Transcending The Levels Of Consciousness: The Stairway to Enlightenment

by David R. Hawkins

Because “Pride goeth before a fall,” it is defensive and vulnerable as it is dependent upon external conditions, without which it can suddenly revert to a lower level. The inflated ego is vulnerable to attack. Pride remains weak because it can be knocked off its pedestal into Shame, which is the threat that fires the fear of loss of pride.

The downside of Pride is arrogance and denial. These characteristics block growth. In Pride, recovery from addictions is impossible because emotional problems or character defects are denied. The whole problem of denial is that of Pride; thus, Pride is a very sizable block to the acquisition of real power, which displaces Pride with true stature and prestige.

Yet, Pride, like Anger and Fear, is still a defensive posture because of its intrinsic vulnerability that requires its positions be guarded and defended. Pride is gratifying yet a block to moving on to the solid ground of Courage, which is beyond fear because of its invulnerability. The ego inflation of Pride is the core of its vulnerability in that the ego overestimates its importance and thus miscalculates its value as a guide to function, survival, and interaction with others. The self-esteem of Pride rests on an inflated and exaggerated opinion rather than on reality. Thus, the ego searches for confirmation, which rests on the insecure premises of opinion.

Pride is operationally serviceable as a transitory self-reward for successful accomplishment and therefore a normal response that is learned in childhood via parental approval and rewards for good behavior. Thus, as a reward system, it facilitates maturation and acculturation. The error occurs when the ego assumes that it is the ‘me’ that is being rewarded rather than the behavior itself. This leads to the seeking of the reward of admiration by which actions become subservient to the goal of winning approval. The motivating

pattern persists in most adults to varying degrees, but with progressive maturity, the pattern becomes internalized and self-reward occurs by virtue of the authority of internalized parental figures and standards. With further maturity, the opinions or approval of others diminish in importance and are supplanted by self-approval, and life is then lived according to internalized standards. At a more mature level, although the approval of oth...

attitudes are visible shorthand expressions of specific levels of consciousness.

In contrast, the truly successful people are accepted because mature success is accompanied by humility and gratitude rather than an air of superiority.

When examined as a function of the ego, opinion reveals itself to be nothing more than an idea to which self-importance has been added because it is ‘my’ opinion. An opinion is an idea that has acquired the glamour of self-importance and is therefore more attractive than just reason, logic, or facts.

the overall meaning of the event is contextualized according to the prevailing level of consciousness.

With right-brain spiritualized brain processing and physiology, the neurohormonal response is anabolic, which releases

endorphins and balances the acupuncture system. There is also the release of oxytocin and vasopressin to the amygdala (emotional center) that relates to maternal instincts, paternal behavior, pair bonding, and social capacity via the ‘social brain’ (Moran, 2004) of mammals.

Brain research shows that the nondominant brain hemisphere is stimulated by art, nature, music, spirituality, and aesthetics, resulting in increased altruism, inner calm, and higher levels of consciousness (Matthews, 2001). Further research on Tibetan Buddhist monks demonstrated the brain’s ‘neuroplasticity’ and changes of physiology as a result of meditation (Begley, 2004).

Consciousness levels are aligned with calibratable energy fields that, in nonlinear dynamics, are termed ‘attractor fields’.

The attractor field that is aligned primarily with survival is termed ‘Lower Mind’ and calibrates at level 155. It is concerned with physical survival, emotional pleasure, and personal gain. It is denoted as being essentially aligned with self-interest.

Lower Mind focuses on the linear specifics of a situation and sees them in terms of self-interest.

Higher Mind includes the overall context

and is thereby aware of the abstract nonlinear meaning, including spi...

All gradations exist between the contrasting pairs that reflect intensity, e.g., there is a difference between craving, wanting, desiring, ‘must have’, and demanding in contrast to the options of preference, hoping for, wishing, choosing, favoring, or accepting.

A person is vulnerable to emotional pain in exact relationship to the degree of self-awareness and self-acceptance. When people admit their downside, others cannot attack them there. As a consequence, one feels emotionally less vulnerable and more safe and secure.

The key to painless growth is humility, which amounts to merely dropping pridefulness and pretense and accepting fallibility as a normal human characteristic of self and others. Lower mind sees relationships as competitive; higher mind sees them as cooperative. Lower mind gets involved with others; higher mind becomes aligned with others. The simple words “I’m sorry” put out most fires painlessly. To win in life means to give up the obsession of ‘who’s at fault’.

Graciousness is far more powerful than belligerence.

Love summons support; anger repels it. With the throwing off of the lead weights of resistance, a cork automatically rises to the surface of the ocean as a consequence of its own buoyancy.

As has been described, each level of consciousness is in accord with and a reflection of a dominant attractor field of consciousness by which meaning and value are contextualized. Each person therefore lives in a world of their own making,

reinforced by seeking agreement and a variety of rationalizations. The disparity is compensated for positively by empathy, compassion, acceptance, and the wisdom of maturity. A negative attitude, in contrast, sees differences as sources for anger, resentment, and other negative feelings.

To those who are unfriendly, other people actually are often cold and unfriendly; and to a warm, loving person, the exact, same environment is cordial and supportive.

Within limits, we tend to experience the reflection of what we have become.

The literal mechanistic mind sees all such phenomena (the siddhis, etc.) as ‘woo-woo’ at best, or even delusional, and it cannot understand the capacity to comprehend essence. Each level of consciousness thus tends to be self-ratifying, which elucidates why the evolution of consciousness appears to be slow.

