Black and White Consciousness

Black and white are mirrors of each other. The word “black” will elicit the response “white” almost instantaneously in most people. The association between black and white is obviously very strong. Everything we know about black is only a reverse phase of white.

It is either the absence of color or full shining radiation of all the colors, black and white indicate a place that is beyond color. There is a place inside of everyone that cannot be touched (Red), cannot be explored socially (Orange), cannot be separated, changed or judged (Yellow), cannot be possessed (Green), cannot be conceptualized or bound in time (Blue), cannot be known through psychic faculties (Indigo), and cannot be patterned, imagined, ordered or magically conjured (Violet).

What is it that is beyond all our levels of perception? What is it that we can know only in a pure sense through direct experience? When we are still we can know what most people miss and that is the level of pure being with its will or lack of it.

When we communicate and relate to others there is something beyond their mind, emotions and body that we can touch or completely ignore. We listen to words, argue with words without paying much attention to the being behind the words. When we listen to another there are three levels. The first is the word level, second is the essence level and the third is the level of being. Normally we do not pay attention to how people actually feel beyond their emotions, this is the basic cause of most of the miscommunications, misunderstandings and conflicts people normally experience.

Perhaps the easiest way to understand the profound space of black, and its relationship to white, is to look up at the darkness of space. When one looks in-between the stars in the heavens what do we see. We see the blackness of space but with our minds, we can understand that it is only black because it is so full of white light that we would go blind if we could see all of the light that is traveling between the stars. In every pinpoint of space is all the light from all the stars in the universe. Each point is an absolute space of cosmic light.

The colors and levels of intelligence all come from the cosmic light, which is broken down into the spectrum colors inside of us. However, our beings are tuned to the full spectrum that is not broken down by us or anyone else.

The color black throughout the world and in all cultures is associated with evil, annihilation and negation. Nevertheless, there can be no evil in a pure sense, just a lack of understanding of what is true. From the point of view of our egos (separate selves) there is nothing more terrifying then negating ourselves. Self-denial is not something we usually seek but there is this place of selflessness that entails an annihilation of oneself as a separate ego. This space is for saints and other great people who have mastered their egos meaning they have identified with other selves as their own self. This is possible on a pure heart level when the separating calculating mind is left behind in utter stillness.

Consciousness is the manifestation of Pure Being and has everything to do with light. Consciousness creates the world in which we live and have our being. Just like a mirror, Consciousness reflects things on its own surface. Consciousness is the basic substance of the universe and everything we experience in our minds, emotions and bodies is a disturbance in consciousness. Pure being and pure consciousness are the same thing as pure awareness, which is a knowing space that we can only usually experience when we still our minds so no thoughts are present.

One can get a handle on the mystery of consciousness and that state of pure being when we understand that pure consciousness is the Creator of Creation and that without consciousness nothing can exist. Everything that happens—happens in consciousness. When we realize that everything we see depends on consciousness, the pure impersonal level of consciousness that permeates everyone and everything, we take a big step in understanding the true nature of our beings and our existence in life in a body.

When we meditate, after years of practice, most damaging thoughts are filtered. The mind becomes clear without the intrusion of worries, uncertainties, and fears. It is a place of stillness, clarity and illumination thanks to the elimination of these detrimental thoughts. When we meditate we challenge our minds to progress beyond its usual state of constant busyness to stillness so we can experience something else that is beyond mental awareness. Allowing ourselves to achieve this mental freedom is the only way to experience the state of clarity that comes from experiencing our pure consciousness. It is bliss that anyone is capable of achieving when we can bathe ourselves in our pure selves.

The whole spectrum of complexity of life is really the infinite gradations of this capacity for consciousness or awareness. This type of awareness or consciousness exists beyond all dualities so it is not easy to understand and or express.

Jeff Foster writes, “The world created by thought, the world of words, language, and concepts, is the world of opposites. ‘Up and down’, ‘this or that’, ‘inside and outside’, ‘right and wrong’, ‘black and white’, ‘true and false’, ‘positive and negative’, ‘me and you’ and so on. The world of words, language, thoughts, concepts, is a dualistic world of apparent opposites. But, in reality, do opposites exist? What we are really pointing to when we use the word ‘non-duality’ is something that goes beyond all of these mind-made opposites. But how can we talk about something that goes beyond opposites, when even our attempt to talk about non-duality is dualistic?”

Foster says, “We are like waves on the ocean, looking for the ocean, longing to be part of it? You are like a wave in the ocean experiencing itself as separate from the ocean. The wave asks, ‘When and where will I find the ocean? Who can give the ocean to me?’ But the wave was always the ocean, from the very beginning, even in its seeking! It’s the ocean looking for itself. Even within the ocean’s failure to find itself it is still the ocean; every wave is one hundred per cent water. As all the authentic spiritual teachers have been telling us for hundreds and thousands of years, you are what you seek.”

Self-awareness has been called “arguably the most fundamental issue in psychology, from both a developmental and an evolutionary perspective. Awareness of the stream of pure consciousness within us is perhaps the highest state of self-awareness. Normally becoming conscious of one’s own body and mental state of mind including thoughts, actions, ideas, feelings and interactions with others is what most people strive for. Sitting still like a mountain in meditation is not for everyone so few realize the heights of being that come with awareness of consciousness itself.