Consciousness is a state of focus, and not a self: the direction in which looks

[inavalan]

Session 93:


"You must again realize that we speak of the self as being so divided only for simplicity's sake. While the self is whole, it is however compartmentalized for efficiency's sake, but beneath consciousness the doors are open. Again, the conscious self is most necessary. However it cannot be stressed too strongly that consciousness is merely a state of focus, and not a self. Consciousness is the direction in which the direction in which the self looks at any given time.(...)

That is perhaps the most important sentence of this session, and many others. For the direction or the focus of the self does indeed change, and even in your own daily lives you experience the fact that what is conscious today may not be tomorrow. The self, in this manner, looks about. The direction in which the self looks is not the self. In dreams the self looks elsewhere, and the "I" is a conscious "I", and the working ability is tremendous.(...)

Man is much more than the conscious self, and what he calls the conscious self is merely the whole self as seen through the direction in which the whole self chooses to direct its energies and focus. A man stands in the center of a room. When he looks to the right you say "This is my conscious self." When he looks to the left, we have something else again. You say "This is the dreaming self." The dreaming self, or if you will, the left-handed self, indeed is as important as the so called conscious self. The whole self merely changes direction and viewpoint, and focuses its energies along a particular line."(...)

The conscious mind perceives matter. Yet even then it does not perceive matter directly, but by a very indirect path, and only because the whole self directs a certain portion of its energies in that direction. The conscious self does not perceive, or the so-called conscious self does not perceive, the equally valid dream constructions. You will discover that the whole self is composed of many so-called conscious selves. But neither of those conscious selves are aware of the existence of the others. The dreaming self, dear friends, is not aware of the conscious self. The whole self, the entire inner self alone, holds knowledge of the direction in which it moves. The directions can be likened to conscious selves."(...)

"The inner self constantly changes its focus. I have said that consciousness is merely the direction in which the inner self focuses at any particular time."