Collective Consciousness
For this, we need to deeply understand these deep yet fundamental Truths about life that will change the very way we look at life.
First thing, all our minds are not individual separate pieces of the universe. They are all one and the same. All our minds are interlinked. Not only interlinked, they directly affect each other. This is what I call 'collective consciousness'.
Your thoughts are as infectious as your cold. People may escape from one's cold. It is not so infectious but your thoughts are more infectious than your cold. If you catch a cold from someone, you might suffer physically for a few days and then finally get over it. But when you catch thoughts from people, not only you suffer mentally but the suffering is forever. Similarly, anything you think, affects the people staying around. Not only those who are staying around but everyone living on the planet earth is touched by your thoughts.
Please understand, your intellect will definitely resist saying, how this can be true? But the truth is all of us are not different beings, different minds. We are all totally interlinked, closely networked. Any of my thoughts can transform you; any of your thoughts can touch me. We are not separate individuals, we are not an island. There is only one thing called Collective consciousness.
The second Truth:
You are connected not only at the mental level, but even at the deeper conscious levels. The deeper you go, the deeper you are connected.
We are all connected in the levels of all the seven energy bodies.
Now, in the physical layer, you, God and I can be represented as three different points in the concentric circle, quite far from each other, say 120 degrees from one another. In the physical layer, the distance is too much.
If you come down a little bit to the Pranic level, the distance is reduced. If you come down deeper to the mental level, the distance between you and I is further reduced and so is the distance between you, God and I. When you travel deeper and deeper, and finally reach the Nirvanic level, these three entities finally merge into one.
Please be very clear that at the deep end of all these layers, God, you and I are one. There is no distance.
Let us go a little deeper into this truth. We all seem different entities at the physical level. When you love someone intimately, his or her love and suffering affects you. It comes and goes out of your being. At a deeper level, there is no individual entity; and each one of us is a part of the Collective Consciousness. You do not want the suffering; however, you cannot escape from the suffering.
Have you noticed that whether it is a physical pain or mental suffering or spiritual bondage, you get it again and again? This is because you are not aware that you are a part of the Collective Consciousness. Once you become aware and realize that you are a part of the Collective Consciousness, that you don't have an individual identity, you realize that you do not have a separate ego.
All of us think that we own our intellectual identity. However the simple truth is, in existence, no such thing as a separate individual identity exists. Once we know this truth, we go beyond pain, sufferings, depressions and diseases. Understand clearly, that as long as we have this concept of individual identity, whether physically or mentally or at the being level, we shall be continuously suffering.
The moment we start thinking that we are an individual body, which is separate from existence, our whole body becomes our enemy.
Be very clear about this, you are a part and everything is the whole. If you fall in tune with the whole, the whole behaves as your friend. The moment you start thinking, discriminating or behaving with the whole in opposition, it starts acting like an enemy. Remember, the whole isn't here to kill you or destroy you.
The whole, the universe, is a hologram of which we are a part. Just as in a hologram, every single part of the hologram, even if split, reflects the totality of that hologram, we reflect the totality of the whole that is the universe.
The other day I read an interesting interview of this man who survived his jump into the Niagara Falls. This being an unusual event and a very daring one, there were all kinds of journalists questioning him. If you have been to the Niagara Falls, you can imagine the depth of the fact that someone survived jumping down the Niagara Falls. I cannot imagine someone surviving the Niagara Falls!
When asked how he managed this unimaginable feat, the man replied beautifully, 'When I jumped I became a part of the Niagara Falls. I felt like I was a part of it. I never felt that I was different from those Falls.'
When we are in tune with the Collective Consciousness, when we become a part of the collective consciousness, nature is with us, nature is our friend, and nature protects us. Nature will not harm us.
When we start thinking that we are different from nature; that we are individual consciousness, nature will not protect us. Let us be clear that as long as we are in tune with the Collective Consciousness, nature protects us.
Wherever we want to achieve success, either in the social or economic world, when we tune in with the whole group, fall in tune with the Collective Consciousness; we will achieve whatever it is that we want to achieve.
