How do I pursue Higher Consciousness in everyday life: how do I remember; how do I remain conscious of my choices for growth and authenticity throughout the day, and during all my experiences and interactions?
What you ask is the very core of this website. There is no easy answer. Learning how to practice Higher Consciousness in everyday life is what everyone must learn. It is a life-long process of learning. As we practice the specific skills of consciousness, we get better at it. These skills begin, as they must, with emotional awareness and effectiveness.
There is much on this website to create a solid foundation for this life-long process. Since you are a member, you have access to all of it. Below, is a list of web pages that we recommend reading, in the order we think will make the most sense. Read, read, read.
In addition to reading about consciousness, we know that everyone must learn the emotional skills that allow them to make a consciousness lesson out of every moment. These skills are described in Feeling Your Way Along.
Also, participation in the forum discussions has an almost magical effect on growth. Through regular participation, members gain awareness of their experience, insight into the dynamics that create situations, and confidence in their ability to deal with these situations in their lives. We highly recommend that you participate in these discussions.
Of course, your issues will be raised there. The learning is most profound as you continue to engage, dealing with your issues as you proceed. Talk with other members about what they do, how they remember, what obstacles they encounter, and anything else that occurs to you. Of course, Donna and I, as well as the forum hosts, will jump in wherever we feel we might add some specific piece of relevant information. Open exploration helps everyone.
If a specific question about practicing consciousness in any given situation arises, let us know and we will try to write about it in a Consciousness Lesson.
(We recommend that you copy and paste these addresses onto a separate document, so you can return to the list after reading each page.)
http://www.beingthere.net/nutshelltext.htm http://www.beingthere.net/whyjoinbtn.htm http://www.beingthere.net/faqs.htm
http://www.beingthere.net/aboutus.htm
http://www.beingthere.net/members/orientation.htm
http://www.beingthere.net/members/forumtraining.htm http://www.beingthere.net/members/shortcourses/sce/sceindex.htm http://www.beingthere.net/members/shortcourses/scpg/scpgindex.htm http://www.beingthere.net/members/shortcourses/scs/scsindex.htm
http://www.beingthere.net/fywa.htm
http://www.beingthere.net/archivelessons.htm http://www.beingthere.net/hcj.htm
http://www.beingthere.net/sti.htm
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Does personal growth into Higher Consciousness and Enlightenment require a teacher or a guide?
Enlightenment is everyone's birthright. By coming into this world, you have already entered the path to Enlightenment. But the path is long, arduous, obscure, obstacle-ridden and circuitous. There is so much to learn that you may not be able to learn everything in one lifetime.
This is why one of the key values in support of the pursuit of Higher Consciousness and Enlightenment is to strive for longevity. It takes a long life to allow for all of the lessons of Enlightenment to emerge.
Even then, without the right skills and directions, you are left having to fumble in vain hopes of finding what you came for. This is not to say it cannot be done. It is just much more difficult to insist on going it alone, than it is to learn from those who have gone ahead.
There are specific tools and skills to be learned from a teacher that point the way. There are skills that need to be learned on four different aspects. There are times you need a specific type of teacher, depending upon which aspect is your aspect of least development.
At different stages of growth you might need someone to teach you how to meditate, someone to teach you how to collect and channel your Qi, someone to help you clarify your thinking, or someone to help you tune-in to your inner truth. Masters exist in all of these areas who can significantly shorten the time needed to learn a lesson of Enlightenment.
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Why would I need to buy something in order to realize Enlightenment? Shouldn't truth be given freely?
If you wanted to learn from a great master, you would need to provide support for that master. If you wanted to be accepted into a monastery of Enlightenment, you would need to offer sustenance to the keepers. If you wanted to be shown how to live and learn, you would be required to first give of yourself. These are the historical truths of seeking Enlightenment, and they remain equally true today.
This exchange of teaching and guidance for sustenance and offerings is a necessary part of the learning. The student learns that there is a cost for the privilege of learning. The teacher screens potential students for sincerity and readiness, refusing the gift of illumination for those who act from entitlement and laziness.
Since the teacher is also human, and must attend to his or her sustenance, any payment or offering from the student frees the teacher's time and effort from this necessity. You can think of it this way: you're not paying for the lessons in truth. Those are universal and free. What you pay for is the accessibility of the teacher. You pay for them BEing There!
There is a high level of self-responsibility required to pursue Higher Consciousness. Adequately meeting your own needs, and then having enough to help support those who can guide you, is one measure of self-responsibility. Resentment or rebelliousness to this truth is an indication of the work still to do before undertaking a journey of consciousness.
Asking a master or guide to carry you would indicate your lower-consciousness desire to be saved. Asking him or her to give away the wisdom gained from their lifetime pursuit is to deny its true value and show disrespect toward the master. If you have nothing to offer the teacher, then you are not ready to seek the greater lessons of Enlightenment. You would still be too focused on survival and other issues of lower consciousness.
