Expert: Maciej St. Ziêba - 4/21/2007

Question
QUESTION: sir,I'm very much interested in reading in area of philosophy,meditation,TM.Sir, I have gone through lots of reading but none of this could satisfactorily led me to understand WHAT IS CONSCIOUSNESS??
ANSWER: Dear Ketan

I have just finished reading an essay on Prof. Michael Kalton, UW Tacoma, when you question arrived. I think that in this article you will find some answers. Read it.

Consciousness is our active "part", being able to interact with the reality outside or with our reality within on with itself. Consciousness is the ability of knowing, not only reacting, but being aware of reacting. The consciousness seems to be an overwhelming human aspect. It is, and is not. When I write "part" I do not want to underline that there are other parts, like body, but I don't exclude this fact - being conscious means being aware also of that. Not everything can be controlled by consciousness. But The overwhelming nature of consciousness is responsible for our inability to stop being aware. Either you are aware of the reality, or of yourself, or of a certain mantra (like in TM) or of the pure nature of the consciousness itself, but you cannot - by your own decision - stop being aware. Unconsciousness is an unnatural state. Even while in deep sleep, or deep meditation, you are conscious, although th object of your awareness is so subtle you have problem  grabbing at it. Consciousness is the human being-for-itself (as Sartre has defined it), and not only being-in-itself as all the other beings (things and animals included) are.

It's difficult to speak more about the real core of our existence.

Hoping this will help you,

Best regards

Maciej

PS. If you need more answers, you can check with the previous answers on All Experts from other experts. see these linksref="http://www.google.com/search?q=consciousness+site:http://en.allexperts.com/q/Phi> see these links</a>.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for prev. reply.Dear Sir,Talking about various level of consciousness,book "The greater psycology" of SRI AUROBINDO mention that these levels called SUB-,SUPER-,INCONSCIENT.I know about subconscious.BUT WHAT IS SUPERCONSCIOUSNESS and INCONSCIENT.
Also please tell me if different parts of being has its own consciousness  

Answer
Hi Ketan

Sorry, I not well versed in the theories of Aurobindo Ghosh. He was such a prolific writer - and his theories never really appealed to me. So I am not sure if I know what he intended to say. I think that by supercounsciousness he intended the ("future") enlarged, open, liberated common consciousness of the whole humanity, and by inconscious - the ("past" or hereditary) vegetal and animal nature of the human being. This resembles somehow the theories of the Theosophists, Blavatsky, Anne Besant etc.
Your second question is also difficult to answer for me. If you mean "according to Aurobindo" I must say, "I don't know"  - although if he admits several levels of consciousness, and also "the common human cosciousness" in addition to our singular one - then the answer might be "yes", but maybe he says that the lover level gets dissolved in the higher level of consciousness. I think you have to read more Aurobindo by yourself.

If your question concerns what I think is in reality with consciousness, I will say "NO", according to me either each being has one consciousness or it loses it's integrity, like in schizophrenia or other diseases of the lack of identity.

Best regards

MAciej