Rumors and reports from the front lines abound around universal consciousness. And yet, a quick glance into the daily world, the newspaper, the blogosphere or a few minutes on Bill O’Reilly or the Huffington Post reveals universal unconscious still reigns supreme in the hearts and minds of the masses.
Most people think they are conscious. Even if you define being conscious as being awake or merely aware, most mystics would still proclaim that the conscious masses are still, unfortunately, unconscious.
I was in Barnes & Noble the other day and saw Jill Bolte-Taylor’s book – My Stroke of Insight. I ordered it today from Amazon. Ms. Bolte-Taylor probably has a few things to say on the subject of consciousness that might interest me.
. I It’s been a long while since I read anything by J Krishnamurti, but I still hold his inquiry into violence close to my heart:
When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.
When it comes to exploring consciousness and universal consciousness, the same open and open-ended inquiry needs to be engaged. It’s a bit more challenging though than lettin go of your country or religion or any particualr piece of identity because when it comes to the exploration of consciousness the whole enchilada will be challenged at levels we hold near and dear.
Can a catchy t-shirt help raise consciousness or universal conscioiusness? What say you?
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3 responses to “Universal Consciousness”
I read “My Stroke of Insight” in one sitting – I couldn’t put it down. I laughed. I cried. It was a fantastic book (I heard it’s a NYTimes Bestseller and I can see why!), but I also think it will be the start of a new, transformative Movement! No one wants to have a stroke as Jill Bolte Taylor did, but her experience can teach us all how to live better lives. Her TED.com speech was one of the most incredibly moving, stimulating, wonderful videos I’ve ever seen. Her Oprah Soul Series interviews were fascinating. They should make a movie of her life so everyone sees it. This is the Real Deal and gives me hope for humanity.
Thank you for that. Jill Bolte Taylor’s My Stroke of Insight is one of the most incredible stories I’ve heard in a long time. Her TEDTalk video blew my mind wide open to new possibilities. On the one hand, there’s what she went through and how she emerged from it. On the other hand, there’s what she can teach all of us.
I saw the 4 part Oprah interview on Oprah dot com Soul Series and I did learn a lot from that, but I’d like to find our more of how to do what Dr. Taylor did, without having a stroke of course!
Thin how many of us are living too much in the head, and not the heart. And of course, you can’t get more left brain than a Harvard Brain Scientist. Isn’t it ironic that she should be the one to have the stroke and transform from the quintessential left brainer into this “”seen the light”” disciple of finding inner peace?
I hope this movement keeps going. Maybe there will be My Stroke of Insight classes where we can practice what Jill Bolte Taylor is preaching.
Samuel – Mystics and spiritual teachers have been teaching the HOW for thousands of years. The experiences Ms Taylor describes are consistent with what happens when the mind stills. The interesting question to me is – will she be able to integrate the experience so she can function while being in that state – which is possible.