“The long arc of evolution bends toward human consciousness.” Cynthia Bourgeault
The Nature of Consciousness
“Consciousness and Conscience are similar in their respective spheres, one being in the Intellectual Center, the other in the Emotional Center. Consciousness is Knowing all together; Conscience is Feeling all together.” Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries, p40.
“Greater Mind
Energy of Consciousness
Psychic Energy
Life Energy
Mechanical Energy
“No amount of one will produce the other. This means they do not merge into one another but are on different levels, in different degrees. The next thing we have to grasp is that consciousness is not memory, nor is it thought, nor is it feeling, nor is it sensation or movement. It is not a psychic process. Very complex psychic processes can take place without consciousness. The mind of the moving centre, for instance, makes very complex estimations in skating or piano-playing, etc., without consciousness—or practically so. All sorts of intelligent transformations and adjustments in the body continually take place without consciousness. Consciousness can only be increased by the use of consciousness. We are given, naturally, a little consciousness to start with. This can be increased, but only by conscious efforts.
“Consciousness, then, is a very strange thing. It seems to be like yeast, which under right conditions can multiply itself indefinitely. But this comparison does not give us a right idea of what consciousness is. Consciousness is not like yeast, nor is it something that gradually evolves from vital or from psychic energy. It is something unique. It is something we come in contact with. It is a group of vibrations of high frequency and like light it exists apart from our contact with it. Like physical light it is still and always there though we shut our eyes or though we are blind. Of this light of consciousness we receive a very little. We are nearly blind.
“We have to begin work with the small consciousness we have. We seek not to squander it in identifying. But people throw away even the small consciousness they have. To awaken is to become more and more conscious by letting in consciousness into dark places. So it is said that self-observation lets light into the darkness within us. And also it is said in John that ‘the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not’. So it is with everyone who is given the Work, which is Esoteric Christianity—that is, its inner meaning—and does not open the door to it. He does not let it in. He sees the light but, not turning it inwards upon his own darkness, remains without comprehending it.” Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries, p1525-1527.
The Evolution of Consciousness
“Boehme, Eckhart, the great mystics say there comes a point in [God’s] endless unity where the inner condition is shifted, so outward manifestation can become possible. And interestingly enough, I would say in contra-argument to some of the maps which assume that we start with consciousness, I would say consciousness belongs to World 3. And the reason I argue thusly is because the word itself, con-sciousness, which means with knowing, which means knowing within a relational field, and before when you’re in world 1 there is only sciousness, undifferentiated, inaccessible, unreflected knowingness. And believe it or not, Boehme actually talks about this at the end of his life. And so along with the Trinity, along with the ternary, along with three-ness, comes essentially consciousness.” Cynthia Bourgeault, Imaginal WS 8-2020, 20:12 0817 IWS Monday PM Teaching.
“Teilhard says in one place, toward the end of The Human Phenomenon, that evolution is a rise toward consciousness, which has maintained itself like an arc. And this is the long arc of consciousness, over 14 billion years. But built into this system of reciprocal feeding and evolution is a force which both Teilhard and Gurdjieff implicitly identify as anti-entropic or counter-entropic. So that the world is not just losing energy, but is in some sense, because of the very infolding of the motions, is gaining energy, is gaining consciousness.” Cynthia Bourgeault, Claymont 2019 Oct Gurdjieff-Teilhard, 53:00 09 – THU PM Teaching.
The Purpose of Spiritual Work
“Everyone who wishes to can read and think for himself about the parables in the Gospels concerning the Kingdom of Heaven—that is, the circle of conscious humanity. These parables are very extraordinary when you think of them in the light of the work. For the work is necessary to understand the fragments of teaching given in the Gospels. It is then possible to understand why it is said, in this system, that what we seek above all things is Light—and Light means consciousness. We seek to live more consciously and to become more conscious. We live in darkness owing to lack of light—the light of consciousness—and we seek in this work light on ourselves.” Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries, p35.
“What is required of us at this point, I believe, and the highest work that we can undertake with full confidence is to sow into the earth, to sow into the cosmic memory, the living presence of the highest we can muster of what it has meant to be a human being. We have to radically sow at least World 48, and those that can do World 24, 24, and those that can do World 12. It won’t be lost from the memory bank of the planet. Because the long arc of evolution does bend towards consciousness, it will not be wasted.” Cynthia Bourgeault, Relearning Trust Sept 2022, 1:21:44 RT 04 Eve Teaching Q&A
The Three Lights of Human Consciousness
“Human consciousness is the field where three kinds of light are manifest: creative light, reflected light and revealed light. The first participates in the work of the creation of the world such as it has continued since the sixth day of creation, which we now call “creative evolution”; the second illumines the dark field of action of the human will, which we now call “matter”; the last orientates us towards transcendent values and truths which constitute, as it were, the supreme court of appeal, the ultimate criterion, of all that is of worth and of all that is true in space and time. It is thanks to these three types of light that man is at one and the same time a creator participating in creative evolution, a master of matter—author of the work of civilization—and that he is a kneeling worshipper of God, capable of orientating his will towards the divine will.” Meditations on the Tarot, p495.
Logion 24
His students said to him,
"Take us to the place where you are,
since we are required to seek after it."
He answered them,
"Whoever has an ear for this should listen carefully!
Light shines out from the center of a being of light
and illuminates the whole cosmos.
Whoever fails to become light is a source of darkness."
Page numbers for Maurice Nicoll refer to Psychological Commentaries on the Teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Eureka Editions:2020) unless stated otherwise.
Quotations from the Gospel of Thomas are from Lynn C Bauman, Ward J Bauman, Cynthia Bourgeault, The Luminous Gospels (Praxis 2008)
Meditations on the Tarot, Jeremy Tarcher, 1985
Read the Impression introducing the Gospel of Thomas.
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