Levels of Awareness

We are aware of everything.

If all is awareness, and all is, then we are aware of all. This absolute awareness is in truth hidden; there is a oneness of being, a totality of the self, which is the essence and heart of awareness and the permeating fabric of existence. It is in any form of awareness that this absolute totality resides, for as awareness of awareness is no different from awareness, so too is its form not different from its singularity. The duality between the object of awareness and the subject of being aware is illusory, the very fact that we are aware is the lifeblood of existence. To illustrate this more clearly we can examine the ontological hierarchy of awareness; to perceive any physical instance of reality ontologically relies upon the singularity of the material cosmos contained within an ocean of abstraction, the ocean a drop within the cosmic imagination. Perception comes to fruition by virtue of the higher sphere of conception, the greater is prior to the lesser, the whole supersedes the part. And thus Oneness is the truth from which life germinates. My philosophy professes the oneness of being in every verse of knowledge and reasoning, every song of beauty and wonder; in any instance of awareness is some totality contained, through the path of ontological reasoning we can arrive at the totality of totalities and thus it is that the absolute totality hides within our gaze, though we have yet to realise it.

Why we do not experience awareness of everything. 

To speak of a realisation of higher awareness is not to say that we rise from our animal spirit to become something more, not to say that we transcend our material form to attain a higher capacity of being and fill the vessel of the Soul with cosmic awareness. My speak of realising higher spheres of awareness may be misleading in the sense that we may be misguided to believe that greater awareness is attained. We are the Soul, we are absolute awareness; in my introduction to the ego I explained that we encounter a restriction of our sphere of awareness, an imprisonment within a lesser self. In this life we have forgotten our true nature, the path is to remember our natural state. The realisation is this remembrance, that we are all that we seek, the drop that contains the ocean. This 'active awareness' that we experience can be called consciousness, our degree of consciousness is directly related to what we call knowledge. As our sphere of consciousness increases greater awareness is realised and the ego diminishes, we gain knowledge of the higher realities. Consciousness is awareness through the lens of the ego, the more strongly we identify ourselves with the ego, the smaller the lens. Again, I should reiterate that consciousness is a construct to ease the understanding of revealing and realising the innate cosmic awareness of the soul, picture not our sphere of consciousness or awareness as increasing, but picture a darkness known as the ego shrinking to uncover the light of being.

Levels of Awareness

The Microcosm

We can easily become aware of physical reality, and hence knowledge of this level of existence is readily attainable. Recall that the Will is defined as the being of singularity unto itself, it is an elucidation of the ontological status of a totality. A totality necessitates its respective parts, in this we could say that a totality has a will towards the part, the singularity has a will towards its forms. The Will of a singularity unto itself and towards its forms is essentially the same thing. The Will gives fruition to a dual notion of striving, we could say that the forms strive towards their singularity. The notions of will and striving result from the ontological relationships of the singularity-form archetypes, they could be considered archetypes in themselves and can hence be seen throughout creation. Just as the ego blinds us to absolute awareness, it also prevents us from seeing the Human Will as it truly is. The lowest level of the Will is of the Microcosm, if we consider the lesser Self then the Will takes the form of what we conventionally call free will, it allows us to consciously become aware of something, and in this lies the totality of the lesser Self. When the human being as a material identity becomes aware of the physical realm, whether it be in external sensory perception or the internal reactive experiential thoughts that we have no control over, born is the singularity of the physical realm and thus an 'I' to be aware, a totality of the Microcosm is realised. When we consciously choose to commit to a particular action, the entirety of our being in the Microcosm is aligned to a particular cause through action, this 'entirety of being' again gives birth to an 'I' to do the action, so again the totality of the Microcosm is realised.

