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Saturday, March 14, 2020

Consciousness of Happiness or Unhappiness

Consciousness of Happiness or Unhappiness

Consciousness is everything; if you are not conscious, you are not living your life, if not already dead.

Well, what is consciousness?

Being conscious is a "special quality of the mind" that permits us to know both that we exist and that the things around us also exist too. Surprisingly, many of us may not have this consciousness.

Life is an inner journey that often requires consciousness of the body and the mind, together with that of the soul or spirit, to continue making its progress in the right direction in order to reach its final destination. Sadly, since the beginning of time, many people have traveled on the same journey of life but without reaching their desired destinations because they simply lack their consciousness of the body and the mind, not to mention that of the soul or spirit, to guide them along that long and winding life journey with its many detours and sidetracks.

Consciousness comes from the mind, which is created by the brain. The human brain creates the consciousness of the mind, and thus giving all humans their pleasures and displeasures, happiness and unhappiness, as well as other positive and negative feelings and emotions. These human perceptions then become their experiences which are stored in their minds as memories generating their subsequent thoughts—together they then become the byproducts with which they weave the realities in their lives, making them happy or unhappy.

Consciousness is the capability of your thinking mind to see how and why certain perceptions occur and affect your thinking mind, making you happy or unhapy. Without this consciousness, which is knowing what is happening in the mind, you just obediently follow what your mind tells you to do. That is to say, you have become a slave to your thinking mind, instead of being the master of your own thoughts.

You are conscious of your thinking mind only if you are also conscious of your breathing. Life is made up of many breaths. For thousands of years, the Chinese have believed that the lifespan of an individual is determined by the number of breaths assigned to that individual at birth. That explains why traditional Chinese exercises, such as Qi Gong and Tai Chi, focus so much on the art of breathing, especially on extending the breaths, which holds the key to longevity. Western science has already attested to the fact that tortoise, with the longest lifespan in the animal kingdom, has also the longest breath, while rodent, with the shortest lifespan, has the shortest breath. Therefore, the consciousness of your breaths is a reflection of your own consciousness of life, as well as of many other things in your life that make you happy or unhappy.

Consciousness of breaths begins with breathing. Are you constantly conscious of your breaths—your breathing in and breathing out? Most people are not. Breathing is the most subconscious and yet the most important moment-to-moment activity in human life. Unfortunately, many of us are not conscious of our breathing; we just take it for granted. The Bible has made references to the importance of the breath from God, which is not only life itself but also divine understanding.

“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man  became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7)

“But there is a spirit in man, And the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding.” (Job 32:8)

Consciousness of breaths also suggests consciousness of self. Self-consciousness is, in fact, everything in your life and living. Self-consciousness is your mental awareness of self, of others, and of the world around. Self-conscious is mindfulness of what is happening to you and around you. Without this consciousness of the mind, you are not living; you are simply existing, making yourself become more vulnerable to depression.

Stephen Lau
Copyright© 2018 by Stephen Lau

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