Higher consciousness or just true being?

Also called super consciousness, Buddhic consciousness, cosmic consciousness and God-consciousness, Christ consciousness -to name but a few--are expressions used in various spiritual traditions to denote the consciousness of a human being who has reached a higher level of evolutionary development and who has come to know reality as it is. Evolution in this sense is not that which occurs by natural selection over generations of human reproduction but evolution brought about by the application of spiritual knowledge to the conduct of human life. Through the application of such knowledge (traditionally the preserve of the world's great religions) to practical self-management, the awakening and development of faculties dormant in the ordinary human being is achieved. These faculties are aroused by and developed in conjunction with certain dispositions of character such as patience, kindness truthfulness, humility and forgiveness towards one's fellow man – qualities without which higher consciousness is not possible.

The concept of higher consciousness rests on the understanding that the average, ordinary human being is only partially conscious due to being under the sway of inferior impulses and preoccupations. As a result, most humans are considered to be asleep (to reality), even as they go about their daily business. Gurdjieff called this ordinary condition of humanity 'waking sleep' an idea gleaned in part from ancient spiritual teachings such as those of the Buda. In each person lie potentialities that remain inchoate as a result of the individual being caught up in mechanical, neurotic modes of behaviour where the correct use of energy for personal spiritual development has not been understood but is squandered in unskillful ways. As a result of the phenomenon of projection the cause of such a person's suffering is often seen to lie in outer circumstances or other individuals. One prerequisite for the development of consciousness is the understanding that suffering and alienation are one's own responsibility and dependent on the mind's acquiescence (through ignorance, for example). Traditionally, both in the Eastern and the Abrahamic spiritual traditions a person who sought mind-body transformation came under the tutelage of a Master (Rabbi, Sheikh, Guru, Acarya, etc) who would oversee their progress. In the past, as today, this education would often involve periods of retreat in communities whose sole purpose is the cultivation of awakening.