Evolution of Consciousness

 Questioner: When you say, I am in the state beyond the witness, what is the experience that makes you say so? In what way does it differ from the stage of being a witness only?

 

Maharaj: It is like washing printed cloth. First the design fades, then the background and in the end the cloth is plain white. The personality gives place to the witness, then the witness goes and pure awareness remains. The cloth was white in the beginning and is white in the end; the patterns and colors just happened for a time.

 

I like Nisargadatta’s account of the evolution of Consciousness. Everyone has experienced the witnessing state in contrast to taking everything that comes our way— every thought, feeling and body function—personal. We could say the next state of universal awareness is the end of thought and feeling, other than a steady serene and blissful stream of Consciousness. In Awakening we toggle between the different states; still identifying with body, mind, world, yet often aware of the pull, and occasionally being able to completely break free of it. 

 

There comes the time when we are done with our drives, the conscious as well as the subconscious ones. Who knows whether it was the wear and tear of running into the imaginary mental wall once too often, or whether it was the string of insights Awakening brings. Maybe it was divine intervention or all of the above. As Nisargadatta Maharaj once concluded, “the fruit falls when it is ripe!” This is the point when the psychological state of the seeker flips into a higher dimension of Consciousness, when the witness takes over for good, and increasingly is absent altogether. 

 

When is that blessed state shift you may ask? Well, today is as good as any!

 

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