All Struggle Boils Down To The Struggle Of Consciousness

[A Fellow Lighter]

I don't know whether or not anyone is actually ready to hear this, let alone understand this, but it's the truth. Unless you have a serious mental health problem, and by serious I mean causing you to impulsively self-harm or harm others, then you're either mainly struggling with meeting your basic needs or you're struggling with consciousness. But then survival is also for the purpose of consciousness. So really it all does boil down to the struggle of consciousness.

Consciousness without awareness is the problem. Experience without understanding is the problem. Otherwise you should be utterly at bliss if you have your nutrition and shelter secured. But this is not the case with most people. They neither have serious mental health problems nor are they struggling with securing their basic needs. They are simply struggling with consciousness. 

There was a time when I for one was struggling with consciousness. It's because I hadn't yet grasped the meaning of this so called life. I didn't understand the purpose of pain or pleasure, of compassion or hatred, of violence or harmony. I didn't understand the point of these experiences. And this is precisely the point: You can't let it go until you understand it. It is much easier to move past a trauma once you've understood it. So, of course, man's struggle is with consciousness.

Consciousness is no small matter. Overlooking this simple fact will cost you your happiness.

[Clarence]

Everything is consciousness.

What you are saying doesn't really answer anything.

[A Fellow Lighter]

17 minutes ago, Clarence said:

Everything is consciousness.

What you are saying doesn't really answer anything.

Consciousness without awareness is the problem. That's what I'm saying above, in my post.

Of course everything is consciousness, but without the awareness of how every single thing, or every experience, is in fact consciousness then one is bound to struggle.

For instance, trauma is also consciousness. But if you're not aware of how trauma is still consciousness then you'll call it suffering. 

 

[Clarence]

You can be deeply aware that consciouness is everything, and still suffer as some traumatic event is taking place.

Being aware that trauma is an aspect of consciousness is not enough to resolve it. The suffering that it causes is more than likely to remain despite being aware that it is consciousness.

[A Fellow Lighter]

@Clarence

When something traumatic is taking place then exactly in that moment, all you know is the pain that is unfolding for you. Yes, this too is consciousness, a very focussed or distilled form of consciousness, but conscioisness nonetheless.

Now, the moment has long passed, but somehow, you are still living in that moment which has passed, and the present moment alludes you because you have not let go of that painful experience. You keep wondering "Why me?" or "Why does this happen?", and now you live in anxiety that it might happen again. This, precisely this, is suffering. And there is clearly no deep awareness because you keeping asking "why". "Why" marks the absence of awareness, the lack of understanding.

The moment you are living in pain, even though the painful moment has passed, then you are struggling with consciousness. You are not aware that it is consciousness, hence you ask "why". The worst case scenario is that you are not aware of consciousness at all, never have been.

36 minutes ago, Clarence said:

The suffering that it causes is more than likely to remain despite being aware that it is consciousness.

Except trauma doesn't cause suffering. Suffering is caused by resisting the fact that it happened. The question of "Why me?" or anything along those lines is a form of resistance. We tend to resist what we don't understand. But then how can we understand it without the needed awareness?

[Clarence]

1 hour ago, A Fellow Lighter said:

The moment you are living in pain, even though the painful moment has passed, then you are struggling with consciousness. You are not aware that it is consciousness, hence you ask "why". The worst case scenario is that you are not aware of consciousness at all, never have been.

The sentence "struggling with consciousness" really doesn't make sense to me.

1 hour ago, A Fellow Lighter said:

Except trauma doesn't cause suffering. Suffering is caused by resisting the fact that it happened. The question of "Why me?" or anything along those lines is a form of resistance. We tend to resist what we don't understand. But then how can we understand it without the needed awareness?

Trauma is more complex than that. It's not only the question "why me''. Imagine if your mother was shot and killed in front of you in the street when you were a child. Imagine you were also shot but survived. You might react (have a physical reaction of stress) everytime you hear a firearm for the rest of your life even if you are not in danger.

You might completely accept that it happened to you and understand it is all consciousness, but still remain traumatized in that sense. It is more than likely that deep healing work will be needed. The trauma does cause suffering, even without resisting that it happened.

It is likely to remain within your cells, in the memory of your body, and maybe even continue to cause physical and mental reactions every time you hear similar sounds, despite having awareness, understanding and acceptance, because it can be ingrained at a very deep level to which conscious awareness doesn't have access.

[A Fellow Lighter]

1 hour ago, Clarence said:

The sentence "struggling with consciousness" really doesn't make sense to me.

Basically, you're struggling with existence. But to say "existence" does not address the heart of the matter which is that there, here, is consciousness. It is not going anywere, and all experiences are due to it, including your mom getting shot or yourself. Someone else you love might get shot. You might get shot again, and again, and again, and again. All of this is possible because all of this is still consciousness. But either you don't know what consciousness is and you keep asking why this stuff happens, or you do know what consciousness is but are still resisting the fact that you are it, you are that experience of getting shot and possibly dying, you are that experience of death as well as birth. But instead of being aware of this, you have rather fabricated an identity against consciousness and have called it your life instead of just life. Now everything that happens will be about you instead of being just about life. And when life moves on, you remain behind. You remain at that traumatic moment which has long passed. Rather than experiencing the pain and allowing to flow through, you are blocking it with your fear of possibly experiencing it again which might or might not be the case. This is why people suffer.

