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Message Subject Something that might help..
Poster Handle SigmaGarnet
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Taken from Thread: THE 7 STAGES OF CONSCIOUSNESS

1) The first stage is simple awareness of the physical body, which medical science continues to map and explore. Those who reside primarily in the first stage are concerned with the simple basics of life: food, shelter, and family. They may believe in organized religions, but they lack deep involvement in anything beyond the mere physical.

2) The second stage has been called the etheric, energetic, or emotional body, which is closely communicative with the purely physical. Acupuncture has some effect on the second energy body which is barely beyond our flesh and bone. The second layer can be energized by deep breathing, yoga postures, jogging, and good health in general.

Most human beings primarily reside in the second level of consciousness and create the majority of our culture, art, politics, and organized religion. The second stage is not meditative, but is richly and complexly emotional. No actor could develop great "emotional range" unless they were at least a conscious resident of the second stage.

This ranking of stages implies no overall superiority of human worth. A person in the first stage may be good hearted and hard working, while a second stage person may be a decadent drug addict, thief, and murderer. Imagine the earth viewed from the perspective of deep space, the thin layer of our "humanity" barely visible as a dulling of the earth's atmosphere due to the pollution we create. Who can judge any human worth from the eternal cosmic perspective?

3) The third stage, sometimes called the "astral body," is the first body of meditation. When you sit in meditation and start to feel bigger than the purely physical, that is the astral revealing itself. It is colorful and pleasant, but fairly low in energy. The third and fourth stages of consciousness are closely associated with the functions of the brain, just as the second body is closely associated with the function of the total physical body, including functions of the peripheral nervous system and internal organs.

When one says that a person is in the third stage of consciousness, that means that is where he or she resides most of the time. Consciousness fluctuates up and down, burning brighter or becoming dimmer when one is tired or less attentive. Those who primarily reside in the third stage have frequent jaunts into the fourth stage but may also fall back into the second stage when their awareness is less activate. Those students who primarily reside in the fourth stage have frequent excursions into the fifth level of consciousness, which is called a 'satori.' Even those in the third stage may sometimes jump up temporarily to the fifth stage for a glimpse of freedom. These glimpses may be initiated by intense practice or triggered by close proximity to a teacher who resides in the fifth, sixth, or seventh stage. You can call this transference, transmission, or simply a "contact high."

The vast majority of people who practice meditation are in the second or third stage, but you would be surprised at the number of letters I receive from novice students who automatically assume they are in the fifth stage or even higher. Many are in a blind rush to become enlightened and naively think they can achieve the ultimate after a few short years of practice. It is a common mistake to believe that intellectual knowledge about enlightenment is equivalent to enlightenment itself. The Indian sage Ramana Maharshi once said that enlightenment was an "unlearning," not a learning. Meditation is a knack, an energy phenomena of the brain and consciousness. It is not an accumulation of borrowed wisdom dumped, like a landfill, into the thinking part of the brain. One must develop tremendous patience in order to make real progress in meditation.

4) The fourth stage has been called the "mental body" and feels larger than the third. Subjectively, the fourth feels oceanic and is filled with more intense energy and light. The fourth is highly projective and is the instrument of clarity, imagination, and vivid dreams. The greatest artists of history have been awakened to the fourth stage and drew inspiration and energy from its depths. Frank Lloyd Wright was an obvious example of a fourth stage artist and architect. His homes radiate the mysteries of higher consciousness and celebrate man's intimate connection with nature. Many people love Frank Lloyd Wright's homes but cannot comprehend what is so unique about them. The answer lies in his depth of consciousness, which he gracefully expressed in wood, stone, and art glass.

Those who reach the fourth stage often imagine they are enlightened and become even more arrogant and selfish than they were before attaining it. Most Indian and Tibetan gurus and contemporary Japanese "Zen masters" are in this fourth stage, and that is why most are not very helpful to their own students. The potential for ego inflation is difficult to resist, but can be fought off by remembering that the fourth stage is relatively easy to attain and there are thousands of mid-level fourth stage students in the world at any given time. The fourth stage can be achieved by the use of methodology if a student makes a sincere effort over a long period of time. While there is nothing unusual about entering this expanded state of consciousness, it does take us one step closer to true wakefulness.

5) Going beyond the fourth stage to the fifth level is the truly difficult task for students of meditation. Those who attain the fifth stage are said to have reached the first level of enlightenment. To reach the fifth one must journey upwards, not just outwards, and this higher plane facilitates a continuous state of superconsciousness. The fourth can be described as an ocean of light that is highly projective. The fifth is an absolutely non-projective layer of energy that is just beyond that ocean of light, beyond the thought process, and beyond the human mind. Subjectively, the fifth feels like an infinity of warm and comfortable darkness that softly envelopes the mind ocean. The fifth stage is the last and final layer of our individual personal being. To put it in other terms, in the fourth stage you feel like a ball of consciousness floating in the depth of space. In the fifth stage you literally feel that you are the depth of space.

The Total Awareness method described in Meditation Handbook is a means by which students of meditation who are in the fourth stage can gain reliable glimpses of the fifth. A glimpse of the fifth is called a satori, a temporary peak at self-realization. Many students confuse the blissfulness of the third and fourth stages they experience during meditation sessions with satori, which is a deeper phenomena. Even to experience an authentic satori is relatively easy. To live in satori, the fifth stage, is relatively impossible. It is almost like the difference between visiting Hawaii and actually owning Hawaii.

The fifth stage is the first comfortable level of consciousness where one truly feels at home. Until the fifth is attained we live as strangers to ourselves, because we have not yet come home to our own essential being. Until the fifth we do not know our "original face," and thus we suffer.

6) The sixth stage of consciousness has been called the "cosmic body" and is said to be discovered through a jump from all that is human into all that is beyond. The sixth is described as the same size as the physical universe and its realization is beyond the limits of mind. This is the "uncharted" and "pathless" territory that Jiddu Krishnamurti spoke about so intensely. Those who attain the sixth stage attract energy from all sides of the universe and pass that energy through like a clear lens. Enlightenment is not in our small human brains, but in the cosmic force that passes through us untouched.

Claims made by some gurus that the higher levels of consciousness make one capable of time travel are false. All seven stages and all of life exists in the here and now. Even a full Buddha is not capable of seeing into the future in any magical way beyond ordinary reasonable guesses. Unfortunately, there is much self-promotion in the world of gurus, which often leads to exaggeration. Likewise, such often claimed powers as the ability to materialize matter and the attainment of an all-seeing, infallible wisdom are equally fictitious. Human beings in the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh stages often do have the authentic powers of telepathy and direct energy transmission.

7) The seventh stage is said to be beyond size and form, and is the limitless void from which all is born. The seventh stage is known as 'nirvana' and 'moksha' (example - see Ramana Maharshi)
 
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