As the higher states of awareness are awakened, our new found knowledge is reflected in the lower levels of being and perhaps most expressively within the Microcosm. Ontological Logic explains this reflective capacity in its very nature, the higher levels of understanding, the pure understanding - that which lies beyond the intelligible form, is contained within the higher spheres of awareness but finds engendered manifestation within the lower spheres through the concepts of logic. As an example, gnosis of the realm of abstraction, the birthplace of mathematics, is reflected in the written order of logic and reasoning in the Microcosm. We use a certain form of the singularity of logic, in another world of being the system of logic would find a different flavour of appearance but all are united under the banner of their ontological foundation of what logic actually is. Language is the most pronounce example of the reflection of higher knowledge, the pure concepts of understanding are expressed in the words and forms derived from human experience, but our capacity of transcendent awareness allows the form of language to be meaningful. An attempt to speak of that of which we have no awareness leads to unmeaningful gibberish, what we call falsehood. To even begin to interpret the language of non-existent foundation is to fall into a realm of inconsistency and nonsense, the interpretation is null in the very fact that the words of language held no meaning other than their outward form.

The Macrocosm

Through the eyes of the Microcosm we perceive a greater reality, the Macrocosm, which is beyond the reach of our free will. To be aware of the Macrocosm is to be aware of this whole of which the Microcosm is a part , it is beyond awareness of some form of physical reality and so it is trivially beyond awareness of the Microcosm. Awareness of the macrocosm could be called gnosis of the universe. I use the word 'gnosis' here over knowledge for its spiritual and mystical connotation, for in this realised state of awareness we awaken to a Will beyond the Microcosm's to see the Universe as no different from our self, and as the Self has Will unto itself so it is that we willed the Universe. When the Microcosm is transcended and understood as a part of its greater whole, we no longer concern ourselves with that which the Microcosm has no control over, for the true self willed the Macrocosm as an environment for the Microcosm to find its totality, to know itself; this is a reflection of the Soul's Will unto itself to eternally realise its own absolute unity. The first stage of spirituality is to move beyond the lesser self to become 'one with the universe' as it is said, but beyond this lie further stages of awakening to behold. To say that our knowledge and sphere of realised awareness increases as the ego diminishes is to say that we are awakened unto a greater being of the Self. The Self moves beyond its limited form of the Microcosm to a more expansive state in the Macrocosm, but this too is limited - it is one Universe among many forged in the crucible of Cosmic Imagination. For an ego to persist beyond annihilation of the physical self would seem an alien notion to many, but I adopt a metaphysical view of the ego for the purpose of simplicity, clearly there is still a limited sphere of awareness and so I extend the ego to match the darkened cloud of blindness.

I must make a very clear point here to not examine the Macrocosmic Will through the eyes of the Microcosm, their relationship is of singularity and form, the difference as vast as the infinite and finite. To say that one Will's emotional turmoil or physical hardship as a opportunity and environment for growth can make sense if, for example one survives a car crash or goes through a difficult divorce; if these situations are approached correctly then they will ultimately make us stronger. But to say that a girl would 'Will' herself to be brutally raped or that a human would 'Will' a lifetime of torture would seem insulting to these victims of tragedy at the very least. All I can say is that from a spiritual perspective, all the suffering of this world paves way to a beautiful state of being in death, that under the Divine Law all is fair and all is good; a lifetime of misery is annihilated in the first moment of Divine Love. The physical ego sees naught beyond its own desire for pleasure and hatred of suffering, even if pleasure would be evil and the suffering good for us, but the Soul in perfected understanding of selfhood sees clearly. Moving not beyond the gaze of this ego one would question the existence of the 'Will' of other humans; are we to say that we Will the actions of others disregarding their independent agency or engaging in some solipsistic dialect? All the free wills of this world are forms of the universal Will, we are all one. By this I do not mean that there is one Soul, as there is One God there are many Souls, and so it is that the Souls placed within this world collectively willed their relationship to one another, this speaks of an innate spiritual connection between the Souls through God.

