Conscience

Friday 23rd November 2007

Over and over I keep reading the section from Iyengar’s Light on Life about conscience (pp178-179).
It has a direct bearing on this passionate urge of mine for living and acting from the Absolute Truth. My conscience doesn’t limit itself just to pricking me for something I’ve said or done wrong, but it also nags at me for what I haven’t done, haven’t started, haven’t said, haven’t finished.
It’s telling me that there are things in my life that aren’t quite right that I need to clean up.

To quote Mr Iyengar:
"(Conscience) is the nearest point of contact we experience between the natural world and the spiritual world. For that reason, you could say that conscience is the perception of consequences perceived from the deepest level, that of unity. This is where soul infuses matter, a bridge between soul and Nature. That is why conscience will only ever tell you one thing, offer one course of action, because is comes out of Oneness. Conscience is consciousness being able to tune in to the promptings of the individual soul (atma).”

He goes on to talk about the difference between intuition and conscience…
"What then is different about conscience? The difference is that conscience hurts; it causes pain, we say we are pricked by conscience. Intuition prompts us, causes perhaps some confusion, because we do no know where it is coming from. But conscience hurts. That is because it lies at the heart of the paradox of what it means to be a spiritual being, living in a physical body, in a material world. Conscience tells us to do the harder thing, because it is always pulling us toward Unity, toward Wholeness. Conscience, when it is flawless, is the voice of our soul, whispering in our ear. In that sense, even a painful conscience is a privilege as it is proof that God is still talking to us.”

I have a burning need to live this mundane daily life with immaculate presence and flawless integrity.
I wonder what changes I could make to facilitate/accelerate this?
My lifestyle, my habits, my schedule of activities, spiritual practice, choices, decisions, interactions and relationships...it’s like I need to lay a new blueprint over my life like a silk sheet and let the luminous colours bleed into every layer of my life transforming it into a pure and delicate expression of Light and Truth.
One beautiful silk sheet that is the Truth...