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Consciousness is the definer of our reality. I know this from my own personal experience from when I was only 21-years-old. In my case, a brush with death deepened and expanded it overnight. What normally is a long and gradual process happened quickly.

I witnessed the results. I felt it in my inner being. Bliss became my normal level of existence. I heard it in my music. I was a sax player. My playing was transformed. Professional musicians told me so.

My writing was transformed too. I went from being a failing English student in writing to winning a cash prize in a writing contest sponsored by the University of Cincinnati.

I went from speaking so poorly that I was put into a speech therapy class to winning first place in a Toastmasters’ Southern California district speech contest. When the blinders of limitation come off, we can function as highly competent members of society.

For me, it can best be summed up in the analogy of a drop and the ocean, a metaphor for consciousness that rings as true now as the first time I came across it 30 years ago. I remember the first time I read it, I had one of those “aha!” experiences. It clearly describes how something so limited and finite can realize its unlimited nature.

And it is as simple as dropping the identification of separateness. For only when the drop gives up the notion of its limited self–when the walls of its illusion come down–can it become the ocean. All the fears of limitation are gone. The limited consciousness of a drop is replaced with the unlimited consciousness of the ocean.

If you can grasp this metaphor’s significance as it points to the relationship of finite consciousness to infinite consciousness, then it may be of immense help to you in your journey through this territory we call inner path. Lets look at this a little closer.

As drops, we undergo numerous experiences that we process and these form our perception, or you might say, our angle of consciousness. When we perceive only the limitations of our finite nature, then limitation becomes our consciousness and identity.

Let’s continue our consciousness metaphor. After numerous experiences, some drops start to get an inkling of the true nature of their existence. This gives them comfort and joy, but they still suffer the limitations of being a drop.

As our perceptions expand, so does our identity and consciousness. With each step that takes us closer to the goal, the more unlimited we feel. At the more advanced stages of our perception and consciousness, we begin to intuitively realize that we are one with other drops of the ocean. That is when love begins to manifest. Not addictive, clinging love, but real love based on oneness and knowledge.

Some drops, through experience, develop even more of a true perception of their true identity. They become inspired. They feel deep within themselves that they are one and the same with the ocean, but they still haven’t given up their identity as a drop, so they continue to suffer due to inherent limitations of being a drop.

But their sufferings are not as significant, because they are not so attached to the happenings of the drop-world. They intuitively realize they are part of the ocean, and they feel a sense of oneness and connectedness with other drops.

They are thinking more and more about the infinity of the ocean and care less and less about the ordinary concerns of being a drop. This gives them great joy and peace of mind.

A very few drops, with clear perception (which comes when drops give up all the concerns and limitations of being a drop) know with certainty that the ocean is infinite. They have intense longing to be part of that infinite ocean. These are very wise drops that no longer suffer the suffering of ordinary drops. They suffer only from longing to be one with the Ocean.

Knowledge

After what seemed like ages and ages of longing, a drop, that at one time felt nothing but limitation and suffering, became the ocean and realized that it was never anything but the ocean. The ignorance of its own true nature was finally replaced with knowledge–knowledge that it is one with all the other numberless drops of the ocean.

Instead of feeling helpless in a finite state of existence, it experiences the power of the ocean. Instead of suffering from its daily struggle to survive, it experiences the bliss of having everything.

The metaphor of the drop and the Ocean has its origins in ancient Indian mythology with atma (drop-soul) finding its self as Paramatma (over-soul). A contemporary Indian spiritual master, Meher Baba, expands this in minute detail in his book, God Speaks.

Although there are several dimensions to consciousness, this is the dimension that I will explore here with you. That is, how do we progress from the sufferings and limitations of finite consciousness to the realms of intuition, love and oneness? What is the ultimate purpose of everything we do?

Experiences, both inner and outer, are the shapers of our consciousness. In Buddhism, the experience of suffering and its causes is of central importance. This is very helpful when dealing with the death of a loved one.

But what brings you joy is also important. In Sufism, the roaming grounds of the great poets Hafiz and Rumi, the theme is finding union through love with the Divine Beloved. That is also the path of the Christian mystics, such as St. Francis of Assisi and St. Theresa of Avilla.

But the common element in any path to higher consciousness is the experience, especially the inner experience. What experience brings peace? Which experiences bring suffering? What about joy?

What experiences in life deepen love? What experiences restrict it?

When we focus on the experience and its effect, we gain inner wisdom. This is the light of our path.

One of the obstacles of progressing on this journey is the fast paced mind. It hops around so quickly, from one obsession to another, from the past to the future, it makes awareness almost impossible.

Meditation

This is where meditation can come to the rescue. Through meditation, we can slow down the mind, bring it under control, and become aware of our pain and sufferings and unconsciousness, and bring them to an end. It can also open up inner resources such as creativity and intuition, improve your health, increase your energy, and improve your concentration.

Another method of slowing down the mind is spending time at a spiritual retreat center. I can get caught up in the rat race and I find sometimes just getting away from it all and taking time to relax and contemplate will perform revolutions on my state of mind.

It serves the same purpose as defragmenting a computer. It helps me feel reconnected. It’s a great way to get some objectivity about my lifestyle in a fast-paced world.

Lifestyle

If you want to see another example of how our health is impacted by our lifestyle, Healthy Holistic Living is a site for you to explore fully. Created by Michelle Toole, her site reflects upon her experience living with a chronic illness and her personal transformation. She shares how she learned through life’s challenges to integrate a holistic way of living into her daily life and the tools and techniques she used to gain spiritual, physical and mental holistic health.

One of the benefits of getting away from the rat race world we live in is that when we get some distance from it, we can see that it is a world of illusion. In fact, one of the presuppositions of Neuro Linguistic Programming is that the map is not the territory.

As we improve the perception of our minds, we will see this more and more, things are not as they seem.

Consciousness cannot be avoided in the pursuit of personal development, for it is consciousness alone that can dissolve the limitations of our own beliefs, which sabotage our efforts in reaching our goals. And personal development without attention to consciousness can take us up dead-end alleys, which brings unimaginable suffering.

This is the suffering that awaits any driver who gets behind the wheel of a car wearing a blindfold. It is a suffering that is unnecessary.