Gnosis beyond the Microcosm will find reflection in the lower order as we explained before, but this is not to say that the true knowledge is tainted or lost through the lens of the ego, one must understand that in transcending the self of the Microcosm one must then lose the veils of language and reasoning that once guided us, for they are a limitation of a knowledge which lies beyond the scope of these faculties. I use the word gnosis and mention its spiritual connotations especially, for in my experience I have found the spiritual life as the vessel for this new higher knowledge. In meditation and prayer where in certain moments one may remove the veils of the ego to receive disclosure of the true self, is found an awakened oneness beyond human experience. To attempt to even speak of it must take place under these limited terms, for example we could say that we can 'see' an essential arcanum interpenetrating the material fabric or that we can 'hear' a cosmic vibration of manifold existence, all these are expressions of what we call oneness. My philosophy does not actually really provide any knowledge into these mysteries of existence, I simply saw a unified light of oneness and drew it out into a theory of ontology, and through this I found a pillar for the wisdom blessed upon me to adorn. I attempt to offer a path towards the path of self-realisation, all I do is beckon the reader to strive, not merely in the world but within themselves.

Absolute Awareness

'All will perish, but the face of God' (Qur'an)

When on perceives this universe among many, each world of being as a drop within an ocean, and the ocean as a mere star in this universe of the cosmic imagination, realised is the totality of being, the Soul.  In the deepest mesmorisation of the innermost sanctum of our contemplations and meditations we may completely break away from the grounding of the ego, to see things as they really are. In an ineffable singularity of awareness, when the concentric orbs of creation merge in an infinite light enveloped in its own presence, orbiting and simultaneously subsisting in a central point of pure Spirit, we may experience what could only be described as enlightenment: a condition so powerful that all words would bow in shame at the injustice they commit in its glorification. I do not know if it is even possible to achieve such a state within this life.

Absolute Awareness is the centre point and origin of the Will, the Soul cannot be without its life spirit birthing a cosmic imagination, this is the true nature of the Will - not to conceive of form, but to conceive of itself through form. In this presence of absolute selfhood, gnosis of the Soul, we realise a conception of the self which opens a door of perception towards God. Gnosis of the Soul is then no different from gnosis of God, as is expressed in the saying 'He who knows himself knows his Lord' (Hadith).

Just as the sun shines for the eye to see, God illumines for the I to be. 

The Divine Will is the Absolute Unity unto itself; 'I was a Treasure unknown then I desired to be known so I created a creation to which I made Myself known; then they knew Me' (Hadith).

All creation perceived takes form from a mold of awareness, the flame of life sparked by a Divine decree. What is the purpose of awareness? To be aware. We have an inborn tendency, a natural disposition towards knowing, knowing ourselves. All awareness is a reflection of the mirror of the Soul, and if we are to use this analogy then God is the light of the mirror that gives life to the image. The purpose of the mirror is for the light to know itself, our Will to know ourselves is a reflection of the Divine Will to know itself through our being, this is perhaps the closest we can get to understanding the nature of the Singularity of Awareness. Philosophy is born from spirituality, and the highest realm of philosophy concerns itself with an attempt to speak of the unspeakable, to make the hidden esoteric shine in some blossomed light whose manner we may study to provide a glimpse into the higher realities, delving into the bosom of the Soul to uncover the secrets of the Heart.  We come back to this primordial metaphysical parable of creation itself recurrently, for it is the Sun which places all perceptions of this world of philosophy into a context of conceived truth.

In perceiving of God we find awareness as a reflection of his Being, and the Will as a form of the Divine Will. As in the Macrocosm where one realises that he is no different from the Universe, that just as their is free will of the immediate self so too is their the will towards the world of being in which we are contained, that the circumstances of our life were placed like a babe within a cot, for the nurturing and love required for growth and discovery, we realise that all this was the expression of the Divine Will. We are the Song of God. We are his knowing. Our Souls are the thoughts in his Mind. All is the Will of God, and we are the Will that fulfills that command.