[MD] Consciousness

[david buchanan]

I like to imagine that the whole history of the universe IS the history of consciousness. I like to imagine that consciousness did not emerge at some point but rather that it was always present and that it has been a coconspirator since the big bang and has grown simultaneously with the physical structures. Seen this way, the qualitative shift from one level to the next IS a shift in consciousness. The higher levels display an increased complexity and capacity for freedom but this is purchased at a price. When ego consciousness dominates or even excludes all other sorts of consciousness, as it usually does in our time a culture, a kind of dissociation or alienation occurs. We forget our connection to nature, including our own inner nature. And so this is why is a bit of a problem that some MOQers keep banging on about the "individual". Individuality is all about the ego consciousness, the subjective self. This has its place in conventional reality but its just an idea and is just one small aspect of the Big Self, the total self, which we can imagine as including the consciousness of every atom in your body, every instinct your biological ancestors ever had, every story and every myth ever told, every ritual and dance ever sung and all the memories of your particular clan. The Big Self is consciousness in all its shapes, at all the levels, and you are that. Individualism, insofar as it dismisses the importance of this larger self, blocks the path to growth and wholeness, to enlightenment and keeps us feeling alienated and in competition with one another. Our culture is already overflowing with ego mania. The last thing we need is more of that. 
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