The Singular Nature of Consciousness

A man would like Rupert’s opinion of his understanding that everything that exists is, at an absolute level, an expression of consciousness. But human beings are characterised by having a mind that is able to create the sense of a separate self but can also ‘turn around’ and recognise themselves as awareness. Animals have a mind but seem not to have these abilities. Plants even less so. And other physical objects simply cannot know themselves as consciousness. Rupert doesn’t necessarily agree but offers an analogy to explain the singular nature of consciousness: Take empty physical space and add the quality of awareness to it. Then, imagine the space could place this room upon itself. Prior to doing so, there is one indivisible whole, but with appearance of the room there seems to be two spaces – inside the room and outside of it. These spaces are finite, no longer infinite. Imagine that the room space has five windows, each with a label – seeing, hearing, touching, etc. – and these are the portals through which this small finite space sees the world. The building containing the room is enclosed in thinking and perceiving. When the room looks at the vast outer space it doesn’t seen formless infinite space, it sees ‘the world’, a finite space. This world appears to the room through the limits of the room’s ability to perceive.

From event 20 April - 20 May, 2024 Seven-Day Meditation Retreat at Mandali – 20 to 27 April 2024

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