Spiritual consciousness, or mindfulness, is the most compelling therapeutic force that exists within each of us. It complements and drives every function and process of our body. It ‘ups’ our normal healing processes with a spurt of curative energy that directly impacts every bit of illness. It works synergistically with medical treatment. This leads to nothing short of what we call as ‘good’ cure — while presaging the surging influence of our expanding spiritual consciousness that encompasses everything in us. This includes our thoughts, thinking, tissues, cells, or anything that you’d relate to — within and outside of us. It echoes our conviction too — not just a feeling, but a vision that each of us has in full measure. For our own and also everyone’s good.
This whole idea — which you’d call as the ‘unitive’ state and/or the final objective of elevated consciousness — is ingrained in our extraordinary, or enduring, self. It relates to a precise form of self-experience — which encases just about everything, except for what is called the ‘egoic’ state. Let us attempt to separate the chaff from the grain. Just think of the self, or consciousness, as a newspaper cut into a circular shape. This represents the self. It leaves the egoic state with no ‘space,’ because its centre connects to the divine. This is where the door of consciousness opens up to what may be referred to as the divine ‘empty’ centre — beyond which there is nothing beyond nothingness. You may think that the allegory is more than a tad complex. Well, the fact is it is not as composite as you’d envisage.
The Unitive State
In the ‘unitive’ state, we may have no apprehension of the extremes; we embrace every challenge that is thrown at us. The reason being the ‘unitive’ state enables us to experience the ‘suspension’ of our deepest feelings, thanks to its proximity to the divine centre. Besides, when the challenge is not overpowering, the ‘unitive’ state propels us to seek and meet challenges that are latent. The state does not, in any way, seek emotional protectionism — it calms the spasms, if any, of our anguish. It flows like a stream into the divine centre and merges with it. This leads us to a state of harmony, or bliss — unlike the egoic state, which often takes refuge in emotional pain, or angst.
Everything we experience of the self happens in the ‘unitive’ state — with or without our understanding. This does not, of course, represent the true self, because the true self is the cryptic connection that exists between the divine and the phenomenal, or unique, self. It is also ‘that’ aspect of consciousness that stands somewhere ‘in-between’ the godly and the extraordinary self. It does not tell us the ‘what’ of things; it tells what that is ‘that’ of all things.
To go back to the refined simile: the spherical newspaper with its divine empty centre. There is something that we should now look out for — through our mind’s eye — the truest ‘true self,’ enveloping our inner threshold. If only we keep our mind’s eye fully open and listen to the alluring call of our inner voice, we may slowly feel it ‘tapping’ our ‘resident’ unconsciousness and connecting our entire being to our divine consciousness. As the English novelist, playwright and Nobel laureate, John Galsworthy, said, “Life calls the tune, we dance.” This is nothing but a conscious philosophical paradigm — to think of the ‘unitive’ centre as a fixed glow, the overwhelming flame of compassion, or love, which envelops us and the entire cosmos.
Lofty Truth
This is also the lofty truth — yet, what needs to be underlined is the divine is not as indistinct as is the popular opinion, thanks to the fuzzy impression that it creates in our mind. The phenomenal self, likewise, is not unfilled ambiguity. Certain philosophies suggest that while the divine is permanent, the phenomenal self is nothing but an extension of the ‘unknown’ true self. The reason is simple — there is a certain divergence between the divine and the phenomenal self in terms of one’s ‘empirical’ existence.
This brings us to the ultimate truth — that the divine is not just energy, or power. It is a celestial element that ‘drives’ us to experience not only the divine entity, but also its spiritual pre-eminence — one that connotes the inexhaustible tempo of our unconscious self and our perpetual quest for our truest true self. To paraphrase Dr Carl Gustav Jung, MD, ‘plumber of the conscious,’ our unconscious self is nothing but the all-encompassing radar and compass of our self-image, or experiential vitality — the fundamental dimension of our truest true self and ‘mindful’ mindfulness.
