Just down the road from where I live, in the back streets of the town there’s a car garage business called “Motorvating” (clever little name, eh?). I take my old jalopy there for its servicing needs etc. I don’t know how old Andy (the owner) is but he’s certainly around my age. What I do know about Andy is he knows all there is to know about car engines. You don’t spend thirty plus years under the hood of cars without knowing what everything does and why it does it. Every time I visit “Motorvating”, Andy’s in one of those mechanic pits in the ground with a torch in his hand examining the underbelly of a car.
I’m completely the opposite to Andy when it comes to cars. I’m utterly ignorant. A conscious incompetent. And I’ve no desire to want to change it. I’m not mechanically minded. At all.
Having said that, Andy I have much in common. Where years of experience have made him masterful at ensuring a car performs to the best of its ability, years of experience have allowed me to do the same with people.
You can’t spend years and years and thousands upon thousands of hours “getting under the hood” of people in terms of exploring the inner most workings of their psychology without getting a few lifetime’s worth of education in how we’re all made up and what makes us tick.
Where Andy I do differ is he has large groups of vehicles which are built in mass replica. I drive a Land Rover Freelander. You can bet your bottom dollar that under the hood it looks exactly the same as every other Freelander. To a large degree, I don’t have the same luxury. Every human being is uniquely different, with unique consciousness, a unique map of the world and unique life experience. Not one human being sees the world the same way as another.
And yet, just as it is with cars, despite our uniqueness, we share many areas of commonality. The physical and non-physical aspects of our personality are fundamentally the same. All cars have a body, an engine, and wheels. We have a body, mind, and consciousness (or “spirit”, “soul”, “life force”, “chi”, “source energy” etc).
In a previous message, I wrote the following:
“The idea that life is a school in which we’re to learn specific lessons is a long established societal myth that masks truth. School is a place where you learn what you don’t know. Life is an opportunity to remember what you already know but are not currently conscious of. In other words, life brings opportunities to you so that you can know experientially what you already know conceptually.
You don’t have to “learn” anything to do this. You simply need to remember what you already know and act on it. So, to put it as plainly as possible, success in life is far more a process of unlearning than it is learning. As Alan Cohen put it so perfectly: “Forget everything you have learned, and you will remember everything you have forgotten”.
Time to elaborate a little further.
I don’t care what your term of reference is for it – “chi”, “source energy”, “spirit”, “consciousness”, “soul” etc – there’s a ghost in the machine and that ghost is you. In other words, you are not your physical body, the physical body is merely the vehicle by which you (the consciousness/life force within) navigate your way through this experience of life in the relative (material, physical) world.
Stay with me. This isn’t some mythological, religious rhetoric, on the contrary, it’s really science and natural law 101. Everything is energy, in fact, everything is one energy in a myriad of different forms (at different levels of vibration).
So the ghost (spirit/consciousness/life force/source energy/soul) in the machine (physical body) is the “you” who is interpreting these words as you read them. Your body can’t do that without you. The brain doesn’t think independently of you. You’re using attributes of the body to read the words (your eyes, your nervous system, your brain), but it’s your mind and the consciousness/life force/source energy/soul that’s interpreting the message and the meaning.
If I’m losing you, go back and read the last three paragraphs again.
For the sake of brevity, I’m going to reference the “ghost in the machine” as “core consciousness”. I could just as easily use the word “soul” or “spirit” but I don’t want to risk detracting from the understanding this message offers you by opening up the possibility of religious connotation. This has nothing to do with religion. On the contrary, it contravenes the grossly misleading message of separation spun out by the world’s main theological constructions.
The core consciousness that is you knows all there is to know all the time. Now let me stop right there, because you’d be quite in your rights to challenge me on how I could possibly come to such a conclusion, after all, it doesn’t exactly square up to the human experience, right?
My response would simply be because of experience. There’s a presupposition in professional coaching that the answer is always in the individual, they’re just not consciously aware of it at this point in time. Over the years, experience has shown over and over again – and without exception – that this presupposition is more than just a “convenient” belief, it’s an irrefutable truth.
