Frank M. Wanderer, Ph.D., Contributor
Waking Times
If we take a look at the events of our world, we will easily realize that we live in revolutionary times. The revolution of our days is, however, entirely different from any other revolutions in human history. This revolution is not launched in order to rearrange the domain of forms and shapes, so as to replace old and outdated forms and shapes with new, dynamic, and vivid ones. This revolution is able to take humanity beyond forms and shapes.
The revolution of our time is the revolution of the Consciousness.
Consciousness, which has been sound asleep under the spell of identification with the forms and shapes for thousands of years, is slowly waking up in our days. There is an increasingly powerful alarming impulse, and the number of people sensitive to the wake-up call is getting bigger and bigger.
The effects of this impulse, waking us up from our dream of identification with the forms and shapes is felt by everybody, sometimes even several times a day. But many of us are unaware of what we actually experience; all we feel is that successes achievable in the world are less and less attractive for us. We recognize that behind earthly successes and failures there has to be something deeper, something more profound in our life.
We see it day by day that an increasing number of young people question the appropriateness of the goals offered by social and religious education. They shake off the hands trying to lead them along the right track, and as a consequence, they are exposed to the experience of emptiness and despair.
The society offers a ”solution” for the problem, in the form of the products of the entertainment and pharmaceutical industries and the manufacturers and service providers of excise goods and services. Today, these are prospering and extremely lucrative industries. They offer ”help” to young people in suppressing fear and in treating other superficial symptoms.
There is only one gateway leading out of this situation: and that is the present moment. We are only able to shift the center of gravity of our life from the peripheries to the center. What does it mean?
The edge is the present state of Consciousness, in which the overwhelming majority of people live. That is the state of identifying with the mind, that of the dormant Consciousness, which dreams and tells our personal history.
That is the state of perfect identification with thoughts, emotions, and desires, where we seek the goals of our life only in the world of forms and shapes, whether they are crude material forms (the world experienced with our sensory organs) or fine material forms (thoughts, emotions). The motor of our existence on the edge is the ambition to become something or somebody and to be in control all the time.
The Centerpoint, the Awakened Consciousness, and the world of internal silence are beyond the mind. It does not refer to the internal silence forced upon oneself by various techniques called meditation (in this case, in fact, concentration), but the indescribable, but experienceable, alive, and living internal emptiness. In there, there is no effort, no desire, and ambition, and we give up the last bastion of wanting to be in control. This is the state of perfect abandonment and submission, submitting ourselves to the Present Moment, to the Now.
The revolution of the Consciousness is, therefore, taking place Now, in the present moment. There are no strategies, no great leaders in this revolution, only heroes who understand the evolutionary progress of the Consciousness and are open to allow the processes to take place in themselves.
About the author
Frank M. Wanderer Ph.D. is a professor of psychology, a consciousness researcher, and a writer. Frank is the author of the books The Flames of Alertness: Discover the Power of Consciousness!, The Biggest Obstacle to Enlightenment: How to Escape from the Prison of Mind Games? and several books on consciousness. With a lifelong interest in the mystery of human existence, Frank’s work is to help others wake up from identification with our personal history and the illusory world of the forms and shapes and to find our identity in what he calls “the Miracle”, the mystery of the Consciousness. You can also follow his blog HERE.
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