Ancient Expressions of Consciousness

Defining Consciousness

We define consciousness as self-awareness, a potential unique to human beings. While animals can control attention and to some extent become’aware for survival purposes, man’s ability of being aware of himself, and his ability to experience a sense of Self, are unique and unnecessary for biological survival. However, this ability exists as a potential only and remains unrealized in most humans, just as most seeds never germinate. Consequently, becoming conscious is and has been the primary lesson for man, taught in all schools since the dawn of recorded ancient wisdom.

Below are listed posts on the ancient expressions of consciousness in man. Since consciousness exceeds mind activity, the ancient teachings of consciousness often expressed their wisdom through myth and symbol, bypassing the human mind and hinting to what cannot be expressed via logical argument. Moreover, myths and symbols teach man’s higher abilities of perception – provided these are sufficiently developed – in a manner that words cannot.

As Above so Below

Cosmic Consciousness

When I launched the Ancient Wisdom Network earlier this year, I presented it as an experiment in building an online Ark. The idea was inspired by a pattern I had discovered in all previous wisdom schools: from the beginning of recorded history till our day, wisdom has always been re-expressed in ren[...]

A Thousand Ancient Words

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then what of a sculpture? Imagine entering a temple and being greeted by the Buddha above. "Welcome," he seems to say, invitingly, compassionately. "You are in good company,"--his subtle smile implies wordlessly--"sit down and rest." Wordless Ancient Wisdo[...]