consciousness QUESTIONS & ANSWERSQ. Please explain the nature of consciousness.
M.Nature of consciousness, okay. It's hard to explain but you coulduse your intelligence to imagine. It's a kind of wisdom, you know,like you know something better than you ever did before. Yes,you know something that is beyond this world, and you know somethingin this world which you did not know before, and you understandmany things that you do not understand or you did not understandbefore.
That's the consciousness. And also when youopen this consciousness, or the so-called wisdom, you will understandtruly who you are and why you are here and what else is beyondthis world, and who else, beyond or apart from our worldly citizens.Understand? There are many things. So the level of consciousnessis a kind of different degrees of understanding, just like a graduationin college. The more you learn, the more you know, until graduation.Are you satisfied? It's difficult to explain something that isabstract, but I have tried. It's a kind of awareness, you know.It's difficult to explain awareness. When you go to different,higher levels of consciousness, your awareness is different. Youknow things different, you feel different. You feel just absolutelyin peace, tranquil, blissful. You have no worry, and everythingin your daily life becomes clear to you. You know how to handlethings and how to take care of problems better. Hmmm? Even itbenefits already in the physical level. And inside you, how youfeel - that only you know. It's difficult to explain these things.Just like you are married to the girl you love, how you feel -that only you know. Hmmm? No one else can feel it for you. Yes.
..... Q. Can satori be achieved withouta master? Is it possible?
M. Yes, but there are many different levels.There is vegetable satori, there is stone satori, there is drysatori, there is wet satori, there is wisdom satori, there isBuddha satori. Sometimes you think you have satori, but you arejust like dry wood, or just like a stone, and you derive nothingfrom your satori. You just sit there and feel happy, feel...,you feel nothing, you don't move, you don't have life. So thehighest samadhi you obtain is through a master, through studyingwith a master. If we can do it alone, God has no need to sendJesus, to send Buddha to us. Why couldn't we do it alone? It isbecause we have so much burden of karma, of preconceived ideasor prejudices. Our brains are full of garbage. We have been brain-washedfor millions of years with so much garbage. It's difficult toovercome, to wash them all out, so it needs God's power. It needssomeone who has developed more wisdom than us, more power thanus to help us when we are beginners.
