Are We All One Consciousness?

Is this depressing idea true?

By Michael Haines

Quora, January 8, 2016 -- Are we all One?

Yes…and no. All is One. There is no ‘we’. We are not real.

Science, religion and direct introspection all concur: the apparent world is a world of illusion.

Science says that there is no ‘little person’ inside the head looking out through the eyes into the so called ‘physical’ world. The optic nerves are opaque.

According to science, the perceptual world… the world that is actually seen, felt, tasted, smelled, heard and known is an apparition, whereby ‘the observer and the observed are one’. That is, the colours seen are not separate from the Seeing of them, nor the sounds heard separate from the Hearing, nor any feeling separate from the Feeling of it, nor odour separate from smelling, nor flavour separate from the capacity to Taste it. Nor is any idea separate from the capacity to Know it.

Indeed, it is impossible to imagine a pain existing that is not felt, nor an idea apart from the capacity to know it.

Seeing-colour+Hearing-sound+Feeling-feelings+Tasting-flavours+Smelling-odours+Knowing-ideas is ‘Awareness’.

Plainly, it is immaterial. This is not a statement of ‘what it is’, rather ‘what it is not’. Science demonstrates that the actual apparition cannot be ‘made of matter’… there is no room for an actual 3D material universe inside a head. The apparent space, the expansive landscape that is actually seen is all an illusion. This much science can attest.

Science is also very good at apparently deriving laws that predict the behaviour of apparent (sensory) objects. But that is its limit. Trying to discern the underlying reality based upon the ‘images perceived’ is like observing the images on a computer screen and trying to discern the nature of the hardware and software that generates them from the images alone. It cannot be done.

All religions say the same: observer and observed are One… the nature of which is unknowable.

It is the same with introspection:

Notice the visual field. Look straight ahead. Notice it is a circle with an indefinite edge. Notice that ‘beyond’ the edge; is neither ‘black’ nor ‘white’… simply nothing.

This is the 'Eye of God'.

Notice that for much of the time, 'your body' is not apparent. When it is, notice that it appears as a foreshortened image in the bottom of the visual field, comprising at most the front of the torso and limbs... but no head. Where your head should be, the whole world appears :)

The world appears to be 3D, with objects that 'feel' heavy and solid; that appear to behave in accord with rigorous laws.

However, if you look closely, you will notice that all objects actually appear as 2D projections of known 3D forms, distorted by the laws of perspective. This is most easily seen when looking at a cube. Any apparent cube only ever appears as a 2D projection with 1-3 sides that appear to be different sizes and shapes that constantly change (depending upon the viewing angle). The known cube has six sides all the same. There is only one known cube and it never changes. The known cube cannot be sensed. It can only be known. Since no such cube has ever been seen (sensed), it is impossible to learn about the shape from experience.

It is the Known shape that gives meaning to the infinite apparent representations of it.

As for the 'Laws of Nature', these apply only to apparent objects. These laws are simply Known via mathematical models (based upon the idea of number). These models have no substance.

Like forms, numbers cannot be sensed. They can only be known. No representation (no formula) is the number known, eg: $$$^, 1111, two squared, quatre, 4, four, etc.

It is the number known that gives meaning to the sensory representation.

All sensations (colours, sounds, feelings, flavours and odours) are themselves meaningless. They have no substance.

They exist nowhere but in Consciousness. They are inseparable from Consciousness.

What sensations ‘are’, is impossible to know. How could you ever examine a colour to find out ‘what’ it is? The hand that reaches is itself simply a ‘coloured image’, combined with feelings and ideas (meaning) in Awareness.

Ideas never change, for if they did, they would be different ideas and not the ideas they are. Ideas are essentially one with the Knowing… they cannot exist separate from the capacity to Know them.

As one idea is Known, all ideas must be Known, as all ideas are 'self-referential'; which is to say, each idea takes its meaning solely from reference to all other ideas.

Yet it seems that ‘all ideas are not known’.

Notice there is no awareness at all of knowing (or not knowing)… 'elephant'.

Yet, as soon as the image of the word appears... boom. There is awareness of the idea.

It is not the ‘marks’ on the page that are meaningful. They only appear so as the idea is associated with the image. Seen from the perspective of a non-English reader, no idea is associated with the word, so it remains what it is: a meaningless sensory image.

Things appear to be ‘things’ only as they are imaged in awareness and ideas are associated with them.

For example, the same image may appear as an unknown object, as the idea in Awareness is "What's that?" If the idea of 'snake' then arises, that is what the image then appears to be (perhaps with attendant feelings of fear). If the idea changes to 'rope', that is what is then seen (perhaps with feelings of relief).

Or take this drawing: old young woman. The lines do not change, but what is actually seen appears to be different as the idea of an old woman is replaced by the idea of a young woman seen from a different perspective.

And so, as if by magic, as this body is imaged and these ideas arise, so it seems: “I am this person reading these words”… whichever person I now seem to be!

It is all appearance.

The idea may arise that Consciousness is ‘fooled’ by this illusion. Yet there is no mistake, no misunderstanding. Consciousness is never fooled. Every idea is known perfectly the instant it is imaged in Awareness... without error. Even the idea "I am confused" is known in the instant it arises in awareness without confusion.

