Consciousness

Many traditions conceive of Being as ontological or nonconceptual Presence. But some schools, such as the Hindu tradition, conceive of true nature as pure consciousness. There is actually no difficulty between this view and that of Presence because Presence is the Essence of pure consciousness; expressed in a different way, when consciousness is experienced in its purity, it is experienced as Presence, the ontological and phenomenological reality of consciousness. (The Point of Existence, pg 465)

In the pure experience of consciousness there is no experience of body or thoughts; there is no experience, no experiencer, no self. Hence springs the Buddhist notion of no self . The Buddhists say that ultimately there is no self because in that aspect, universal consciousness, you cannot experience a self. Any entity-ness stops you from experiencing this vastness which is the elimination of separateness, the elimination of discrimination. There is complete non-differentiation. There is no separation, no two, and no thought that there is one. (Diamond Heart Book 2, pg 20)

One realizes that all of existence is a manifestation of consciousness; that ultimately everything is made out of consciousness. This can happen only when one transcends identity with the body. There are many ways that this realization appears. One is the perception that there is an infinite and boundless ocean of Presence-Consciousness-Love, and that all physical forms appear to arise out of this substratum. One's body and the rest of the universe appear as forms arising out of this primordial substance. One feels direct affinity and divine Love for everybody and everything. (The Pearl Beyond Price, pg 436)

Another way of seeing this fact is the direct perception that everything is made out of Love. The body, the walls, the air, the space, the atoms, all seem to be made out of the same continuum, which is this Cosmic Consciousness. There is unity and oneness, although there is variety and difference. (The Pearl Beyond Price, pg 437)

A third way is in relation to the Impersonal Emptiness and the Personal Essence. One is aware of total emptiness, and out of this emptiness there manifests, as if from nowhere, this divinely beautiful consciousness that then condenses in one drop, which is the incomparable Personal Essence. All beings and physical forms are seeing as condensations from this Love that is sometimes experienced as Grace.

This third way of perceiving the nature of everything as consciousness has many implications:

The manifestation of Cosmic Consciousness as a human being appears in the form of the Personal Essence. The Personal Essence is seen directly here to be the real individualization of Cosmic Consciousness. This is in contrast to the ego individuality which is cut off from everything else by separating boundaries. It is obvious from this perception that the Personal Essence is the real human person, the true development, which is nothing but the individuation of the divine...
In this perception it becomes clear that the physical body is an external extension of the Personal Essence. This is in contrast to the ego individuality, which is an extension of the body. One experiences oneself as a continuity starting from the boundless conscious Presence, individuating as the Personal Essence, and manifesting physically as the body.
The relationship between the Impersonal background and the Personal Essence is Love. The Impersonal becomes personal through Love, as an expression of Love. The universal Love is the continuum between the Impersonal and the personal, and hence, it partakes of both. (The Pearl Beyond Price, pg 437)

Consciousness and Essence

Consciousness is an aspect of Essence … Consciousness is a substance, although not as dense or substantial as will or love. The substance of consciousness is the substance of light. Seeing consciousness is like seeing the actual photons that constitute the inner light. (Essence, pg 64)

Consciousness and growth

Man's ordinary state of consciousness leaves him falling far short of what he could be: a fully conscious and fully alive human being. This ordinary state falls somewhere in the middle of the continuum between the pathological and the fully conscious, and has no clear demarcations. Growth, as we see it, is a movement or evolution from that middle range toward more consciousness and more life, and is the actualization of more of man's inherent potential. (Work on the Superego, pg 1)

Consciousness and prejudice

In contrast to the fully conscious individual, the average human being suffers from conscious or unconscious prejudices, whether they are racial, social, or personal. These prejudices not only color a person's perceptions and actions, but also his relationship to others, since relationships involve both perception and action. He does not see a situation or a person as it is, but rather through his own filter of prejudices and biases; and this leads to inappropriate responses and actions. The result is suffering and frustration, and ultimately a dampening of life. (Work on the Superego, pg 1)

Consciousness and enlightenment

I am focusing on the presence itself, the experience of presence, which is the experience of Essence, of true nature, of liberated nature, of enlightenment. It is the experience of the enlightened consciousness that is the self-existing consciousness. The consciousness is enlightened and has always been enlightened. It doesn't become enlightened because it is itself enlightenment, liberation, freedom, reality, and truth. And what makes it be free, liberated, and true is that it is not produced by anything else. It is here right now as itself. It is self-generating. And you can't even say that it is self-generating it just is; in some kind of absolute, fundamental way, it is now, this very instant, and this very instant is nothing but that. (Essence of Intelligence, pg 60)