The English word "consciousness" comes from the Latin root conscire: to be aware with. Through contemplation we plug into a consciousness that is larger than the brain. It comes through a wholehearted surrender to what is, a surrender that encompasses all and eliminates none of the present moment. Only then will we know that we're seeing reality through eyes larger than our own, which is why it is always a very humble and receptive knowing.
The level of knowing that we experience from connection with consciousness or nous is entirely different than the argumentative, dualistic world that we live in. It's a kind of quiet, compassionate, non-opinionated certitude, unlike the arrogant certitude our culture celebrates. Even though we may not be able to verbalize it, we know things calmly and deeply, as truth.
We don't know what it is we know, but what we do know is that we are somehow okay; in fact, it is all okay in its foundations and direction.
God is the great I AM in which everything--including me--has its being. My I am is a sharing in the one great I AM. To sin is simply to live out of any I am not.
Deep consciousness knows the true value of a thing, it knows intuitively what is real and what's unreal, what is eternal and what is passing, what matters and what doesn't matter at all. This kind of consciousness allows us to see the archetypal truth within the particular, for example the pattern of Christ's death and resurrection within each death and birth. At a loved one's deathbed we can be present to their dying, our dying, all dying--and to the reality of life changing forms in each death.
If we can stay within this kind of consciousness, I can promise we'll receive compassion and empathy for the world.
~R. Rohr
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