This has been the Age of Adam—an evolutionary plateau in which the consciousness of the human collective has been moving in a state that was prophetically described, albeit it briefly, in the beginning pages of the Bible. This Adamic state is one of dualistic thinking, fear, separation, and self-determination. It is primarily a mental state, wherein each individual human being born onto this plane of existence sees it as his or her destiny to become as humanly smart, colorful, multi-faceted, and well-defined as they can—to flesh themselves out with opinions and mentally instigated tendencies that act as defining characteristics of their personality. Thus we all have become uniquely individualistic people and take pride in the fact that there is no other person in the entire world that is exactly like us.
This fleshed-out complex personality, also known as ego, is not something we are born with. In fact, about the only thing we are born with is our biological givens—the way we look, the capabilities of our mind, etc. So in order to become the unique person we feel destined to become we must build our own unique personality profile and portfolio. And this building process tends to be an ongoing, lifelong endeavor. We never stop enhancing our ego with new likes and dislikes, viewpoints, and quirky attributes. Then once we find something that seems to fit us well we add it to our personality portfolio, like pushing the save button on our computer. And once something is saved, it becomes a part of us—a defining attribute that contributes to our unique profile.
All this is what makes life interesting. For, being social creatures by nature, most
of us also have become part of an extended social circle consisting of family members, friends, and acquaintances. And within this circle we eagerly participate, interacting and adding to its ambience. How do we do this? By expressing our unique self and being fully ourselves, while simultaneously receiving input from others pertaining to their unique selves. Of course, there is no guarantee that others will always warm up to our unique self, and when they do not we feel the emotional pain of rejection and alienation. So human socialization as we have known it up to now has always carried some risks with it. But still, most people feel committed to this process so that they do their best to roll with the punches and continue to let their unique self be known.
This is how life in the Adamic state of consciousness is lived. And as we continue to build on it, it can have the appearance of fullness—an appearance that has not only sustained many individuals born onto this plane in this age but has also perpetuated the collective reality view and rendered the status quo inviolable. And so Adamic consciousness has become entrenched to the point that we call it reality. What we have failed to understand is that all states of human consciousness are subject to change and evolve. Adamic consciousness has been the human collective’s defining consciousness throughout this age, but that does not mean that it is forever. To believe this has been a mistake. In fact, the belief itself is a product of Adamic consciousness.
We think we know what it means to be a human being. That is what our reality view consists of—all the ways and means whereby human life ought to be lived. And this is what we have all been conditioned to believe and move in. But not only is this reality view ephemeral, it is also highly constrictive and restrictive; it sells us terrifically short. That is why many people are attracted to the spiritual life. They have lived long enough under the Adamic system to perceive its emptiness and ask themselves: Is this really all there is to life? And they have become confused by the collective’s insistence that this is as good as it gets and one is simply deluding oneself to believe differently.
Then there is the condition of our world. Why does this matter? Because our world is a precise reflection of our collective consciousness. So what does the condition of our world tell us? Does it agree with the collective’s indoctrination? Does it reflect the fullness of life? No, of course not. Not only is it flawed with violence and hatred; it is also empty and vain, and those who are drawn to the spiritual life can sense this.
Thus the condition of the world testifies to the truth about Adamic consciousness. And what is that truth? That it is not the ultimate enlightened consciousness for mankind. Rather it is, in fact, a lower, seed-nature state on the evolutionary scale of consciousness. That is why it sells us short. We can and will become much more, once we have left Adamic consciousness behind. That is the purpose of all spiritual practice. The collective may have boxed itself in to Adamic consciousness for the duration, but we, as individuals, do not need to follow its lead blindly. We can leave Adamic consciousness behind in our hearts and evolve to the next level. The question then becomes: How? How do we leave Adamic consciousness behind?
The first step is to admit to ourselves that we have been lied to about the nature of Adamic consciousness and that our conditioned reality view is off-kilter as a result—that the Adamic way of viewing life is not the fullness it has purported itself to be. This is a revelatory singular step, which, once arrived at, needs little further process to back it up. The second step differs, however, in that it requires more work and process.
