"Whether you call someone a hero or a monster
is all relative to where the focus of your consciousness may be."

Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

Joseph Campbell: Because the imagery that has to be used in order to tell what can’t be told, symbolic imagery, is then understood or interpreted not symbolically but factually, empirically. It’s a natural thing, but that’s the whole problem with Western religion. All of the symbols are interpreted as if they were historical references. They’re not. And if they are, then so what?

Tom: Let’s go carefully here. What are you calling a symbol?

Joseph Campbell: I’m calling a symbol a sign that points past itself to a ground of meaning and being that is one with the consciousness of the beholder. What you’re learning in myth is about yourself as part of the being of the world. If it talks not about you, finally, but about something out there, then it’s short. There’s that wonderful phase I got from Karlfried Graf Durkheim, "transparency to the transcendent." If a deity blocks off transcendency, cuts you short of it by stopping at himself, he turns you into a worshiper and a devotee, and he has not opened the mystery of your own being.

"But the worst enemy you can meet will always be yourself; you lie in wait for yourself in caverns and forests. Lonely one, you are going the way to yourself! And your way goes past yourself, and past your seven devils! You will be a heretic to yourself and witch and soothsayer and fool and doubter and unholy one and villain. You must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame: how could you become new, if you had not first become ashes?"

Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

The Bardo Thodol text, also known as the Tibetan Book of the Dead, makes it clear that the peaceful and wrathful deities are all projections of our own mind.

https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijLpsp6EExU

"If one wants to abide in the thought-free state, a struggle is inevitable. One must fight one's way through before regaining one's original primal state. If one succeeds in the fight and reaches the goal, the enemy, namely the thoughts, will all subside in the Self and disappear entirely. The thoughts are the enemy. They amount to the creation of the Universe. In their absence there is neither the world nor God the creator. The bliss of the Self is the single Being only."

- Shri Ramana Maharshi

 "You must strive for liberation, the least you can do is uncover and remove the obstacles diligently. If you want peace, you must strive for it. You will not get peace just by keeping quiet."

- Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj

I believe, in order that each of us can fulfil the primary purpose of consciousness, we need to do whatever is necessary with responsibility to become aware of our unawareness. In short, our real nature -pure awareness - has no awareness of itself while we are living in an ordinary half-awake state. Being half-awake means we are fully immersed and identify with and as transitive awareness, the ego.

Our real nature, the state of pure potentiality, is absolutely devoid of all objective knowledge, devoid of all adjuncts, i.e. I am this, I am that. Actually, the state of pure potentiality is what we experience every night while asleep, where there is non-existence of transitive awareness. Then, all there is, is awareness aware of itself - intransitive awareness. This awareness is totally free of all phenomena. That awareness is I AM. It is only after awakening from sleep that there is an immediate identification with the arising of the first personal pronoun -I- which then every other thought follows. I am this, I do that, I want, I desire.  

G. I. Gurdjieff said, "A man is immersed in dreams (…) He lives in sleep. He is a machine. He cannot stop the flow of his thoughts, he cannot control his imagination, his emotions, his attention (...) He does not see the real world. The real world is hidden behind a wall of imagination."

It is only by doing the deep intense inner work – and let’s face it, that in itself, is a long termed extensive undertaking requiring sedulousness and dedication, that a person can enter into the initial stages and then advanced stages of awakening. What G. I. Gurdjieff calls the ‘real world’: to fully awaken, to settle into and remain as - I AM - devoid of any identification with any adjunct.

“It is the greatest mistake to think that man is always one and the same. A man is never the same for long. He is continually changing. He seldom remains the same even for half an hour.”

- G.I. Gurdjieff

The more aware we become, the less identified we are. The less identified we are, the greater the possibility of becoming psychologically mindful leading to an ever-increasing settling of consciousness. Learning to witness what is means less reaction to that which is arising within consciousness. All reaction, however minuscule, stirs up consciousness. As we learn to take responsibility for what is experienced, we also develop empathic emotional intelligence and equanimity, leading to a greater opportunity for consciousness to settle.

