CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
We Are Conscious: We Give
We are conscious of the self as personality. We are familiar with our intimate, inward
being. How we identify ourselves, how we know
others, the presence in their eyes, friendship, are all how we are conscious of the
personality. All are images of the personality we call the
self. We naturally respond to this self in the ways we know ourselves and others. On a
more conscious plane, we know this self in terms
of the mechanism of a universal interrelationship, in a way that is conscious of itself.
In our self, we are conscious as a mind; in our
greater self we are conscious as an infinite identity materialized in this existence as a
being possessed of personality. We are conscious of
this self, from our greater being, as a soul personalized in the self: "I am."
Thus, we are conscious at two levels: One is the level of consciousness where we perceive
ourselves from a personal point of view; the
other is the personality as perceived from the point of view of everything else
interrelated to infinity as defined by our identity. Both
define the same personality, but both do so from opposing perspectives: The inner and the
outer being. Our consciousness does not yet
permit us to understand this fully, but we can attempt to see it in the way that it can
see itself in terms of its greater, outer self. We are
first as a personality defined by our greater, interrelated being which is our life's
essence; and we are second as a personality that has
become conscious of the self. The second is familiar and natural to us, whereas the prior
is what is still formative in our minds, still in the
realm of metaphysical thought. We are not yet conscious directly of the greater self, but
we can be conscious of the person we are. In
terms of how we are, how we see ourselves and how we are seen by others, may give us a
glimpse of how we are in our outer being.
In our personality is thus an expression of our greater self. It is a projection of our
identity into our being in this reality. It is our life's
essence, our greater and inner life system that reflects for us our personified existence.
Our personality is thus a precious value, for it is
our connection with our living and dying, happiness and sorrow, our image as a human
being. If it appears we are in the here and now
either friendly or fearful, warm or withdrawn, pleasant and generous or guarded; they are
all reflections of the personality that defines
our being. We are surrounded by it, guided by it, project it from within, and ultimately
are led to either live or die by it. There is a force
to our being alive that is perhaps the greatest force of our universe. It is the force of
personality materialized as our soul.
How spectacular to characterize our most intimate self, as well as our greater identity,
in terms of the energy that is expressed as our
personality. We project it outwardly as simply as we live and breathe, laugh or cry. It
colors our every feature, forms for us our limbs as
well as the lines on our face; it even penetrates all we think and do. We are signed by
our personality indelibly in all we are as a person.
Our identity makes itself known. When we know this, when we know ourselves as a
personality, we gain insight into who we are as a
greater self. It is that outer, greater self that gives us the being we inhabit in our
everyday existence, for that is how is projected for us
our present existence. We are who we are in terms of how we are.
We project ourselves into this reality at birth and thus remain surrounded by our greater
being's projections throughout our lifetime. It is
like being on a track we had chosen but from which we have the power to switch onto other
tracks. How and where we live, the manner
of our lifestyle, our friends, our community, children, our attachments and possessions,
our travels, all project for us the manner of our
being. We are also projected in our sensitivity to things, our loves, our amusements, our
work. All enliven our being with our greater
being. This being is connected by our personality, displayed there and projected both into
our present reality as well as into that greater
reality of which were but barely conscious. If this energy is manifest in us as
personality, it is manifest around us as the state of our being
in it. How we choose existence is as much evidence of the soul as how we think or smile.
Together, this outer and inner being of
personality form our total being within the network of an infinite interrelationship
powered by the living force of our universe. How
complex and yet how simple! Our greater being is thus focused into this dimension as an
individual, singular, living human being with a
totally unique self. How cherished is each human life!
We may easily forget the greatness of each human being. We may forget this of all things.
When devoid of a soul as the underlying
spiritual force of existence, the world becomes drab. But how great when seen that all
things are the projection of a greater self into this
reality. This projection is the spiritual force of an infinite focused into this reality.
All living things on Earth are born, somehow, exist in
their living form for some period of time, and ultimately die. How spectacular! They focus
here, choose their existence, live, and are
released from their chosen form. It is almost as if they descend here from some more
rarified existence only to labor here each with their
individual assigned task and then return. What marks us is that we have the power to be
conscious of this. We can speculate on our life
as well as on our ultimate death. We can think in terms of our personality and even think
in terms of a greater being. Animals have
personality, being in the same mechanism that defines our being here, but they are
relatively devoid of consciousness. All respond to
some form of affection, have recognition, care for their young, even display play for its
own sake. Some higher species such as
chimpanzees and gorillas have actually been taught to communicate with us, even display
intelligence. They are probably equally puzzled
as we are when tricked or hurt or treated irrationally. To some degree, all even grieve
death and are afraid of it. These are universal
forces that identify us all as living things. The mechanisms are the same; only we can
think about it and choose. We are conscious.