1 hour ago, Clarence said:

You might completely accept that it happened to you and understand it is all consciousness, but still remain traumatized in that sense.

No, you can't. If this happens then you have not understood consciousness, let alone be aware of it. 

1 hour ago, Clarence said:

You might react (have a physical reaction of stress) everytime you hear a firearm for the rest of your life even if you are not in danger.

Your reaction is not an involunteery spasm as you make it sound, it comes from your own concerns about life. It is rooted in your own unwillingness to accept and befriend death as part of life as part of consciousness. It is resistance at its best.

Edited June 21 by A Fellow Lighter

[Clarence]

What I'm trying to say is that sometimes you might need a friend who will give you a new perspective on your situation, or a therapist who will show you patterns in your thinking which you can't see, or you might need to take a psychedelics that will reveal to you parts of your psyche that are unconscious.

Awareness and understanding are of course crucial, but it's not always that simple to get them. You may believe you have made all the lights on your trauma and causes of your suffering, but there might be things that are still hidden from you, running unconscious, and causing reactions you don't understand.

You might react to certain triggers and have no idea where they come from. Maybe they stem from the day you were born, or perhaps they aren't even yours but your parents' fear and needs, which you have been living by your entire life.

So I think the issue is much broader than you make it sound to be. You might have all the awareness in the world, but there can still be things that remain stuck in the unconscious and nearly impossible to bring to the conscious mind. You might be able to resolve certain issues on your own with your awareness, but still be missing a deeper resolution.

Also, awareness alone is not likely to be enough to bring bliss and happiness. People might be in pain because they are not living the life they know they should be living. Having awareness and understanding about that is not likely to be enough. Having food and shelter is just a beginning. Most people will also have to change their lifestyle for it to fit their deepest desires in order to be happy.

Awareness and understanding are great, but they are like a first step you need in your life. And as I've just said, there are degrees of them. It's not just having them or not having them - of being happy or not being happy. There are degrees of all of these things which you don't seem to acknowledge.

Edited June 22 by Clarence

[A Fellow Lighter]

There are degrees to the extent to which you understand something, that's for sure. But there are no degrees to being happy. I'm not sure how to explain this, yet. But definitely, either you're happy or you're not. This is definitely my position which you so strongly contradict (I'm okay with that, btw).

The reason why I say that either you're happy or you're not is because, in truth, things don't make you happy. Happiness comes from within, just as hatred comes from within. Hatred is the polar opposite of happiness, btw. And it is also a form of resistance.

56 minutes ago, Clarence said:

Awareness and understanding are of course crucial, but it's not always that simple to get them. You may believe you have made all the lights on your trauma and causes of your suffering, but there might be things that are still hidden from you, running unconscious, and causing reactions you don't understand.

Yes, this is true. What I'm saying does not suggest anything otherwise from what you say here. 

58 minutes ago, Clarence said:

So I think the issue is much broader than you make it sound to be. You might have all the awareness in the world, but there can still be things that remain stuck in the unconscious and nearly impossible to bring to the conscious mind. You might be able to resolve certain issues on your own with your awareness, but still be missing a deeper resolution.

Is it broad? All that I'm saying is that all of this suffering, whether conscious or unconscious, is caused by one's own resistance of consciousness itself. This resistance can be in the form of a suppressed memory in which it is still you who is suppressing the memory. It could be in the form of a projection, the form of a defence mechanism, the form of a bad habit like smoking or doing drugs. Really there are many forms of resistance.

However, one truth remains. It is you, no one else and nothing external to you or out of your control, who are doing the resisting. Even if your trauma is straight up from your birth, which is highly unlike because you're not yet developed cognitively yet at that stage, but even if that happens to be the case. Should there be resistance from such a trauma, that resistance would still come from you. And, it would still (equally) be the resistance of consciousness. Hence, the struggle is with consciousness.

1 hour ago, Clarence said:

Also, awareness alone is not likely to be enough to bring bliss and happiness.

Perhaps not bliss, but definitely happiness. Once something is understood, perhaps something like a wild animal or a criminal or some sort of demonic entity (absolutely whatever) even pain, once it is understood due to awareness, it is impossible to hate it. Why? The mere act of understanding something is connecting to that something in a way that is both transpersonal and impersonal. It has nothing to do with you as an individual, but has everything to do with consciousness. You will be happy even with your scar because you understand that the attack, the violation, or mistreatment you encountered was not personal, not at all.

1 hour ago, Clarence said:

Having awareness and understanding about that is not likely to be enough.

It is exactly enough. Exactly. And if your basic needs are being met, such as the nutrition, the shelter, just the basic stuff, then your struggle with consciousness comes from your own inner resistance. There is a matter that you are resisting.

By the way, in case I've still not made it clear. In life, as we call it, there is no choice but consciousness. Consciousness is direct experience. Whatever it is that you're trying so hard not to experience, you will experience it – one way or the other.