Transcendental Consciousness and the Nature of Our Mind

Transcendental Consciousness and the Nature of Our Mind

Rudolph Bauer, Ph.D. A.B.P.P. Diplomate in Clinical Psychology

Washington Center for Consciousness Studies and The Washington Center for Existential Psychotherapy and Phenomenological Studies

What is Transcendental Consciousness and how does Transcendental Consciousness manifest? How is Transcendental Consciousness different from Our Primordial Consciousness or Primordial Awareness. This is both a serious and pragmatic historical question in need of understanding. What is the Difference Between TranscendentalConsciousness and Primordial Awareness?

Our Consciousness as Mind Consciousness and our Consciousness of Mind can transcend our mind. This Transcendental Consciousness that reflects our mind can go beyond the psychological functons of our Mind. Paradoxically, our Consciousness of our mind can transcend our mind and can transcend our experience of the phenomena of the world. Our Transcendental Consciousness of our mind can go beyond our mind or can transcend our mind and transcend the functions of our mind. The Consciousness of our Mind can unfold and manifest as Transcendental Consciousness.

The Consciousness of our mind is the Consciousness of thinking, feeling, sensing, remembering, imagining, the knowing as mind perception and mind intuition. Nonetheless this Consciousness of our mind can Transcend the functions of our mind, and the Consciousness of our mind can Transcend our mind.

We can transcend thinking and transcend feeling and transcend the experiencing of our mind and our various functions of our mind. Our mind Consciousness can transcend and go beyond our mind and beyond our mind consciousness. We can go beyond our mind and transcend our mind by detachment and by dissociation and by our consciousness withdrawing and leaving our mind and its many wonderful functions.

Within our Transcendental Consciousness of Mind we can go beyond our mind and its many functions and we can go beyond our embodied Consciousness of Mind and enter into Transcendental States of Beinglessness as we enter into Transcendental states of Emptiness’ and Transcendental States of Voidness and Transcendental States ofNothingness, and Transcendental States of self-illumination. By our Consciousness transcending our Consciousness of mind we can feel very different in our Transcendental experience of our self and in our Transcendental Experience of our world.

Our Consciousness within our mind and our Consciousness as our mind, can transcend the various functions of mind. We can go beyond our mind and its various functions, and we can enter Transcendental States of Experience. When we are no longer located within our mind alone and no longer contained within our mind functions and views, there is an opening to Transcendental Experience. We can follow certain experiential steps and experiential movements that bring us into Transcendental States of Experience.

In our Transcending the Consciousness of and as Mind, we go first beyond our ontic ontological embodiment of Mind. Through detachment and dissociation, we leave our Being full embodiment of both our innate awareness and our embodiment of consciousness. We can then make another step or unfoldment from our ontic ontological

embodiment, and we can then enter into Witness Consciousness and then we can go beyond Witness Consciousness into Openness of Transcendental Consciousness. We can go further into the vast Openness of Transcendental Consciousness, and we can experientiallybecome the Openness of Being lessness. We can then become the Vast Openness of Pure Being- lessness. This is an amazing step into Pure Transcendental Consciousness and Pure Transcendental Emptiness as Transcendental Openness. We enter into Openness, and we become Openness.

As Herbert Guenther and Trompa Rinpoche describe in their text on Tantra, that Sunyata as two profoundly different meanings. One meaning which is the original ancient Buddhist meaning is Emptiness’ and then within the Existential unfolding of Buddhism and Tantra Sunyata means OPENNESS, PURE OPENNESS.

This unfolding of Transcendental Consciousness is a process of our experiential unfolding through the artful process of profound detachment and profound dissociation from and beyond our psychological mind experience and psychological processes. This going beyond our mind is Transcendental dissociation and Transcendental detachment resulting into Pure Transcendental Process of Pure Openness.

In going beyond our embodied mind, we go beyond embodiment, we go beyond thinking and we go beyond feeling and we go beyond sensation and beyond reflection. We go beyond mindfulness and then We then find ourselves in a state of Transcendental Witness Consciousness. And then we go further, and we dissolve Transcendental Witness Consciousness, and we disappear in this unfolding movement beyond Witness Consciousness into the state of Pure Luminous Openness.

