Beneath all our evolutionary conditioning, beneath all our cultural mind viruses and power-serving, power-promulgated belief systems, beneath the chaos and confusion of life in an insane society, there is a deep stillness.
We all know deep down in our guts that that stillness is there, and that it is our natural condition. That's why we all spend our lives trying out different strategies for coming to inner tranquility. Most of those strategies are unhealthy and doomed to fail, but that inner stillness at the root of our being is what we're always reaching to experience.
Beneath all the warmongering, conflict and violence in our species, there is a bottomless foundation of pure peace. We all know deep in our guts that it's there; that's why we all secretly long for peace, even if most of us are confused about how to get there.
Beneath all the division, drama and us-versus-them othering, there is an underlying perception in each of us which sees only oneness. We all know deep in our guts that this perception is there, which is why, even though we get mixed up about how best to achieve it, we're always reaching in some way toward unity.
Beneath all human hate, rejection, bigotry and prejudice, there is a profound love for all that arises. We all intuitively sense this love below our own surface-level awareness, which is why we all, in our own clumsy ways, seek love.
We all know this, on some level. We all know that everything we really want is already our own true nature. That's why all of us, in our own convoluted, delusional, map-upside-down-and-compass-near-a-magnet ways, seek truth.
That's all we're ever really dealing with here, those of us who value peace, truth and justice. All we're ever really dealing with (in ourselves and in others) is humankind's built-in impulse to come home, and its flailing, awkward attempts to manifest that impulse.
Peace is your true nature. Oneness is your true nature. Love is your true nature.
I am not here saying that there is some aspect of you that is these things, some small part of you which you can find by rummaging around in your mind and possibly locating underneath your id to the east of your latent oedipal complex or whatever. I'm saying that is you. It's what you really are, beneath everyone's mental stories about what you really are.
Day after day from the moment this planet births our body, we experience a field of consciousness containing sensory input, thoughts and feelings. That field of consciousness is all any of us ever experience from cradle to grave, yet it almost never occurs to anyone to pop the hood and directly investigate what makes it tick.
What intense investigation will show you is that all any of us are actually experiencing in any waking moment is this singular, unified field of consciousness being perceived by something that is utterly free from it, in the same way lucid investigation into a dream will reveal a singular, unified dream being perceived by a dreamer who has no stake in what happens to any of the dream characters.
And, just as in the experience of lucid dreaming, when the dreamer realizes the truth of what's really happening, the experience suddenly becomes a lot more fun. You realize that you, the dreamer are not actually being chased by pirates or whatever, and that you're actually free from the drama and entanglements in the dream which until that moment seemed perilously threatening. From that free perspective, the dream is delightful. The dream is beloved.
An ineffable something is perceiving the mysterious field of consciousness which has been arising every day since your physical form first showed up here. That ineffable something is your true nature. And it is everything you've ever sought in this strange dream world. The only thing keeping your from recognizing this has been your fixation on the drama of the dream.
Lucid living means the dreamer of this waking life, the witness of this beautiful, dancing, ever-changing field of consciousness, is seen clearly to be what you really are.
And the good news is that you are already what it is you've been seeking. You just have to perceive this with lucidity. Your innate love of truth is already calling you home. Just follow it.
Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for my website, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics on Twitter, checking out my podcast on either Youtube, soundcloud, Apple podcasts or Spotify, following me on Steemit, throwing some money into my hat on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of my sweet merchandise, buying my new book Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone, or my previous book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish or use any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge.
Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2
Hey there very good to see your insights into consciousness. I laughed when I saw this - your steem post, linking a twitter post, which links a Medium post, quite a chain going there. Good strategy to crosspost of course.
Yeah cultivating lucidity in the dream of life on earth within the Matrix called Maya by the Vedantists, is the key, as you say. Impressive list of books you've written. And the subject matter is dearest to my heart.
Best wishes
as a species , we appear to be at a junction.
be slaves to our instinct , be manipulated by our intellect. allow others to use these two idioms as a control device. or become unified to oneself in our personal understanding of our desires.
after all , happiness is the enemy of the state.