Discernment, a double edged sword ?
An emergent principle in all life forms is the faculty of discernment, manifesting as photosynthesis enabling plants to turn towards the sun or the mental intellect enabling humans to solve complex problems. But discernment is also tightly coupled with a subject object state of consciousness. When stuck in this dualistic state discernment cannot serve as a stepping stone towards a higher consciousness. Instead it becomes a box canyon of suffering — perceiving differences everywhere. This is the world of separation and divisiveness most of us experience today.
Reality has two aspects, the phenomenal world of forms (a subject object orientation) and the essential world of emptiness (an equality orientation). Subject and object are mentally conceived ideas in which the intrinsic oneness of reality is separated into two. Quantum physicists have described that reality does not exist until observed. When observation only perceives the phenomenal aspect of reality, it biases us towards seeing a world of differences. We miss perceiving the equality of the essential world as it contradicts the dualistic mental model. These dualistic perceptions are endless (good and evil, love and hate, high and low, beginning and ending) and they become imprinted in the human consciousness. As a result we react to everything personally, not realizing that the Universe is impersonal. Perceiving the world solely through this lens leads to the inner traumas of separation and loneliness, a void we try to fill with achievements in the outer world.
Searching for fulfillment outside oneself is like searching for a man on an uninhabited island. Only when we realize that the island is uninhabited do we stop searching and our mind can become calm enough to transcend the dualistic state of consciousness. This is easier said than done as it requires unlearning all the concepts that we have been taught or inherited since birth. Furthermore, since we derive our sense of self from these dualistic concepts, surrendering them is akin to psychological death. As a result, most remain stuck in duality, believing that they will find fulfillment in outer accomplishments or that their suffering will end in the afterlife. Intense experiences that cannot be grasped with concepts provides a brief glimpse into the oneness of essential reality.
The masters who have raised their consciousness beyond the dimension of duality have describe the “surrender” of values as “awakening” to the essential world. Awakening asks nothing less than the unconditional acceptance of all since essential reality encompasses everything. Sameness and difference are then seen as qualities of One reality of which all life is an inextricably part. This is the path to viewing the Universe as impersonal. Non dogmatic spiritual practice of any kind serves to strengthen this faculty. Actions arising from this state of consciousness tend to be compassionate and unifying.
Discernment can be a transit stop on the evolutionary journey to awakening to the essential world or it can become a box canyon of suffering. Moment by moment we create our reality by the choices we make — a dualistic divisive world or a unified compassionate one. It all begins and ends with our state of consciousness…