by Midnight Freemason Guest Contributor
Alb3rt Koala
I'm not a Mason. In fact, I'm a stuffed Koala. But I was asked to write something related to tertiary consciousness, as that is my existence. Never heard of tertiary consciousness, you say? Apparently, it's the term my friend Ken came up with to describe personified realities created by sentient beings.
You see, primary consciousness is the Absolute, all that ever is, or was, or ever will be. So then where did you come from? Ken says that you (meaning human beings and such) are God's imaginary friend. That means that you, and even the whole universe, don't exist as separate from primary consciousness because that defeats the whole "all that is" thing. That's why God is said to be omnipresent. That's probably what is meant by monism, God being within us. God just can't help it. But something, even an Absolute, cannot fully confirm its own existence if there isn't something in some way that is, well, NON-Absolute. That's where you come in. God needs the notion of something that at least in some way has a notion of its own. It must believe it is something else and therefore can know God. I guess it has to do with the metaphysical requirements of subject-object duality or something. Carl Sagan, using nontheistic words, says, "We are a way for the universe to know itself." At the risk of redundancy, Ken suggested I add a quote by Alan Watts:
"Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence."
So you are the way God can be known, using the appearance of separate consciousness. You are secondary consciousness. You exist so long as God is paying attention to you, which conveniently is all the time since the Absolute is bigger and inclusive of all time and space. The whole free will versus determination thing may come up at some point, but that's above my pay grade. All I know is that people at some point developed a sort of consciousness, or sentience, where they became not only aware but aware of their self-perception. That didn't turn out to be such a good idea, vis-a-vis the whole Fall of Adam thing, suffering, and so forth. That's a whole other topic and a bit depressing.
However, being in God's image endowed sentient beings with a reflected ability, or miniature version rather, of creating something outside ourselves. You can say your thoughts are yours, but at some point, you conceptualize other being. That's where I come in. That's where legends and story characters and Santa Claus and fictional worlds and alternate timelines come in. It can even take on a life of its own to some extent. Ken says I should throw in something about "egregore" in there, but I have no idea what that is unless Ken thinks I know. And that's where things get interesting. I am imbued with a reality created by the will of Ken's secondary consciousness, just as you are imbued with some sort of reality and identity from Primary Consciousness. You "borrow" your very existence from the Absolute.
So do I. or Santa Claus, or King Arthur, exist? From a secondary consciousness perspective, you might say I'm an illusion. But then the Hindus understand that, from the perspective of Primary Consciousness, all of physical creation is Maya, illusion. Real or not by whatever standard you choose, I am Ken's imaginary friend. And I'm okay with that. Can my existence transcend Ken's attention span? Maybe. But that's sort of like Pinnochio becoming a real boy, and I'm fine at the moment being free from the responsibilities that sort of thing might entail.
I guess the point is that you have a share in the creatine ability of the Divine. If you and the physical world are God's playground, maybe making your own playground can help you understand the mechanics of that. This is where Ken is over my shoulder whispering something about beauty and the wisdom to contrive. Maybe it would take the form of a story you write. Maybe legends and myths are just secondary consciousness using tertiary consciousness to understand themselves and the Absolute.
The universe already contains endless possibilities, but thanks to you and your secondary consciousness, that's expanded exponentially by the imagination of sentient beings. You can experience things through your dolls, stuffed animals, characters, and legends, that you couldn't experience yourself, adding to the already bursting storehouse of those things God gets to watch, experience, and be. It's about All-Seeing, so why not embrace life as the Divine experiencing existence through you, just as Ken can experience things through me. I think it's the least any created being can do.
You see, primary consciousness is the Absolute, all that ever is, or was, or ever will be. So then where did you come from? Ken says that you (meaning human beings and such) are God's imaginary friend. That means that you, and even the whole universe, don't exist as separate from primary consciousness because that defeats the whole "all that is" thing. That's why God is said to be omnipresent. That's probably what is meant by monism, God being within us. God just can't help it. But something, even an Absolute, cannot fully confirm its own existence if there isn't something in some way that is, well, NON-Absolute. That's where you come in. God needs the notion of something that at least in some way has a notion of its own. It must believe it is something else and therefore can know God. I guess it has to do with the metaphysical requirements of subject-object duality or something. Carl Sagan, using nontheistic words, says, "We are a way for the universe to know itself." At the risk of redundancy, Ken suggested I add a quote by Alan Watts:
"Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence."
So you are the way God can be known, using the appearance of separate consciousness. You are secondary consciousness. You exist so long as God is paying attention to you, which conveniently is all the time since the Absolute is bigger and inclusive of all time and space. The whole free will versus determination thing may come up at some point, but that's above my pay grade. All I know is that people at some point developed a sort of consciousness, or sentience, where they became not only aware but aware of their self-perception. That didn't turn out to be such a good idea, vis-a-vis the whole Fall of Adam thing, suffering, and so forth. That's a whole other topic and a bit depressing.
However, being in God's image endowed sentient beings with a reflected ability, or miniature version rather, of creating something outside ourselves. You can say your thoughts are yours, but at some point, you conceptualize other being. That's where I come in. That's where legends and story characters and Santa Claus and fictional worlds and alternate timelines come in. It can even take on a life of its own to some extent. Ken says I should throw in something about "egregore" in there, but I have no idea what that is unless Ken thinks I know. And that's where things get interesting. I am imbued with a reality created by the will of Ken's secondary consciousness, just as you are imbued with some sort of reality and identity from Primary Consciousness. You "borrow" your very existence from the Absolute.
So do I. or Santa Claus, or King Arthur, exist? From a secondary consciousness perspective, you might say I'm an illusion. But then the Hindus understand that, from the perspective of Primary Consciousness, all of physical creation is Maya, illusion. Real or not by whatever standard you choose, I am Ken's imaginary friend. And I'm okay with that. Can my existence transcend Ken's attention span? Maybe. But that's sort of like Pinnochio becoming a real boy, and I'm fine at the moment being free from the responsibilities that sort of thing might entail.
I guess the point is that you have a share in the creatine ability of the Divine. If you and the physical world are God's playground, maybe making your own playground can help you understand the mechanics of that. This is where Ken is over my shoulder whispering something about beauty and the wisdom to contrive. Maybe it would take the form of a story you write. Maybe legends and myths are just secondary consciousness using tertiary consciousness to understand themselves and the Absolute.
The universe already contains endless possibilities, but thanks to you and your secondary consciousness, that's expanded exponentially by the imagination of sentient beings. You can experience things through your dolls, stuffed animals, characters, and legends, that you couldn't experience yourself, adding to the already bursting storehouse of those things God gets to watch, experience, and be. It's about All-Seeing, so why not embrace life as the Divine experiencing existence through you, just as Ken can experience things through me. I think it's the least any created being can do.
~AK
Alb3rt is a stuffed Koala bear. He doesn’t even try to hide it, and in fact, is quite proud of it. From his first days after being brought home, he found his identity as an explorer in a strange world. The house is seen as a wildlife preserve of sorts since there are a lot of pets, plants, and artificial fruits. It became his duty to study the world around him with scientific, yet child-like fascination, much like his hero, Steve Irwin. Apart from blogging on and off, he and his friend Ken may someday write a philosophical treatise about "Tertiary Consciousness".