Consciousness
Contents
Definition
Applications
Role of Consciousness Which is Different from Nature and Culture
"From a strictly scientific perspective, we think of human beings as nothing but the children of nature and culture and that pushes you towards a kind of deterministic view. What causes your behaviour? Well it’s either nature or culture because there isn’t anything else … but that isn’t how the mythological story lays itself out … because it says there is something else … and that is, whatever your consciousness is. That consciousness seems to be able to work with nature and culture in a nondeterministic manner in order to bring itself forward. It is virtually the plot of any story. The story of the development of the individual.[1]
Consciousness Is Painful, But It Is Necessary for Redemption
Well, part of what happens in the redemptive story is, if you think about Christ as a symbolic figure—symbolic of the process of transformation that we just described—one of the morals of the Christian passion is that you need to radically accept your limitations. Part of this “keeping your sins before your eyes,” which you just described: “here’s all the ways I fall short of the glory of God,” let’s say. “I make this mistake, I make this mistake, I make this mistake.” That’s all consciousness, and it’s painful. You think, “well, you become more conscious of this glorious process of enlightenment,” and, overall, it is. But the things that you need to become conscious of are precisely the things that you least want to become conscious of. This is the motif that Jung identified in the [Alchemical tradition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy) . The Alchemical motto, so to speak, was, “that which you most need to find will be found where you least want to look.” Right. And everyone knows that’s true. You tell someone that, and they go, “oh, yeah. I know that’s true.” It’s also the greatest barrier to enlightenment, because if enlightenment is all tulips and sunshine, then everyone would be enlightened. But it’s not. It’s this continual bringing before yourself all your proclivity for transgression—obviously, because how are you going to solve your problems, if you’re not aware of them? [2]
Nature of the Relationship Between the Individual Human Consciousness and Reality
"T.S. Eliot said something about this:
“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and to know the place for the first time.”
And that’s a five-line summary of the most remarkable elaboration of the nature of the relationship between the individual human consciousness and reality itself that’s ever been penned. And the culmination of a system of thought that’s been developing over thousands and thousands of years which we have lost and cannot properly articulate. Follow what you’re interested in. It’ll take you to adversity and then through it. It’ll transform you from a citizen into an individual and then the doors will open again. And at that point, you’re strong enough to have your life. And at that point you’re strong enough not to fall prey to pathological belief systems." [3]
Interpretations
See Also
References
- ↑ 2017 Maps of Meaning 08: Neuropsychology of Symbolic Representation (a quote from the first 20 minutes of the lecture)
- ↑ Freedom & Tyranny with Russell Brand Transcript
- ↑ Potential: Jordan Peterson at TEDxUofT
