Skip to content

Book ABC of awareness

Pages from the book “ABC of Awareness”

Right of self-determination and self-responsibility

  In considering the foundation of our existence we have seen that the basic rights of existence guarantee personal freedom, we can do or not do exactly what we wish. On the other hand however we are also responsible for the consequences of everything we do or do not do. He who – according to his own discretion – can do or not do what he wants, is naturally fully responsible for everything that he does or does not do.

 

Our activities can moreover trigger a form of chain reaction of other effects (indirect consequences). If we scold a child it will possible hit a fellow schoolchild on the way to school, it may annoy the teacher and do badly in a test. This raises the question therefore of the extent to which we are responsible for the consequences of a causal chain of effects. How much should we consider the possible consequences of our decisions?

Perceptive ability

Now let’s return to the description of human development towards the living of the basic rights of existence so as to achieve internal harmony. As the next step we would like to consider what actually changes in a person when he fulfills the preconditions for the development, in other words he would like to respect – without preconditions and from his own free will – the basic rights of existence and then take the steps necessary for this.

We have seen that we can compare human development with the achievement of virtuosity in a particular activity (for example making music, sport, handcrafts etc.). The basic rights of existence (the equal right of all beings to be on the earth, to develop and to carry out their tasks) must be so strongly internalized that in every situation we automatically act according to these rights without having to think about it. If we wish to pass through this development stage, our subconscious – amongst other things with subjective perception (glasses model) – will help us to eliminate the causes of violating the basic rights of existence. We learn step by step and hence build our own pyramid of human development. Within the scope of our personal development our perceptive ability with respect to everything around us and the important interrelationships in life also increases. In particular our abilities to intuitively perceive and evaluate important information for the respecting of the basic rights of existence also increase.

Awareness – higher consciousness

The same is true for the perceptive and expressive ability in connection with the living of the basic rights of existence. We refer to this ability in the following as awareness. The word «awareness» (to be conscious of something) describes well the interrelationship described above: He who is properly conscious when carrying out a certain activity is very «aware» of all the useful information. Unlike the less well-practised he has trained his senses to be able to take in lots of additional information and to express it. He who lives his life as a virtuoso, i.e. automatically allows himself to be guided in all situations by the basic rights of existence, in other words he who lives the basic rights of existence «is» the basic rights of existence. He becomes virtually «fused» with the law and has similarly trained many of his senses which help him in this activity of living the virtuoso life or even make it possible in the first place. With respect to life he has become aware of «his existence». We would say he has a great awareness.

The model of the awareness sphere

We can use the model of a bright lamp to represent our level of awareness or level of higher consciousness: Our body represents the lamp which is lit ever more brightly as our awareness increases (higher consciousness). The brightness of our awareness lights up our surroundings so that we can see and hence perceive additional aspects of ourselves and our surroundings.

The model of the awareness sphere is extremely appropriate for discussing some of the characteristics of our personal development or spiritual growth:

Decisions

  Our lives consist of an abundance of decisions: The first thing we do is to choose our goals. As we discussed in the section on objectives in doing this we can also decide to take over the objectives of other people or help other people to achieve their own objectives. If we pursue several incompatible objectives they compete with each other when every decision is made. We therefore choose one of these incompatible objectives as a guideline for our decision. This means that we select an objective and then make the decision on the basis of this objective. When the next decision is made it is naturally possible to use another objective as the guideline. In any case it is always our own decision as to which objectives we strive towards.

 

Tasks

  In the previous chapter we saw that tasks do not simply appear of their own accord. They are not «simply there», but result from a certain objective in the personal or professional area. The tasks can therefore also be just as diverse as the goals. The nature of the tasks correspond with a concrete plan, showing how a goal or partial goal should be reached.

There are usually different options for how to achieve a given goal. In selecting our tasks we plan our personal route to the goal for which we are striving. It will however certainly not be the only possible way of reaching this goal but it will simply be the best way in our own eyes. The criteria we use to select this best route are naturally very individual.

Pursuing your own objectives

  Our goals lead us to the situation where we do certain things in our life and leave other things aside. We can therefore influence other people in a simple way, if we influence their objective or at least the choice of their partial goals. Our deep longing for peace, happiness, calmness and harmony – as described in the highest needs of all beings – is also at the same time our weakness.

In the advertising field this longing, which is deeply embedded in every one of us, is exploited in more and more refined ways: By linking a service or product with a blissfully happy person or a harmonious situation, it is suggested to the viewer that thanks to the use of this product you will become successful, beautiful, desirable, rich or whatever – and this will (also) make you happy. We have already dealt with this briefly in the section on the needs of humankind.

Objectives as an aid to success

  In setting our objectives we instruct our subconscious to help us in realizing our goals. As an example of this we discussed the glasses model in the previous section. The subconscious creates the preconditions so that we can more efficiently achieve the desired goal. In the above example of the daughter we saw that this would also provide for example a good motivation for learning at school. She had considered the learning materials through a pair of glasses which had made them appear interesting.

In top sports events so-called mental training has been used for many years to achieve tremendous levels of performance. In essence this is virtually the same as what we are discussing here: The subconscious helps to focus our strengths and abilities on a concrete objective. Our performance with respect to the goal we are striving for can thereby be tremendously increased.

Objectives as self-motivation

  How would you react, if your seven year old daughter declared that she would like to be an airline pilot? Would you immediately order a registration form from the national airline? Move close to the airport so that the daughter could visit it frequently later on? – Probably not. You would certainly be pleased that your daughter has this objective, but you would also explain that she will still have to go to school for a few more years.

And if ten years later your daughter decides upon a course in physics, or training as a gardner, would you be disappointed? – No. Your daughter has developed in the meantime. Perhaps she has even developed thanks to her objective of being a pilot. She knew that «If I want to be a pilot I will have to be attentive at school». She had thus become engaged, and in her own interests – without external pressure – had learned from it.

Concentration of strengths

  We can fundamentally freely divide the energy or strength, which is available for our personal development, between various goals as we wish. For example one person can use 20% for the capability of increasing his material wealth, 50% for the capability of attaining power over others and the remaining 30% for the capability of increasing his personal standing in society. As long as these goals do not contradict one another then he will be able to develop his capabilities according to the amount of energy devoted to each of them.

The glasses model of subjective perception is automa­tically used for every random objective by our subconscious for the development of the corresponding capabilities. It is therefore tremendously important that we set clear priorities for our objectives.