Conscious Living in a Material world

The Conscious Living Framework is for those who are seeking the path of spirituality, while tethered to the material world. It allows one to choose a comfortable starting point, pick one of many available routes (provided by different schools of philosophy), and learn from personal experiences along the way.

How does the framework help?

It helps you design your own way to live. It rationalizes conflicts and provides answers to bothersome questions, by directing one to source references. This framework does not claim any intellectual authority or rigor to help one navigate all possible scenarios.

The resources point to different gurus and their documented commentaries. Collective experiences are minimally archived for those seeking to pick up from where others leave.

This framework was revealed to the seeker

What are the core sutras of the Conscious Living framework?

1. We must exist in the Karmic Plane, bound by different codes of life. We do not have a choice.
2. When we are not sleeping or dreaming, we are always making excursions into the material (non-sentient) world. For some, these excursions include the sentient world of (a) plants/living beings and (b) our ancestors. Not obvious to the lay observer, the sentient world of non-human living beings and our ancestors can be accessed, by temporarily relaxing the constraints imposed by our rational/scientific minds.
3. We exist in the Karmic Plane using our physical body and the mind. The body has 3 states of existence (waking, dreaming & deep sleep). The mind has four virtual chambers, to help us interact with the world(s) — Thoughts, Intelligence, Memories & Ego.
4. There are certain documented ‘codes of living’ — we can follow any of these or synthesize our own codebook. (ex. Bhagavad Gita is an excellent manual of codes with a set of promises. There are similar ones from different communities around the world).
5. Stories (like codes) are a very important part of our existence in the Karmic Plane. Stories are embedded in our memories, serve to entertain but most importantly help add comprehensible dimensions to the rather dry ‘codes of life’.
6. As the name Karmic Plane suggests, Action (Work) forms the bedrock of our existence. There is no running away from the action. It is futile to give up on Karma, for our spiritual quests. However one could make an effort to shift focus from ‘service for self’ to ‘serving others’.
7. The intrinsic quality of our actions generates karma, good, and bad karma. There is no direct correlation between action performed and results obtained (i.e. good karma need not always deliver a good state of living; we often find the worst miseries to descend on the lives of people accumulating good karma). However, there is evidence that accumulating ‘good karma’ provides immediate benefits by triggering ‘good thoughts’ in our minds. There is no getting away from bad Karma. If one pushes the needle towards good karma, it establishes a positive cycle — and we soon realize that it is the ‘good mind’ that is the real game-changer.
8. The Karmic Plane is bounded by the sentient and non-sentient world on one side, and by the world of consciousness on the other. Our sensorial perceptions and the resulting images in our minds are limited to only the material, sentient and spiritual worlds.
9. Consciousness is something that cannot be objectified and thus there is no way to describe it using words in our current vocabulary. It is also not a sensorial experience or something that can be imagined in our minds. It is not bounded by time or space. The Vedanta school of thought uses a technique of negation (neti-neti, not this, not that) to arrive at a definition of consciousness. It also says that the world of consciousness must exist as the seer because the object world of the body-mind (Karmic plane) can be seen. Thus it most certainly does not exist in our definition of the Karmic Plane. This uni-dimensional world is akin to the idea of singularity (from the world of science) and labeled as the ‘ultimate reality’ — it has many nuanced definitions like the Atman or Brahman. The non-dual school of Vedanta, posits this world as the only ‘true self’ and all the rest as a temporary manifestation (shining in reflected light), while the dual school (like Sankhya) views the world of consciousness as one separate entity ‘Purusha’ interacting cyclically with the rest comprising of the ‘Prakriti’, resulting in creation and destruction.
10. There are 3 channels (gate-ways) from the Karmic Plane into the formless and incomprehensible world of consciousness. These are (1) the path of Bhakti (Total submission based on faith and love), (2) the path of Knowledge, and (3) the path of Yoga. Some schools recommend entering the world of consciousness, in a sequential manner, by disciplining the mind first, then gaining knowledge, and finally culminating in total submission. This framework encourages one to pursue all 3 simultaneously. While it has an obvious bias for the path of knowledge for the educated mind, it believes yoga to be the perfect enabler and bhakti to provide the final leap. These pathways are neatly summarized within the Bhagavad Gita, with copious commentaries from experts spanning 3 to 4 millennia.
11. It is extremely difficult to simultaneously make excursions in the material world and travel through the 3 gateways mentioned above in our attempt to synthesize ultimate reality or experience Turiyo — the 4th state of body-mind existence or consciousness. Most saints shun the material world and avoid stimulating the sensorial system for that very reason. It makes it relatively easier to focus on the spiritual world with a quieter mind.
12. The challenges to pursue conscious living while simultaneously existing in the material world has more to do with our mind (than the body) — specifically within the two chambers of ‘thought’ and ‘ego’. We are trapped in the vicious cycle of thoughts — good or bad, and emotions — happy or sad, and attitude to life inspired or dejected. We are also trapped within our Ego, which provides the illusion of self.
13. The way to tackle these challenges is to practice the art of detachment, so we can minimize the chatter of thoughts. That leads to minimizing both the intensity and frequency of our cycle of emotions. Consider wrapping the thought chambers with a sheath of detachment.
14. Detachment can be initiated, when you start observing your own mind. To view oneself from a distance (both the thought chamber and the Ego), like a character in a game, allows one to monitor the emotional states objectively. Meditation helps attenuate the rise and fall of emotions, along with constant feedback to the mind about the illusory nature of emotions.
15. Minimizing the noise in our thought chambers will spur the use of intelligence (buddhi), which is a good thing. Intelligence can be used to power both selfish(material) and selfless(service unto others) action, but if we remain detached, the resulting benefits will be independent of the kind of karma we accumulate.
16. Ego is important for existence in the karmic plane because it spurs action. However, we can’t provide it with a free handle, because it is also the source of most of our problems. Start the practice of ‘boxing up the Ego’, so it sends an alert when growing in size or attempting to disproportionately influence thoughts and emotions.
17. Memories get imprinted over time, as we pursue karma. It is important to protect and preserve the memories of our ancestors, and also pass them on along with our good memories (in the format of stories) to our next of kin.
18. This framework recommends simultaneous pursuit of the 3 paths. It has been proven over time that the spheres of bhakti and knowledge, or yoga and knowledge, reinforce each other. The relative proportions depend on what appeals to the individual in pursuit of truth.
19. The World of consciousness is lit-up in parts to the seeker. The mystery is never completely revealed. Even when revealed in parts, the experience cannot be sensed with the body/mind and thus cannot be articulated. Possibly this IS the reason why there is only silence as one makes real progress. We get signals along the way and keep moving.
20. Turiyo represents attaining the state of consciousness, where all other forms of existence cease to be. It is like merging oneself and the entire Karmic existence within an unbounded space where there is the absolute silence of thoughts, absence of ego, and cessation of all material pursuits.

Conclusion

There is nothing new in the framework articulated above, barring the use of some terminology. The ability to traverse from the material world through the karmic plane to the world of consciousness, and back, is something that has been demonstrated by leading monks like Shankaracharya, Vivekananda, and many others. Everyone had their own path that worked in their own space and time. Shankaracharya followed the path of Advaita (non-dual) Vedanta but surrendered to the idea of a personal god. One only needs to refer to his vast body of scholarly work (rather jaw-dropping) and imagine that coming in the midst of his extensive travels and activity leading to the founding of marquee institutions like the Sringeri Math. Clearly, he was existing in the Karmic Plane, in spite of reaching the highest altars of realizing the state of Turiyo.

But that was circa 700 CE. What works in 2020 and beyond for us, is best left open to experience and build upon.