Infinite Consciousness: What Does It Mean?
Have you ever stood on the brink of the Grand Canyon or stared into the skies beside the still waters of a lake on a night when there was no moon? Did you experience a simultaneous expansion and contraction of your being at the same time?
Did you feel yourself grow forth into that huge, inconceivable void, while at the same time you felt yourself collapse inward into your singularity and your basic insignificance? Is it an attempt to trip you up?
It’s possible that it only seems difficult due to the fact that the solutions to these crazy, gigantic riddles aren’t only waiting for us out there in the infinite awareness of the universe; they’re also waiting for us right here, in the [not-so-finite] form that we name our Self.
Our awareness alone defines and decides for us the nature of all we see and everything we are. This includes the nature of everything we are. However, it seems like there is an increasing amount of awareness from “the outside” entering the reality that we are able to view all the time.
This is the case no matter where we look. Add to that the apparently limitless potential in many of the forms of the world that our restricted senses won’t let us view directly since they are outside our range of experience.
And what do we know about the probable existence of awareness in realms other than our own? How can we even begin to fathom the whole scope and depth of consciousness when we don’t even have a solid working definition of the term “consciousness”?
Science is incapable of elucidating the deepest riddle of the natural world. This is the case because, after everything is said and done, we are a component of the enigma that we are attempting to unravel. – Max Planck
The Scope and Depth of the Problem of Universal Consciousness
As singular, independent human beings, none of us can fully get our brains around the immensity of space and what sorts of intellect may exist out there. However, when the Kepler space telescope continually identifies hundreds of earth-like planets, the sheer possibility of intelligent, sentient life is overwhelming.
In a similar vein, we’re never really aware that, deep within us, there are an infinite number of tiny organisms that are constantly going about their business as we make the decisions that we do on a moment-to-moment basis in order to maintain our safety, obtain nourishment, engage in sexual activity, and possibly find some sense of mission and fulfillment.
Whether we are gazing out into the universe or into the sub-atomic structures of the natural world, the depth to which our instruments of observation enable us to see allows us to detect the extent and effect of awareness. This is a direct outcome of the capabilities of our tools of observation.
As the capabilities of our telescopes and microscopes continue to advance, and as the thinking that we do based on those observations continues to grow more intricate and all-encompassing, we continue to discover even more structures of what seems to be awareness in every direction we look.
It would seem that, on a never-ending basis, either we are continually projecting our own awareness into our ever-expanding reality or that we find it already waiting for us there.
What Is the Definition of Universal Consciousness?
According to what seems to be the simplest explanation, consciousness is an endless energy field that is responsible for establishing the circumstances necessary for the manifestation of a variety of realities, each of which is dependent on the individual’s sensory experience.
In this way, consciousness may be thought of as a pre-existing, global presence that is also a basic component of both the mind and the material world.
This idea, which dates back to the ancient world, is known as panpsychism. Because we do not possess any methods for explaining how consciousness originated from matter, the only thing we can do is presume that it has always been there and that wherever we look, we find matter expressing awareness in some form or another.
And we find that the forms of the visible world present themselves in a succession of regularly recurrent patterns everywhere we look, regardless of the direction in which we study closely.
The fundamental components are not just everything that can be seen but also everything that cannot be seen by the naked eye.
It would seem that there is a design standard that hints at a continuous conscious intellect; whether you think it’s God, simply a gigantic coincidence, or none of your business, it seems to be the case that this standard exists. They are the infinite permutations that may be placed on the existing shapes.
According to David Wilcock’s “Wisdom Teachings,” all of the shapes that make up our material world are brought into existence by the use of a “holy geometry” that exists inside spacetime.
Constructs such as the merkaba and torus, as well as fractal and holographic emanations, are present at every scale, manifesting in a myriad of different ways as crystalline structures, force fields of electromagnetism or gravity, or in constellating structures such as those found in atoms and molecules, stellar systems, galaxies, and other places.
It is not at all a coincidence that the cosmological patterns of the cosmos and the connective web-like extrapolations of the internet mimic the neurons and synapses in our brains. This similarity exists for a very good reason (its rapid expansion is indicative of a form of awareness that is boundless in scope in and of itself).
Sir Roger Penrose (David Hawking’s old instructor and his co-discoverer of the black hole/singularity theory) and Dr. Stuart Hameroff of the University of Arizona are examples of proponents of the concept of “consciousness as an existent infinite field.”
They postulate a molecular structure that describes the entanglement of everything in our material world inside a large quantum plenum known as the Planck field. a sphere that is driven by consciousness and, in some ways, a contemporary interpretation of our more traditional concept of panpsychism.
The Traditional Approach to Understanding Consciousness Has Been Revitalized
From Plato’s philosophical notion of the cosmos, where timeless, indestructible forms—imperceivable forms beyond space and time—constitute the basis of all we are and can witness, to what the Buddha referred to as Alaya, or “storehouse awareness,” when he explored the forms of consciousness, to when Dr. Carl Jung hypothesized his “collective unconscious” and stated: “It is the matrix of all conscious psychic happenings,” maybe nothing explains the field of consciousness.
