Consciousness

At the Tuesday TCC practice for teachers, in the Albuquerque Center, one of the very good teachers, Debbie, remarked that she would be giving a presentation at a CONSCIOUSNESS FAIR, to be held in Albuquerque. This piqued my interest as this is one of the deepest topics I can imagine. I wondered whether the speakers know what they would talk about, or was this another case of simply choosing a box-office title without anything to back it up, as is often done.

I pointed out that there is no such thing as “higher consciousness”, that there is only consciousness, just as the frequently used terms “good karma” and “bad karma” are incorrect — there is only karma, where each cause must have an equal effect (the words “good” and “bad” reflect subjective judgments).

I suggested she ask a speaker what the relationship is between karma and consciousness; also, the relationship between CHI (Prana) and consciousness. In truth, there is no consciousness without CHI (Prana) and the relationship between mind and CHI is a very intimate one. This should be understood by teachers of TCC.

In truth, there is nothing but consciousness (how could there be a world or an observer without it?), and consciousness is brought about by the CHI. Consciousness and CHI arise simultaneously, and departure of the CHI (Prana) from the body means death. Kundalini is a form of CHI (Prana), but this would be an esoteric subject to discuss, and not necessary.

A very well-known Zen writer once asked me (as we shared a hot bath at Big Sur on the California coast) to give him some ideas for the lecture he was about to give. I asked him for the title of the talk, and he replied that it was “Mysticism Inside Out”. Obviously, it was a box-office title, but it was also obvious that he knew nothing of mysticism except what he had read; he knew a great deal more about alcohol and drugs.

It is not hard to fool a gullible public, and doing so may make money, but it is definitely wrong to do, and dangerous. My advice is, if you don’t know the subject ‘inside out’, don’t pretend and talk and write about it (it then becomes an ego trip).