What Is Consciousness?

from Nicoll's "Commentaries," pp. 1524-1527

In this paper let us consider what consciousness is. We are studying increase of consciousness upon which the Work lays such great stress and in which some cannot see any meaning. Let us first remind ourselves that nothing is learned aright without affection. One manifestation of affection is interest. Anyone can see that no one will learn anything of a subject unless he is interested in it. We cannot therefore expect to see any meaning in all that is taught about increase of consciousness in the Work if we are not interested in the subject. In this case we probably believe in secret that we are fully conscious already. If so, I can only say it constitutes an admirable example of the adoration of oneself and demands a private chapel and an altar with a large coloured photograph of oneself on it.

However, the trouble may not lie in self-adoration. It may be that a person simply does not understand what an increase of consciousness can possibly be like. I mean, that a person may not smugly or blindly assume he is fully conscious and may be willing to admit that he is not, but cannot see what it means to increase his consciousness and feels quite helpless through sheer ignorance. We all know this state. Now to get out of this state we must fall back on valuation of the Work and the reasons why we are seeking the Work. I will say merely that unless we do this we will stick. All efforts will cease, so it is necessary to return inwardly to valuation--and revalue the Work. This releases energy. In terms of the Work-Octave we have to return to the note Do and sound it more strongly. Many 'I's attack this note and seek to drain its energy of vibration--mocking 'I's, clownish 'I's, ugly 'I's, cruel 'I's, hard 'I's, arguing 'I's, denying 'I's, mob 'I's. All unpleasant things in you seek to attack this opening note of the Work. They do so because they know, although you do not, that their power over you is eventually threatened by the Work, which brings strange and new values. For valuation of the Work, which is Do, is a valuing of new values, and a constant renewal of them by revaluing is needed and not a constant revaluing of old values. The inward man must be renewed day by day, as St. Paul says. You will be startled to find how faint, how weak, this Do can become. This is because you do not renew it day by day and have let the uproar of life drown it. Circumstances can make a life-Do easy: a Work-Do is not easy--it is against life. Along with making the note Do sound more strongly in one's being, one has to reflect deeply--that is, in the Inner Man--upon why one is seeking the Work, for the two go together--or should do. If you have neither valuation nor aim, how can the strength of the Work ever be received? There is nothing to receive it with. If there is nothing in you to receive the Work, it cannot help you. If it does not begin to influence the way you think or feel or act, it is a sign that you have neither valuation nor aim.

Now, as I said, it may be that a person simply cannot understand what it means to increase his consciousness and feels helpless. This will be the case when he has never thought about consciousness. He has no doubt taken it for granted and so has never thought about what it is. The teaching that he is not properly conscious therefore puzzles him. He will agree that if a man is knocked out he loses consciousness and that after a time he regains consciousness. From this he might agree that consciousness is something that a man can either have or not have and yet remain alive. Consciousness, then, is not identical with life. The energy of consciousness is different from the energy of life; and in regard to this the Work says that no amount of life-energy will produce consciousness just as no amount of physical energy such as heat will produce life.

The diagram used in this connection is as follows:

Greater Mind

Energy of Consciousness

Psychic Energy

Life Energy

Mechanical Energy

No amount of one will produce the other. This means they do not merge into one another but are on different levels, in different degrees. For example, a baby has vital energy before it has a psychic life, and it has a psychic life before it has consciousness, but they are on different planes. They are as different as is the sight of the eyes from the sight of the mind. No amount of the one will produce the other. This diagram assists one to reflect upon the energy of consciousness and its high place in this scale of energies. It helps to make one realize that it is something distinct and definite and that, like other energies, it presumably can be decreased or increased.

The next thing we have to grasp is that consciousness is not memory, nor is it thought, nor is it feeling, nor is it sensation or movement. It is not a psychic process. Very complex psychic processes can take place without consciousness. The mind of the moving centre, for instance, makes very complex estimations in skating or piano-playing, etc., without consciousness--or practically so. All sorts of intelligent transformations and adjustments in the body continually take place without consciousness. Now it is especially important not to say that memory is consciousness. Memory and consciousness are not the same. This requires to be thought about. They are as different as the beam from your electric torch is from the path it illuminates. You do not think them the same. Similarly, consciousness is not the same as your thought, feeling or sensation. Through consciousness you become aware of them as contents, but it is not one and the same thing. In fact, consciousness can exist without any content.

The next point is that consciousness cannot be increased mechanically. No mechanical process will lead to an increase of consciousness. Since the object of the Work is to increase consciousness, it is as well to remember that nothing mechanical will bring this increase about. Something interesting lies here which you must find out for yourselves, so it is no use asking what it is. But one thing clearly follows--namely, that consciousness can only be increased by the use of consciousness. We are given, naturally, a little consciousness to start with. This can be increased, but only by conscious efforts. The mechanical efforts which belong to the routine of the day's work will not increase it. But going against mechanicalness consciously will increase it. Consciousness, then, is a very strange thing. It seems to be like yeast, which under right conditions can multiply itself indefinitely. But this comparison does not give us a right idea of what consciousness is. Consciousness is not like yeast, nor is it something that gradually evolves from vital or from psychic energy. It is something unique. It is something we come in contact with. It is a group of vibrations of high frequency and like light it exists apart from our contact with it. Like physical light it is still and always there though we shut our eyes or though we are blind. Of this light of consciousness we receive a very little. We are nearly blind. Now it is not the light that is to be increased but our contact with it. The receptive point of consciousness has to be changed. Then more consciousness is received. We have to begin work with the small consciousness we have. We seek not to squander it in identifying. But people throw away even the small consciousness they have. To awaken is to become more and more conscious by letting in consciousness into dark places. So it is said that self-observation lets light into the darkness within us. And also it is said in John that "the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not". So it is with everyone who is given the Work, which is Esoteric Christianity--that is, its inner meaning--and does not open the door to it. He does not let it in. He sees the light but, not turning it inwards upon his own darkness, remains without comprehending it.