The primary purpose of consciousness is to become so settled and reflective that our real nature, pure awareness, can see its true nature reflected in the clear undisturbed mirror-like consciousness.

However, in order to reach and remain settled in a state of effortlessness, one needs to be free of all reactionary behaviours and have integrated any delusional narcissistic autocracy; actually, anywhere where awareness is aware of forms or phenomena. anything other than Self-awareness -intransitive awareness.

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When asked about the effort required, Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj said, "Unless you make tremendous efforts, you will not be convinced that effort will take you nowhere. The self is so self-confident, that unless it is totally discouraged, it will not give up. Mere verbal conviction is not enough. Hard facts alone can show the absolute nothingness of the self-image." – From: I Am That

Naturally, there are differences of opinion in regards to how to fulfill the primary purpose of consciousness.

My personal viewpoint has four necessities:

Firstly, using a framework for doing the intense inner work. Meaning, to acknowledge and integrate back into awareness any limiting beliefs, indoctrinations and any unconscious projections that arise out of victim consciousness.

Secondly, developing and practicing empathic emotional intelligence with focused compassion.

Thirdly, every time one’s attention is consciously disentangled and liberated from all limiting beliefs and/or indoctrinations appearing as i.e. speciesism and carnism, then deliberately acting in a focused, responsible manner guided by one’s moral compass. By moral compass I mean adhering to the values of ethical behaviour and compassionate empathy, to help and to alleviate the suffering of sentient beings including phenomena.

Fourth, the practice of self-attentiveness as given by Shri Ramana Maharshi: "You are awareness. Awareness is another name for you. Since you are awareness there is no need to cultivate it. All that you have to do is give up being aware of other things, that is of not-self. If one gives up being aware of them then pure awareness alone remains, and that is the Self."

When one who has become a fully mature Jnani, (one who only sees the Self) it is then, and only then, somewhat of an oxymoron to speak about service to others. As Shri Ramana Maharshi said, when seeing others, you are only seeing yourself in their shapes. The spirit of utter harmlessness (Ahimsa) that Shri Ramana Maharshi lived by, made even animals, birds and snakes make friends with him. He showed them the same consideration and love he showed to the people who came to him.

It has been my personal experience over many years and still continues today, that namely during the first give or take thirty to forty plus years of the inner and outer work, one, but not the only factor, is to deliberately create a healthy ego. In short, I would define a healthy ego as being free of all forms of victim consciousness and having a deliberate focus that is in alignment with developing and practicing the art of selfless service. Still, as many know, developing kindness and compassion on a daily basis for all sentient beings is easier said than done. The real question is, if we could live happy and healthy lives without harming others - why wouldn't we?

The Dalai Lama wrote, "According to Buddhism, compassion is an aspiration, a state of mind, wanting others to be free from suffering. It's not passive - it's not empathy alone - but rather an empathetic altruism that actively strives to free others from suffering. Genuine compassion must have both, wisdom and loving kindness. That is to say, one must understand the nature of suffering from which we wish to free others (this is wisdom) and one must experience deep intimacy and empathy with other sentient beings (this is loving kindness)."

In Patanjali's view, pure awareness, or purusa, is what actually sees creation unfolding, primary on a screen we call consciousness. The screen of consciousness is the foundation of human experience, a part of the phenomenal world it represents, and under ordinary circumstances it actually feels like the subjective 'eye' that is observing everything. InPatanjali's view though, no aspect of creation, including consciousness, can see itself, because it is material stuff. In the same way that a television cannot view its own programs, consciousness requires a witnessing awareness. Indeed, just as the television exists not for its own sake but the viewer, consciousness is at the disposal of pure awareness.

Taken from - The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali. - A New Translation with commentary - Chip Hartranft - Shambhala Classics.

https://www.amazon.com/Chip-Hartranft/e/B00B4DD2D4? ref_=dbs_p_pbk_r00_abau_000000

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