Three Levels for Transforming Your Energy & Uplifting Your Consciousness

Posted on by colinchenery

The three states of mind and energy are explained in Vedic philosophy. Vedanta is one of six schools of Hindu philosophy that reflects teachings in the Upanishads. These ancient texts are often referred to in Yogic philosophy and many sections contain very specific insights and instructions on the science of consciousness and awakening. The cosmology of Vedic science includes the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and is embraced by traditional Aryurvedic philosophy and medicine of India. It includes three principles that can be very useful in understanding states of mind and developing a formula for transforming our energy, moods and emotions, and conditioning.

In Vedic cosmology, three principles or forces (called gunas) arose in the process of creation following the ‘big bang’. Undifferentiated primordial energy differentiated into tamas, inertia; rajas, energy; and sattva, law. It is the interaction of these forces that produced countless possibilities and combinations in the evolving universe. While pure consciousness remains forever undifferentiated, mind and body are products of the gunas which interact on a personality level as they do in the material universe.

Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita explains:

“It is the three gunas born of prakriti [the universal ground of the phenomenal universe and world] – sattva, rajas, and tamas – that bind the immortal Self to the body. Sattva – pure, luminous, and free from sorrow – binds us with attachment to happiness and wisdom. Rajas is passion, arising from selfish desire and attachment. These bind the Self with compulsive action. Tamas, born of ignorance, deludes all creatures through heedlessness, indolence and sleep.

Sattva predominates when rajas and tamas are transformed. Rajas prevails when sattva is weak and tamas overcome. Tamas prevails when rajas and sattva are dormant.

When sattva predominates, the light of wisdom shines through every gate of the body. When rajas predominates, a person runs about pursuing selfish and greedy ends, driven by resltelssness and desire. When tamas is dormant, a person lives in darkness – slothful, confused, and easily infatuated.” (14:5, 10-13)

So how does this apply to us?

Level 1

Tamas includes inertia, resistance and self justification, is characterised by the inner voice that says “Who cares?”, “What does it matter”, “ I can’t be bothered!”, “What does it matter if everything goes to hell!” and simply “I don’t care”. Also when we are in overwhelm and make situations and things bigger than ourselves, we often are up against our very own resistance. Tamas is the escapist in us that wants to avoid or run. Drowsiness, mental blocks and focusing on obstacles instead of solutions is another play of tamas.

Easwaran in his guide to the Gita called “Essence of the Bhagavad Gita” in explaining this cites not wanting to get up in the morning as a great warning that tamas is in ascension. He says it’s best not to weigh pro’s and con’s which plays into tamas’ hands, but flinging the covers away and leaping out of bed. It is Easwaran’s example of life consisting of small moments where we can transform inertia into energy – tamas into rajas – with decisiveness and action.

Level 2

Rajas enables us to get things done. When it predominates we are energetic, goal oriented, full of drive and passion. However, rajas is also the glue of attachment that can lock us into the pursuit of temporary pleasure, profit, status or power when imbalanced. When we can’t rest and get fixated on needed outcomes, when we are neglecting our inner selves and connection to life beyond ourselves, then balance is found in transforming rajas into sattva.

If we are not engaging our values and have a higher purpose in what we are doing then the task and the outcomes can only provide temporary satisfaction and fulfilment at best, while more often we can feel a sense of emptiness, stress and lack of fulfilment. When each day has meaning and purpose our intentions, state of mind and integrity in what we do become the art and fulfilment of our time and energy rather than just the outcomes. Transforming rajas doesn’t mean changing what we do as much as redefining a meaningful how and how we are doing it. An example is turning our intentions or ‘why’s’ into loving and compassionate ones. The ‘doing’ then becomes part of our own development and inner practice rather than being just a means to an ulterior end. We transform rajas by focusing how we are applying our convictions and values into our actions and adding value to others ahead of attachment to outcomes.

Level 3

In the sattvic state we are energised without being driven by time or self-centred attachments. People in this state are calm, clear, kind when under pressure, and compassionate in the face of provocation. Sattva is in play when we are of service, forgiving and moving through the bumps and bruises of relationships and life situations without being overly troubled or suffering. By stepping back from investment in outcomes and self-centred gains and focus on the quality and depth of purpose in why we are doing things. Sometimes obtaining this also requires looking at life balance.

Thus, the Gita provides a formula for transforming lower energies towards an active conscious life where forgiveness, forbearance, compassion and love come into play. In nature, the guna’s go through interconnected cycles according to natural laws without intervention of mind. As human beings we can utilise our will and higher mind to draw upon rajas to transform tamas, then transform rajas into sattva and balance. We can consciously utilise these dynamics for our own transformation. In his guide book, Easwaran clarifies Sattva is not the unified state of yogi’s but it is the foundation to move beyond guna’s into universal and unified consciousness.

The Wrap …

Each time we exercise decisiveness and will power to mobilise our inertia and refine our drives, we gain progressively ability to transform our own tamasic energy and consciousness independent of the energies and impacts around us.