In my unmanifested state, I am present across the whole of the cosmos. I am the source of life for all beings, yet I am not constrained by them in any way… They move in me just as the winds travel in all directions across space. — The Bhagavad Gita, chapters 9:4–6
Although Buddhism is predicated on a spiritual developmental continuum that is manifested in levels of consciousness, Hinduism, which is considered to be the philosophical father of the Buddha, addresses the scope and extent of consciousness itself in a more comprehensive manner.
Akasha is the name given to a field that is described in Sanskrit cultures as being an all-encompassing sphere that both underlies and becomes everything. Brahman is the limitless, undifferentiated, creative dynamic that acts as the seat of all awareness. From this, all the unfolding aspects of our cosmos realize themselves via the everlasting state of Brahman.
To express it in words that are more accessible to those from the West, such as myself, Brahman is what we could be constrained to refer to as “the mind of God.” An earlier piece of mine titled “Is God Consciousness… or Vice Versa?” explored the concept that there is a grounding intelligence that penetrates and creates all that we are able to know.
Through our individual atmans, also known as our souls or selves, we are all linked to the ultimate reality known as Brahman. Atman is our own awareness, which we work hard to cultivate so that we may see beyond the deceptive appearances of the material world, which is referred to as Maya, and arrive at an understanding of infinity.
Do you agree with me that this is quite innovative stuff for being so old?
So, Tell me, What Does It Mean For Me to Have an Infinite Universal Consciousness?
Therefore, here we are, at the point where the observer is the observed, and the entire process opens up within our collective field of infinite consciousness, dependent upon our conscious awareness of it. This is the point at which the individual significance for each of us emerges in terms of the way in which we directly experience things.
Consciousness is that in which all experience takes place; it is that with which all experience may be known; it is that out of which all experience is formed. – Rupert Spira
A good many of us have experienced pivotal turning points in our lives, significant shifts that came about as a direct consequence of the development of our awareness (atman) into our limitless potential. These are often the outcomes of some kind of traumatic experience, loss, good fortune, the presence of a fantastic instructor, or important life lessons in which our preconceived notion of who we are was shattered and then reconstructed.
All of a sudden, we are given increased access to an extra-dimensional aquifer, and at this time, our conscious consciousness no longer considers itself to be originating from any one location. The point at which we become aware that the boundless field of awareness from which each of our limited minds originated also gave rise to all of our minds
After that, we will be able to feel our entanglement and our interconnectedness with everything and act appropriately. Responsibly. We are aware that in order to live what Robert Thurman called an “unlimited life,” our challenges are only familiar adversaries and our opportunities are almost endless.
At this level of awareness, we begin to see that a kind of divine direction and intuitive intelligence are woven into the very fabric of our existence in the form of recurring patterns.
As soon as you are willing to be receptive to it, there is proof of limitless awareness wherever you look. Our ability to experience infinity is always there, even in the absence of drugs or gurus; all that is required is maybe a little bit of consistent effort put into the practice of meditation.
Meditation is the entrance to the infinite, and it may lead to disclosures of extra-dimensional awareness in a manner that is comparable to the way that these discoveries were reported in the extensively recorded experiences of near-death survivors, remote viewers, psychics, and adult and child reincarnation subjects (such as in the detailed study conducted by the University of Virginia’s Department of Perceptual Studies).
The world of infinite consciousness encompasses not just the domain of transpersonal experience but also the realm of the afterlife and, more generally speaking, the sphere of endless life.
For me, the proof of limitless awareness is accessible the minute I am prepared to carefully explore the present moment. There is no time like the present to look into it. Take your eyes for an example; what do you see when you glance behind your eyelids?
When there is no light present, you are able to perceive the movements of your eyes. But there is also something else—faint, effervescent waves in an ocean of limitless energy emanating straight from our common origin of intelligent awareness.
Then you may discover that, when you stare up into the skies on a clear night, you can’t really concentrate on that either; instead, you may feel your spiritual growth into the boundless magnificence of the universe. Out there, everything is open to the realm of possibility, and everything is feasible inside these walls.
Our greatest dread is not that others would judge us to be lacking. Our greatest concern is that we have an unfathomable amount of power. You are not doing the world any favors by acting like a fool. – The author, Marianne Williamson
People who live their lives restricted by the lonely feeling of their own solitary awareness are the root cause of almost all of the negative events that occur in the world. They feel as if they are competing against everyone else because of their fear and self-centeredness, and as a result, they engage in bad behavior.
That is the origin of everything that is wicked. When we become aware of and participate in our infinitely shared awareness, we come to the conclusion that we need the company of other individuals.
We naturally cooperate for the betterment of everyone (and the planet), which results in the expansion and dissemination of goodness throughout mankind. Both the people and the earth have been made whole.
The Reflection Web of the Cosmic Universe
As a parting gift, I’ll leave you with this: the Hindu Vedas, which were influenced by Mahayana Buddhism, bestow upon us the notion of the “Net of Indra,” which is a lovely metaphor for our connection to the boundless field of awareness.
Each diamond in the Net of Indra is hung in such a way that all of its facets mirror all of the other jewels in the unending cosmic net, and the Net of Indra itself reaches out in infinite directions. It is composed of multifaceted jewels.
In the same way, we are all connected to one another in this web of being; we are all mirror images of one another, as well as the wonderful light that shines upon us and everything else that we see in our world. Delicate. Eternal. Alive.
