There is a mental state so happy, so glorious, that all the rest of life is worthless compared to it.
Richard Maurice Bucke, m.d., Cosmic Consciousness
Cosmic Consciousness:
The Ultimate Goal
In the earlier chapters, we discussed how Spirit has been progressively evolving through the atomic, mineral, plant, and animal phases, and finally to humankind. It appears that it still has one more phase of development before it finally merges back into itself, the All. This sixth phase is termed the Cosmic or Divine phase of creation. We know that this phase exists because we have had individuals in our history who have entered consciously into it while they lived on earth, and they left the record of their lives and deeds as a model for us to aspire to. These cosmically conscious men and women were living in a state of awareness far advanced over those of the ordinary people we deal with in our everyday existence, those who are locked into the human phase and cannot conceive of anything beyond the material world.
Cosmic consciousness means the state of awareness or knowledge you have when you become consciously aware of the organization of the universe and of your oneness with it. Furthermore, you will be able to translate this knowledge into a living experience.
Figure 7 below illustrates there are three forms, or levels, of consciousness: simple, self, and cosmic, and we can symbolically place everything that exists on this continuum. The first section represents the lowest forms of life with just simple consciousness—from inorganic matter to the least evolved human being, primitive man. The second portion begins with primitive man and ends with the highest type of individual, such as Albert Schweitzer, Buddha, or Socrates. The third portion represents the lowest type of cosmic consciousness on up to the fully developed divine awareness typifying the perfect human being.
Everyone is situated somewhere on this scale, and just as in the human realm, we have many degrees of human awareness, so also in the cosmic. Down through the ages there have been a number of individuals who have developed this power of transcendent realization. Some of them are chronicled in an extremely interesting 1901 book, Dr. Maurice Bucke’s Cosmic Consciousness. The individuals he discusses in this book obviously don’t represent all the people who have ever had an illumination and developed cosmic awareness, but it provides an extensive history of the Illuminati before the twentieth century. In this definitive work, Dr. Bucke delineates the characteristics of the cosmic-conscious person, someone who has had an illumination. He explores the lives of people such as Spinoza, Emerson, Walt Whitman, Dante, Buddha, and Christ, who, according to his criteria, had the cosmic sense to a greater or lesser degree.
Dr. Bucke writes:
The prime characteristic of cosmic consciousness is a consciousness of the cosmos, that is, of the life and order of the universe. With self-consciousness one is concerned mainly with oneself. With cosmic consciousness one extends his perception to the entire universe. Along with the consciousness of the cosmos there occurs an intellectual enlightenment or illumination which alone would place the individual on a new plane of existence—would make him almost a member of a new species.
. . . The trait that distinguishes these people from others is this: their spiritual eyes have been opened and they have seen. . . . A person is identified as a member of this family by the fact that, at a certain age, he has passed through a new birth and risen to a higher spiritual plane.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that when you have cosmic consciousness, you know everything about the universe. We all realize that, at about two or three years of age, when we acquired self-consciousness, we didn’t automatically know everything about ourselves; on the contrary, after a great many thousands of years of experience, as members of the human race, we still know comparatively little about ourselves. So, neither does a person know all about the cosmos merely because one has an illumination, but that individual does have a vastly increased awareness over the merely self-conscious person. Just as there are varying degrees of human consciousness, so also in the cosmic. This fact accounts for the differences in reports on the nature of the universe by those who have achieved cosmic consciousness; such as Christ, Buddha, and Socrates. Although all contain the central truths that are nearly always identical, there are variations in their perception and reporting of these principles.
Dr. Thurman Fleet, founder of Concept-Therapy, states:
The spiritual life is the highest expression of Spirit, exemplified by such attributes of character as love, generosity, aspiration, kindness, and so forth. . . . Very few mortals have attained to the highest form of consciousness, that of the cosmic, and usually when they do such individuals are hailed as saviors of the world. When we fully realize the meaning of these terms and the mysteries they represent, we discover that, while it may have been the special mission of one, such as Christ, or Buddha, to undertake the work of enlightening a particular age, there are many other masters or illuminated souls engaged in other work, both on this plane, and on many other planes of existence, who are interested in helping to advance the consciousness of the world.