The second step involves the personality-self we have built. For, in the same way
that we must divorce ourselves from the collective’s reality view, we must also root out its influence from within us. In order to pave the way for a new state of consciousness to be born in us we must divest ourselves of all traces of the old. We must completely dismantle and cast out the edifice of ego that we have built. Why? Because, in truth, this edifice is an intrusive borrowed construct. It is an edifice that we built while under the influence of the collective’s cultural indoctrination. We built it, but we did not know what we were doing when we did so. We were taught exactly how to do this through the socialization of the collective. Now we must reverse that process. The very edifice that we built, we must now tear down. This may seem like a daunting task, but the good news is that it can most definitely be done.
This is the reason that in Eastern spiritual circles self-realization is put forth as a key to spiritual practice. For before we can tear down this false foreign edifice we must learn about it. We must go inward and see what it is made of. We must realize this false self so that we can begin building a true self. And one of the first things we see is that the edifice is actually constructed of flimsy materials. That is why it is within our capability to tear it down. It is not constructed of concrete and stone. Rather it is made up of thoughts, beliefs, opinions, ideas, etc. In other words, all the materials that have gone into this construct are shadowy and mental. True, it may appear that the edifice is strong and invincible, but how invincible is a belief? How immovable is an opinion? No, these can, in fact, be quite easily torn down through self-realization.
In actuality, all these things we have come to believe in are fictional. They are a big fat story, nothing more. Interestingly, this is one of the foremost characteristics of Adamic consciousness. It is a story-telling consciousness. Of course, these stories, if we
cling to them as real can do real harm and damage. That is why most wars are fought. One side clings to a certain story that brings them into conflict with another side that is doing the exact same thing—that is, clinging to a story they have embraced. So we see that Adamic consciousness is a war-like consciousness. It promotes division and hatred.
This quality of Adamic consciousness is not only applicable to large groups or nations. It happens on an individual basis also. The story that one person believes in comes into conflict with the story that another person believes in and presto: instant dislike and hatred ensues. So while our inward edifice may be flimsy and shadowy, it often causes us to come into conflict with others.
Our story is developed and enhanced as we have life experiences. And to the degree that we feel closed and threatened about our story’s vulnerability we become a combative hateful person. When we are born we have no story. Therefore we have no conflict. Then as we go through life we begin to hear the stories of others and decide to try them out for ourselves. Thus most stories are borrowed. Meanwhile, the more content we add to our story, the more our ego thrives and the stronger it feels. So it is not uncommon for an ego to branch out and embrace more than one story line. That is how borrowing stories has become an effective ego ploy. There is a multitude of them to choose from out there, and there are no patents or ownership rights. In other words, all stories are fair game; they belong to everyone.
Of course, the stories themselves are not the problem. Most of them are relatively harmless. Rather it is in clinging to a certain story and insisting that it is the one truth that we run into trouble. This is what brings us into conflict with others, not the story itself. That is why there have been so many wars fought over religion. It is because most major religions are unabashedly dogmatic. They insist that theirs is the one and only truth. But all this is an illusion of Adamic consciousness, nothing more. For, how are religions built? Through story telling. Some of these stories are borrowed and some may be original, in that they were first believed in by a certain group or individual. But they are still just stories.
Attachment to our particular story happens when we begin to identify ourselves with it. This happens when our ego, in an attempt to strengthen itself and become bigger, latches on to a story to such an extent that the story takes on the status of dogmatic truth. Thus we invest ourselves in it. We literally become our story and from that time forward we live and die accordingly. This causes us, in turn, to totally lose sight of the truth of who we are.
This is one of the main factors that keeps us stuck on the karmic wheel. If the story we are clinging to consumes our identity unto our dying day, we will die in ignorance of our true identity. And it is only by realizing our true identity that we can put an end to our karma. So our death will be a strictly mortal and unfruitful one, and a new incarnation will most certainly await us.
Eventually, however, we begin to suspect that our tendency to borrow a story and identify ourselves with it is a trick of Adamic consciousness and ego. It is Adamic consciousness expressing itself and ego attempting to dominate our psyche and grow larger. We learn that our true identity needs no story to define itself. It is already complete, whole, and perfect.
And so as we progress in the spiritual life we begin to reject the tendencies of Adamic consciousness, including story building. We deny our ego and go forward into
a new realm of consciousness, wherein there is no need for borrowed props or identity constructs. We say no to this karma-perpetuating illusion and streamline our inner life to reflect only the truth about who we are. We see that all stories are mere fictions and investing ourselves in them as if they were truth is a lie. And so we let go of our stories and in so doing, begin to be our true Self.