What Is the Wonder of All Wonders? Pure Consciousness and the Doorway is Our Own Subjectivity

What Is the Wonder of All Wonders? Pure Consciousness and the Doorway is Our Own Subjectivity

Rudolph Bauer Ph. D Diplomate In Clinical Psychology, A.B.PP

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

There is a most famous and most beautiful statement by Edmond Husserl that says: “What is the Wonder of All Wonders, Pure Consciousness and The Doorway is Our Own Subjectivity”. This luminous statement reflects the phenomenological understanding of Transcendental Phenomenological Philosophy and Transcendental Phenomenological Psychology as The Drama of Pure Consciousness.

As the dramatic statement says this Drama of “Pure Consciousness is Contained Within Our Own Subjectivity.” So, this implies that as we become aware of our own awareness, we are becoming aware of our Pure Consciousness. And so, our experience of Our Pure Consciousness is Contained within Our Own Subjectivity. Our own Subjectivity is Embodied Awareness.   Our own Subjectivity, which is the Container of our Pure Consciousness is itself Embodied Awareness or Embodied Consciousness. Our Personal Consciousness is holding our Ontological Consciousness.

Our embodied Consciousness is holding Pure Consciousness. Our Embodied Subjectivity is in fact our embodied Awareness or Embodied Consciousness. Our Embodied Consciousness contains Pure Consciousness, just as we are. Pure Consciousness is Pure Being fullness.

Now, it is important to know that Our Consciousness of Pure Consciousness or our Awareness of Pure Consciousness is not the Phenomenological Structured Functional Ego Consciousness or Ego Awareness of our Mind. Our Mind is our Psychological Dimension of Being fullness. Our Mind is our psychological dimension of Consciousness. Our psychological mind knows phenomena. Our psychological mind is a phenomenological structured functional Consciousness or Phenomenological Functionally Structured Awareness in the context of various Ego Functions such as sensation, memory, feelings and affects, reasoning, superego structures etc.

This psychological awareness, this consciousness of mind is not   Awareness of Primordial Consciousness or Primordial Ontological Awareness. This primordial awareness or this primordial consciousness knows Being, just as our psychological awareness of mind knows phenomena. In the Dzogchen tradition our Psychological Awareness of Mind is called sems and our Primordial Awareness of Being and Being fullness is called Semde. Our Consciousness of Being and Being fullness is called Semde.

This is an important distinction to be remembered. In Dzogchen Our awareness of our mind knowing phenomena is Sems and our Awareness of our Being Knowing Being is Semde. There are two foundational ways of knowing in Dzogchen and these same two foundational ways of knowing are described within Contemporary Phenomenology.

Our phenomenologically structured mind knows phenomena. The phenomenological functional forms of our mind know the phenomenological forms of our world. Our phenomenological Primordial Awareness or Foundational Primordial Awareness knows Being and the Being of the Being full Forms of the world. This awareness of mind knowing forms is not Primordial Awareness or Primordial Consciousness that knows Being and the Being fullness of forms. In Dzogchen this direct non conceptual knowing of Being is called Gnosis, or Jnana or even Yeshe which means Wisdom. Wisdom is our capacity to know directly and experientially Being and the Felt Sense of Being and Being fullness.

There is a distinctive difference between the psychological consciousness of our mind and our Primordial Foundational Consciousness or foundational Primordial Awareness that is contained and held within our own innermost Subjectivity. This Primordial Consciousness or Primordial Awareness is held and contained within our Ontological Being full Subjectivity that knows Being and Knows the Being of beings.

It is useful to know that our Subjectivity is Embodied Consciousness itself. Our Embodied Consciousness or Embodied Awareness knows Being. Our Primordial Awareness directly knows Being and Directly experiences Being as Being. Yes, and our embodied Consciousness can Directly experience our own Being as Being itself. Our Embodied Consciousness or Embodied Awareness Holds Awareness and Holds Consciousness and Hold the experience of Awareness and Holds the experience of Primordial Consciousness.

Primordial Being itself self-manifests as all beings and within all beings. And the Being of beings is Primordial Awareness or Primordial Consciousness.  The Being of our Being is Primordial awareness, and the Being of our Being is Primordial Consciousness.  Our Awareness or our Consciousness of Being directly and non-conceptually knows Being and can directly and non-conceptually know the Being of beings. In knowing the Being of a being, we know Being itself. In directly knowing and experiencing the Being of our own Being we know and live within Being itself.

The Phenomenological Consciousness of our Mind knows phenomena and our mind knows the phenomenological forms and phenomenological functions of Phenomena.