One of the universal laws of spirituality is to "give to those who further your growth the most." Money is merely a way to establish a system of common value, making this exchange more convenient.
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How long should I expect it to take to realize Enlightenment?
In his book, 365 Tao, Deng Ming-Dao says, "If all you want is spiritual realization, it isn't that difficult. For the average person, a dozen years under the guidance of a good teacher will probably give it to you. That's shorter than what it takes to be a good musician, athlete, or artist. It's even shorter than the time it will take to collect your pension. If you have the good fortune to study with the right person, you can succeed in a relatively short amount of time." (365 Tao: Daily Meditations by Deng Ming-Dao; ©1992 Deng Ming-Dao; Harper San Francisco, p.90)
We teach that you should never make your pursuit about the destination. Perfect the actual pursuit, and the results will naturally follow. As soon as you focus on the expected results, you will inevitably be confronted again with this lesson.
When do you become a violinist, for example? Becoming a violinist is about a lifelong process. The more you learn, and the more you practice what you learn, the easier you identify with that title. But like Higher Consciousness, as soon as you are seduced by the the pride of performing well, you lose your focus and are reminded that you can only claim being a perpetual student, never an accomplishment.
"Pursuit of Higher Consciousness" describes a process of BEing. "Realizing Enlightenment" only shows interest in the imagined goal. This is why we usually refer to the pursuit of Higher Consciousness and the skills required to do this well.
Focus only on the process. The results can only be appreciated in hindsight. If you are shown the lessons by a good teacher, and if you are sincere in your pursuit and diligent in your practice, you may recognize your Enlightenment. It may take a lifetime, maybe longer.
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Is there anyone who is Enlightened?
We don't know. We have not met anyone we recognized as Enlightened. We're not sure we would recognize an Enlightened person. We don't really know what to look for. Anyone who presented himself to us as Enlightened would be met with our skepticism. Someone who met our preconceived notion of what Enlightenment would look like, would be appreciated as a cosmic joke; the universe providing us with our issue-driven fantasy. The problem with trying to define Enlightenment is that any definition we could understand, would necessarily be a limited view from a level of consciousness we have already realized.
If you have been reading Feeling Your Way Along, or received the Short Course in Enlightenment, then you have learned about levels of consciousness. We can speak about these from first-hand experience. We can report about our journey of learning lessons in consciousness, and how doing so allows us to see the next level of consciousness, and begin working on a whole new set of lessons. This process has become clear through thirty-five years of seeking our own truth, gradually acquiring the skills to do so over the years. We cannot yet describe that level of consciousness beyond what we realize in my life. We can only point to it, and call it by a common name, Enlightenment.
We have also observed the effects in our lives of realizing greater consciousness. One effect has been the gradual movement away from popular society. We have come to a point in our lives where we have little or no desire to "fit in", to be popular or even recognized. For many reasons, we want to reduce our contact with people who are not working on their issues. We take the time to explain this path to those who can demonstrate through their life, that they are ready to hear about it. It has been our experience that sincere seekers of Higher Consciousness do not proselytize. They have no need to convince others to seek a path for which they are not ready. We do offer information and guidance for anyone who is ready to begin the great journey.
We can extrapolate from this experience, that someone who has realized the level of consciousness that we refer to as Enlightenment will be even more invisible than we have been able to achieve thus far. In other words, an Enlightened person would only appear to be Enlightened to an observer if he or she wanted it that way. And they would only want it that way for some specific reason, probably not for ego recognition or acknowledgement.
In theory, we could all be surrounded by Enlightened people who simply do not reveal themselves. Or, we may be surrounded by morons. Who knows? Trying to answer the question of Enlightenment before preparing for this level of consciousness is moot. In our experience, those who refuse to begin the journey, because they remain unconvinced of the promised destination, are simply avoiding their work. Personal growth is an inherent characteristic in all living things. We either embrace the growth, and the growth pains that go with it, or we work toward death, unconsciously, and the futility that assuredly accompanies it. There is only one choice in life, to grow or to die.
The choice to die is usually not a conscious one. It usually is a reflection of someone's fear of living. The choice to live requires that one deals with their experience, and grows continuously, which means there is constant work. When one chooses to live, and embraces their inner work, then personal growth occurs. Eventually, one sees that there is a pattern to the work/growth, and that there are tangible skills to facilitate the work. As one acquires the skills, and masters them, there is a realization that their world has changed. We call this a new level of consciousness. Repeated cycles of growth allow for hindsight that makes the path obvious. Newly awake people, those who have made a conscious choice to live, wish for an obviousness to this path, which can only come later. The real test is whether you will undertake the journey simply because you know you must, without any promise of reward. The willingness to proceed, armed only with the calling for growth, is what we refer to as faith.