It is like reading a novel. The reader is not fooled by knowing the words. The reader simply knows the story as it read.

Consciousness also Sees each colour as it appears within the visual field with perfect vision... even if the image appears 'blurry', for the 'blur' is in the image and not in the capacity to See.

You think you are who you think you are... and yet you are not... and no one is deceived by this ruse :)

The apparent world, including your apparent body and all thoughts and feelings, arise in Consciousness as a momentary ever changing pattern of sensations given meaning through ideas (number, form and meaning).

Remember, there were occasions when the body appeared to be that of a young child with childish thoughts and feelings; and it will soon appear that the body is old, with different thoughts and feelings.

Notice that Consciousness remains unchanged, even as the appearances and feelings and thoughts change.

As ‘you’ appear to age, it seems ‘you’ are in fact ‘different’ to how you once were… simply because the sensations and ideas experienced are different.

In the same way, it appears that ‘you’ are entirely different people and creatures… as ‘life’ is experienced from their perspective. This seems to happen as different sensations and ideas arise in Awareness creating the impression of a different body with different thoughts and feelings, living in different places at times… as in a dream.

It is like watching a computer game from the perspective of each character… replaying each scene from their perspective. In this case, there is only one viewer, one player, playing all the characters.

Lest the thought that 'I alone am real' lead to the thought of 'Solipsim'... Remember too that though all people and creatures are dream characters, yet they are real… as real as the person you now seem to be.

This whole wonder full Universe has not been conceived to be experienced from one perspective alone.

As one experience arises in Consciousness, there is no other experience arising any where or any when else, for there is no where but here nor any when but now.

It is true, that as ‘you live each life’; what you appear to do to others, is really experienced by your Self. Hence the ‘Golden Rule’ (smile).

Of course, it is not ‘your’ Self. The Self (Consciousness) does not belong to any ‘you’… it is the same Self (the same Consciousness) that experiences all lives. ‘You’ (each and every ‘you’) in fact belongs to Consciousness!

Science can never get at the 'substance' of Reality… the nature of Consciousness, as it is impossible to observe anything other than sensations, or know anything other than ideas.

In simple terms, Consciousness can never get outside itself to observe its own nature.

From the perspective of the dream, science enables predictions to be made and machines to be built.

More fundamentally, it reveals the magnificent depth and breadth of ideas, from the smallest ideal sub-atomic particles in the ideal quantum field to the grand sweep of the whole ‘ideal’ Universe, and every ‘ideal’ thing in it at every scale.

Despite the enormity of the ideal Universe revealed by science, it is but a tiny fraction of what it means to live: to know all the stories that can be told, to dream dreams, to experience the pleasure of a walk on a bush track, the sight and smell of a disgusting pile of rubbish in a back alley, the serene moments of dawn, the noise and chaos of battle, or the rhythm of dance, or sound of laughter and music, or appreciation of art or friendship, the tart taste of a lemon, or the pain of hunger, isolation or a severed limb, every illness and psychosis... love and hate... the whole damn thing!

The purpose of ‘our’ apparent being is to apparently be that which we appear to be :)

This world is a playground... it has no more substance than a dream.

Reality is perfect as it is... it never changes. It really is eternal.

Given colours are inseparable from the capacity to See them, what colour seen could kill the Seeing of it? What sensation could ever kill the capacity to Sense it?What idea could kill the capacity to Know it?

All change is apparent only.

The apparent world is perfect precisely because it appears from a human perspective to be imperfect.

How would it be possible to have good without evil, or pleasure without pain? How would it be possible to strive, if not for the obstacles in our path? Who would be our friend, if not for our enemies? What is beauty without ugliness? What would be the consequence of growth without decay and death?

Consciousness is: Invisible-Seeing-colours+Inaudible-Hearing-sounds+Intangible-Feeling-feelings+Tasteless-Tasting-flavours+Odourless-Smelling-odours+Unknowable-Knowing-ideas(number/form/meaning)+Uncontrolled-Power (manifesting sensations into patterns that accord with ideas to create the appearance of 'me living in the world'... as in a dream).

One, inseparable into parts, except in idea.

- Omniscient

- Omnipotent

- Omnipresent

Beyond Time and Place.

Consciousness is the ground of apparent being. The ground of Consciousness is unknowable. Hence it is called The Void, or The Godhead.

These words are not to be 'understood', they are like a sign post pointing to a waterfall. The word on the sign is not for argument about 'what it means'. It simply directs attention to another place.

So these words simply direct attention to this invisible capacity to read these words... which is an inseparable part of Consciousness.

Consciousness requires no theory, no belief. Plainly it is.

What it 'is', can never be known. It remains an eternal mystery, for Consciousness is not a concept that can be known. It is the Knower of all concepts. Nor can Consciousness get outside itself to observe its own nature.

More than what you 'think', the measure of this post will be the actual change in outlook... in the flow of life as it is lived, in the awe that this mystery inspires and in the joy that fills the heart.

From Self to Self... an endless spring.

https://www.quora.com/Are-we-all-one-consciousness-That-idea-depresses-me-Is-it-true