Notion of Growth

Author(s): Hermann Kuhn
Publisher: Crosswind Publishing Germany

Page 76

THE NOTION OF GROWTH
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they further our growth. The study of books (external knowledge - see sutra 20) that describe and explain these insights accelerates this process.
Though our present society displays a demonstrative openness towards all phenomena of consciousness, deep down below, it tends to regard any real expansion of consciousness as impossible. Despite the many books that describe experiences of higher states of consciousness, we hold it quite out of question that we ourselves might experience something similarly fantastic. This needless attitude is caused by a temporary social trend that unspokenly demands that no one is to rise from the mass of those who might not have these kind of experiences.
But this subconscious programming and the resulting attitude that we are not supposed to really reach higher states of consciousness, does not take away our innate ability to expand. It is an erroneous bias that prevents us from fully exploring our very own experiences and should be discarded once and for all. Without this programming the entire range of our peripheral experiences is at our disposal without restriction.
EXAMPLE: We read the respective descriptions. We discover that the brief moments of clear awakening we experienced are insights into the fourth stage of development (gunasthana), where our consciousness ceases to be mesmerized by the daydream-like cocoon that usually surrounds it. We come to know that this stage of development is characterized by the clear perception of our notion of growth (samyag darshana).
We accept that for these (brief) moments we really experience the fourth stage of development. We become interested in how to consciously trigger this state so that