Aim at Higher Consciousness

Aim at Higher Consciousness

A friend in the Work gave me sage advice long ago, which continues to guide my relationship to setting aims. She recommended to set aims for myself during moments of higher consciousness. After all, what growth could I expect by setting aims while I am identified, in imagination or immersed in negative emotions? Or in a feature or particular weakness of my mechanical behavior? In those moments I am asleep to myself, without a clear picture of what direction would align my efforts toward awakening. Aims can be set from a productive place in my being or from a place that produces further sleep and feeds false personality rather than essence.

Our aim must concern the whole, and not be deviated by the interest of each part. —Montaigne

This brings us to the fundamental, ancient idea to first “know thyself.” By observing myself and measuring my progress by how much presence a certain aim or activity might create, I am able to align my aims and choose to direct myself from higher parts of centers. There are parts of the lower centers that are uninterested and downright antagonistic toward my efforts to self-remember. In particular, the King of Clubs – the intellectual part of the Instinctive Center and sometimes referred to as the “mind behind the machine” – considers the energy directed toward self-remembering as a threat to its existence.

The King of Clubs is invisibly behind many decisions I make and it will even encourage an aim that is bound to fail and further distract me from presence. It is like a thief which is ready at all times to undermine and steal the finest energy for itself. It does not like to disappear in the full light of the sun, a light that usurps its dominance and imaginary picture of itself as an undying, biological being. It is the part in me that does not feel comfortable speaking about death because its role in the machine is to safeguard my survival. It, too, has its right work and has its place, but needs to be checked if my aim is to give priority to higher states.

Our aim is to get all the presence we can between birth and death. —The Teacher

To insulate myself from the sabotage coming from the lower self, I can set aims when I am in a higher state. To begin with, a good rule of thumb is to set very specific, small attainable aims that are not in direct conflict with the persistence of the King of Clubs.

The lower self, when it asks anything of you, persists. It continues to come back at you, time and time again—even if it might bide its time for a while—until it attains its goal and accomplishes its aim. —Al-Junayd

In advance of a group tour years ago in East and West Germany, I set a specific aim to not be a denying force to the trip itinerary. In other words, to not interfere with the flow of the trip and daily excursions but to be cooperative with the group as we traveled together. When the three buses were lost in an East German city, our entourage missed the most important concert of the trip. Because of my aim I was able to resist complaining, not contribute to the chaos and confusion, and bring presence to an experience which usually would make me identified and negative. A key to this aim was to have a plan in advance for the usual reactions that are reliable from my machine.

After returning to the United States, the friction that was created in resisting a mechanical response and replacing it with self-remembering gave me a higher state that lingered and resonated in me for nearly a year after the trip. Setting aims puts into contrast the choice of moving up into a higher state or down into lower states. What we aim at and feed, wins.

Love always aims at being present to the highest. —Goethe

Join the discussion

Shiva the Archer Riding a Bull