From the Logic of the Finite to the Infinite
It is early January 2021 and the headlines are enough to make anyone wonder about the sanity of the human race.
If there is a supreme existence, it apparently doesn’t exist here…or so it would appear.
In the span of time in which you attempt to move from the unconscious to the conscious, to move from your suffering to your joy, you will eventually have to teach your mind to venture past the logic of the daily grind to the logic and wisdom of the infinite and that is no small task. It is truly an evolutionary journey. But immediately you begin to see that if you insist on utilizing the logic of the past, you are doomed to repeat the past. And that’s what most people do.
You’ll notice that when you try to speak about yourself from beyond simple judgment, belief, opinion, perception, or position and you’re trying to express the deepest truth about yourself or the world in which you live, from the logic of the infinite, it is hard to find the right words but you have a deep connection to the infinite from which your experience is coming.
When you do find yourself speaking on a daily basis about all the mundane and trivial stuff that makes up the daily grind, you’ll notice you speak mostly about the past, you rarely have a context to which to refer. Context is synonymous with the infinite. So, how do you begin to deliberately move toward the logic, truth, and wisdom of the infinite while operating in a physical body in the daily grind? These recommendations can be very helpful in understanding how to begin to move forward. Consider letting your mind entertain and gravitate around these concepts:
The very first recommendation is that you have to want to get out of the mess.
Considering the overwhelming addictions (mental, physical, and emotional) that you practice in your daily life, you must understand how difficult this journey can be but at the same time, it is the desire to get out of the mess that is the starting point. You don’t have to know how it’s going to happen…you have only to believe that it can.
If you keep applying the same dysfunctional logic of daily life to the spiritual, you will fail. Transformation is not available to a mind that does not believe in transformation and is dedicated only to a particular belief system. It is in this way that religion turns an omnipotent God into an impotent tyrant, that the mind turns possibilities into regret.
2. The second recommendation…and please notice I didn’t say requirement… is based somewhat upon the above comments.
There is a need to at least consider that consciousness, that God, that the Divine is the force that knows itself in everything that exists and that includes you. This is perhaps the first step in creating a spiritual life…in considering that without that consciousness, nothing could exist and that also includes you. In fact, it is vital to understand that there is nothing that is not this consciousness. Nothing.
It’s helpful to understand then that it is that consciousness that knows what it’s doing and that you’re the one who doesn’t. Aurobindo says, “The Lord of Beings is that which is conscious in the conscious being, but he is also the Conscious in unconscious things, the One who is master and in control of the many that are passive in the hands of Force-Nature. He is the Timeless and Time; he is Space and all that is in Space; He is Causality and the cause and the effect: He is the thinker and his thought, the warrior and his courage, the gambler, and his dice-throw.” And I would be negligent to point out that that description of you is probably better than your description of you. And said differently, this recommendation is that you adopt the idea that you are much more than what you have become and it’s time for you to realize that you’re going any further on your own with the limited knowledge you have.
3. The micrologic that you utilize to live your life has come about as a result of your experiences from birth and represents what your mind came up with to deal with those experiences.
This is horizontal logic. The macro logic of the universe existed before you were born and as a result, represents vertical logic. Horizontal logic can fix stuff. Vertical logic builds stuff and the stuff we’re most interested in is the stuff that makes up who you really are and what you’re doing here. Where the micrologic of the individual is relative and only applicable to similar individuals, the micrologic is all-inclusive and applicable to all of life and all individuals.
4. Because of the limitations and lack of reliability and success of the micrologic, it is common to witness individuals seeking miracles and revelations to resolve their circumstances.
I promise you that you don’t need these. What miracles are in the horizontal, these are the very things that make up the fabric and reality of the macro logic. In other words, what is so miraculous in daily life is just standard operating procedure in the spiritual. You don’t need miracles…you need truth. Notice that your version of the truth, your micrologic, is always trying either to control the circumstances or when it can’t, it creates opposition and resistance to those circumstances.
5. Therefore, instead of believing that there is another who is going to save you, a by-product of your own micrologic, you must consider that there is nothing to be saved from and that escape from the daily grind is not the objective.
Denial, sleep, addiction, and even death become the ego’s response to challenging situations. Your intuition and your inner experience that is based upon the truth that resides in the macro logic is the only truth you need and that you are in fact, made of the same consciousness that makes up that artificial micrologic. You must realize that in the same way that the sun serves as the physical source of light and heat on earth, it is the development of this center that is based upon truth-consciousness, this center inside of you that will become your source of comfort, clarity, and response.
6. What appears to be so reprehensible to our micrologic is but the eternal movement of things working their way through the ignorance and stupidity that created the reprehensibleness in the first place.
The reprehensible is the combination of occult forces and invisible dynamics that are unknown to us and unseen by us but are part of a greater potential seeking to make itself known. There is nothing in your micrologic that can explain disaster and personal tragedy… but from the viewpoint of the macro logic, there is nothing but perfection playing out. Perfection is self-evident to the consciousness that is playing out but quite unjust to the mind that is the instrument not of consciousness but of ignorance.
