Aspects of Enlightenment: Consciousness Awakening To Itself

Artwork by Rel Rogers. Instagram: @eyeignite

This is the first of a group of articles outlining areas of development in your spiritual evolution.

When the true nature of some aspect of reality reveals itself it usually feels like “Aha! This is it!”. And it is. But it’s likely an aspect of it and not the entirety.

The purpose of this group of articles is to clarify how these aspects of enlightenment relate to each other and support your awakening.

Consciousness

Synonyms: Awareness, stillness, mindfulness, silence, space, clarity, the seer, the perceiver.

Consciousness is what allows for any experience to happen. Not only is it the mechanism for perceiving reality, it’s also the fundamental material of reality, and fundamentally who you are.

Consciousness is inherently free and unlimited, but in humans identifies as a limited form, ie. the person. This phenomenon is called ego.

In the moment you recognise consciousness, life feels much less personal. This brings great relief, because all suffering stems from the experience of being a person that life happens to.

It may also be experientially recognised that consciousness is the base fabric of creation — the stuff that all of life is formed from. Reality becomes clearer, more vibrant, rich, beautiful, sparkly.

Over time the experience of life shifts from being a person who has consciousness to being consciousness experiencing itself through a human form. In the end it is not the person that wakes up to consciousness, but consciousness waking up to itself.

Artwork by Elizabeth Lieberman. Instagram: @illumin8d.soul

Consciousness and Ego

A growing familiarity with consciousness aids massively in the dissolution of ego patterns in two main ways:

1. In recognising awareness, immediately some space arises in your experience, and you find yourself less immersed and stuck in thought and ego-reality.
2. Ego patterns are based on the lack of some positive quality of experience, like love or peace or freedom. All of what ego suggests is lacking is actually an inherent quality of consciousness. So consciousness is the ultimate argument against ego-reality, the medicine that cures all egoic ills.

Questions

Feel free to respond to any of these questions in the comments:

1. What other synonyms for consciousness have you come across? Help others connect with the content of this article by suggesting the language they might be familiar with.
2. Do any questions arise for you in response to this article? Please ask :)