Man is an infinite circle whose circumference is nowhere, but the centre is located in one spot; and God is an infinite circle whose circumference is nowhere, but whose centre is everywhere. He works through all hands, sees through all eyes, walks on all feet, breathes through all bodies, lives in all life, speaks through every mouth, and thinks through every brain...
Man can become like God and acquire control over the whole universe if he multiplies infinitely his center of self-consciousness...
Vivekananda
How beautiful, eh? How jaw-dropping truthful and wise this statement is if we decide to put away our resistance and open up to what it is saying. I drank up all this wisdom during my ER wait yesterday. It helped to fill the time. I hit the part of Vivekananda's works...after three years of reading this very, very large "Complete Works" ... that interested me the most... just at the right time. Grateful to be able to use what reactive mind might want to call a "frustrating, boring, and possibly unnecessary wait," as a part of my practice.
Michael Singer shares this same idea in the below linked podcast that I opened up to early this morning in my steroid active state (I get so wired on steroids lol...was awake since 430). (below paraphrased)
You are so big...God descended...but you fell from the universal state of consciousness down to "little me's" reflection in it.
Why don't we live like we are God-descended?
The problem is we are focusing down on some encapsulation of consciousness we call "my mind, my body, my life"...instead of looking around us from the center of the circle, seeing we are everywhere.
Singer also encourages us to keep reminding ourselves, "The problem is my mind." He is right we cannot deal with life if we are constantly dealing with this "little me'' drama inside us.
So few humans deal with Life as it is, allowing, with peace, wisdom, and serenity, for it to be exactly as it is. We look around at all the reactive humans , who are also focusing on their "me-meness" because it was conditioned into them to be the normal thing to do. We watch as their "personal, disturbed minds" pull them in, and like watching someone yawn, we do the same. We get pulled into our own "personal, disturbed mind."
I excitedly read along, highlighting these chapters like crazy, as Vivekanda spoke/taught about the reason why we tend to react. Most importantly, he stresses it doesn't have to be this way. (Of course, Singer did the same.)
Practical Psychology? Bringing the Samskaras Out of Hiding.
Its [our consciousness'] past experiences have been replaced by the present, or have become subconscious. We are not aware of their presence in us; but there they are, unconsciously influencing our body and mind. Every movement that is now being made without the help of consciousness was previously conscious.
Practical psychlogy directs first of all its energies in controlling the unconscious, and we know that we can do it. Why?
Because we know the cause of the unconscious is the conscious: the unconconscious thoughts are the submerged millions of old conscious thoughts, old conscious actions become petrified- we do not look at them, do not know them, have forgotten them, ...We may have many things stored in us as in a pocket. We have forgotten them, do not even think of them, and there are many of them, rotting, becoming positively dangerous; they come forth, the unconscious causes which kill humanity. True psychology would, therefore try to bring them under control of the conscious.
Basically saying, we need to bring them into conscious awareness again so we can deal with them (control them)...by dealing with them we set them free...and therefore set ourselves up for a higher learning, a higher experience that will set us free! Do you get that?
From Below to Above
This is the first part of the study, the control of the unconscious. The next is to go beyond the conscious. Just as unconscious work is beneath consciousness, so there is another work which is above consciousness. When this superconscious state is reached, man becomes free and divine; death becomes immortality, weakness becomes infinite power, and iron bondage becomes liberty. Tht is the goal, the infinite realm of the superconscious...
That is the ultimate goal attained in samadhi...true Self-realization. We may not reach it in this lifetime...that's okay. We will have another opportunity to do so in the next. That is our aim though, right? Whether we know it or not? We want to have this experience of freedom, of true knowing, and a true peace that surpasses all understanding? But we do need to start with practical psychology first, bringing the unconscious to the conscious.
Otherwise we are experiencing a "pretend" life which perpetuates suffering and not the Life we are here for - one that perpetuates joy and love.
As the sanskrit saying goes, "It is a headache without the head."
Remember this, whether we have reached that state of realization or not:
This is the first fact of consciousness-I am. Who can imagine a state of things which never existed? It is the most self-evident of all truth.
And when Life outside is not the way ego wants it to be...do your very best to remember all this wisdom and instead of reacting, learn to say:
Can I bring peace into this moment no matter how much reactivity I am witnessing around me...I do not have to react..."How can I help...how can I serve this moment...?" Michael Singer, somewhat paraphrased.
All is well.
Michael Singer (August 14, 2025) From Preference to Presence: The Journey Beyond the Mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piRP5DkXJ3I&list=PLyOuAoSmZkKoESr2acNWwhznusbBkKXsT&index=2&t=2127s
Sri Swami Vivekanada (n.d.) 2.3 Hints on Practical Spirituality. Complete Works of Vivekananda. Kindle Edition
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