As we go beyond Witness Consciousness, and we are then further able to be free to dissolve into Transcendental States of Pure Openness, Pure Openness of Spaciousness and Pure Transcendental States of Cosmological Spaciousness.

In this moment of transcending our mind and transcending our embodiment and transcending our collective psychological functions we may feel ourselves fully empowered within Pure Openness and Pure Spaciousness of Being fullness.

Some seem to find Transcendental Emptiness, and some seem to find transcendental Openness. What makes the difference. For that answer I would refer everyone to Longchenpa great text on The Basic Space of Being, The Choying by Longchenpa. This text the Choying , describes the expanse of reality and pure experience of meaningfulness as the revelation of the Ground of Being. This is also called The Treasury of Basic Space.

The Difference Between:

Transcendental Consciousness and Primordial Being full Awareness.

Our Pure Primordial Being Full Consciousness is our Primordial Awareness infinite in is horizons and vast and multidimensional. Pure Being full Consciousness is infinite both as to time and space. Within and as Being full Consciousness, we can never go beyond Being full Consciousness. Wherever you are, there is Being full Consciousness. Being as Being full Consciousness is the immanence of infinity, the immanence of Being and the immanence luminous Being fullness and the Immanence of Timeless Awareness within Time.

Luminous Being full Consciousness is profoundly immanent and is the immanence of Profound Univocity. This experience of Profound

Oneness and Profound Equality of Being and Being fullness of beings is self-liberation. Being full Consciousness embodies our mind and expands our mind within its pervasive union.

Our embodied Being full Consciousness is multidimensional and self- manifests as our ordinary life world, and self-manifests as the archetypal dimension of Being and Being fullness and self-manifests as Ontological Source. As Being full Source and as the self-manifestation of and as Being full source there is the oneness of non-duality within the duality of being full forms of Being.

Our Embodiment of Being is multidimensional. This embodiment is both of form and formlessness. In our ordinary life world, our embodiment is flesh as form embodying formlessness awareness. In our archetypal dimension our embodiment is luminous archetypal forms of formlessness awareness. And in our foundational Ground of Beingdimension as primordial source we are Pure Being Formlessness becoming Being full forms. We are Pure Consciousness, and we are the self-manifestation of Pure Consciousness as forms of consciousness. We are Being full forms of our Being full world and our Being full universe including the Consciousness of mind as mind.

Our always unfolding of our embodiment of Being full Forms of Formless awareness is endless and Timelessness in Time. We are Pure Consciousness dramatically self- manifesting as Embodied Being Full Forms of Formless Awareness. This is an event of time within Timeless Awareness and the Infinity of Spaciousness.

Transcendental Consciousness and Temporal Mind

Transcendental Consciousness is contained within our Temporal Mind of Pure Subjectivity. There is the implication that the Consciousness of our

mind is contained within our functions of mind including time. The implication is that our Transcendental Consciousness is not simply bound or contained within our mind. Transcendental Consciousness is the Consciousness of our mind, and the Transcendental Consciousness of our mind goes beyond the boundaries and beyond the containment of our mind. This going beyond mind and beyond our embodiment of mind is through the process of detachment and dissociation and a leting go and going beyond our mind and its concreteness of our experience of Being fullness.

Our Mind of Consciousness or the Consciousness of our Mind becomes and unfolds into Transcendental or Transcending Consciousness. Transcendental Consciousness arises out of our ordinary consciousness and as our mind. Transcendental Consciousness actually unfolds and transcends beyond our consciousness as psychological mind.

There is this intimate and transcendental relationship between our consciousness as mind and our transcendental experience becoming the vastness of emptiness and voidness beyond our mind. There is this difference between the transcendental expression and experience of our transcendental experience of the consciousness of our mind and the experience of the luminous immanence of our Primordial Awareness that is naturally infinite in its horizons, vast and multidimensional Being and Being fullness.

There is profound foundational difference between the transcendental consciousness of our mind and mindfulness and the embodied Immanence of Primordial Awareness of Being and Being fullness.

In our experience of our Primordial Awareness as Primordial Being and Being fullness, we live in the completeness of Being fullness and the spaciousness of Being fullness, and the fullness of Being fullness, and the Gnosis of Being fullness and the Timeless Awareness of Being

fullness life atier life and death atier death. And within our awareness of Being as Being we experience the Being fullness of Beings within the very difference of the forms of Being and beings.