To move into the Divine or Cosmic Phase, one must develop and learn to rely on intuition instead of the much poorer tool, reason. Intuition is the chief characteristic of the cosmic individual. It can be cultivated, but the bargain intuition drives is that it will serve you, if you serve it. We must train this latent faculty and learn to obey it in order to retain the use of it. As discussed in chapter 8, one of the primary ways to develop intuition is through meditation. We must become increasingly aware of the inner world and constantly tune our consciousness toward it. What we are seeking is habitual, spiritual consciousness, not “Sunday morning” spiritual consciousness that throws a dollar into the collection plate and then forgets about it for the rest of the week, but a constant awareness of our oneness with all of life.
Dr. Bucke states:
The immediate future of our race is indescribably hopeful. The germ of cosmic consciousness has been planted in many individuals and, as this germ grows, more and more people will come into an understanding of this higher state until finally the majority of the race will have some degree of the cosmic knowledge. Then the human soul will be revolutionized. . . . Men and women will know that God is within them; that the world is ruled by immutable laws, and by knowing the laws they will know that it is beneficial to obey them. Each act performed will be an act for the Divine, each day lived will be a day dedicated to the Divine. . . . Each soul, through imparted knowledge, will know and feel itself to be immortal and will know that the entire universe with all its good exists for, and belongs to it, forever. Each person will come to know that violation of spiritual laws does not pay, and each will begin to pattern his or her life according to the real, and peace and happiness will be abundant everywhere.
Cosmic consciousness comes to the person who learns, and lives by, the higher spiritual principles that govern life. Merely knowing about the cosmological laws, but not living by them, will not place you into higher consciousness; you must become one with the cosmic by obeying the laws involved.
You may have a very great desire to attain cosmic consciousness, but if your willpower is weak, you will accomplish nothing. The will can be trained, and it must be trained over and over again until, by a natural habit, it will do the bidding of the higher self. Dedication is one of the most important factors in this accomplishment. When a person is a disciple of the higher path, he or she must be resolute about the quest. The word disciple comes from “discipline,” meaning training of the mind or character. Until the will has been sufficiently trained and developed, all progress is rendered utterly impossible. Yet how few take the time to develop the will. How few develop their minds. Many people are just too lazy; they would rather watch television, or be entertained by someone else than put their own brain cells to work. Some people want the secrets, but they don’t want to give up their negative way of living. This is an impossible demand. To such a person, higher knowledge will never be obtained.
The moving account of Buddha in the wilderness, spending six long years in mortification and meditation trying to achieve enlightenment, stands as a monumental record of one person’s personal dedication to a vision. Buddha himself said there were many times during that long wait when he was “almost overcome by the terrors of the dark forest,” and the austerities he had imposed upon himself. When people seek enlightenment with such singlemindedness, they are sure to get it. Many people express a desire for cosmic consciousness, but how many are willing to exert the enormous courage of a Buddha as he faced the fears and trials of his lonely vigil?
We must also realize that Spirit is limited by the medium through which it expresses itself. For instance, it is much more limited in its expression through a little bird than through a human being. The Creative Power that fills the universe is in and of itself perfect, but its expression through our medium depends upon the condition of that medium. A good analogy is that of beautiful music being played by a large symphony orchestra in an acoustically perfect music hall, which is then recorded and transmitted by a radio broadcasting station and received by numerous stereo sets in the area. Some of these sets are in excellent condition with speakers and amplifiers having sufficient capacity and quality to express the music perfectly. In others, the receiving equipment is imperfect, and, as a consequence, the same beautiful music is expressed imperfectly. So it is with us. The Creative Power that fills our universe is perfect in itself, but its expression through our particular form depends upon the condition of our medium. Through constantly learning to contact our inner self, we can get our life in tune with the Great Conductor of the Universe, thereby becoming a perfect expression of Spirit Within. This is our task as human beings.
In one of the Concept-Therapy texts, Dr. Fleet states that:
There seems to come a time for all of us when we become weary of pursuing outer sensations, and our attention reverts to the world within. Trying to figure out a solution to the problems of life, we become seekers after truth. Our consciousness is then led inward and, if we persist in our journey, we finally become aware of the orderly arrangement of the universe. We become cognizant of a great, all-pervading Power which rules everything and, as we progress, we try to learn more about it. No longer does the material world absorb all our attention. Something new has come into our lives: a desire to know about the inner or spiritual world. We then enter the path leading to cosmic consciousness.
