Spirituality and consciousness again - Part II

In the last post I asked readers to have a look at three previous posts on this subject. I hope you have taken the time to do so, because i would like to continue from where those three left off, rarher than repeating what I have written. Nevertheless, some repetition is inevitable. The essential message in the previous posts can perhaps be summed up like this: Although we are, indeed, essentially spiritual beings, as taught by all the great spiritual traditions - in particular, in such texts as the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita or the hundreds of Buddhist texts, for example - we are also human beings who live in the physical world of space and time. We have physical bodies, which have needs and we have "personalities" (or, if you prefer, "egos", "character structures", "personas" or "identities"). The planet we inhabit has a history, as do the various societies, cultures or socio-economic structures into which we are born. The modern world most of us inhabit - but, more and more, other, so-called "developing" societies, too - does not meet the needs of babies, children or adults and result in what has here been called unconsciousness, a state which could equally accurately be characterised as one in which our humanity has been seriously eroded. The effects are what we call "the real world" and are visible every time we turn on our TV sets, open a newspaper, or, indeed, step outside our homes (they are also visible within our homes, but perhaps less visibly for some).

Amongst people who are on a deliberately chosen path of personal growth, the above is taken for granted. What is not well understood is that the effects of living in this so-called "real world" are extremely difficult to undo. I wrote about this in the three previous post. What I would like to do now is to extend the discussion by suggesting that unconsciousness (as described previously in several posts) is far more widespread than almost anyone on a spiritual path is willing to admit [See http://andrewreiner.blogspot.com/2005/11/what-is-conscious-living.html and http://andrewreiner.blogspot.com/2005/11/reclaiming-our-humanity.html ]. Further, amongst those who acknowledge that this is, indeed, the case, there is, in almost all instances, an unwillingness to face this within themselves. This is very dangerous [To be continued]