The Veil of Consciousness

 Bernadette Roberts 

Consciousness is the veil thrown over Reality, the goal of human life is to work through this consciousness back to its original reality. At first sight man's journey appears to be circular, but in truth, it is not. The difference is this: while in its original reality God knew itself, yet it ever desires to know itself anew, in ever new and different ways, and one way was by creating consciousness which divides the original unity into 'me and you' and 'I and thou' -- it creates an 'other' than itself. This way, through human consciousness man sees God as 'other' and too, God now sees man as 'other' than itself.  But this division is only temporary and its temporality immediately sets up the dynamic or pull toward the return to original One. ...

The return is very gradual. We eventually come to the line where the difference between man's knowing and (God's) unknowing fade into one another, you might say it is a glorious commingling and though we may say man has now lost everything, yet truly he has gained everything.

© Bernadette Roberts

[This quote, and the continuation tomorrow, are from a retreat held back in 1999. I am sharing it with you because it is covered by copyright - but in reading it, it is evident to me why Bernadette did not want unpublished material shared - over the years she changed ways of expression. For instance, I doubt she would now say that "God desires" or "God sees...". So I hope you will find something inspiring or at least useful in this sharing, and not be confused.]