– Hilma af Klint in the movie Hilma (2022)
Yes, it can appear that way. We can sense it. Intuit it. Feel it. Even see it.
Why? It’s not so mysterious.
WHO AND WHAT WE ARE
It’s true that we, in a sense, are this human self in the world.
To ourselves, we are more fundamentally something else. When I look, I find am what the world –this human self, the wider world, and matter – to me happens within and as.
A thought may call it consciousness. I am consciousness, and, to me, the world happens within and as the consciousness I am.
THE WORLD WILL INEVITABLY APPEAR AS CONSCIOUSNESS
To me, the world is made up of consciousness. So it will inevitably appear as consciousness.
If the mind is strongly identified with ideas of being something in particular within the field of consciousness – this human self, a doer, an observer, and so on – then it may appear as if the world is fundamentally matter. I take myself as matter or an object, and the world appears as matter and full of objects.
When I notice my nature – as the awake space that takes the form of this whole field of experience – then the world is recognized as appearing that way too. The world appears as consciousness. It appears dreamlike because it’s made of what dreams are made of, which is the consciousness I am.
In between the two – in between taking myself and the world as matter and recognizing it all as consciousness – a lot can happen. There can be a sense of matter as conscious. That a tree or other object is looking back at me. And so on.
I suspect that’s where the Hilma af Klint quote comes from.
NOT SO MYSTERIOUS
Why is it not so mysterious?
It’s for a few different reasons.
This does not say anything about the nature of the world itself. It only says something about how we inevitably perceive it.
To ourselves, we have to be consciousness. Any “conscious being”, to itself, will inevitably appear as most fundamentally consciousness. It’s likely the same for humans, ants, antelopes, whales, and any other being that “has consciousness”.
Whether we notice it or not, it’s what we are most familiar with. In reality, we have never experienced anything else. We have never experienced anything other than the consciousness we are taking the form of all our experiences, including this human self, others, matter, states, thoughts, feelings, and so on.
It’s something we can explore for ourselves, for instance with the guidance of someone familiar with the Big Mind process or the Headless experiments. We can also find it through sense field explorations, for instance, a modern version of traditional Buddhist inquiry like the Kiloby Inquiries. We can find through basic meditation – notice and allow what’s here, and notice it’s already noticed and allowed – which can take a bit longer although may also be more visceral for that same reason.
It’s not so mysterious since… It’s only about how it appears to us. It’s what conscious beings inevitably are to themselves. It’s what we are the most familiar with, whether we consciously notice it or not. It’s something we can find for ourselves, especially with some skilled guidance.