Our experience of Being and the Experience of Consciousness as Being is spacious fullness, and luminous fullness, and the Energy of Being in the support of unfolding self-manifestation. Our liberation is intrinsic to our embodiment of Being just as we are.

There is this profound difference, this profound experiential difference between living within Being and the multidimensions of Our Being such as ordinary life world of Being, and the archetypal realm of Being and the experience of our own awareness being the Ground of Being itself. The transcendental experience of our consciousness of mind and as Consciousness going beyond mind into the Beingless Vastness of Absolute Nothingness, Absolute Emptiness, Absolute Voidness. There is Liberation in Transcendental Experience. There is a freedom from Being fullness in Transcendental Experience. In Medieval Scholastic philosophy this would be called the Via Negativa.

Transcendental Consciousness as Going Beyond Phenomena and Going Beyond Consciousness of and as Mind.

This is perhaps the most ancient form of self-liberation from the facticity of mind. Our Transcendental Consciousness can transcend and gobeyondourphenomenological mindconsciousnessandthenour Transcendental Consciousness can enter into a vast Sphere of Emptiness which is beyond phenomena and the energy of phenomena . There is Transcendental Stillness.

Transcendental Consciousness can go beyond the phenomenological dimensions of Being. When Transcendental Consciousness goes beyond

the phenomena of the mind and then goes beyond the phenomena of Being and Being fullness, what remains is vast absence of Being and absence of Being fullness. This is the sphere of Emptiness, the infinite sphere of infinite No-thingness. The Being and Being fullness of Mind Consciousness disappears and what remains is Pure BeinglessConsciousness.

Our mind consciousness or the consciousness of our going beyond our mind knows phenomena and when our Mind Consciousness goes the beyond the Being of the mind and goes beyond the phenomena of our mind, the Consciousness of Mind becomes Transcendental Consciousness. As Transcendental Consciousness going beyond phenomena of mind and Being fullness of mind what remains is Emptiness or Voidness of phenomena and absence of Being and Being fullness. This absence is luminous formlessness of self- liberation.

What remains is Being lessness. Being lessness is Emptiness or Voidness. Our mind consciousness as Transcendental Consciousness goes beyond our mind and beyond our consciousness of our mind. Transcendental Consciousness goes beyond our mind knowing the phenomenological forms of Being fullness. Transcendental Consciousness, this Consciousness of mind, goes beyond mind, and also goes beyond our Embodied Awareness or Embodied consciousness as Embodied Being fullness.

Transcendental Consciousness is the Consciousness of our mind, disembodying and detaching and dissociating from embodiment of mind and functions of mind. And what then remains is a Witness Consciousness of phenomena which is disembodied. Then this Witness Consciousness dissolves and our consciousness as mind goes beyond itself and what remains is Nothingness, or Emptiness or Voidness, or

Being lessness or Absence as Longchenpa describes this situation. This was Gautama ‘s discovery. Liberation through Disappearance.

There are Different Manifestations of Transcendental Consciousness

There is a Transcendental Consciousness that goes beyond a Being full Embodied Awareness of Being full Embodied Consciousness. This Transcendental Consciousness can manifest a highly refined State of infinite Spaciousness that is Empty yet illuminative. This form of transcendental awareness is transcendental illumination and light. Thistranscendental state is the state of Pure Light as Consciousness and even Primordial Consciousness itself. This is Consciousness beyond form.

There is a Transcendental Consciousness that does not know Being or Being fullness. This Transcendental Consciousness is Beingless and Emptiness. This form of Transcendental Consciousness reflects The Noetic knowing of Transcendental Consciousness which is Intellectual. Transcendental Consciousness goes beyond our intellectual mind. This form of transcendental consciousness is meaningless, formless, emptiness as Void and Voidness. This Void and Voidness lack self- illumination, and Vitalness. This is the Void that Gautama describes.

Question: Is Transcendental Consciousness a function of Ontological Consciousness or is Transcendental Consciousness a function of the Consciousness of our mind? Does our Transcendental Consciousness know Being.? Or does Transcendental consciousness know Being lessness, or Emptiness or Nothingness?

