Practical Advice For Using This Map
Each stage of consciousness is aware of the preceding stage in a way that the preceding stage cannot be aware of itself. Because everything is contained in, part of and not separate from Pure Consciousness, this great Bliss of Stage Five is experienced again after the Void stage where nothing is experienced. It is important to understand that nothing real or true is missed or lost as we move to higher states of consciousness. This is why having Truth be your primary goal is important. Everything that exists exists in consciousness. So nothing is lost. In other words you have nothing to lose but ignorance.
There is a fluid movement between stages, especially from Stage Seven. Whatever stage is useful is immediately accessed. Yet the background of all experiences remains the highest state of consciousness we have experienced, opened to and live from and as.
I have purposely not used a specific numbering system as David Hawkins and others have used. Nor do I use muscle testing. This is simply my own direct experience and how the journey expressed itself here as best as I can describe it. I have studied with many different teachers and this seems to be somewhat similar to their own experiences as they have shared them with me. But really this is a spontaneous work that arose from this state of consciousness and was inspired by this state of consciousness to come into being. The stages of awakening are beyond words and descriptions. But this simple map does seem helpful for students to understand where they are in the process and for me to help them with the next step. In this way it is useful for both of us.
Don’t try to reach a level higher than the one you are currently living in. Just do the appropriate practices diligently and you will naturally transcend that level and move on to the next. Once you reach level three and begin to see the ego for what it is, this transcending and awakening process is natural and organic. You will be naturally drawn to the practices and teachers that help this happen. Remember you are not attaining higher states of consciousness. You are instead simply removing obstacles that stand in the way of what you already are and have always been. It is a revealing process, not an adding process. You already are the highest state of consciousness it is possible to be, but certain obstacles, thoughts, beliefs and attachments are blocking your conscious awareness of this. The awakening process is a revealing process, not an adding process.
These levels “leak” into each other. There are not really hard impermeable borders. When a higher level is reached, experienced and lived in for a while, it remains always in the background of all experiences of the lower levels. You have discovered a higher truth you might say. Once you realize that truth, you no longer believe the old truth and your entire experience of life is transformed.
For practical reasons we do still experience the lower levels, including ego. Once transcended by moving to a higher level, we no longer identify with that lower level. We are free to use it when it is appropriate but are no longer used by it or trapped in its limitations. In pure consciousness there is no identification with a particular body, name or form. Everything is experienced as pure consciousness and arising in pure consciousness without any separation at all. Yet when someone calls our name, we are free to answer. When we are at an ice cream shop and the clerk asks what flavor we want, we must defer to the personal self that has such wants and desires and we answer from that consciousness without being attached to it or identified with it. By transcending it, we become free of it yet still perfectly capable of using it. It’s important to realize this, as many people are afraid of moving to the next stage for fear of losing what they have and are familiar with. This doesn’t happen only in the beginning ego stage, but even in the Bliss stage where we are afraid of losing Bliss as we temporarily do in the Void stage. If we keep the goal of Truth above all other goals, we can surrender our attachment to each stage and move on to the unknown stage that always awaits us.
See where you feel you are on this map of consciousness. I realized that it helps me as a teacher to know. And helps the student know too. I can’t just bring people straight from ego consciousness to Pure Consciousness, even though that is essentially what they are. There are stages that need to be passed through, just as I did. That’s what a journey is about. Some people have passed through this entire journey in a single night, like Eckhart Tolle famously did. For others it took a lifetime. There is no one right way. I hope this map is helpful to you.
I will be creating more teachings involving this map, including questionnaires to help you more accurately know what stage you are in and what you might need in terms of practices or direction to help move to the next stage, a workbook of specific practices and exercises geared to each stage and videos and guided meditations geared to each stage. I will post all of these on the website.
If there is anything you feel is missing and would like to see, please contact me.
