Cosmic Consciousness
So to understand the relation of the mind to the cosmos, we
must first understand the nature of the mind, which we call space.
Space cannot be known completely until a sense of separate mental
consciousness is eliminated. When you as a separate person, as
an individual, are completely absorbed into the universality of
cosmic consciousness, then the mirror consciousness, the clarity,
experiences the void completely and boundlessly. (Diamond Heart
Book 2, pg 22)
Cosmic Consciousness has the following characteristics:
- It is a Presence. It is a very soft Presence; gentle, delicate,
smooth and flowing. One is like a wisp, like a delicate and
soft cloud.
- It is conscious. This Presence is experienced as the very
stuff of consciousness.
- It feels like light itself, but more like the substance of
light, not as rays of light, but as a flow of light, as an ocean
of light. It is "light upon light".
- It is Love. This conscious substance of light is soft, gentle,
tender and sweet. It is loving. It is as if one becomes an ocean
of Love that is conscious. So one can call it conscious love,
or the Loving Light. In traditional literature this is sometimes
referred to as Universal Love or Christ Love. It is both Consciousness
and Love in the same Presence.
- It is boundless. There is no sense of individual or personal
boundaries in this aspect of Being. The conscious and loving
Presence is felt to pervade everything, to extend infinitely,
as a homogeneous soft medium
- The Cosmic Consciousness is responsible for the appearance
of form. This can be seen in a deeper experience and appreciation
of this aspect of Being. One realizes that this conscious Presence
is not only one's own nature and substance, but that it is the
nature and substance of all existence, including the physical
universe. (The Pearl Beyond Price, pg 433)
Primordial consciousness, the non-differentiated knowingness,
is the freedom that is needed for a state of the mind to be experienced
in its most expanded form. It is the element of expansion into
universality. For example, someone might experience the clear
mind, but if they cannot experience non-differentiated consciousness
then the mind is restricted to simply clarity in the head. If
cosmic consciousness has been experienced then the mind is expanded,
and pure consciousness is integrated into the clear mind so that
it is experienced as pure clarity, pure transparency, boundless
and centerless. (Diamond Heart Book 2, pg 22)
Cosmic Consciousness and the body
When there is transcendence of the body through disidentification
from the self-representations based on it, the Cosmic Consciousness
manifests. One realizes that one is not only not the body, but
that one is a boundless consciousness. One becomes aware of being
a Presence that transcends the body in a very specific manner.
One feels one is a Presence that is conscious, but that is not
centered in the body. In fact, one becomes conscious of the body
in a total way, as if from outside. One experiences oneself not
as in the body, but as containing the body within oneself. One
is a boundless and infinite consciousness that contains the body.
(The Pearl Beyond Price, pg 433)
Cosmic Consciousness and form
At the beginning one experiences Cosmic Consciousness as pervading
everything. After a while one learns that it is the inner nature
of everything; that everything is a manifestation of this consciousness,
as individual multifarious forms. This conscious Presence is not
only one's Presence that is within, or transcending the body,
but is the very stuff of the body, and of all physical reality
(The Pearl Beyond Price, pg 436)
