“Part of the paradox of change is that the more we try to change, the more we stay the same. What you resist persists! What you reject, you become! This is a fundamental tenet of Gestalt psychotherapy’s paradoxical theory of change. And paradoxically, the more we notice, be curious and stay embodied with and present to where we are, the more we change, unfolding into our potential and becoming more integrated.”
Self-Realization, the recognition of the actual nature of consciousness, whether consciously acute or not, transcends the experience of the content of the presented objective world. Within a limited conscious awareness, the understanding and appreciation of consciousness seem like a thing because of its dynamic or lively aspect, a stimulating experience. On a mundane level, experience is what we quantify our existence, and it could not be farther from the truth if one can recognize that everything, including the ego/self, the personal little mind/body organism, is a part of the experiencing and that there is only experiencing. This “experiencing” is contained within and as conscious awareness.
One can then clearly appreciate the distinction between content (the act of experiencing) and the context of experience (self-awareness). The all-pervading consciousness of self-awareness is all there is and can be touched and enlivened through self-inquiry. Trying to find the true nature of the Self through Self-Inquiry is tricky because one will predominantly be identified with the lively aspect of the Self.
Identification is normal and natural; it is how we distinguish and navigate life’s expression in our immediate surroundings. Objective reality is all about limitations and boundaries. Identifying these physical or psychological boundaries is preferable to maintain order and balance within the worldly realm of reason.
Conscious awareness vibrates as the experience of ego/self, the personal me in body and mind. It includes awareness’s thoughts, feelings, sensations, and other perceptual content. What the Self is genuinely looking for within the display of any activity is the silent aspect of its conscious awareness: the deep, still, non-doing value, the context behind and within all the dynamic qualities of experiencing.
This is the home, origin, the substratum, and foundation of consciousness, where it all began as an intention within the potentiality of consciousness to know itself. The silent aspect of self is always present here and now; it is right in front of you, behind, within, and all around. One may believe it is hidden because one misses its simplicity and discards it as “it can’t be that—that’s too easy.”
On the other hand, when that spacious silence is recognized and appreciated for what it is, the consciousness of Self, the ego/mind, through habituation, may hijack the experience, as this is my awakening to a spiritual self. A knowing quality of questioning “is this it” overlays limitations on the unbounded value of consciousness.
Self-realization is paradoxical. The silent, unbounded, non-doing quality of consciousness and the ordinary worldly appreciation of “what is happening” seem not to have changed. As spiritual growth unfolds, a clearer understanding of the nature of consciousness will become an abiding reality.