Exploring the Question of Consciousness with Philosophy

Our questions and the answers we receive are dependent on one another. It is not possible to gain an answer to a question that we’ve never asked. We remain ignorant until we awaken to the possibility that our understanding is somewhat limited. Currently, definitive answers to the question ‘what is consciousness?’ are out of reach. Perhaps one day it will be possible for different theories to contribute to a holistic understanding, but as of today, we simply do not know.

Our questions are the keys with which we unlock doors to various paths in life and unlock the mysteries of nature. For the physicist, the key is mathematics, for the biologist the key is DNA, for the devotee of any faith, the key is God. Whatever we find behind the doors we have opened becomes the knowledge that informs our decision-making and actions.

If we were to select a ‘master key’ for the philosopher we might call this ‘inclusion’ – the ability to relate different things together. The philosopher (in the general sense of one who seeks wisdom, wherever it may be found) is able to make use of many different approaches and methods under the master key of inclusion. The philosopher seeks states of consciousness that have the qualities of height and depth, and the relationship of seeming opposites held together opens up new spaces of experience that bring this possibility. For example, imagining ‘what if life and death are not opposite but together?’ Heaven and earth, past and future, temporal and eternal, pleasure and pain, spirit and matter, me and the other – all are apparent opposites capable of being harmonized. Uniting within oneself a pair of opposites is one key for moving out of assumptions, black and white thinking and dogmas to elevate our thoughts towards different possibilities.

As we can’t currently answer the question ‘what is consciousness’ directly, we can use our philosopher’s master key to look at what consciousness relates to and so illuminate the path of our enquiry. To begin with, consciousness is certainly related to life and what it means to exist. Both life and consciousness are also related to time. Considering how life and time act, what might we learn about consciousness? First suggestion: movement – life and time are both perpetually moving and the processes of life occur within time. Second suggestion: growth and transformations – life seeks to unfold and expand from the latent to the potent, from the invisible to the visible. Third suggestion: cyclical – whilst life is linear in terms of chronological time it is also cyclical and seeks a return, like the seasons, and also a movement back to the invisible which we might call ‘death’. Now relating these observations to consciousness, we might ask, ‘can it move?’ Yes, consciousness seems to move from place to place and back again. Does it change and transform? Yes, this also seems correct, it changes and transforms with various life events, and different kinds of art and music also change our consciousness. Does it grow, unfold and expand? Again, yes it seems so, in our own lives the growth and expansion we experience physically and mentally is reflected in our consciousness. Does it end? Both life and time extend to infinity, so then why not also our consciousness? It is a reasonable question even if we can’t confirm an answer.

How might we live and work with our consciousness? With our use of time, it is necessary to make decisions; how we spend it, what job we have, what relationship we commit to, where we place our love. Could it also be possible to ‘choose’ our state of consciousness? We could see consciousness as way of being that can be decided upon rather than a by-product of other factors.

In whatever we are doing, in which direction is our consciousness pointed and can we notice differences depending on the direction we choose? Can I feel lighter and less frustrated? Can I experience greater peace and ease?  We could explore these directions as ‘spaces’ for our consciousness to move in. For example, is my consciousness currently within my ‘space of self-interest’ or within my ‘space of what is best for the other’? Is my consciousness currently within the ‘space of my permanent values’ or within the ‘space of my impulse for satisfaction’? Whenever we find ourselves in a space of consciousness that is uncomfortable and testing, we can use the philosopher’s key of inclusion to look for something more positive to relate to it, knowing that ultimately hot and cold, night and day, light and dark are bound together, just like our weaknesses and strengths. Asking what the related strength to our problem is, we can make an experiment to more our consciousness there, into a more virtuous space, and see what happens, what new ideas ways of being in the moment we can discover.

When choosing any space to be in, whether physical or otherwise, consciousness requires freedom, and remembering our innate freedom is essential for a philosopher. We are free to have questions and explore unusual pairings of ideas. We are free to open up new space for height and depth, and free to go forward and to change our state of consciousness to find more peace in life, even though circumstances may be difficult.

Our freedom, our life, our time and our consciousness are shaped by the questions we have, the keys we use, the answers we find and the ways we act. We could call the question of consciousness a question of inner evolution, which it is our freedom to explore and discover new paths along which our consciousness can travel.

What do you think?