So, the reprehensibleness is perfectly rational to the consciousness that created it in order to move things forward. Consisting of rules, values, morality, standards, belief systems, and rigid opinions, the mind is completely incapable of evaluating much less seeing the outcomes the consciousness is trying to actualize.
7. Modern therapy can see the parts that make up the whole but can’t see the whole.
Sometimes, you can see the whole but can’t see the parts that make up that whole. Both are valuable and can provide insight but both approaches are limited and can only produce at best a partial truth. But, the mind is quite satisfied with partial truth and provides satisfaction for its need to be right. So, to explain the essence of this understanding, let’s go to the Chandogya Upanishad that highlights the phrase Tat Tvam Asi. Tat Tvam Asi means “Thou Art That,” meaning that you are the Divine, you are the consciousness that created you, you are it.
But that is only a partial understanding. The whole understanding is that so are they. So is the murderer, the thief, the liar, the cheat. And that can be a difficult bridge to cross but at least you’re going over the right bridge. So, the whole truth is that the many are a representation of the one. Unity finds its way, not into sameness but diversity. So, it’s important to realize that there’s always another reality that is playing out that you cannot see.
8. There is not a single one of us who cannot articulate in-depth our limitations, barriers, shortcomings, faults, and failures.
However, the one true Reality, the one consciousness has no limitations and if you can consider this possibility, this Reality, then you can consider that the evolutionary process is not a creation of that consciousness but is a manifestation of that consciousness. The Divine manifests itself and its Self contains all. The infinite manifests into an infinite number of forms and variabilities. But all are still the Divine.
Because of the freedom of consciousness, consciousness can manifest as the opposite of itself without that opposite being a contradiction of itself, or an accident, a mistake, which you commonly think or feel when something doesn’t go your way. The infinite is just that- infinite and includes all forms and all beings, all Time and all Space. Your perceptions are based upon the limitations you have learned and your actions are based upon those perceptions. Within the Infinite, perception is not really necessary for everything is. Everything is a manifestation of that Isness. Nothing is excluded and that’s really hard for your mind to grasp.
9. When I ask an individual the question, “What is left when everything in your mind has been removed?”, the majority of people will report an experience of nothingness or void.
There are many spiritual texts that describe the infinite as formless and yet from birth until death, your spiritual journey is conducted in a world full of form. Historical spiritual practices have highlighted the journey into the formlessness that most individuals equate with meaninglessness. But how could the formless be meaningless? The absence of form is not a negation of form. Form is generated out of the formless. But your micrologic doesn’t understand this. The experience of formlessness is for many individuals who have maintained a disciplined mediation practice one of the signs and experiences of greater spiritual essence.
What is important in the concept of formlessness is understanding that the physical is not a negation of the spiritual but is an expression of it. But the physical had to come from somewhere! If you use sandpaper to whittle down a block of wood until there is nothing left, your micrologic says, “It’s all gone! There’s nothing left.” The macro logic says the opposite…it says that this is the essence of the block of wood. Formlessness is the spiritual essence of all forms. So, don’t be bothered when things disappear from your life.
10. If there is a culminating thought in this simple list of 10 concepts to be mindful of when creating a spiritual path, it would be that the greatest mental act in which you can engage is to seek to find the one principle or law or understanding or practice that allows you to unite all of the disparate elements of lift.
To figure out how to see through appearances and unify your thinking and perceptions in such a way for until you begin to make progress with this concept, you will wage war and engage in opposition and resistance. This is not an argument for complacency or complicity and when the time comes that you must make a stand for what is right, you can do so with greater comfort and certainty of purpose.
The object here in #10 is to create a spiritual center in the middle of a hugely differentiated world, a transcendent connection that helps guide you while living in an unconscious world. In other words, unify your perceptions so that your mind begins to include everything and everybody as part of the unfolding. So, essentially, you begin to see that all human beings are alike but go about the evolutionary process through a differentiated approach to their life.
The transcendent, which is said another way is the spiritual, the spiritual in the individual is expressed through individualized expression. We are all the same but we go about expressing that shared sameness in different ways. As I have said many times, this can be very difficult to accomplish but don’t worry about whether your effort is perfect. Concentrate on just beginning the process of unifying the differences. The micrologic thinks in terms of sameness in the sameness of appearance. You are now beginning to teach that logic to see sameness, not in appearance but in spiritual terms. Where the micrologic sees a circle as finite, enclosed, and limited, the micrologic sees the circle as vast and boundless, and limitless.
Unity in variety. Unity in differences. Unity in all things.
For me personally, I am aggravated when I find myself being taken off-center by something that I did not expect to encounter. My first reaction tends to be one of anger or impatience as this was the dominant emotion I stored in my own “closed-tape-loop” growing up and that pattern can still surface. These days, my aggravation with myself is short-lived but my tolerance for those moments when I tap into an unconscious pattern and act in an ignorant, small, addictive way is waning. Becoming self-implicating is so important to this journey. But these moments are perfect for unifying the two parts of me…the conscious and the unconscious parts of me…to forgive me for needing to indulge in my insanity once again and let it go.
