Our experience of capacity and consciousness changes when we notice our nature.
What is capacity? In short, it’s what allows anything to exist, and any experience to happen. And why do I lump together capacity and consciousness? That will be answered below.
IN THE BACKGROUND
The oneness we are can take itself as primarily something within its content of experience, most typically this human self. And then everything else becomes “other” and sometimes background.
Here, we may recognize that we are conscious beings, but consciousness somehow seems like an appendix to what we are. We take ourselves as a human self that “has” consciousness. We may not have investigated the relationship between what we take ourselves to be and consciousness very much. It doesn’t seem so important. And if we do, it may just seem confusing since what we begin to discover may not fit the conventional view of me-consciousness separation.
Similarly, capacity is not something we typically notice or pay much attention to. We may recognize that space allows things, and that there is a kind of receptivity in consciousness that allows experiences to happen, but it may seem inconsequential, peripheral, and perhaps a little too obvious to be of much interest.
From this view, capacity and consciousness may also not seem so obviously connected. Why pick those two for an article like this?
WHEN WE NOTICE OUR NATURE
When the oneness we are notices itself, all of this changes. It may feel like our world is turned upside-down and inside-out. We are no longer most fundamentally something within our field of experience, but what our field of experience happens within and as.
A part of this shift is that what appeared peripheral and in the background, including capacity and consciousness, now becomes more prominent and goes into the foreground of our noticing.
We find ourselves as consciousness. We are the consciousness that the world, to us, happens within and as. To us, the world is consciousness since it happens within and as the consciousness we are.
And we find that our more fundamental nature is capacity. We are capacity for the world as it appears to us. We are capacity for sights, sounds, smells, tastes, thoughts, emotions, states, and anything else that happens within the content of our experience.
Here, capacity and consciousness become far more primary and essential. They are two essential aspects of what we are, and in how the world appears to us.
FIGURE-GROUND SHIFT
As suggested above, there is a figure-ground shift that happens when we go from separation consciousness to noticing our nature.
When the oneness we are operates from separation consciousness, capacity and consciousness seem to be in the background. They appear peripheral and perhaps less consequential. Consciousness may even seem like a kind of appendix that we “have” as we have a leg or a kidney.
And when we notice our nature, they come into the foreground for us. They are revealed as essential aspects of what we are, and the world as it appears to us.
Note: I have written similar articles on distance, movement, time, doership, the physical, and this human self.
INITIAL DRAFT
Our experience of capacity and consciousness changes when we notice our nature.
What is capacity? In short, it’s what allows anything to exist, and any experience to happen. And why do I lump together capacity and consciousness? That will be answered below.
CONVENTIONAL SENSE
If we operate from separation consciousness, then capacity is not something we tend to notice or pay much attention to. We may intellectually recognize that space allows things, and that there is a kind of receptivity in consciousness that allows experiences to happen, but it may seem inconsequential, peripheral, and perhaps a little too obvious to be of much interest.
Similarly, we may recognize that we are conscious beings, but consciousness somehow seems like an appendix to what we are. We may not have investigated the relationship between what we take ourselves to be and consciousness very much. And if we do, it may just seem confusing since what we begin to discover may not fit the conventional view of me-consciousness separation.
Also, from a conventional view, capacity and consciousness may not seem so obviously connected. Why pick those two for an article like this?
WHEN WE NOTICE OUR NATURE
When we notice our nature, all of this changes. It may feel like our world is turned upside-down and inside-out. What before was in the background – e.g. capacity and consciousness – now becomes more prominent in our noticing and comes into the foreground for us.
We find that our more fundamental nature is capacity. We are capacity for the world as it appears to us. We are capacity for sights, sounds, smells, tastes, thoughts, emotions, states, and anything else that happens within the content of our experience.
We also find ourselves as consciousness. We are the consciousness that the world, to us, happens within and as. To us, the world is consciousness since it happens within and as the consciousness we are.
Here, capacity and consciousness become far more primary and essential. They are two essential aspects of what we are, and in how the world appears to us.
FIGURE-GROUND SHIFT
As suggested above, there is a figure-ground shift that happens when we go from separation consciousness to noticing our nature.
When the oneness we are operates from separation consciousness, capacity and consciousness seem to be in the background. They appear peripheral and perhaps less consequential. Consciousness may even seem like a kind of appendix that we “have” as we have a leg or head.
And when we notice our nature, they come into the foreground for us. They are revealed as essential aspects of what we are, and of the world as it appears to us.
Note: I have written similar articles on distance, movement, time, doership, the physical, and this human self.
DRAFT FRAGMENTS
In this context, I am using the word “capacity” to refer to what allows anything to exist. In a more conventional sense, we can say it’s the space that allows for things to happen in space. It’s the no-thing quality inherent in the universe allowing for things to happen. And more immediate, it’s the availability inherent in us that allows any experience to happen.
SECOND DRAFT
Our experience of capacity and consciousness changes when we notice our nature.
What is capacity? In short, it’s what allows anything to exist, and any experience to happen. And why do I lump together capacity and consciousness? That will be answered below.
CONVENTIONAL SENSE
The oneness we are can take itself as primarily something within its content of experience, most typically this human self. And then everything else is is becomes “other” and sometimes background.
Here, capacity is not something we typically notice or pay much attention to. We may recognize that space allows things, and that there is a kind of receptivity in consciousness that allows experiences to happen, but it may seem inconsequential, peripheral, and perhaps a little too obvious to be of much interest.
Similarly, we may recognize that we are conscious beings, but consciousness somehow seems like an appendix to what we are. We take ourselves as a human self that “has” consciousness. We may not have investigated the relationship between what we take ourselves to be and consciousness very much. It doesn’t seem so important. And if we do, it may just seem confusing since what we begin to discover may not fit the conventional view of me-consciousness separation.
From this view, capacity and consciousness may also not seem so obviously connected. Why pick those two for an article like this?
WHEN WE NOTICE OUR NATURE
When the oneness we are notices itself, all of this changes. It may feel like our world is turned upside-down and inside-out. We are no longer most fundamentally something within our field of experience, but what our field of experience happens within and as.
A part of this shift is that what appeared peripheral and in the background, including capacity and consciousness, now becomes more prominent and goes into the foreground of our noticing.
We find that our more fundamental nature is capacity. We are capacity for the world as it appears to us. We are capacity for sights, sounds, smells, tastes, thoughts, emotions, states, and anything else that happens within the content of our experience.
We also find ourselves as consciousness. We are the consciousness that the world, to us, happens within and as. To us, the world is consciousness since it happens within and as the consciousness we are.
Here, capacity and consciousness become far more primary and essential. They are two essential aspects of what we are, and in how the world appears to us.
FIGURE-GROUND SHIFT
As suggested above, there is a figure-ground shift that happens when we go from separation consciousness to noticing our nature.
When the oneness we are operates from separation consciousness, capacity and consciousness seem to be in the background. They appear peripheral and perhaps less consequential. Consciousness may even seem like a kind of appendix that we “have” as we have a leg or a kidney.
And when we notice our nature, they come into the foreground for us. They are revealed as essential aspects of what we are, and the world as it appears to us.
Note: I have written similar articles on distance, movement, time, doership, the physical, and this human self.