Our Consciousness of Mind is psychological. Our Psychological Mind is   Ontic.  Our Primordial Consciousness is Ontological. Our Primordial Awareness or Primordial Consciousness is Ontological. Our awareness of the mind knowing phenomena is called Sems in Dzogchen. Our Primordial Awareness knowing Being is called Semde.

Our Pure Consciousness or Pure Awareness is Ontological. Ontological means Being and Being fullness. The word Being fullness means or indicates that Being is always in self-manifestation of Being and being fullness as the field of Being is infinite in its horizons and vast and multidimensional.

Our Subjectivity is our Personal Psychological Being full Consciousness Our Personal Psychological Being full Consciousness holds the self-manifestation of our Pure Ontological Consciousness. There can be this creative union between our ontic psychological mind entering within union within Our ontological Consciousness. Human Beings are Ontic Ontological beings.

This union of mind within the ontological awareness field of Being fullness is the mysterious Conjunctio that Jung tried to articulate. There can be a union between our psychological awareness of our mind and the ontological awareness of our Being and Being fullness.   Our phenomenological Mind of Awareness can enter union with our Primordial Awareness of Being and Being fullness.

Within this union of our mind within awareness, we can experience simultaneously phenomena and the Being and Being fullness of Phenomena. Within this union we can experience phenomena and the Being and Being fullness of the Phenomena. Phenomena are the forms of Being and Being fullness. Being is not simply within Phenomena but Phenomena is a Form and manifestation of Being. All Phenomena are   Forms of Being. Being is a form of phenomena. Being is Phenomena and Phenomena embodies Being. Phenomena is a self-manifestation of Being. Phenomena is a self-manifestation of Source. Source is Being and Being is Source.

Our Being in Being

You and I must be in Being to Know Being. If you are in your mind alone, you will not experience and directly and non-conceptually know Being. To directly and non-conceptually experience Being and the Power of Being we must be in Being to have the experience of Being. If we are in our mind alone, we can think about Being, but we will not directly experientially know Being.

You will know ideas and thoughts about Being and conceptualization about Being, but this conceptual ideational knowing is not experiencing Being nor Embodying Being. Our lived experience of Being is a non- conceptual experiential lived knowing Being. In our experiential knowing of our Being, we embody Being and Being fullness. This Experiential knowing of Being is our direct perceptual experience of Being and we can have this direct felt sense of our embodiment of Being and Being fullness.

Though you are Being you may not experientially be in Being. You may be in Being without the Experiential Felt Sense of Being fullness. You may not be experientially in your own Being. To experience Being is to have the ontological power of Being as Being in our Being and by experiencing the Power of Being we can experience the power and presence of Being and Being fullness. We can experience the power of self-manifestation of Being and Being fullness.

Ontological Suffering

When we are not experientially in Being, we may feel Being lessness and experience Being lessness. We may even become Beingless in a continuous and ongoing experience of the absence of Being and the absence of Being fullness. There is an existential agony in Being lessness when we live within the absence of Being and Being fullness. Our experience of Being lessness is the experience of our ontological emptiness of Being lessness and our experience of the Voidness of Being lessness and our profound sense of the Absence of Being and Being fullness. When we become empty Being and Being fullness we become Void like. We live with the Void. We live in Emptiness and Emptiness is meaninglessness. In this way all life can be suffering.

Our Ontological Consciousness both contains and manifests within   our Subjectivity of Being and Being fullness. Our ontological and full Consciousness manifests within us as our own Subjectivity.   Our  Being full  Consciousness  is contained within our Subjectivity as our Subjectivity.  Our Being full Subjectivity is Consciousness.  Our Being full Consciousness is   Primordial Awareness.  We can embody Being full Consciousness and our Being full presence of Being. We can live in the   Bliss of Being and Bliss of Being fullness. Such embodied Being and Being fullness brings us into a form of ontological fearlessness and fierceness.

Our Primordial Consciousness Is Multidimensional

Our Primordial Awareness is our Being full Knowingness of Being. Our Being is Consciousness, and our Consciousness is Being. Our direct knowing of Awareness is our Being’s direct knowing of Being. Our primordial awareness is our direct knowingness of our Being knowing Being. Consciousness is our Being’s Knowingness. Our own Being knows our own Being and our own Being knows our Being fullness of Being. This direct experiential knowing Being is non conceptual and pre-reflective and profoundly experiential and profoundly PERSONAL.

In the Dzogchen Tradition this direct knowing of Being is called Gnosis or Jnana or even Yeshe which means wisdom.

