Cycles of Consciousness

I did my Lesson 1 - Part 1 today, cycles came up a bit, quick thought on that. I was exploring this dimension map I was considering, I wanted to share my explorations, see if anyone has any thoughts.

--Too abstract to conceive
--Platypus
--Imagination
--Wisdom/Understanding
--Forethought/Contemplation
--Experience
--Connection
--Focus
--YAAAWN
--Too abstract to conceive

I was thinking about dimensions in a 2-dimensional plane - connecting point A (low) to point B (high), but what if it wasn't a spectrum? What if it's a cycle? Now we're on a 3-dimensional plane, it looks completely different. Instead of moving up and down, you can travel completely different ways. It's the CIRRRCLE of liiiiiife. It's the wheeeel of - okay, sorry.

I came to this conclusion when I saw I had put "YAAAWN" at the second to bottom, sarcastically as a double reference to the brain shutting off when you lose consciousness and how boring it would be to be below focus. So sleeping is very obviously and scientifically proven to be a direct conduit to the unconscious mind, the dream world. So I think meditation can bring you there, we've proven that too. And we can go up and get lost in our imagination. That gap, the unconscious mind, is on both sides. So why the hell would the sides not be the same thing? A continuum, a cycle. But in 3-dimensions, it would be more like a pulse. A shockwave, a nova. The next dimension would be time, duration of the wave, qualities of the pulse. Like music. So maybe if we get our consciousness to circumvent or warp time, thinking in space, we could pop in and out of any state of consciousness we wanted if we knew the way. Like sensation association triggering memory, bringing you through time to an alternate reality experience. Maybe if you know 100% certainly that you can bring yourself there, you can be there instantaneously. You could associate the sensation of altered consciousness to anything, a smell would likely be the most effective.

That's all fine and dandy, but the real question is... what happens if you cycle through the other way? Oh god, that's the Dark Side, isn't it? God dammit. So that's Vader's story? Going too deep and getting lost, but coming back around the other side into balance with a little help from his friends?

Connecting a lot of dots here, interested to know what other peoples' thoughts are on this, it's a bit overwhelming and I don't get to really talk to anyone about this stuff. Let me know if there's a better place for this stuff, it's just been pouring out of me lately.

I whittle it down to 7 steps (forms); doorway, mirror, medium one, between mediums, medium 2, shoreline, and back of beach. From there it breaks down to 5 distinct movements (trials), which tend to relate most usefully to tooling experience more broadly. If I was to reverse that process it would represent covering of oneself rather then revealing of it... so it might have meaning if you consider Vader et al as being transformation away from self into something else entirely. So relevant to the Empire more then the Sith, and poor Vader was after all a tool of the Sith placed firmly within the machinery of the Empire.

What interests me most is whether that cycle can repeat itself within a lifetime, if the hero's journey can happen more than once. If you can do a full rotation. Like, as if the doorway was on the beach. As above, so below; that whole thing.

The covering (disconnecting from the world) and devolving into primality thing I think is deep in the Sith, I think Darth Maul is a great example of the pure instinctual un-disciplined unconscious. That's where I get confused with the ego balance. I feel like indulgence in primal desires is an unconscious process that is refined by discipline and self-control, which are pretty much embodiments of pure ego. Where Jedi play by rules and structure to bring balance and grow, the Sith seek self-indulgence and to consume. So that's where I get confused with the ego-dragon, maybe controlled chaos is still control? Ohhh shit, maybe it's just different qualities of ego: self-indulgence vs. self-control?

I see it more as growth vs. consumption than covering and revealing. Like Sith consume Force to exert it violently in huge bursts, Jedi cultivate Force and distribute. That consumption motif flows through every Sith - Sideous was disfigured and basically possessed, Maul was a pit bull, Vader became steadily more and more robotic, but nowhere near as robotic as good old General Grievous. I love him as an example of holding on to humanity by a thread. So, say you went the Grievous route and kept reducing and reducing ego - humanity - until it consumes entirely, does that make you go Force Ghost? Like Buddhist Enlightenment? I think Obi Wan and Luke did that on the high vibration side, but I am genuinely curious if that could happen the other direction. It's that cycle concept that's got me hung up - how shocking, stuck in a loop about cycles. Oh boy...

Would someone worthy of seeing what Lesson 1, Part 1 of the IP is these days kindly recap it for the rest of us plebeians? I'm sure a lot of this might possibly make some sense in context, but without any I am barred from participating in this open discussion constructively. Thank you for your patience...

Dzedka wrote: I see it more as growth vs. consumption than covering and revealing. Like Sith consume Force to exert it violently in huge bursts, Jedi cultivate Force and distribute. That consumption motif flows through every Sith - Sideous was disfigured and basically possessed, Maul was a pit bull, Vader became steadily more and more robotic, but nowhere near as robotic as good old General Grievous. I love him as an example of holding on to humanity by a thread. So, say you went the Grievous route and kept reducing and reducing ego - humanity - until it consumes entirely, does that make you go Force Ghost? Like Buddhist Enlightenment? I think Obi Wan and Luke did that on the high vibration side, but I am genuinely curious if that could happen the other direction. It's that cycle concept that's got me hung up - how shocking, stuck in a loop about cycles. Oh boy...

