Your Consciousness - Your Choice

Consciousness!  We Are Consciousness. Consciousness is what we are. And we have the choice of what is IN our consciousness.  

First, let's make a differenciation between Consciousness and Awareness.  Awareness is 'larger', infinite and more impersonal in a sense.  Awareness never changes. It is prior to or beyond consciousness.  To some, it is the Paramatma to our atma, the Supersoul to our Soul.    Consciousness is the expression or symptom of our Soul, our Self.  It is individualized and limited to a degree.   Awareness is the Space of the room - it never changes. Consciousness is what is in the room, including the light, which you can turn on or off.  At night, you turn off your consciousness, but not your awareness.  

Think of consciousness as being something like light or water.  You can directly effect light or water with colored gels or dyes, changing the nature of the consciousness to your desire.   Awareness remains unchanged, always presence, always perfect in itself.  

But consciousness, we can change at any moment.  This is why I say you can be God conscious immediately - just think of God. Want to be abundant - just think of abundance. Want to have Christ Consciousness - just contemplate Christ. Same for Buddha, Krishna, Love...you name it, it's yours. Your Consciousness - Your choice!  

However, that doesn't mean it's permanent. If you think about God for one second, and then think about food the next, you'll probably get fatter before you get holier! :-D   Adding only a couple drops of dye to your personal ocean of consciousness isn't going to do much to saturate yourself fully.  Our minds tend to race us from one subject to another continuously. This is just crazy consciousness or, as they say, 'monkey consciousness', like a monkey jumpting from tree to tree, mind jumping from subject to subject.  

This is why scriptural texts use such words as sarvada, sada, nityam, satatam, etc denoting 'constantly', 'continuously', always, without stopping when it comes to spiritual practice.  Whether it's meditating on sex, fame, abundance, or God, you can't just think about it for a half second and then move onto the next thing.  Consciousness is filled with mindstuff, thoughts, feelings, and it's your responsibility to 'wrangle' them thar varmints.   

This brings us to Attention.  While you are Consciousness, within that, you have Attention, which is movement or focusing OF Consciousness, giving the object of your attention,  clarity, and creating a foreground and background.  We all understand attention to some degree or other. When we're listening to music or a friend speaking, our attention is focused on that, and, hopefully, everything else falls to the background.  

There's an old saying that proclaims, "Where attention goes, Energy flows".  The idea being that if we put our attention on some idea or object, and do it continuously, it expands that object.  Energy flows in that direction.  This is the basic idea behind the 'law of attraction'.  Contemplate something enough and it changes your consciousness, which itself will attract more of that ideal.  Conversely, putting your attention on your fears, your worries, and your unhappiness does the same - it simply attracts more of those qualities and characteristics.  Even thinking about how can I stop being so miserable is simply repeating the feelings of misery, filling your consciousness with misery vibes...vibes that seem to collect and grow. Bummer.

This is where techniques come in - something to bring your attention BACK to where you want it.  Repeating a mantra, a saying, an aphorism, can quickly bring your attention back to that which you want to manifest. Your Consciousness - Your Choice.  So whether it's a Name of God (Krishna, Christ, Buddha); a reminder phrase (Who is aware of this now? Who am I?); a mantra (Aham Brahmasmi - I am the Absolute), or any type of affirmation (I am a perfect expression of Love), these are ever available triggers to point you in the direction you want to go, particularly if you're feeling lost.  At first, it might not be immediate, but with 'continous' practice, you'll find your consciousness shifting and filling with what you seek.

In this regard, there's a story, particularly regarding mantra.  Long ago, a man was offered a Demon that would fulfill his every desire. All he had to do was ask for it, and the demon would immediately produce it. But it had a downside, which was that the demon HAD to be kept busy, or else it would eat the man himself.   This seemed like an incredible gift, and the demon was able to fulfill his every wish with ease.  However, soon the man started running out of things he wanted the demon to do, and the demon was beginning to look at the man with obvious hungry looks.  The man quickly gave the demon a chore and then sought out a holy man and explained the situation.  The holy man told him, "Tell the demon to erect a tall poll and then to climb up and own it until further notice."   

In this scenario - the demon is the mind, which is filled with desires in all kinds of directions. It's always wanting something, and if we can't tame it, the mind will devour us with desires, fears, and worries.  The Pole is the mantra or technique, which bring our attention back.  Rather than allowing thoughts to go here, there and everywhere, the mantra, or technique, immediately captures the attention and directs it where we want it.  Our Consciousness - Our Choice.  

So, we can LET our Consciousness be filled with the garbage of our own minds, or that with which we are constantly bombarded by the news, social media, and the like, OR we can choose to direct our consciousness to be filled with the beautiful presence of Love, Joy, God, and all Godly things.  It's your Choice!

With Deep Love

Aja

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Linktr.ee/ajathomas

हरे कृष्ण हरे कृष्ण कृष्ण कृष्ण हरे हरे 

हरे राम हरे राम राम राम हरे हरे