“WAKING UP” by Pier Luigi Lattuada
Humanity is facing the problems of post-modernity, from pollution, water use and migration, to globalisation, lack of time, speed, loss of contact with oneself, digitalisation, global warming, species extinction, global finance, information inflation, self-importance, hypertrophy of rationality, and competition.
Consensus consciousness, through the dual mind and rational thought, seeks a solution in the material world, a choice that seems to have come to a standstill.
At the same time, seemingly unseen, a different vision has survived the millennia and since the dawn of humanity through the songs of shamans, the scriptures of the sages, the medicines of the forest, the myths of the different traditions and the parables of the masters recites its message of awakening.
The good news is that, like the Naked King of the fable, more and more clear eyes and innocent looks are able to recognise and hear it.
More and more heroes are on the journey who have embarked and are embarking on the path of awakening to get out of the cave of identifications with the shadows cast on the wall by the false needs of the ego.
From a scientific point of view, a new paradigm is available to anyone who wants to set out aware that matter is the concrete manifestation of the flow of consciousness, the foundation of everything.
The transpersonal approach, which offers tools and methods to master the inner experience of states of consciousness and stages of thinking, suggests a way forward based on key competences such as: partnership, creativity, emotional competence, connection with the Self, tolerance of uncertainty, service, interconnection, fluidity, mastery of states of consciousness, archetypal experience, readiness for change, trust, listening, awareness, self-observation, disidentification.
It seems that nothing is lacking, after millennia of evolution, centuries of culture, thanks to the new information technologies and the ancient and new inner technologies, thanks to the science of matter and the modern science of consciousness, humanity is ready for a leap, a leap of consciousness that takes the form of an awakening, an exit from the cave of the script written by a mind imprisoned by the drama of control, from the dream of consensual reality dominated by fear and its conditioning.
Some might say: it would be so easy!
Then we might reply, when a flower blooms, it seems easy, when a spring gushes, it seems easy, when the sun rises, it seems easy, endless processes have taken place to make such a miracle possible, which at the right moment simply happens.
But what if it is the moment? What if we woke up from the dream of Cronos, the linear time that re-proposes repetitive patterns to us, always the same, and made ourselves available to Kayros, the auspicious moment, the occasion, here and now.
An awakening in which we dare to realise that the right moment is now.
– Like achieving enlightenment in twelve moves?
– Such a question expresses exactly that typical scepticism masquerading as rationality, generated in truth by the fear of stepping out of one’s comfort zones, leaving the safe harbour of one’s convictions and crossing the Herculean pillars of the recognition of one’s own nature.
– You try to make poetic sense of what makes no sense at all. But do you look around you? Do you read the newspapers? Do you browse social media? Where do you see the awakening?
– “How difficult it is to see the dawn within the dusk” – sang Battiato. You cannot see the new with old eyes, while sleeping you only see your dreams. The paradox of awakening is that it only happens when you realise you are asleep and as long as you are asleep the dream seems real.
– And who tells you that you are awake or that your presumption makes you think you are?
– That’s right, bravo. That is why we need a psychology of awakening, a science of consciousness that knows how to collect data on a phenomenology of higher psychic states, of self-realisation. In this way one could study with method and guarantees of validity the claims of millenary traditions such as Buddhism and Vedanta or the transpersonal experiences described by those who have experienced spiritual emergencies, peak experiences, or non-ordinary states of consciousness.
– Yes, but real life is about those who face real problems and don’t have time to play at being enlightened.
– Have you ever tried forgetting to sleep or deciding to wake up?
– What do you mean?
– Sleep as well as waking up are phenomena that happen to us, side effects that happen when the right conditions are created. Just as it is possible to study the organic conditions that determine the physiological state of wakefulness or sleep, in the same way it is possible to study the psychological conditions that determine states of consciousness equivalent to sleep or awakening.
– You mean objectively, measurably?
– This too is a question that demonstrates the myth of consensual reality in which we are all immersed unless we do something to notice. Your question assumes that the basis of the universe is matter and that the object is out there separate from the object in here. The ‘awakened’ of every tradition have been telling us for millennia, and they do so with great detail, providing maps and tools to make the journey, they repeat that at the base of the universe there is consciousness and that there is no separation between object and subject.
– You mean there is no separation between you and me.
– I tell you that the science of consciousness suggests to us that every experience is made up of matter, energy, and consciousness. We are separated in matter but not in energy and consciousness. I tell you that realising this is a good step towards awakening. I also tell you that when you are asleep you do not see who is awake, when you are awake you see who is asleep. And this is a fact that should be accepted.
– Pier Luigi Lattuada