Hello,I am interested in the connection between mind and consciousness.As I understand consciousness enters the body through the brain and spine. The ovum and sperm unite to form the body at the medulla and life-force is forming the brain, spine, etc. Spirit is the consciousness, entered in a body, mind is related to it and after a life’s experience the mind is enriched (or not), the level of consciousness is raised (or not), and consciousness is exiting the body and is ready to come to a new life ?
—Costin Chiroiu Boteanu, Romania
The role of consciousness in our lives, as I have understood it from both Paramhansa Yogananda and Swami Kriyananda, is all-pervasive. If you use the understanding of consciousness that they taught in your life, it will revolutionize the way you think about everything and the way you live your life!
Consciousness is the all-pervading reality underlying every level of existence: material, energy, and thought. In India this consciousness is described as Satchidananda: “Ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new bliss!”
It is this consciousness that brought the whole universe into manifestation out of Itself: first in thought, then through giving that thought energy, then by manifesting that energy as form in the material world. It is consciousness that works through the mind, through the personality, the feelings and emotions, and the body. Consciousness is the primary reality, not matter. When we look at the world in this way, we then find that attuning to the right consciousness is the most important thing we can be doing.
It is our level of consciousness that attracts to us the thoughts that we think. This is a revolutionary way of seeing the world we live in!
Paramhansa Yogananda brought a way to begin to access the reality of consciousness and energy when he came to America in 1920 and introduced the Energization Exercises. It is through these exercises, and understanding how to direct energy in the body through using our will power, that we begin to experience that we are made of energy. Once we begin to realize this, then we know that we are a much more fluid being than we ever imagined!
The greater the will power, the greater the flow of energy.
The greater the flow of energy, the greater the magnetic field.
And the greater the magnetic field, the more we will attract the consciousness that supports our efforts. If we want those efforts to include spiritual growth, then we associate with those who have a spiritual consciousness. In India this kind of association is called “satsang.”
When the soul leaves the physical body at death, for most people it enters the astral world and retains an astral body of energy as well as an ego. It remains there for a period of time, after which it is drawn again into a physical body through the force of its material desires. Until we are freed from ego and from our physical karma and desires, this cycle will be repeated endlessly.
