The word consciousness is well-used. However, we rarely give it much thought or reflection. As commonly used, we generally mean being awake and aware. But that is about as far as we can go in describing it. Consciousness is an experience that cannot be precisely defined. It is beyond the reach of cognition, beyond the reach of language.
Consciousness is not a “thing.” It has no form, shape, color, texture, weight, mass, contour, or location. These qualities refer to tangible objects with tangible characteristics that can be described and communicated through language. That is not so with consciousness. Although it is the central aspect of human life, in its full scope it defies the limited capacities of the spoken word.
Why is it so important that we “know” the nature and scope of consciousness? Consciousness is the ground of all being, of all experience. It is the essence of our existence. It is the field in which human suffering and distress come to an end and the qualities of human flourishing naturally reveal themselves. However, as vast and expansive as consciousness can be, in any individual it is largely contracted and limited. In the words of the writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley, it is as if our natural unbounded consciousness passed through a reducing valve as it made its way into our brain, into human existence.
To reach towards a larger life of well-being and vitality we must break through our limited experience of consciousness. We must break through a diminished experience that results from the contracting forces of family beliefs and values and educational and institutional imperatives – our social reducing valve. A larger more fully human life requires access to the largest possible consciousness. And that should be a priority for individuals and cultures. So how can we “know” our full consciousness?
Although consciousness cannot be fully conveyed through language, we can approach a deeper understanding through the practice of meditation and the use of metaphors. I have already discussed meditation as a means to direct experience, direct knowing. In short, we allow an effortless natural settling of the mind and its random mental activity. All mental activity is impermanent and naturally comes and goes. We let it settle on its own. We let it be without feeding it with our interest or attention. Thar natural settling, with practice experience, increasingly stills the mind. This allows a progressively clearer recognition of an open, unconditioned, naked consciousness. That glimpse of our natural and expansive consciousness is characterized by the absence of time, cognition, fixation, or grasping. In time we come to directly know our natural and full consciousness –unmodified, unshaped, and uncontracted by mental activity or content.
Let’s consider a metaphor. The metaphor most often used is that of a mirror. I’ve listened to the description of mirror as metaphor many times. It keeps offering me more and more understanding over time. The essence of consciousness has three qualities. It is empty of any fixed content. It is aware, that is it is capable of knowing. And finally, it has the quality of clarity. Let me explain each of these qualities referring to the metaphor of the mirror, and over time you can verify this for yourself in meditation practice.
First, consciousness has no fixed mental content. On a mirror’s surface images arise and disappear one after another. Similarly, in the field of consciousness all mental appearances – thoughts, feelings, mental images, and sensory experiences – arise, abide, and dissolve. Everything that arises on the surface of the mirror or in the field of consciousness is perishable, is temporary. As humans, we can mentally fix and hold an appearance for an extended period of time. But this effort at fixation and rumination is a cognitively imposed prolongation of what is otherwise a temporary appearance. Both the surface of a mirror and consciousness have no fixed content, or we can say that they are empty of fixed content. All experience comes and goes on its own. Like the surface of the mirror, consciousness itself, remains unchanged by mental activity and continuous in nature.
Second, consciousness is aware. Here the metaphor breaks down. The mirror is not conscious or aware of the activity on its surface, but human consciousness is aware of all that occurs within it. Consider this to be a miraculous mystery. We know that we are aware of life and of the phenomenon and experiences of life, but we don’t know quite how. We can’t fathom how electrical and chemical activity in the brain morphs into awareness. And this special awareness not only knows the experiences that arise within it, it is self-knowing. It knows itself.
The third quality is “clarity,” which is also called luminosity. I’ve struggled with this term for a long time. I think that occurred because I’m so conditioned to thinking of clarity as a sort of transparency. Here the metaphor of the mirror has been very useful for me. We can say that the mirror has the capacity to show or reflect the images on its surface. A box, a carpet, a wooden or concrete floor doesn’t have that capacity. However, human consciousness does have the miraculous capacity to give rise to the clear experience of phenomenon that arise within it.
It may take time, reflection, and meditation practice to grasp these three characteristics of consciousness. Of course, they are not really separate. They are the singular perfume of consciousness: empty of fixed content– aware – clear. To this may be added stillness. However, we must remember the words are not the experience. They merely point to what can only be known through direct experience.
Slowly, through self-observation the reducing valve will dissipate and you will gain a special knowledge of the intangible experience of consciousness that lies beyond the confines of our day-to-day mind. That will allow you to progressively abide in an expansive unconditioned consciousness and access the self-revealing qualities of human flourishing.