This also indicates a shift from being dominated by primitive emotions, which become attenuated by intelligence and verifiable validity rather than the self-serving emotionality that results in fallacious and distorted reasoning. Thus, courage represents conquering the fear of loss of gain as well as its replacement by more long-term rewards of truth.

Nonattachment means neither attraction nor aversion. In contrast, detachment often leads to aversion and avoidance, as well as devaluation. Nonattachment allows for the freedom from the attraction of projected values and anticipations such as gain. Without fear of either attraction or aversion, Neutrality allows for participation and the enjoyment of life because, experientially, life becomes more like play than a high-stakes involvement. This is consistent with the teachings of the Tao, in that the flow of life is neither sought nor resisted. Thus, life becomes effortless and existence itself is pleasurable, without conditions, and easygoing like a cork in the sea. It is ‘wearing the world like a loose garment’, as St. Francis of Assisi recommended.

Whereas Courage sees challenges, Neutrality sees principles and guidelines rather than demands or rigid rules. In Neutrality, it is okay to accept or decline an option, as there is nothing to prove, nothing to gain, and nothing to lose. Consequently, Neutrality allows for flexibility and freedom from judgmentalism or anticipatory consequences.

Human nature, including its animalistic drives, is accepted as normal and therefore does not have to be rejected, repressed, denied, or projected onto others. Thus, Neutrality is nonjudgmental about the downside of physical, emotional, and social life.

The level of Neutrality is accompanied by feelings of security and safety as a consequence of nondefensiveness and nonpositionality, with the resulting freedom from fear, guilt, or judgmentalism.

There is also relief from the incessant demands of narcissistic needs or imperatives. Neutrality is neither cynical nor pessimistic, nor, on the other hand, does it proselytize for optimistic goals. It accepts progress, change, and evolution of consciousness with neither resistance nor anticipation but instead floats along the river of life by dec...

Instead of regret, Neutrality looks at the past as informative and ruefully educational. Many people elect to spend this lifetime at this level of recuperation and inner healing.

Eventually, however, because of alignment with spiritual principles, consciousness again evolves by virtue of inspiration, which seeks agreement by the will. The inner balance then moves from neutral to the more positive side of the scale as a consequence of intention that is supported by faith and the upliftment of positive purpose.

The activation of spiritual potentiality is a consequence of nonresistance, which is like the flower that opens and responds to the warmth of the sun by virtue of its intrinsic qualities imbued by Creation itself.

With Acceptance, there is emotional calm, and perception is widened as denial is transcended. One now sees things with less distortion or misinterpretation, and the context of experience is expanded so that one is capable of ‘seeing the whole picture’. Acceptance essentially has to do with balance, proportion, and appropriateness.

Mentalization is the processing of symbols at random. Linear thought is prone to error as it deals with content. The content is known by virtue of the quality of awareness, which is the attractor field of consciousness by which contextualization occurs. Content thinks; the field knows. In contrast, Self is.

The perceptions of ‘good’ or ‘bad’, as Socrates noted, are often primarily the result of desire or illusion rather than any objective reality.

The mind is satisfied with the acquisition of knowledge but then discovers that alone it is insufficient to bring about transformation, which requires a further step to convert data into an inner experiential reality.

Although the shift from the mental to the truly spiritual is volitional and proceeds by consent, it is not controllable as was the acquisition of the mental material and information. The transition is best described as the classic passage from ‘have’ to ‘do’ to ‘be’ and is facilitated by surrendering the attempt to control the process. It is more important to place faith and trust in spiritual intention and surrender to Divinity by which potentiality transforms into actuality when conditions permit.

By understanding the source of the flow of mentalization, it can be transcended, revealing the silence out of which thinkingness arises.

Potentiality tends to manifest when conditions are favorable, and intention (plus karmic propensities) is a contextual influence. In ordinary mentation, logic and sequence are seen as causal and also needful of effort. Envisioning is influential on outcome by entirely different (and easier) mechanisms.

The more powerful fields of consciousness levels 500 and up reprioritize meaning, significance, and value. The move is from what the world considers ‘objective’ to experiential subjectivity as the dominant quality of awareness experience.

Love serves, whereas ego seeks to be served in its pursuit of gain.

The advance of paradigm is characterized by a shift from reliance on perception and mentalization to the discernment of essence. This transition is a consequence of and in concordance with what has been classically termed the ‘opening of the third eye of the Buddhic body’, which represents the emergence of spiritual vision.

While perception focuses on linearity, spiritual vision represents the capacity to discern the inner reality that reflects the overall field. Its closest experiential relative in ordinary life is frequently alluded to as intuition, which implies that it is not the consequence of linear, logical processing.

The energy of each predominant level of consciousness is set by the spiritual will whereby alignment arises. As mentioned previously, it is comparable to the setting of the compass of a ship, in which destiny (i.e., ‘the future’) becomes dominant and influences the decisions of the present by virtue of underlying intention.

Reason deals with particulars, whereas love deals with wholes.

Love takes no position and thus is global, rising above the separation of positionality. It is then possible to be ‘one with another’ as there are no longer any barriers. Love is therefore inclusive and progressively expands the sense of self. Love focuses on the goodness of life in all its expressions and augments that which is positive. It dissolves negativity by recontextualizing it rather than by attacking it. As such, it is benign, supportive, and nurtures life; consequently, it is the level of true happiness.