Dan Franklin: Consciousness Could Care Less?

Why would I entitle a written piece with a statement such that consciousness could care less? Can that be true? It seems pretty provocative and even radical on its face. It seems lacking in compassion, that is, if consciousness were actually a person. But consciousness isn’t a person, and if we explore a little deeper we might quickly come to the conclusion that consciousness, or call it awake-ness or enlightenment is, in its care-less-ness, quite the opposite. It is compassionate, forgiving, and perhaps better described as care-free.

Consciousness, that which animates cognition and emotion, doesn't really care what state we are in or what the particular experience happens to be at the moment. Only the ego has issues with reality.....with what is. We keep tripping ourselves up by forgetting this fundamental truth, by wanting it or me or some her or him to be a particular way. Enlightenment has nothing whatsoever to do with happiness or sadness or more or less money or being alone or in a relationship...good or bad. We trip ourselves up, guard the doorway to our own particular enlightenment and block our own entrance with our interpretations, expectations, discontent and dissatisfactions. We constantly comment on the deficiency of others, their level of consciousness or how they fail to serve us, rather than simply allowing things to unfold and work with people and situations being exactly what they are. Consciousness understands that whatever is in our path is the path and is the work. Egos just don’t get it. They never, ever get it. In order for awareness to become aware of itself, our personhood, our sense of a separate isolated self that needs to manipulate, seduce, argue with and judge, simply has to get out of the way. Is it any wonder that no woman/man or situation seems good enough? Egos want more, less, different, older, younger, smarter, nicer, hotter and on and on. They are insatiable, never content, always have issues and thrive on drama and conflict. They are a house divided. I have been convinced for quite a while now that the core addiction is to thought and everything the mind grasps onto or tries to avoid. The Buddhists seem to get this big-time.

Consciousness could care less. There, I said it again. It doesn’t want or need, it simply experiences all and accepts all because it knows itself to be all. The good, the bad and the ugly is merely an interpretation, a point of view.

Let’s stop and think about it. Can we not all remember something happening in our lives, either distant or recent, that seemed horrible, like bad luck or nothing but negative, only to realize rich rewards, great lessons or a startling turn of events as a result? Ask a happily married man in his second marriage if his divorce was a mistake, or one who got fired only to stumble into a new career more richly rewarding then anything in his past. By the same token, let’s not forget the hot new lover that turned out to be more like a nightmare than a dream. I’m close to resting my case. As someone very dear to me once said, “let’s not kick a horse to death.”

Life is lived through us, and our preferences and prejudices are just that. Most human suffering comes from attempting to control life rather than relaxing into the realization that whatever shows up eventually reveals its own intention. The point is in knowing that if we accept whatever is in our path without resistance, we tend to do less harm to self and others and alchemize our experiences into something richer and deeper and more life affirming.

Consciousness knows that because it is not at odds with reality…it is reality…and it knows itself as itself if the human personality will just get out of the way. Egos fear annihilation thinking life will be over at that point. The great ironic truth is that when egos get out of the way, then life truly flows along its natural course without any interference. And what friends and lovers could be better than that? Anthony de Mello said: "Enlightenment is total cooperation with the inevitable." Enough said.

Dan Franklin, MFT / Associate Director for Counseling Services