Consciousness Evolves to Enlightenment

The evolution of enlightenment is evidenced by the various levels at which consciousness expressed itself.  Working forward briefly from earlier evolutionary stages, we find the animating force of consciousness in primitive one-cell life forms, in multi-cell invertebrates, in reptiles and amphibians, in lower mammals, in primates, and ultimately, in humans. At each level, consciousness is the program that, in a circular manner, drives development to the next higher form of its own expression.

In its basic form we might witness consciousness at work as the involuntary “knowing” by which a newborn infant locates and suckles at its mother’s breast, by which a bird perceives when to migrate, and by which a blade of grass orients itself toward the nourishing sun. But because of the advanced capacity of our minds, we also view levels of the expression of consciousness in a more abstract way. 

For example, we often describe being conscious as a state one can slip into and out of, as in the difference between being asleep or awake, and being comatose or alert. Thus, someone who is anesthetized is described as being unconscious until he is revived and aware at which point he is again conscious. 

At a higher level of abstraction, say in terms of someone’s psychological functioning, we characterize habitual behavior that is produced without reflection as unconscious behavior and behavior that occurs after thoughtful deliberation as conscious behavior. So, for example, when a person automatically lights a cigarette when stressed, we say he does that unconsciously. We also apply it to someone’s choosing yet another abusive mate after having worked his or her way out of a previous abusive relationship. 

This can apply to social groups, too. Trans-generational feuds and vendettas are carried on by participants who no longer know what caused the conflict in the first place. 

 At a more nuanced level, that which contains the threshold of enlightenment, we describe habitual thinking as unconscious when it is guided by even the slightest feelings of fear and desire or bias and prejudice and conscious when it has been liberated from such influences so that is free, flexible and adapted only to the present moment. 

Clearly, consciousness permeates everything, from the inorganic sub-structures of the early universe, through the simplest of life forms, to the highest workings of our minds. Its history is the story of creation itself.