An Understanding of Transcendental Consciousness Through Phenomenology

Transcendental Consciousness goes Beyond Embodiment. Transcendental Consciousness goes Beyond Being and Being fullness.

Transcendental Consciousness does not focus on the Actuality of Being or the actuality of Being fullness. Transcendental Consciousness focuses on noetic knowing of form and most subtle forms as intellectual objectified phenomena. Transcendental Consciousness can go beyond phenomena. Transcendental Consciousness can go beyond all phenomena. Transcendental Consciousness can remain as Consciousness of light and the Conscious dimensions of light. Even the Dark Luminosity of Emptiness is Dark Consciousness.

Our Mind Consciousness is embodied as our experience of our phenomenological luminous light of the world. Our Transcendental Consciousness is a noetic knowingness of the world and atempts to know the essence of phenomena of the world and yet is experientially detachedfromthe RealityandActualityoftheWorldandthe Universe. Transcendental Consciousness reflects the unfolding process of disembodiment and detachment and dissociation from embodiment of Being and Being fullness, into Pure Luminosity.

Transcendental Consciousness Reflects a Transcendental Phenomenology.

Transcendental Consciousness as Transcendental Phenomenology is a Noetic form of Consciousness. Transcendental Consciousness is Detached from the actuality of Being full Radiance and from the actuality of our experientially lived embodied experience of Being and Being full presence and self-manifestation.

Although Transcendental Consciousness does focus noetic- ally and is intellectually detached on lived experience of actuality. Transcendental Consciousness is not Experiential Primordial Awareness/consciousness as actuality. Transcendental Consciousness does not focus on the” felt sense of experience” or the felt sense of the Being fullness of the Phenomena. Transcendental Consciousness is not a formulation of experiential existential phenomenology. Of course, not all phenomenology’s are the same.

Transcendental phenomenology is a noetic or mentalistic form of phenomenology. Transcendental phenomenology unfolds into a mindless emptiness form of phenomenology Our lived experience of nothingness can be experienced as absolute nothingness.

Transcendental Phenomenology is a process of dissociation from phenomenological embodied experience of Being and Being fullness. Transcendental consciousness does not focus on the actuality of Being and Being fullness Transcendental consciousness does not focus on the actuality of anything or anyone. Thus, nothing is real. Nothing is reality. As the reality of embodiment dissolves what remains is emptiness and openness and luminous darkness. In transcendental consciousness there is no actuality or reality. Transcendental consciousness transcends reality and transcends Being full actuality. Transcendental consciousness is beyond reality, beyond actuality, and beyond Being and Being fullness. Transcendental consciousness is Beingless and absence. This is liberation through Absence and through disappearance.

Our Transcendental Consciousness experiences the world through our noetic knowing the world of forms and the noetic forms of the world. This transcendental knowing is a kind of witness consciousness and a kind of mentalistic objectified disembodied knowing. This

transcendental knowing is the knowing of our mind alone. Transcendental Phenomenology is phenomenology of mind transcendingBeingandBeingfullness. Ourmindconsciousnessand our consciousness of mind as mind can be transcended.

This direct noetic knowing is not the direct non conceptual experiential felts living sense of the Being of the world as actually. This is why Transcendental Consciousness is experientially distant from the Being and Being fullness of the world.

Thus, Transcendental Consciousness and Transcendental Phenomenology is absent from the reality and actuality of the world of Being and of Being fullness. Transcendental knowing does not focus on whether things are or are not. Transcendental Phenomenology does not focus on existence or non-existence of a phenomena. Transcendental knowing focuses on the mental objectified knowing of the phenomena perceived though mind and consciousness as mind. Thus, Transcendental Consciousness goes beyond the objectified noetic knowing of mind. Transcendental Consciousness liberates us from our experiential focus on our lived Being full experience.

Transcendental Consciousness transcends the actuality and reality of lived experience. Transcendental Consciousness with its lack of actuality and reality can be a kind of AS IF experience. As if we are, as if It is, as if there is. What is so wonderful about transcendental experience is that it can free us from suffering and even the reality of suffering. At the same time Transcendental Consciousness lacks the life force of reality and actuality. And in that way Transcendental Consciousness is ontologically Boring rather than Ontologically Liberating.

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