This Knowingness of Being is Our Consciousness

This knowing of Being and our experiential living within our own Being which is Being itself is self-liberation.  The doorway to self-liberation is experiencing living within our own Being and living within our own Being fullness of being. When we say we are becoming aware of awareness we are becoming aware of our Being and our Being fullness. Our mind knows phenomena and our mind does not know Being   experientially. Our primordial awareness or our primordial Consciousness intrinsically and innately knows Being. Consciousness is Being and Being is Consciousness.

In our Becoming aware of our own Awareness, we are Becoming aware of Consciousness. And in our Becoming Aware of Consciousness, we are Becoming aware of our Being and our Being fullness. And in our Becoming aware of our Consciousness or our Being full Awareness we are becoming aware of our ontological Being and ontological Being fullness.

Being fullness is the language describing our Being’s self-manifestation of Being and Being fullness. Our own Being self-manifests both Being and Being fullness. Being manifests us and we thus manifest Being and Being fullness into this world of Being as Being full experience for ourselves and others.

We are Ontic Ontological Beings

Ontic means psychological and Ontological means Being. Ontic means forms and ontological is formless. Ontological experience is our experience of formless Being within the Forms of Being as the forms of Being. Ontological experience is also our experience of formless Being within our own Being full form. Ontological experience is also our experience of Being within other beings. Our Ontological experience is our experience of Being in the world and Being within the Being full   forms of Being. Ontological Being fullness is the Being and Being fullness of the universe. The ontological Being-fullness of the universe is infinite-ness.

The Ontological Being fullness of the Universe is Timelessness Awareness in Time. Being is both Timelessness and Time simultaneously. Being self- manifests Being full forms in time as time and is simultaneously Timelessness in Time. Our own Being full Awareness can experience this drama of Timeless Awareness in Time.

Existential implications Of Pure Consciousness as Pure Being-fullness

Our Pure Consciousness is contained within our own Subjectivity as our own Subjectivity. There are the self-manifestations of Pure Consciousness as Pure Being fullness. Pure Consciousness manifests as Embodied Human Forms of Pure Consciousness.  Pure Consciousness self- manifests as our Personal Embodiment of Pure Being fullness. Our Pure Consciousness is Being and Our Pure Consciousness is Pure Being fullness.

Pure Consciousness is Pure Formless Being fullness. Pure Consciousness as Pure Formless Being and Pure Being fullness is Pure Being and Pure Being fullness as Being full forms and as forms of Being full Events. The Events of Being are the manifestation of Pure Being. To experience the Events of Being as Pure Being is self-liberation.

References:

Bauer, R. The Timeless Interface of Dzogchen and Contemporary Existential Phenomenology R.  Transmission: The Journal of The Awareness Field. Vol. 20.2021.

Bauer, R. An Existential Tantric Dzogchen Consultation: A Phenomenology; The Journal of The Awareness Field. Vol. 9. 2020.

Bauer, R. The Absence of Self: An Existential View of The Anatman Experience: The Journal of Philosophical Investigations 2019.

Bauer, R. The Direct Experience of Our Ongoing Sense of Being  as Self. Transmission: The Journal of the Awareness Field. Vol 21, 1018.

Bauer, R. Experiencing the Archetypal Realm; A phenomenology of Self Liberation, Transmission: The Journal of The Awareness Field 2017.

Bauer, R The Nature of Awareness as Tantra: a Phenomenology. Transmission: The Journal of the Awareness Field. Vol. 20.2021.

Bauer, R, The Natural Hiddenness of the Luminous Experience of Being within Human Beings. Transmission: The Journal of The Awareness Field.  Transmission: The Journal of The Awareness Field. Vol. 8, 2017.

Capobianco, Richard. Heidegger’s Being: The Shimmering Unfolding University of Toronto Press 2022.

Namkai Norbu Rinpoche, Adriano Clemente 1997. The Supreme Source. The Kunjed Gyalpo. Snow Lion Press.

Neumaier Dargyay, E.K. The Sovereign All Creating Mind. The Motherly Buddha. State University of New York Press. 1992.

Longchen Rabjam. The Precious Treasury of Genuine Meaning.Berosana Publicatios. Ashland, Oregon 2015.

Muktananda, Swami, The Play of Consciousness SYDA Foundation.1971

Gendlin, Eugene. Experiencing and The Creation of Meaning. Northwestern University Press, 1997.

Guenther, Herbert. The Teaching of Padmasambhava.  EJ.Brill.1996

Spiegelberg, Herbert. The Phenomenological Movement. Kluwer Academic Publishers 1994.

Wallace,Alan. Dudjom Lingpa’s Visions of the Great Perfection Vol.,3. The Vajra Essence wisdom Publications 2015.

Padmasambhava. Secret Teachings of Padmashambhava. Translated by Kennard Lipman Ph.d Shambhla  Boulder 20110.