Spirit as Universal Consciousness

By George Lowell Tollefson

Just what is the nature of the spiritual life? This book calls for a perspective that sees reality as simultaneously material and spiritual. It does not present a linear argument. Instead, it seeks, through observations about the material world and the operation of our consciousness, to explore a way of looking at the material through the lens of Spirit. This is an extract from George Lowell Tollefson's longer work Unbridled Democracy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palo Flechado Press
• Release date: Sep 9, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386441526

George Lowell Tollefson

Lowell Tollefson, a former philosophy professor, lives in New Mexico and writes on the subject of philosophy.

Book preview

Spirit as Universal Consciousness

George Lowell Tollefson

Published by Palo Flechado Press, 2018.

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

SPIRIT AS UNIVERSAL CONSCIOUSNESS

First edition. September 9, 2018.

Copyright © 2018 George Lowell Tollefson.

ISBN: 978-1386441526

Written by George Lowell Tollefson.

Also by George Lowell Tollefson

Spirit as Universal Consciousness

The Thinking Arts

Moral Democracy

Ethical Considerations

Unbridled Democracy and other philosophical reflections

The Immaterial Structure of Human Experience

A Healer of Nations

The Limits of Reason

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Also By George Lowell Tollefson

Spirit as Universal Consciousness

Sign up for George Lowell Tollefson's Mailing List

Also By George Lowell Tollefson

About the Author

Spirit as Universal Consciousness

THE universe is alive. Spirit permeates all of it and resides wholly in every part of it. For spirit is the ground of being. It is both unlimited and indivisible. This is what it means for it to be infinite, or not finite. That is why it must be both omnipresent and wholly present. Consciousness—not its content—is spirit.

HUMAN beings find it impossible to comprehend the death of a person (the extinguishment of a living spirit). But every experience of sentient life confirms it. This is the opposition between the unity of consciousness and the disunity of the senses.

CONSCIOUSNESS is self-limiting universal spirit. That is what human beings are, each and every one.

ALL people are sons of spirit. For all are self-limiting universal spirit. Spirit is one: one consciousness self-limited to many individual centers of consciousness, one infinite awareness limited to many material centers of finite awareness. Yet universal spirit, being one, remains unlimited in itself.

IF human awareness were to acknowledge itself as an expression of spirit, it would be subject to a different set of laws than those which appear to govern matter. But this cannot be known so long as a stubborn reason insists that a quantitative analysis of the content of consciousness reveals a greater miracle than consciousness.

SO much of what human beings do and know is spontaneous and beyond words. Yet a veil of reason is placed over everything. And the veil becomes reality.

SØREN Kierkegaard’s leap of faith demands an infinitely great leap over an infinitesimally small chasm, a chasm which lies between matter and spirit. The greatness of this leap is an overcoming of will in its dependence on rational understanding.

THERE is an ongoing intellectual tension which forms a nexus between the dynamic of spirit and human awareness. Science and philosophy must work within it. But they should always strive toward spirit.

NATURE in its fullness is a dynamic process which has no identifiable coordinates. As such, it is spirit. But the materially oriented human mind cannot grasp nature as spirit. For it must find a way to identify itself within it. In doing so, it converts an inherent dynamism, both of itself and of experience, into a static template, which is thrown over both. From this vantage point, it fills the world with coordinates relative to a material perspective. Thus the universe exists only as a construct of the mind. Nevertheless, this is not to say such a construct is false. Rather, it is a limitation placed on spirit for the sake of analysis.

EVERY person has a choice between contentment and happiness. The way of civilization is the way of contentment, safety, rules. The other way is full or risk but the reward, though difficult to achieve, is fulfillment.

THE joy a person expresses is linked to all things because her joy is the expression of spirit. And spirit is one.

A PERSON is not immortal because his life extends throughout the history of time. He is immortal in simply being. Therefore, the joy he expresses today is for all time and extends beyond time. For it is rooted in simple being.

FROM a material perspective, where all is division and opposition, compromise is necessary. But truth never need be compromised because it rests upon an indivisible unity of spirit. Material fact is no exception. For spirit is the ground of being. For this reason, not all goals can be achieved by compromise. Moreover, the most enduring ones are often furthered by defeat. A search for truth must seek for the unity that lies beneath things. And defeat in such a pursuit is a victory.

IT may be that at the time of death a human spirit is simply diffused within the universal being within which it is grounded. This would seem to imply a loss of personal identity. But why should this be so? In the first place, why should personhood be denied to that from which all things emanate? If the universal spirit carries personhood as a potential,