The Enlightening Consciousness

(Happy Deepavalli)
KORA KOOSRAJ·FRIDAY, 25 OCTOBER 2019·READING TIME: 3 MINUTES

I, Me and the Cosmos in Awareness and Consciousness

I is the natural sense of being arising in awareness or it is aware being/presence. I does

not arise in unconsciousness or sleep. Therefore, I refers to the Individual Awareness of
Being, arising and receding in Consciousness. It is any individual’s (individuated
consciousness’) natural, passive, persistent, inherent and immutable subjective sense of
self-awareness. I is therefore essentially Consciousness individuated or the individual
self.

When I reflects to itself in ‘aware’ consciousness, it becomes objectified as Me: self

perceived as a distinct object, a personal identity made of distinctive referentials, held
and sustained in/by memory. Me is memory engendered. Without memory and
referentials, the I cannot competently generate a persistent Me in conscious awareness as
in the case of Alzheimer or accidental memory loss. Me is an active, dynamic and
expanding/shrinking definition of our objective self-awareness. Me can thus assume
different shapes and facets (roles, characters, persona) in different sets of circumstances.
One distinctive feature of Me is being a centre of thinking or a focus of self-talking
(verbalising) about distinct objects, events, activities, emotions, sensations, memories,
time, meanings, self and others. Me operates both in differentiation (duality) and in
synthesis (reconciliation).

The common element holding the singular/unified I and its plural/diversified Me closely
knit together is spacious awareness, wherein experiences of being, self and not-self occur
and thrive. Both experiencing (subjective and objective contents) and its field (spacious
awareness) are nothing but modifications of CONSCIOUSNESS. Consciousness is the
source, substance and substratum of all experiences (contents) happening in any
individual conscious awareness.
Awareness is a special feature of Consciousness (Its Expansive Light aspect) by which
Consciousness is made known (objectified) through the instruments of experience. When
the light (of conscious awareness) is switched on, the contents and events appear and
thrive in spacious awareness (presence). When the light of awareness is turned off (as in
sleep), all contents and events just disappear into absence (non existence). Awareness is
Consciousness being revealed (revealing Itself) in the Light of Knowing and thus
awareness shares the all-pervasiveness, almightiness, all-embracingness, integration and
intelligence of Consciousness.

Experience, generated by the operations of the distinctive instruments of an individuated

(body-mind) configuration, happens when spacious awareness becomes partly focused
and objectified, flowing from I through its Me to grasp objects/events within the field of
awareness. However, Spiritual Integration happens when spacious awareness turns
inwards towards its genesis/source, towards That Consciousness, which is prior to all
awareness and experiences, which is also concurrent with awareness and experiences,
and which exists even after awareness and experiences disappear into absence. Spiritual
Integration (Connection or Communion between I and Consciousness in expansive pure
awareness) generates spiritual Realisation to the contemplative or meditative Me.

Thus, awareness, experiences, I, Me and spiritual integration are appearances, events in

Consciousness. They are like dream contents of Consciousness; they do not and cannot
alter the true nature of Consciousness, despite the appearances.

Consciousness is therefore Almighty Intelligence and Love in the sense that It holds all
the appearances together as a whole and in an unconditional embrace as Its own Self. All
contents of Consciousness are nothing but Consciousness. However, Consciousness
cannot be limited to Its contents. Consciousness is all Its contents at all points in time and
still much more. Consciousness is genesis, immanence and transcendence.
Consciousness, with or without contents (appearances/events/selves), is always whole
and perfect. The hidden or mysterious (unmanifest) ground of Consciousness is what the
mystical traditions have called Spirit or the Absolute.