So, listen to the calling for growth. Choose life! Choose willingness to feel what you feel and willingness to deal with what you feel. This is the first choice of consciousness. Everything else you can learn. But, like seeds in the ground, the first choice must be made in the darkness.
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Why are emotions emphasized in the pursuit of Higher Consciousness?
Emotions are the spontaneous expressions coming from your beliefs, values, perceptions or early life experience, most of which are imprinted in your unconscious. By learning to work with each emotion, you have access to parts of your unconscious that are usually out of sight. By testing each emotional source for its current veracity, you have the opportunity to update and claim responsibility for a revised Personal Truth, which then allows you to consciously choose your behavior to be consistent with your truth. Living in accordance with your Personal Truth, called BEing in Truth or BEing There, allows you to encounter necessary lessons for Higher Consciousness, lessons that otherwise remain unavailable. We call this the Path of Emotion. It is explained in depth in Feeling Your Way Along.
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Is this counseling?
No. Counseling may or may not place emphasis on your emotions. If there is emphasis there, counseling often regards emotions as symptoms of a problem, which are then treated under the expectation that the client finds greater mental stability and emotional happiness. We regard happiness as just one of the myriad of emotions, all of which can lead someone to a greater Personal Truth, and eventually Higher Consciousness. Further, counseling must take into account a complete history of the client, to discover hidden causes for their current situation or problem. BTN does not have the ability to examine the history of its members, and thus cannot probe for mental illness, instability, unhealthy lifestyles, toxic environments or the tendency to hurt oneself or others. Both counseling and BTN have benefits for individual growth. We recommend to all of our members that they also develop a professional counseling relationship. To that end, we provide guidance for finding and selecting a professional counselor in the Short Course in Personal Growth, located in the Archive of Short Courses in the Library of Enlightenment. Non-members may receive this short course if they sign-up for it during a time when it is being offered.
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Is it possible to train somebody to do self-counseling for self-awareness?
Is an external
counselor an absolute must? Can there not be a list
of questions addressed to self?
There is so much imprinting in the unconscious that is out of our view, that it takes another person to help us to see those parts of ourselves. A counselor acts like a mirror, allowing us to see what we cannot see on our own, our blind spots. The better the counselor, the more we can see.
When left to our own exploration, our unconscious will inevitably steer the process away from all issues it regards as threatening to our survival. Thus, self-examination, while useful, is not thorough, and it never can be. There is training that must occur somewhere, sometime, that teaches us how to allow our emotions and how to explore our emotions, so we can access our truth.
The counselor does not need to be an actual counselor, but it must be someone who sees inner dynamics and reflects them back to us accurately. It must be someone who can confidently take us hand-in-hand to our most vulnerable experiences, and know what to do when we get there. Stephen and Donna BE actually train partners in a marriage to help each other in this way. At some point, however, everyone needs counseling or consciousness guidance, if for no other reason than to test the truth they have discovered within.
Meditation, vision quest, walk-about; these are all very useful tools. But they do not teach the seeker to recognize and reach within his own imprinting. Emotional tools are needed for this.
Nor is self-discovery a mental exercise. Self-questioning is useful if the seeker takes each question as an invitation to feel and explore. But again, our unconscious will subtly and inevitably steer us away from those issues that it perceives as dangerous. It must. That is the one and only job of the unconscious.
Even in the presence of a counselor, the seeker must continuously deal with the subtle invitations of the unconscious to deny and avoid. Only a good counselor or consciousness guide can see this and help the seeker come to greater awareness about these over-ruling dynamics.
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Does BEing There offer Consciousness Counseling™?
At this time, Donna BE is still offering counseling. This is provided through face-to-face appointments in her office, in Grand Junction, Colorado, USA. For a very small number of long-distance clients who have earned the privilege after learning the skills needed to work on their issues between sessions, she will occasionally counsel via telephone or instant-messaging with video.
Other long-distance clients must incur transportation, lodging, food and incidental costs, as well as the standard hourly rates of counseling. In order to maximize the potential of each journey, appointments can be set for a number of hours, on several consecutive days. Call her office for further details. (Contact information)
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How can I find a counselor in my area who provides Consciousness Counseling™?
Since Consciousness Counseling™ is proprietary, only a counselor who has been trained through BEing There Enlightenment Systems, Inc. may make this claim. For a list of counselors in your area who offer Consciousness Counseling™, you may contact the BEing There office.
There are other types of counselors, however, who may help you in your pursuit of Higher Consciousness. We believe that everyone needs to learn basic emotional skills as part of their pursuit of Higher Consciousness. Some counselors can teach you these skills, and some cannot. If you would like further information about how to search for and screen potential counselors, you may contact this office.
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How can I become certified to do Consciousness Counseling™?
We have not yet had a large enough demand from counselors to warrant organization of a school. We can arrange individual contracts for counselors who have earned professional credentials elsewhere. If you would like information on how to receive training in Consciousness Counseling™, you may contact this office.
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