As long as we feel that we are separate individuals, we want to keep that identity distinctly and we wish to have an idea that we are somebody, an identity, be very clear that we will be resisted and we will be resisting. The moment we start resisting, we make a hellish experience out of it.
Whether in the home, office, workplace or industry, this is bound to happen. However, if we disappear into the Collective Consciousness, we will be protected and taken care of again and again. We will attain complete success, not only socially and economically, but we will also experience it. It would be a feeling of fulfillment which is inexplicable.
A small story:
A man is told that his wife has fallen into the river and he needs to jump and save her. He immediately jumps and starts swimming against the current. Everybody is surprised and asks him, 'Hey, why are you swimming against the current?' He replies, 'You guys don't know my wife. Even if she falls in the river, she will float against the current. She resists everything so much that she will also resist the current.'
As long as we resist the current, whether it is our workplace, our house, our company or any other place for that matter, as long as we do not disappear into the Collective Consciousness, we will be continuously creating hell for ourselves and for others.
Tao, the ancient Chinese philosophy contains the same teaching. Tao is all about flow, it is about flowing with nature. Water is the greatest illustration of such a natural flow. Water simply flows with the landline, around obstacles, smoothly and energetically. Tao talks about the reeds in the water that bend with the flow and straighten up once the flow is less. That can only happen when we do not imagine ourselves to be different from our environment.
Even in the physical layer, if we think we are something separate, be very clear, we shall be inviting diseases. Another point here is that in the mental layer, if we think we are separate as an individual, we shall be sowing the seeds of violence again and again.
Seeds of violence are created whenever we feel we are an individual, unconnected or unrelated to others. We turn selfish, dogmatic, and violent. We turn into terrorists. With individual consciousness, we dissect, we cut things into pieces and such logic always breaks. However, with Collective Consciousness, we unify.
At the soul level, if we think we are separate individuals, spiritually, we cannot even take the first step. There is no possibility of any spiritual growth.
First of all, remember that at the physical level, we are not independent individuals. Our body and the body of the Sun and the Moon are pre-connected. Any small change in the body of the sun can make changes in our body. Any small change in our body can change the body of the Moon and vice versa. Some of us may have noticed that the phases of the Moon affect the state of our mind. We may not be able to logically relate these changes, however it is true.
In the mental layer, also, we are not alone. At any given point of time, any thought rising from anyone else's head comes and touches us and any thought created in someone else's mind goes and touches someone else. This is going on continuously.
Be clear, any thought sowed by someone else can touch us and affect us.
Thoughts are like ripples created on the surface water of a lake. If we are creating a strong wave, we shall be creating an impression with our thought. We shall be leading and inspiring others with our thoughts. However, if our thoughts are not solid enough, other waves will impress us.
Either we live as leaders or as followers. There is no in-between. The mind might think, 'I will not be a leader as I cannot do that much. I will not be a follower either so I shall maintain my own stand.' This is simply impractical. There is no such thing as 'my own stand.' Either we lead or we follow!
At the mental level also, if you continuously think that you are a separate individual, you shall be resisted, again and again. The moment you understand that you are a part of the Collective Consciousness; you will not be resisted; instead you will actually be welcomed and accepted.
The third Truth:
Finally, at the spiritual level, the moment we understand that we are deeply, totally, and intensely connected to the whole group, to the whole universe, not only do we start experiencing the bliss, but we also really start to live. This opening up leads to the opening up of the many different dimensions of our being.
Right now, we are stressed out and disturbed continuously, at the same time we also have to think too much. With this one body, we have to think so much and enjoy so much. Do we have the time or the inclination to go deep into our layers and expand?
We cannot even begin to imagine the many different dimensions and possibilities that will open up to us when we disappear into this collective consciousness. See, now with one body, it is a feeling of joy and you can enjoy so much. Imagine what can you do if you have two bodies? Just imagine what you can do when you have so many bodies!
Imagine that one body is an air conditioner and the other one is a heater; imagine three different bodies in different countries enjoying different cultures. Similarly if the multitudes of bodies increase, so would the joy, the bliss. Whatever we experience as individuals, we will be able to experience far more when we are a part of the Collective Consciousness.