New life seems to come: our vitality is rejuvenated; we eagerly absorb all that we can. We study, we meditate, and in our studying and meditation we find, here and there, a bit of truth. These bits we hoard and treasure until we have many which we attempt to put together, like a child working with a jigsaw puzzle. At long last one great truth dawns upon us: the world and everything in it is governed and operates by laws—great cosmological principles.
Now we ask: what are those laws? We go here, there, seeking, seeking. This quest goes on and on. If we persist in our struggle for an answer, sifting through the heterogeneous maze of philosophies, religions, treatises, we will find that which we have long sought, the truth of the cosmic organization. We take a firm hold on the Eternal Principles of Natural law and, as we learn them, we become conscious of something new having entered our lives: an awareness of the One. We are now truly on the Path of Attainment, having entered a higher state of consciousness, that of the cosmic.
This, then, is our goal, the goal toward which we are all striving, whether or not we are aware of it. Spiritual men and women are the saviors of the world, and the spiritual person is also the creative one. By definition, a spiritual person is, to a high degree, united with the Divine aspect of his or her being. That individual’s life and thoughts proceed from the spiritual realm, thus bringing a creative life into the world that is not dictated by the lives of others; it is an original creation. The truly spiritual person always changes the world in some way. Nearly all of the good, inspirational, and uplifting thoughts of this world have been produced by the spirit of idealists such as Plato, Kant, Schweitzer, Spinoza, and poetic souls like Walt Whitman.
Only when we are grounded in the certainty that we are a manifestation of the Divine Consciousness within our physical form do we cease to feel lost and alone. It is the experience of the Infinite that enables us to break through the isolation, anxiety, and estrangement of self-conscious existence. Spirit is all-pervasive in the universe, and we are totally dependent upon this consciousness for our existence. In the certainty of the knowledge of the omnipresent Spirit, we can achieve inner peace. God is not a patriarchal being but, for lack of a better word, an Energy Force that our limited, finite consciousness is powerless to comprehend. Yet the conscious awareness that everything and everyone is its existence means that we are in a holy place even when we are in the most worldly place, for everything is rooted in the Divine Life. In the words of the great theologian Paul Tillich: “If one always experienced the Divine Presence, there would be no difference between the sacred and the secular, because this difference does not exist in the Divine Consciousness.”
When you fully understand the real meaning that you are a radiant expression of the Divine Spirit in manifestation, your behavior is always governed by that one central concept. Your religion is not what you claim to believe in; it is what you do with your life. What are your ultimate concerns? To what have you dedicated your life, your thoughts and actions? That is your true religion. Socrates taught that a person who really understands truth and the idea of goodness can never act against that idea. That person’s entire existential relationship to life will be motivated, governed, and directed by his inner, existential relationship to the Divine; thus, it would be impossible to be unfaithful to that illuminated understanding.
Having outlined the task that lies before us, how shall we attain this goal? Naturally, it will not be an easy job, but a lifelong struggle requiring endless vigilance and rigorous self-discipline for we are indeed giving up a part of ourselves—our egotism. If we seek to know our spiritual nature, we must be prepared to sacrifice; we must be prepared to analyze our emotional make-up and systematically eliminate all of our negative, destructive traits. If we seek to walk the upper path, we must first pass through the doorway marked “Initiation.” There is a probationary period we must go through before achieving enlightenment and being led into the full illumination. In every school of learning, a student must pass the necessary entrance requirements before being accepted. It is the same with the higher consciousness. This learning cannot be forced; it evolves through a person by a natural process as one evolves his or her own consciousness through studying, meditating, and living life.