11. Your personality is the manifestation of the limited infinite. The characteristics, qualities, and features that make up your personality reveal no more about you than a hair on your head does.
Your personality is the superficial, horizontal expression of the vertical but because of the absence of context and connection to the vertical, you spend your time trying to figure out how to fit into the world, to achieve acceptance and acknowledgment, to reach control over your environment, to be loved, included. None of those activities will ever fulfill your deepest longings which are of a vertical nature but on the scale of the unconscious to conscious, you have to start somewhere.
Modern therapy, because it, too, has little connection to the definition of who you are other than the superficial, horizontal consciousness, is only able to articulate the demons inside of you. Now, those flaws stem from the superficial consciousness and not from the real you. So, any progress on the horizontal you is going to be short-lived.
It may be necessary as a stepping-stone in the long run but will fall apart when you encounter the long, rugged winters of life. You’re going to need something else. That something else is losing the personality, the very thing you spent so much time building and beginning the search of knowing your true self. You see, the physicality of any nature or form implies a consciousness, a will behind it.
What good is consciousness if consciousness is not to be experienced?
What good is truth if the truth is not to be known?
What good is joy if joy is not to be experienced?
What good is existence if existence is not meant to exist?
And this is where you come into the picture! Please understand the evolutionary process, the spiritual process is not about the negation of the lower levels of consciousness and the extraordinary experiences of being in a human body. It is not one or the other but both.
The physical experiences of the personality which are short-term in nature are dwarfed in comparison to the spiritual experiences which are long-term and last forever. What results from your attempts to tame your ego and personality are larger than the personality in which that spiritual progress is made. So, realize that you have a personality but you are not your personality.
12. I have spent so much of my life in pursuit of self-awareness and spiritual understanding and it wasn’t until I was introduced to the realm of consciousness that I, at last, felt like I had discovered the Holy Grail.
Of course, I didn’t discover anything but once introduced, I became a solid student of the work and had the discipline and perseverance to continue my work. I speak to you from such a limited point of view, but from as much humility as I can, and as honestly and as well as I can, not from opinion, belief, or judgment, but from the realizations, I gained from that ongoing experience and adventure.
First, let me state what it is not.
Consciousness is not self-awareness or mindfulness. But it can result in awareness. Consciousness is the discovery of truth not only of physical matter itself but the discovery of truth that lies within physical matter and that includes you. It should be obvious to anyone that the world in which we live here at the beginning of 2021 is witness to historical changes. The old guard is doing everything it can to hold onto power. The ignorance and corruption have now moved out of the hidden recesses of everyday life into full public view.
These changes are underway and the solutions to the problems we face as humanity, let alone the problems you face as an individual, those solutions will not be found in past spiritual, ethical, or religious venues. Unless there is a change in consciousness, a change that penetrates the heart of man, destruction is the only mechanism from which you and the world will learn.
And it is here at #12 that the solution is revealed: You are the solution.
The change in consciousness is predicated upon the transformation of the individual and no one else. The world needs no more evidence to prove that governments, religions, schools, or philosophies are not going to save the planet. You are. The future of the planet is the future of the individual. It is time for you to realize who you are and why you are here. Consciousness is the chariot to the heavens that lie not outside of you but inside of you. It is all you need.
You are the solution.
It is what you have been looking for your entire life outside of you in the physical world that can only be found inside of you in the spiritual essence of who you are. Tat Tvam Asi is not just a phrase. It is a true statement of who you are.
Of course, go back and read these concepts again and each time you hear them, you will increase your understanding of them and see their application in the creation of a conscious, spiritual path, in deeper and deeper terms.
The micrologic of the human mind creates the same realities over and over even though it resides in a sea of possibilities. Why does it do this? You keep looking for the answers you desperately need out there in the physical world…more money, more sex, more control, more love, more anything other than what I’ve got. Why do you keep doing this?
But the one spiritual goal of mankind that has been recited over and over through time is: know thy Self. And why? Because the Self is a micro individual representing the macro Existence, the Divine, the Truth-Consciousness that is the source of all human existence.
To know thy Self is to know God, to know the ancient truths of life itself for life is much less a mystery than you have been taught. Believing it to be a mystery gives your mind the justification it needs not to know how life works. Believing that there is a grander reality and that the unknown is not unknowable, this position gives your mind the justification it needs to know it, to become it.
There’s a great scene in the 2000 film “Oh Brother Where Art Thou?” where the three friends have escaped from prison and are fleeing to safety. Having fallen off of a moving train, they try out what to do next, disagreeing with one another as to who to be in charge of that decision. Suddenly, coming down the tracks on a handcar is a blind old man who picks them up. Where the 3 friends represent the horizontal, physical, micrologic of daily life, the old man does not just represent but is the macro logic of the vertical, spiritual. It’s a beautiful scene.
In any situation in which you find yourself imprisoned in your thinking, do the best you can to expand from the micrologic of your finite horizontal, life to the macro logic of your infinite, vertical being.
Life is not a mystery. It is you who is the mystery that you can come to know when you choose.
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