Consciousness and Knowing Divine Love
How to Understanding the Self — Part 1
Because of David Bentley Hart’s The Experience of God, I decided to take a deep dive in consciousness and the philosophy of mind. There is a vast consensus in the scientific community that agrees that we do not know from where consciousness emerges. About 200,000 years Homo Sapiens developed consciousness, but we were not the only ones that developed it. More than 200 million years ago other animals and our hominid relatives developed consciousness as well, but it is the aspect of self-awareness that separates us from the rest of the animals.
My cat and dogs are aware of my presence, and even more keen than I am aware of their presence. Even in the dark, they know my footsteps and that it is me getting into bed late at night from staying up to work. However, their ability to reflect on their lives and think in the same ways as I do is not present, as far as I know. They cannot make sense of the world in the same way that I do. Either there is food or there is not. It does not mean anything else to them. However, humans make sense of their suffering. Humans see themselves in relation to the world. My cat and dog only see others in relationship to them. I only say “Good girl” to anthropomorphize them. Dogs are dogs and cats are cats and other animals are that, but only to humans that we describe as good or bad, as morally blameworthy or praiseworthy (and this is why I love them so).
I’ve written in the past about how this ability to be self-reflective also is one that is deeply painful. It shows how deeply isolated we are as humans. Even though Aristotle would call us “social animals” we are not like the bees who could all work together for the good of the hive. We are not a school of dolphins who swim with each other to protect our group. We are not a flock of birds who fly together South for the winter. There are things we do in groups that are like that and we in many ways crave that connection, but we know however close we get, in our towns, cities, communities, and neighborhoods, we are deeply aware of the isolation we have from one another. The closest couple and longest of marriages knows that.
Being self aware cuts both ways. We can use language and logic to express ourselves, but at the same time we think of us as a “self.” It is as if in turning inward, we realize are utter isolation and that any way out requires another kind of awareness. The greatest gift is one where we are made aware that we are truly accepted and loved in the midst of our isolation and emptiness. It is the sense that no matter what we’ve done or who we perceive ourselves to be, or what has been done to us, that there is something that holds us together, that is present for us for whatever happens.
This brings me to my next point. What would change about us, if we truly saw the world as a place where we receive the goodness and grace of the divine, i.e. that we knew and felt that God loved us? Meaning, even though we might have suspicion about the love of another, even the love of our parent, what if there was no doubt about the love of the divine, a great and transcendent love. Would that awareness, that experience, bring us closer to being the kind of beings we need to be? Would that move us to find peace, and forgiveness, toward others? Would that motivate us to work for healing in this world?
I think of the debates that many U.S. Americans have about the issue of immigration and undocumented people. I wonder how they would respond if I asked them if they “truly knew God’s love.” I know that many of them have heard this preached to them. They might go to churches that these words are spoken, and they might have said these things themselves, but I wonder if they have experience it? It is difficult for me to believe that some people would hold on to those ideas and beliefs if they truly understood this about themselves. Self-awareness, if anything requires that we know about this lack in our lives, the missing parts, the parts damaged, missing, unfulfilled. It is the acknowledgment of that which needs healing and that which needs love.
This is Roxy Luu safe from the dogs in her cat condo and her own room.
One can imagine the Christmas truce 1914, when British, French, and German soldiers would pause their fighting during WWI and share a time of conversation and food, of gift exchanges and helping the other side to retrieve their wounded and bury their dead. It is hard to imagine people killing each other during a time when Christians were celebrating the birth of the Prince of Peace, and perhaps this was also what these soldiers were also feeling. These events were depicted in the 2005 film Joyeux Noël. A Scottish soldier on the British side starts playing his bagpipes and the Germans bring singers out to perform 'Stille Nacht.’ The music moves them to put down their arms and see the humanity in each other.
It is as if we have these things called religion, and church, and doctrines, and rituals, and then there is the love of God, which is not supposed to be mutually exclusive, but it seems to be. Something is wrong with this gospel when these soldiers, who should be united in their Christian belief would kill each other. The same happened in Ireland between the Protestant and Catholic. It’s not like their religion was that much different, but what it did not do was to deeply communicate to people to deep love of God, that each day is a gift, and each life therefore is precious. But the same people who profess to know this are the ones who take up their arms and fight. They are the ones who want to deny immigrants asylum and ban Muslims from entering the United States.
But I feel more pity than anger toward those who have not experienced this great love that is the source of life, provision, care, nurture, and strength. It is they who are missing out on this. When we can come to experience this kind of awareness, we are connected then to what it means to be truly human (humane) and find real connection not only to the divine, but to others and ourselves.