' Consciousness '...

Consciousness can assume different forms, can operate on different space and time levels, so that it is relative.

But it can also remain itself and assume no form; it is then what has been called absolute, not relative.

But to reject the possible existence of all these other forms, however temporary they may be, as do those Indians who limit themselves solely to the doctrine of nonduality--fascinated as they are by the reality of the Real and the illusoriness of the unreal, so that they forget whether they are real or unreal--is to forget that he who holds the doctrine is himself a human being.

He who comes back from the mystic experience of universality comes back to a human form, is himself a human being, however divine in his inmost essence.

The Absolute is not a human being and can have no possible point of view, but the human being must have a humanized philosophy and can have a point of view.

What is he to do after recognizing the opposition between the absolute and the relative consciousnesses, between the real and the unreal?

The answer is and must be the double point of view.

Not, mind you, the double nature of Truth, but the double point of view for us, humans: the one being empirical, practical, earthly and rational, the other being ultimate, divine, intuitive.



-- Notebooks Category 19: The Reign of Relativity >
Chapter 2: The Double Standpoint > # 23
Paul Brunton