Generally, we have rajasic minds – thinking a lot, working often stressed and performance oriented without conscious control of what the conditioned mind is really doing. We are planning, competing, achieving or coping and often frustrated.

In sattva we can calm the mind and gain control. The conscious inner journey shows us we don’t need to act on negative thoughts and states, nor even be affected by them. When we observe (without judgement or reaction) our resentments, jealousy, doubt and fears and not act on them, we can start to transform them into sattvic energy. Not acting on conditioned and negative thinking is definitely part of maturity.

The unconscious mind is chaos and tamasic – full of past clutter and often triggered into irrelevant or destructive tendencies. For most people, it is largely a dark unknown which is tamas. This energy keeps us swinging in cycles between the gunas and makes us fickle in loyalties and commitments. It is inner conviction, standing firm in our highest resolutions and values that steadies the mind and strengthens our ability to stand firm aside from negative inner states or difficult outer circumstances.

Conviction is a critical attribute to begin to consciously transform our energies regularly. Gradually unifying our desires and mind into a focused and harmonised energy, we can make our lives a conscious reflection of our highest truths and eventually a living work of art. Transforming tamas and rajas sets the stage for such a great accomplishment, of which sattvic mind and life is the launching pad.

Recommended reading:

Essence of the Bhagavad Gita – A Contemporary Guide to Yoga, Meditation and Indian Philosophy by Eknath Easwaran (The Blue Mountain Center for Meditation, Canada, 2011)

Also there are many good translations of the Bhagavad Gita itself. An excellent one for serious readers is:

God talks to Arjuna – The Bhagavad Gita – Royal Science of God-Realization by Paramahansa Yogananda (Self Realization Fellowship, Second Edition, 1999).

Photo credit: h.koppdelaney via Visual Hunt / CC BY-NDPhoto credit- h.koppdelaney via Visual Hunt : CC BY-ND

What Is Spirituality?

Posted on by colinchenery

spirituality      (spɪrɪtʃʊˈalɪti,spɪrɪtjʊˈalɪti/ )

noun :   the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.

Religion (the institutions and established systems of belief in a divine power) and religious belief should cultivate spiritual experience. Spirituality itself is a subtle distinction to define and can be found in the simplest moments in life.

Not all spiritual practices or approaches are religious, such as yoga practiced with traditional authenticity and many techniques of meditation. Some sects of Buddhism can also be classed as non-religious. Many cultures cultivate spirituality in a great range of traditions, cosmologies and paradigms that may or may not include their connection to nature, celestial forces or the practitioners own inner transcendent nature. There is a common thread in what is characterised as sacred and spiritual.

Like many saints, masters and poets, we can contemplate such attributes as love, bliss, purpose, friendship, uplifted beauty transcendent and in nature and the sense of selfless service. Or we can delve directly into the most profound way we connect with the essence of existence and reality. Contemplating meaning in such moments helps us to align with a greater sense of goodness and connection in a living and friendly vast reality. Universal truth and being can be no less than the sum of all our most true and noble insights and experiences of life. It is also obviously much more. Personal or impersonal, a greater or pure consciousness beyond our sense of self is a subjective experience of vast potential just as love is.

The conviction or even the idea that the universe is living and conscious, is expressed inspiringly in Deepak Chopra and Menas Kafatos’ 2017 book “You are the Universe”. In this book they conclude with a theory of “qualia” which acknowledges ‘qualities’ of experience as fundamental to the observer and the observers existence and reality. Everything we can conceive and perceive is inescapably our own subjective view and experience, even through our man-made devices and equipment. ‘Quanta’ (the smallest sub-atomic unit) and Newtonian laws are discussed as two distinct levels or frameworks of laws and observations of the known material universe only, and so far short accounting fully for unanswered questions let alone the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of continued existence and experience. The ‘quantum’ realm particularly reveals the relative and surprising aspects of time, space and the interaction between the observer and reality itself.

Essentially, the book puts forward that our universe being random and stable from the big bang is against vast odds that would have it imploding or exploding, never forming even molecules if a vast array of variables of were even minutely different. Even more freakish is that such an unlikely random event evolved self-consciousness beings from only matter. Much is discussed along these lines drawing on known science theory and many new conclusions about how the universe formed. An existing but refreshed and interesting argument embracing science and philosophy is then presented that the universe arose and is still evolving from cosmic consciousness experiencing itself through a multi-dimensional universe of energy, matter and conscious beings.

Human unconditional love or compassion, self-less friendship and the vital essence of being alive is as much a part of the absolute and infinite consciousness as is our sense of profundity, divinity and sacredness. These are attributes experienced universally among all cultures, ages and people in many forms and guises. They are a few of many attributes of subjective reality and conscious awakening (becoming more aware of our ‘true’ nature) connecting us closer to a qualitative and subtle sense of universal consciousness. Conscious awakening is often associated with a realisation and identification with the observer of experience (experience including thoughts and feelings). The observer is unchanging pure consciousness compared to observed experience. With this shift of awareness comes a sense of presence, greater mindfulness in each moment. Identification with the observer gives a sense of blissfulness and freedom from physical and worldly attachments and aversions. It frees us from being at the effect of thoughts, feelings and experiences yet able to be present in them more fully.