And if you’re wondering why I’m bothering to share this “deep stuff” with you, here’s the answer: the “core consciousness” I’m referring to is the seat of your untapped potential. It’s “untapped” simply because you’re not conscious of it, in other words, you’re not aware of it because you lack understanding. We all do. It’s called ignorance and to varying degrees we’re all at different levels of ignorance (and conversely, by relativity, at different levels of awareness).
Here’s the point: you cannot express what you’re not aware of. In other words, the act of “unlocking” your untapped potential is the act of becoming aware of it – becoming conscious of what you’re not currently conscious of.
Do you grasp the implication? Awareness is everything.
Nothing is unknown to the core consciousness you are. Yet knowing, in itself, is not enough for you. That’s why you’ve chosen this physical experience. You (core consciousness) seek to experience what you already know but are not consciously aware of, because until concept becomes experience, all there is, is speculation. For example, you can know yourself to be kind, but unless you experience yourself doing an act of kindness, you have nothing but a conceptual idea about yourself.
Stay with me here.
Energy (consciousness) is all there is. The physical (matter) and non-physical or meta-physical (dark matter) universe is one energy in a myriad of different forms (differing levels of vibration). Any scientist of worth will tell you energy is perpetually moving in and out of form. Want to know what happens to you at “death”? There you have it. In spiritual teachings, this is referenced as spirit (energy at such a high speed of vibration it has no physical form) always manifesting itself in it polar opposite – matter (energy at a slower speed of vibration so it takes physical form). This universal duality has been referenced throughout the ages as the “alpha and the omega”, the “thing/no thing”, the “is-not is”, the “am/not am” the “everything and nothing”, or the “nothing which holds everything”.
Welcome to relativity. You are the embodiment of the duality that is relativity. You are core consciousness (spirit/chi/soul etc), gifted with an intellect (your conscious mind), contained (for now) in a physical body. You are energy both seen and unseen.
Again, if I’m losing you, re-read this message over and over again…because it will start to make sense.
I could go on, but I don’t want to lose track of the original point. Life, as we call this physical experience (although life also exists in the non-physical experience – there’s the duality of relativity again) is not a school. You are not here to learn “lessons”, because you already know all there is to know (you’re just not consciously aware of it). You are here to leverage opportunities to remember, that is re-member; in other words, to “bring together”, in your understanding, the relative parts of your being which seem (in ignorance) to be separate (but never were) so you experience yourself as “whole” (at one with your creator, in other words, a “wholy” person).
This is what Jung referred to when he referenced making the unconscious conscious. Only then can you know of your oneness with all experientially.
This is the process known as self-actualisation. This is how you express and experience as much of your limitless potentiality as possible. This is how you leverage the never ending opportunities life brings to re-create yourself anew so you can know what you know conceptually of yourself experientially.
And it’s why Alan Cohen brilliantly observed: “Forget everything you have learned, and you will remember everything you have forgotten”.
I appreciate this might “twist your melon” to some degree. If you’re having a tough time getting your head around it, or you think I’m utterly off my rocker, stay with it (I’m not attached to you thinking I’m sane by the way, let’s be honest, I’m not exactly “normal” – whatever that is – am I?). Keep this email and read it often. I promise, in time, it’ll start to add up. Remember, a state of confusion is a good sign:
“Confusion is the mind expanding. It’s the birthing of greater awareness. Confusion can hardly be described as an enjoyable state to be in but, like it or not, it’s a very healthy place for a human being to be. Here’s why: a higher level of understanding will always be preceded by a period of confusion”.
As Ralph Waldo Emerson wisely reflected: “The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions”.
At the end of this particular leg of the all-to-brief experience we call life, what you own you leave behind, but who you are is yours forever.
Food for thought one hopes.
Enjoy your day.
Christian Simpson is the UK’s leading coach and mentor to business owners and entrepreneurs. For COMPLIMENTARY ACCESS to tried, tested and proven entrepreneurial success strategies, click here
