Motivation: Why are we moved to do what we do? Ð Part IV

By Sanderson Beck

Understanding and Insight

Aristotle declared, "All people by nature desire to know." He also held contemplation to be the most exalted human activity. The nature of the mind seeks to know and understand, and certainly humans are the most mental creatures on earth. Although instinctive processes occur continuously in the subconscious or basic self, most of the larger and significant human actions are consciously chosen by the conscious self based on the mind's understanding of the situation. We have become creatures more of consciousness than of instinct. Thus understanding of our environment and insight into ourselves are of paramount importance.

We use our understanding to achieve our basic needs, desires, and ambitions as well as to know how best to care for others and express ourselves, but we also choose to learn, observe, think, and intuit the truth of things for its own sake. The human mind rarely rests except during sleep, when the subconscious mind is still working to resolve various patterns. Even consciously disciplining the mind by means of prayer, meditation, or spiritual exercise has the purpose of attaining spiritual insight. Thus the movement of the mind for understanding is virtually continuous. Like expression, this motive cannot be stopped but only directed from one subject to another.

The mind seeks to understand the outward environment of the world, the inner processes of our own consciousness, and the relationship between the two. As we shall discuss in later chapters, the conscious self uses various faculties to accomplish this purpose, such as sensory perception, memory, imagination, emotion, analytic and synthetic reasoning, and intuition. All of these processes occur within our consciousness and, with the exception of our sense organs being open, are relatively independent of our outward behavior.

Curiosity, examining, exploring, learning, investigating, studying, contemplating, questioning, and meditating are all quests to understand. We seek knowledge and insight, not just because of physical needs or desires or even worldly ambition, but because consciousness itself is the moving and expanding of awareness. The urge to grow in experience by expressing ourselves gives us the raw material, which the mind can use to obtain greater understanding of life. Naturally some people have a stronger urge to understand than others. Understanding tends to be cumulatively expanding: the more we understand, the more we wish to understand more. Thus education, both formal and informal, encourages and promotes the motive to understand, while inner spiritual endeavor stimulates the quest for insight.

Oneness and Transcendence

Spiritual motivation goes beyond mental insight though. The crown chakra in the top of the head is a direct channel between the incarnate soul and overshadowing Spirit. We generally connect best with other people through the heart chakra, but the top chakra enables us to pull down the illuminating energies of Spirit so that we can experience oneness with all things on all levels and also to lift our consciousness up into the higher realms of soul and Spirit in transcendental experience.

By attuning ourselves to Spirit, which is omnipresent and omniscient, we experience a spiritual flow that connects us to anything and everything by transcending divisions and separation. In the purity and protection of Spirit we can experience oneness with all things physical, astral, emotional, mental, intuitional, and spiritual. Because this experience transcends the separation of the ego (The conscious self can do this.), this oneness cannot be used for manipulation, desire, or security. To experience this transcendence, one must let go of those motives. However, oneness does enhance and exalt our love, expression, and insight with greater spiritual awareness.

Soul transcendence, sometimes called soul travel, is the process of moving our consciousness into the soul; in the perfection and protection of the soul we can become aware of anything that can be known and can move our awareness to any level or experience that is best for all (in accord with God's will). To attain soul awareness we must transcend not only the distractions of the physical body and the emotions but also of the mind as well. Although most people are usually unconscious of it, the channel of transcendence is always present and available, simply because we are souls even when we are not consciously aware of it. This oneness of our beingness is difficult for people to experience, because it is metaphysically prior to the created consciousness of the mind. It is not something we perceive, but is the being of the perceiver, actually the source of the perceiver and the perception.

We can focus our consciousness on becoming one with Spirit. Since Spirit is in everything, we can start this process by becoming one with anything. By letting go of the dualism of the mind, a subtle spiritual flow seems to lifts us and carry us along. This is not achieved by the force of will power. We must be willing to go along with the experience though, because we can block it with our will. Transcending means letting go of our conditioned consciousness and opening ourselves to a greater experience. The oneness that is experienced defies all mental concepts and descriptions in its ecstasy. Thus the ultimate human motivation is becoming one with God.

For more writing by Sanderson Beck see http://www.san.beck.org/.