Where animal consciousness ends ours begins. We fill the void left behind by this lack of
consciousness and are this planet's conscious
beings. The burden of this consciousness, this action of choice rather than response, is
the burden of our existence here. It is the
responsibility of the master; it is the image of our greater identity. Having this
responsibility is what makes us great as conscious beings.
There is a vast difference between our existence and that of our fellow animals. Both
share in a feeling of life and affection. But only we
have a conscious ability of charity and giving. Animals, particularly mammals, may care,
but seldom if ever give for the sake of giving.
They may bring to their master a trophy of their conquest, a dead rabbit, but that may be
more a function of bringing their prize onto
their own territory. Within their animal hierarchy and pecking order, animals seldom have
the luxury of generosity. One takes what one
can. The animal personality accepts gifts but seldom is able to return the gift in kind.
Kindness may be returned for kindness. But would
kindness be offered first? It would have to be a conscious act. An offering requires a
premeditated choice of giving. It would be the act
of a conscious soul. But there is a soul in all living things; it is evident in their
eyes, their form, their movement. The energy of an infinity
is focused there too, but in us it is human. We are conscious of ourselves and of all
around us. We project this consciously. We give.
When humans first became conscious of being, we learned to give, and our evolutionary
development became explosive. Our social
structure changed from being a quasi-animal hierarchy to that of a more progressive order
of law and justice. We could progress beyond
mere survival and enter a realm of surplus. We began to do things for the pure joy of
doing, to decorate for its own sake, to have ritual,
to share in banquets, to hope for the future. When humans began to create music, myth,
works of art, dreams and religions, we stepped
from the animal world into a world of consciousness. To love another and to give became an
incredibly elevating act of human evolution.
We could give of ourselves, willingly, cheerfully, confidently, and in doing so we were
rising above a more animal and primitive past.
When we chose selflessness, we became human and the personality changed.
Through many lifetimes, the energy that is our identity changed with the ability of
giving. In each successive life form we projected this
new self into this reality and had seen in this reality a new beauty, a new refinement. To
give without the calculation of a return gift is to
elevate oneself beyond pompousness and self gratification. To give with humility, with
love, is to pronounce one's soul as being human.
We are of a higher order, when we can do this naturally and easily, though for most of us
it is work as a conscious, willed act. When we
could reshape the world in the many acts of giving, of lending the world a new beauty, of
creating where there had been a nothingness,
we changed the world in the image of our soul. When we created our stories, our music, our
dance, our poetry not only in words but also
in our deeds, our cities, our architecture, our care for our environments; then we had
learned to bring our human consciousness into this
reality. We have been penetrating it slowly, laboriously with many false starts and severe
reversals. But that is another mark of our
human consciousness. We have been persistent in it. We have been energizing our world in
our new image.
How miraculous has been this development! It led us to seek the soul in ways the animal
could not. We developed culture, religion. We
built retreats for the soul in our monasteries and convents, and worshipped deities of
kindness and love rather than the more primitive
deities of anger and terror. We became elevated and spread these ideas and deeds to other
parts of the world. There was no accident in
this; it was the power and energy of our soul. It is in our personality to do this and,
when brought to the level of culture, it is in our
collective personality as a people. This energy flows from the greatest expressed in the
smallest, from an infinity expressed in the self.
Through the act of giving, this self is then the energy into the greatest of an advanced
human world. This is a world each human being
each is free to be in the self within his or her mind as a personality. The energy of the
soul that flows there is an energy capable of great
power.