Once we make the conscious decision to align ourselves with the spiritual world, persistently endeavoring to overcome our lower nature, we seem to receive help from some unseen force. That, at least, is what all the great teachers have told us; and we can feel safe in believing that help will come to us through one avenue or another. We are never alone in our battle if we are willing to turn to Spirit Within for assistance. If we persist in our determination, in our singlemindedness, insight and strength will come to us in various ways and from various sources. Here, knowledge of the path ahead is invaluable, as well as the cultivation of the love of wisdom. In a sublime sense, when we study the works of great thinkers who have crossed the threshold before us, our insight is awakened through appreciating theirs; and we may discover inner realms they long ago explored. Dr. Fleet writes: “When a person reaches a certain stage of spiritual consciousness, there comes a time when he is able to see without eyes, and to hear without ears. This individual is in touch with another world, one that is more real than this physical world. One becomes truly conscious of his Divinity and his immortality, and that is precisely the condition that all mankind yearns for, even though they may not be conscious of it.”
There are many aspirants for the spiritual plane of life, but not many are able to attain it. As recorded in Scripture: “Many are called, but few are chosen.” This simply means that very few people have the necessary determination to keep on with the struggle until they discover the light on the path. Usually an aspirant for the higher consciousness has been brought to it by suffering much from the superficialities of the world. She has experienced much that life has to offer and has become weary and satiated. Suffering makes her long for a higher life, and her inner cry is heard echoing throughout the universe. She is then led here and there to the knowledge that will enable her to find the higher path. Now a candidate for the more advanced spiritual expression, as she earnestly attempts to achieve self-mastery, she begins to attract assistance to herself. Through the medium of the laws of resonance and vibration, she draws to herself kindred souls, from this plane and others, who enrich her mentally and spiritually.
This type of person is attaining great wisdom. He knows intuitively that clinging to the lower self will mean that the path will be beset with difficulties and repeated pains, sorrows, and disappointments. At times, while fighting the inner battle, he secures brief glimpses of the beauty of the spiritual realm, and knows that it is the One Reality. The spiritual realm is one of inward harmony, of perfect justice, of eternal love. As time goes on, he begins to recognize the Oneness of all life and realizes that he can no longer harm others because all life is One; therefore, hurting another means harming himself. Simultaneously, this person recognizes that helping another also means helping himself, and the truth of “It is more blessed to give than to receive” becomes a reality in his life.
Dr. Fleet states:
As you overcome your lower self, as you overcome the things which people love most and cling to with such fierce tenacity, the ego and physical pleasures, you will have left behind all confusion. You will enter into a profoundly beautiful simplicity, one which may be frowned upon as foolish by the worldly-wise who are enmeshed in their network of error. You will have realized the highest wisdom, and you will be at peace. Having entered the region of reality, you will accomplish everything without striving, and all problems will easily be faced and handled by you. You will concern yourself not with changing events, but with the unchanging principle behind all things. Having yielded up your negativity, your egotism, your will to power, your biases and prejudices, you will enter into possession of the knowledge of higher worlds. As you surrender all without reservation, you will gain all; and you will find “the peace that passeth all understanding.”
There are four levels of imaging: the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. We live on all four planes and must take care of every aspect of our being. An all-embracing affirmation I particularly like is: “I am becoming aware of my oneness with the Infinite.” This fulfills the law Christ expressed as “Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven, and all else will be added unto you.” You might try saying this affirmation as you fall asleep each night; you’ll be surprised at the difference it will make in your life!
Affirmations such as this can help us achieve, in our long progress of evolution, the sixth phase of creation, cosmic consciousness. Eventually, some day, in another dimension of awareness, we shall achieve the final destiny of the evolution of consciousness, complete unity of Spirit with itself, the merging of our self-consciousness back into the One, but with greater understanding and enlightenment.
As Dr. Fleet states:
Only when we have ceased to rely on our perishable, physical self, and learned to trust in boundless measure the Creative Power, are we prepared for unity with the One. Then for us there will be no more regret, nor disappointment, nor loneliness, nor remorse; for where all selfishness has ceased, these sufferings cannot be. When we realize the profound simplicity of spiritual consciousness, and have an unbiased, tranquil, blessed state of mind, we will know that whatever happens to us is for our own good. We will be content, and no longer the servant of the self, but the servant of the Divine. We will have nothing to defend, nothing to conceal, nothing to attack, and no interests to guard; therefore, we will be at peace.
To become one with the Infinite is the goal of man, and is a far greater possession than anything else the world has to offer. The man or woman who attains it will know the secret of immortality.