Is "Be Here Now" Bullshit?

I have no problem with chemical 'states of consciousness,' since there really is no difference. You can interpret experiencing 'god,' on acid or meditating with your guru, it really doesn't matter, since it will be the ego that interprets it as an experience of 'god' based on whatever ideology the ego adopts as 'true.'

But is there an experience of something more than ego or even not ego involved in terms of making that interpretation? I believe there is a field of uninterpretable consciousness from which ego arises, but if I make such an interpretation from an experience, doesn't that assert ego ownership and therefore the interpretation will be tainted by ideological learning?

In fact, could we not say that all interpretations of a present moment are interpretations acquired from the past. For instance, you may have an experience that you interpret as "be here now" but if that experience is ego-self interpreted (and how could it not be), and all interpretations have an ideological viewpoint and must come from a 'self,' then it was learned from the past and therefore, IT IS the past that is applied to the experience. In other words, who or what from the past, taught you to interpret certain experiences as "be here now"?

This is why I take issue with all interpretive language, especially the sacrosanct, ideologically specialized concepts like "awakening," "enlightenment" "nirvana" "samadhi" "satori" etc, etc, etc.
Once I hear these ego-self interpretations of experience, I tend to figure that this was the paradigm going into the 'experience' and it's what's declared as 'truth,' coming out. The experience merely serves to further reinforce the ideology and bolster the ego-self.

Is there an "authentic awakening"? It seems there are numerous "awakenings" one could have, that do nothing but take an experience of normal "awakening" into a higher or more profound interpretation and if one achieves different states of consciousness (drugs or meditation) then clearly value will be applied to each episode of experience.

Much Hindu/Zen/Advaitist ideology revolves around 'awakening' levels and degrees. This seems to keep the enlightened fat-cats at the top, "yes, grasshopper, you may be awakened, but you are only first-level, novitiate awakened, not grand-awakened such as I" (a little Yoda humor).

The sacred ones tend to avoid me and I don't blame them, all this reductionism gets pretty tedious and discouraging. However, we all have egoic "frames of reference" and I think spiritual paths provide such 'frames.' They are very helpful in negotiating the world. However, I don't believe an ego-self can transcend itself employing the ideologies and practices currently advocated.

Yet, I don't totally disbelieve either. Nevertheless, if this is even possible, we'll need to really understand the underlying ego-self dynamics, that we spend our wholes lives ignoring, if we wish to find a way to go beyond the usual interpretations of 'enlightenment,' 'awakening' or 'god.'

mikeS

The "Unconscious" Doesn't Exist

Is there really a nebulous lower domain or netherworld of impulses and drives outside conscious awareness that we refer to as the unconscious? If reality is nothing more than the flow of concepts within a ‘field’ of consciousness, where is this region of consciousness we call un-consciousness? (or subconscious) Seems to me it’s merely a perfect alibi for irresponsibility.

Psychology loves the unconscious, because it's used to make sense of absurd and irrational behaviors, while not making sense of anything at all. In fact, it may be this all-encompassing theory of the unconscious that perpetuates our collective mental illness and our failure to accept responsibility for our world.

The rule is that we can never really have full culpability with any of our actions due to unconscious impulses. The field of consciousness merely attaches coordinates to the objects of consciousness. The coordinates provide either personal ownership or locates some objects of consciousness as separate and external to you.

Yet, essentially, it’s ALL IN your consciousness and, hence, it’s all you, all the time.

Therefore, objects of consciousness, which includes all perceptions, conceptions, thoughts, feelings, emotions, images, everything you could consider as experience, are either allotted a personal coordinate in space/time (as belonging to you) or it's cut off and given to the world.

Yet these coordinates are delusional as nothing exists outside your consciousness.

The "evil" you repress is never really tucked away in some mental basement, it's merely projected outward and attached to objects or the people you see all around you everyday. However, since your ego has arranged that "evil-doers" be separate from a "you," now you can easily deflect responsibility for all the nasty stuff “out there," and easily ignore what you SEE as not your responsibility. Somebody else needs to take care of that. The entire science of psychology supports this basic premise of "personal responsibility" so how can I remedy what is not my fault?

The entire world seems to be crumbling before your very eyes, yet, of course, there's nothing you can do. It's "out there"! All you can do is take care of your own little world, or that within consciousness which your ego has allowed personal responsibility.

The ego determines what you own and what will be given to the world or, essentially, projected away from you while still in consciousness. Anything the ego does not wish to own, is merely given an external coordinate and thus, you perceive it as outside you, in the world. This becomes a 'knee-jerk' classification that merely requires acknowledgment in order to collapse. But who wants to acknowledge guilt for what the world has become? No, it's all become quite comfortable to let the ego do its magic.

Nothing is ever repressed into unawareness and no such unconscious, subconscious, preconscious, etc, levels of the mind exist. You are unconscious of nothing, since everything is in conscious awareness, but merely allocated 'external" coordinates. All your "primitive impulses" are available for full view. All your fears and nightmares are in consciousness and you view it daily in one form or another. War and destruction are in your mind. There is no need to forgive another, as you are both victim and victimizer.

The evil is NOT 'out-there,' it’s 'in-here.'

Why would ego desire some experiences of consciousness be externalized, while others be personally owned? Obviously, if hell is of your making, you would certainly seek to change it. Yet, extracting and externalizing parts of hell, as not your doing, works well in keeping the separation machine humming and keeping you apart from your own consciousness. Let's face it, if you were forced to take responsibility for the whole kit and Kaboodle, you’d fix it in a cosmic heartbeat since it really sucks. Unfortunately, this would fix your ego-self as well since, if there is no separation, then there could be no “you” to deny ownership, requiring full responsibility. But, if there's NO "you," what happens to the 'world'?

This poses a problem for many awakening programs, which rely on a “you” having an unconscious requiring you plumb your “unconscious” depths in order to finally realize the obstacles to "awakening." The exalted teachers claim it’s not the conscious mind that obstructs your progress but all the unconscious conditioning that you have repressed from consciousness. This Freudian perspective is really anathema to achieving a unified consciousness or that oneness we all tend to give lip-service.

Why would they seek to partition consciousness thereby allowing you to avoid your responsibility in saving the world? You can’t seek what is outside awareness. Therefore, to maintain the awakening game there must be some part of your mind inaccessible to you. Because if consciousness is all there is and you are not separate from any of it, how could you ever seek to realize this fact if there is a part of consciousness, or unconsciousness, that you have been taught is not available to you. It's time to deeply question the conventional wisdom of the "masters."

Nevertheless, we're all as guilty as "sin." So instead of spending everyday steeped in hours of meditative wandering with the intent of finally overcoming your unconscious impulses, just look outside your head and SEE it all in vivid technicolor. Once you take responsibility for what you see , then go back into your consciousness and change it.

It's as simple as that!