It's a shift in focus I think, the Jedi connecting to the Force as it (the Force), while the Sith directing it as if not of it. So it depends how you define consumption maybe... but to me it seems more like the Jedi breath it in and out, filling every fibre of being.... while the Sith consume and excrete it, using it as a resource for some external effect. To take it to your extreme I'd presume it was to create a larger sense of self and therefore more power in accessing more of the Force for greater effect, ie programming a hive mind by force with the Force... where all avenues of the Force were enabled for effect under the particular Sith's control... but it depends on the dynamics of the Force and what the motivation of the Sith is, but I'm reading you as if its different types of connection. I just don't see them as as reversible necessarily, as reversing breathing is still breathing... or not breathing at all. Reverse eating though... might be possible :lol: but seems a bit messy, so there'd have to be a good reason I suppose.

Gisteron wrote: Would someone worthy of seeing what Lesson 1, Part 1 of the IP is these days kindly recap it for the rest of us plebeians? I'm sure a lot of this might possibly make some sense in context, but without any I am barred from participating in this open discussion constructively. Thank you for your patience...

The basic premise is that of the Heros Journey. It is the cycle of our lives in the idea that our births are a heroic act and that mythology is the means by which we describe those things in our lives that cant be otherwise explained. It is a process of raising our consciousness in self awareness by focusing on these larger than life aspects of reality. Dreams do a similar thing for us, it is a way to explore that inner realm of consciousness and bring ourselves to a greater self awareness. Ritual is the same, these are acts that bring us pleasure through a process of turning our minds inward. They are self realizations that take symbolic form in mythology that take us out of the mundane aspects of our lives.

Now how any of this relates to a platypus is still beyond me?...

Dzedka wrote: What interests me most is whether that cycle can repeat itself within a lifetime, if the hero's journey can happen more than once. If you can do a full rotation. Like, as if the doorway was on the beach. As above, so below; that whole thing.

The covering (disconnecting from the world) and devolving into primality thing I think is deep in the Sith, I think Darth Maul is a great example of the pure instinctual un-disciplined unconscious. That's where I get confused with the ego balance. I feel like indulgence in primal desires is an unconscious process that is refined by discipline and self-control, which are pretty much embodiments of pure ego. Where Jedi play by rules and structure to bring balance and grow, the Sith seek self-indulgence and to consume. So that's where I get confused with the ego-dragon, maybe controlled chaos is still control? Ohhh shit, maybe it's just different qualities of ego: self-indulgence vs. self-control?

I see it more as growth vs. consumption than covering and revealing. Like Sith consume Force to exert it violently in huge bursts, Jedi cultivate Force and distribute. That consumption motif flows through every Sith - Sideous was disfigured and basically possessed, Maul was a pit bull, Vader became steadily more and more robotic, but nowhere near as robotic as good old General Grievous. I love him as an example of holding on to humanity by a thread. So, say you went the Grievous route and kept reducing and reducing ego - humanity - until it consumes entirely, does that make you go Force Ghost? Like Buddhist Enlightenment? I think Obi Wan and Luke did that on the high vibration side, but I am genuinely curious if that could happen the other direction. It's that cycle concept that's got me hung up - how shocking, stuck in a loop about cycles. Oh boy...

I often say I’ve lived more than one lifetime in my life time. Often times I used to call it a character change. I do remember there being times when I looked around and noticed - I didn’t like the way things were going. That’s when the “character change” happened. Specifics are personal but it did happen. I changed locations or jobs or mates and or lovers. I left practices and hangouts and even at times , left home. The journey can repeat or change or even start all over again. In real life - for me it was divorce. It was joining the army.It was running away. It was starting again.it was joining the coast guard. It was moving to a new city or state or getting a new job some where or moving to a new location and making new friends. Some folk stay in their life’s and some don’t. Some live single lives - some don’t. Some live one long life.
Some can live two or three or in some cases - many. Depends on you and your choices. ( this is real life Examples from my life- never hypothetical or fake
Or from a book.) feel free to contact me directly or here or even use discord for
One on one of ya like. May the Force continue to be with you as you seek it!

Ive found some stuff. The platypus comes into your life to give you great wisdom when you have the least clarity. It reassures you that no matter what others may think of you, don’t be afraid to show who you really are. The platypus meaning symbolizes being at peace even when you are isolated. It’s about moving at your own personal rhythm even if everything in your life is going by so fast. It teaches you to swim through your emotions and be aware of your own uniqueness. It’s about being flexible and adaptable when you are pushed in a different direction. It reminds you to balance your life energies and look for the deeper meaning of life.

I thought of the platypus as the concept of a higher plane of imagination - the kind of stuff that we struggle to imagine or believe. When US colonists first found the platypus they thought it was fake, a lot of sea creatures have been treated that too, check out deep sea creatures sometime, they're mind-boggling. Um... aliens, the cantina, the outer rim, maybe that's a better metaphor. The more I do the IP the more I'm getting to know this concept. Still working on patience. It's just so abstract that it's hard for me to visualize, I'm a very visual person. Thus the platypus, lol

"This concept" being what concept? The concept of... discovering things that seem weird at first? Welcome...