trapped in the mind, falsely identified with the body and perceptions of the world.
In this state, the body and world can seem somewhat unreal and insubstantial compared to the infinite reality of the Self. Pure Awareness is so dominant that the true reality of the mind, body and perceptions can be completely undermined.
It is possible to think “I” am experiencing the same enlightenment as everyone who has awakened, including the great sages of the past.
This is true on the level of Being. But it is not true on the level of the wholeness of Consciousness and the finer perception of its internal dynamics of knowing.
It is the internal mechanics of Consciousness in its process of knowing itself that creates the appearance of the mind and body, and all perceptions of the world and universe. This becomes the more significant reality when Consciousness fully awakens to the broader perspectives and finer perceptions of itself.
After some time, on the practical level of living, you soon find out that what appeared, from the perspective of Being as an unreal world, is still somehow very real. Cosmic Consciousness is not yet the complete picture. Consciousness is still not yet awake to the true reality of the mind/body and all objects and phenomena of experience. Nor is it awake to the process of experiencing, the flow of Cosmic Intelligence that gives rise to the appearance of creation. Cosmic Consciousness is the essential first stage in the direction of full enlightenment, but it is still incomplete. It is a state of “enlightened ignorance”.
In the next Awakenings, You, (the unbounded sense of pure Being, pure Awareness), awaken to being all objects and phenomena of experience on the surface of life. After that; the refined flow of the process of experiencing and mechanics of creation, and then to the total divine reality beyond the SELF.
The natural progression of awakening through the stages and states of Consciousness knowing itself more fully can happen relatively quickly, or it can take many years. But the true depth, clarity, stability and refinement of perception in any of these states depends solely upon the refinement, balance and integrated functioning of the nervous system. This happens gradually over time, either through past self-effort and/or many years of awakened living. Everyone functions at different levels of balance and integration due to merit from past karma, so some nervous systems are naturally more refined than others. We are still living in a rather crude age; in general, our nervous systems are not sufficiently holistically refined to live the supremely divine reality of life that is the true nature of Consciousness.
The most common progression of Awakening to full enlightenment in this age is from Cosmic Consciousness, with perhaps some initial experiences of Refined Perception, directly into Unity Consciousness and beyond. Finer perception and experience gradually unfold in time as the nervous system becomes more refined and the boundless reality of Being is infused into the mind, body and total life experience.
If you have recently Awakened, it is more important to be firmly established in unbounded Awareness than to start looking for anything more. Don’t let the following descriptions of higher perspectives and perceptions of Consciousness pull you into the mind and create desire, doubt or confusion. When the next shifts happen, you won’t have to wonder whether you are there or not. They are Self-evident to Consciousness and cannot be missed. The shifts in perspective can only be comprehended after they happen. Trust that everything is happening exactly as it should, and that the awakening to being Consciousness and its higher states will happen for you when the time is right.
