STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
THE LOWER STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS (UCUPACHA)
Depression and anxiety
Our historical failure to recognise our unity and inseparability from matter/energy – the universal essence – and from the world; to recognise our ontological relationship with all things and beings (the community of beings), and to live in the light of this “unicity”; to perceive that our beliefs model our reality; to recognise that our living is to a certain extent a dream or a nightmare under construction; our inability to recognise that much of our suffering is self-inflicted; our failure to understand the “unreality” of the past and the imaginary nature of the future; our failure to live in the moment with more attention and pleasure – all of this can be understood as a result of the disassociation of consciousness created by “existential angst”.
As a result, this state leads to hyper-specialisation and the prevalence of a certain way of being: a mental and analytical consciousness which is quantative and focused on important events, with the aim of guaranteeing social progress, economic growth and an increase in personal power. But on the other side, this process leads to a diminution in our ability to empathise and to feel; it leads to a distancing from sentiment, from the “heart”.
The description of this incomplete, distorted existential state is similar to some very common emotional and clinical states which are diagnosed and treated with drugs like anti-depressants.
This state of “existential alienation” leads to various symptoms such as: loss of vitality; the narrowing of perspectives and ability to perceive; difficulties in finding solutions; persistent identification with restricted aspects of one’s own experience; loss of performance in the various aspects of intelligence; a general lack of concentration, memory and attention; a focus on egoistic impulses; a loss of responsiveness to stimuli (a marked loss of fluidity and spontaneity, an absence of enthusiasm); various kinds of suffering as a result of problems which, if not caused by, are at least magnified by a lack of flexibility and by rigid mental habits.