Consciousness and Functions

“One must remember that consciousness is not mind activity.”
Robert Earl Burton

Consciousness is a wordless state of presence that is simultaneously aware of itself and what it observes. This state cannot be seen or heard or touched, nor is it any of the 'I's produced by the functions of sensation, movement, thought, or feeling. Even when we notice these functions and the 'I's they produce in us, consciousness usually remains unaware of itself observing them. In the words of the system, it remains asleep.

Prompting consciousness to be aware of itself is what self-remembering has always been about for schools and those possessing school knowledge. Seventy-five years ago, Mr. Ouspensky said, “Emotion is a function and sensation is a function, but self-remembering is not. It is an attempt to create in oneself a state of consciousness without any relation to functions.” The Sufi poet, Hakim Sanai, said the same thing 750 years earlier: “Take your place in the presence of the wordless.” And 500 years before that, The Tibetan Book of The Dead offered this directive: “You yourself must recognize yourself and you must stay with that experience.”

All of these are descriptions of trying to divide attention and be present. They are all based on the knowledge that, without divided attention, the four lower centers function by themselves as we walk, talk, eat, and go through the day. Rumi said about this condition: “This place is a dream. Only a sleeper considers it real.” The sleeper is consciousness and it must remember itself to reach presence—the “wordless.”

Schools have always emphasized self-remembering as the way to awaken higher centers, or what the Sufis call “the beloved,” and what both the Sufis and the Bible refer to as “god.” Higher centers reside above the realm of imagination and have a clarity of perception that is not identified with—not attached to—the lower centers. With inner presence and calm, higher centers see the world more vividly and objectively. Higher centers can be momentarily evoked by unusual circumstances, but it is rare and unreliable. Conscious control of higher centers comes only through intensive work on self-remembering.

Schools stress self-remembering because in each moment our lower centers assert themselves at the expense of divided attention. As soon as we move, speak, think, or react, consciousness loses awareness of itself and collapses into functions. A Sufi aphorism says it this way: “The lower self prevents you from remembering god.” To remember “god,” to sustain presence, we need to recognize the full range of our functions and be vigilant about not letting the endless array of ‘I’s displace presence.

Learning to separate consciousness from functions is the special study and ultimate goal of those in a school. As Mr. Ouspensky says, “Functions can exist without consciousness and consciousness can exist without functions.” And from the Sufi, Shabistari: “Set the world [lower functions] aside and become a world within yourself.”

1— The foundation of the Fourth Way
• Self-knowledge · Levels of consciousness
• Man as a machine · Consciousness, will, and unity
• Obstacles to awakening · Three lines of work

2— The theory of centers (requires lecture 1)
• The 4 lower centers
• The sex center
• Higher centers
• The soul, the spirit

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