The contemporary view of spirituality as quoted in the dictionary definition above, associates soul or spirit with a quality of being. It indicates a shared recognition in our society of a quality of consciousness or sense of being with soulfulness or spirit. This recognition is not intellectual or emotional yet is a subtle depth and quality of being widely accepted despite diverse beliefs about its meaning and implications.

Nonetheless, whatever one’s beliefs, personal spiritual experience transcends ideology and is arguably the domain that unites all true spiritual and religious paths but is not restricted to them. If ‘soul’ or ‘spirit’ are truly part of our true nature, then this level of ‘being’ is available to anyone and everyone. Buddhist and psychological approaches associate meditation in mindfulness or the pure conscious background to mind activity with bliss, wellbeing and enhanced levels of documented levels of consciousness.

Not only spiritual practices can cultivate a persons sensitivity and awareness on a ‘soul’ or ‘spirit’ dimension but so can lifestyle (choices of music, foods, environment) and social life (friends with whom one can share reflections and experiences ‘soul to soul’). In India, the term ‘sattvic’ is used to describe such harmonising and more spiritually aligned influences and vibrations.

Spiritual experience transcends thought and beliefs. Beliefs may determine what we make of it, and like meditation even pave the way for a clear personal experience and conscious shift. However, the experience freed of interpretation and mental-narrative is where many spiritual practitioners aim to immerse themselves when in communion or meditation, or through prayer, then eventually attain it continuously. It is possibly what Christ referred to as approaching God like a child. Opening ourselves to feeling close to a greater universal presence or consciousness, albeit through glimpses and intuitive knowing, is a mark of progressive spirituality.

So to, is the recognition that it is a shared and existential nature we all share. Pure spirit or pure consciousness at a spiritual level can provide an authentic sense of brother-hood and sister-hood. It is a real transcendent nature, consciousness of the pure subjective experience beyond all human doctrines and beliefs. As more people recognise the essence of a living personal spiritual experience holds a truth and absoluteness that cannot be contained by our unique and conditioned interpretations and beliefs we can respect differences in ideologies yet know when we are aligning in the same essence and reality.

Progressive spiritual attributes are also indicated by enhanced appreciation of beauty and goodness underlying the negatives and positives of worldly appearances. A universal theme in spiritual and religious practices is living from values of love and compassion, support and service to others, and removing ones self from purely selfish desires.

The bottom line universally is that of harmonising ones self and as a society by cultivating the primary drive of intent and action from love or compassion.

The dictionary view above connects “quality of being” with attributes of “soul” or “spirit”. Based on the discussion above, spirituality, as concerned with ‘spirit’ and ‘soul’, can be extended to being concerned with ‘consciousness, life and energy’. Distinguishing it as “opposed” to anything concerned with “material and physical things” may be an old distinction. I would suggest spirituality is concerned with realities beyond ‘purely material and physical things’ yet inclusive of physicality. To the spiritually awakened, all things are spiritual. To the spiritually deprived, nothing is spiritual.

Thus ‘spirituality’ represents a holistic and contextual knowledge and understanding of existence and life.

Crisis can also harness an instinctive need to develop our sense of ‘the whole’, so spirituality out of necessity can develop as we collectively gain greater maturity and knowledge as a global society, along with the issues that we have created.

From contemplating the big bang and the ensuing universe to each and every daily action, can we attune to the wholeness and profoundness of conscious existence – something coming from nothing and, nothing we can grasp with the intellect, mysteriously being behind everything. We must re-attune ourselves beyond material wonders and distractions to that which is soulfully known and felt without form. In this way we can redefine the simple presence of consciousness practically. We can rediscover humility, wonder and a sense of sacredness towards the power, profoundness and infinite potential which is our gift of life and consciousness. Being authentic with this as part of the art of being more fully ourselves, we find our own pathway through our unique life and practices. Connecting beyond our conditioned ideas of self to Divine Mother or Father can still be a high and powerful concept during such intimate and personal moments of insight, awareness and revelation.

Key Points

  1. Religion and Spirituality are not the same thing.

  2. A spiritual universe is a living conscious universe.

  3. Universal consciousness is no less than the most noble attributes of human nature.

  4. Spiritual practices, lifestyle and social factors can cultivate values, spiritual meanings, communion or alignment towards a transcendent or cosmic consciousness.

  5. Nearness to the presence or sense of a higher presence or universal consciousness is indicative of spiritual experience as is recognising it.

  6. Enhanced appreciation of beauty, goodness, truth and meaning come with spiritual awakening.

  7. Engaging in higher values through support and service to others, especially through love or compassion is central to spirituality.

  8. Unification of mind and soul tis through a sense of universal love.

  9. Our inner nature and global circumstances combine to create greater tension, prompting many to instinctively attune more to their spiritual personal nature and shared well being with others.

  10. Identifying with our sense of spiritual connection authentically and beyond our own conditioned thoughts and habits can provide the basis for our inner practice.