We mold our world by how we are in it. How we see things, how we touch them or love them
or remake them, all are indicative of how
we are as a personality. In effect, we lend things our energy when we are in contact with
them. When we focus on something, be it a
drop of dew on a leaf at sunrise, or a fabulously beautiful panorama, it is our energy
that flows there. When we gaze at the stars or into
the eyes of a young child, we are energizing these with the energy of our soul. The dance
of a butterfly or the glow of fireflies are all
forms of energy that become transfixed by us when we see them with love and enjoyment. We
project our energy there. If we meditate
on the beauty of a statue or see a pleasing form in a natural rock, we are lending them
how we are in our soul. The soul moves with
great power, but we are in the soul how we see these. How we are excited in ourselves by
what fixes our attention is how we project
ourselves into what it is we see. It is to give ourselves into it and thus to lend it our
consciousness of it. We mold our world by how we
are conscious in it.
What a precious being a man or woman can be. When conscious, to focus more fully on this
existence, we can bring out a beauty and
greatness of our humanness that has scarcely been achievable before. Though we are in this
realm but a short time within each lifetime,
how fabulous to be able to focus our attention on this existence and lend it the energy of
our soul. We live but for a short and precious
moment; we should not squander it on mean and servile pursuits. We are free beings capable
of greatness the world has only but recently
been awakened to. How futile to wallow in decadence, or to plot destruction and wars. To
waste our precious energy on these is absurd,
not befitting humans with a soul. Nor is there need to suppress the soul in severe self
denials or asceticisms. We are alive. There is work
to do. In the short time allotted us in this existence, we should expand our effort in the
joy of being, rejoice in our works and cares. Our
every moment of existence is filled with the soul. We should let this energy penetrate
into all the things we do.
The personality is the energy that is evident in both the feeling of the self and in what
is manifest in us as a representation of our greater
being. These two facets of personality are what makes us human in a way that the animal is
not. We have personality in common but we
are conscious of it: "I am". In that self consciousness lies the potential for
goodness. We can choose to give, to be kind, to be joyous, in a
way that is unique to us. When so chosen, we can then energize these through the energy of
personality into our existence in terms of
how we are and what we do. When we step beyond ourselves and offer to be generous, to be
humble, to be serene, we are adding the
soul to our world. This is not done directly from the self but done with the power of
identity energized as personality. It is the way
infinity energizes for us our world, by projecting our soul into it.
Thus we have the power to project ourselves in all we do. When we love another human
being, we are projecting ourselves then. When
we love a thing, hold it in our hand, see it with the mind, care for it, we are projecting
ourselves with the energy of our being. When we
lend comfort where there is pain, courage where is distress, we are offering elements of
the soul. And when we overcome arrogance with
kindness or anger with understanding, then we are learning to forgive in a way the animal
cannot. We are human and as such we do not
return anger for anger or pain for pain. We stop at its source and, if possible, avert it
before it even has a chance to come into being. In
this is the greatness of being conscious of the soul. We are masters of our destiny and we
do not pass on the blame to a lesser being.
Same as we do not pass on a violence or willful error, we do not pass on blame. Cruelty
and injustice have difficulty thriving in an
environment of human beings, for they are not empowered or projected by their
personalities. When we refuse to pass on hurt, there is
great power in this. It is the power of a conscious self image as a soul. To fail to
forgive is to fail the power that is our greater human
being.
Throughout civilization the personality has struggled to bring itself into our world. We
had glimpses of it through our great religions,
teachings of kindness and humility, of love. We had glimpses of it when we tried to be
just in our laws and judgements, when we
abolished human slavery and inequalities. The efforts of these seemingly meek acts have
had immense results. But our lessons are not
always well learned. There is rampant crime and terrorism in today's world. There is
cruelty and poverty and oppression of the soul in
many societies. But where we succeeded in shedding these, we had created the foundations
for future growth as a civilization. We had
learned to rise above old superstitions and seek to understand the universe on its own
terms. They are all works of personality universal
to the conscious mind. In our institutions of learning, of science and medicine, of
commerce and exchange; all express a human soul that
has found it more beneficial to agree rather than to coerce, and to seek rather than to
destroy. We give of ourselves in these pursuits, it is
the work of our being here, and from them grows the collective level of our human
consciousness. It is not that these achievements
cannot be undone; a lapse in vigilance can quickly revert back to a primitive state.
Rather it is a lesson that when the human soul is
victorious over its predatory past, we project ourselves into a world of care and love and
understanding. To love and to forgive, to give,
are powerful human traits. To trust, to be sincere, to be gentle and serene are powers
that allow a universe to focus in on itself through
our personality. Free from coercion, we are then able to pass these powers on to others.
When we give, we are conscious. In this is the
energy of a greater future world.
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