A very simple way of realizing the Map of Consciousness is to understand it is all about stories and the end of all stories. It’s that simple. It’s just stories and finally the end of stories.

I have nothing against stories. I made a good living as a writer and film director creating stories. That career was very good to me. You see; that’s another story. We live in a world of stories. You have your stories. I have my stories. Everyone has a story.

It’s not really the stories themselves that create problems and keep us from the ultimate truth of what we are. It’s our attachment to the stories. And attachment comes from belief. Without belief in the story, the attachment fades away and we’re free.

Ego Stage

When we’re in the ego stage of Consciousness, we have many stories.

• We have stories about the world and what and who we are. And we believe these stories completely without question. Our stories are our reality. I call this the “thought world”. You see, we don’t see life, reality, as it is. We only see it as we think it is. And our stories create what we think it is. That’s why we say there is only one earth but six billion worlds. Each of us has a different unique story about what the world is. And this world, created entirely through thoughts, seems entirely real.

→ Khi chúng ta ở trong giai đoạn bản ngã của Ý thức, chúng ta có nhiều câu chuyện. Chúng tôi có những câu chuyện về thế giới và những gì và chúng tôi là ai. Và chúng tôi tin những câu chuyện này hoàn toàn không có câu hỏi. Câu chuyện của chúng tôi là thực tế của chúng tôi. Tôi gọi đây là “thế giới tư tưởng”. Bạn thấy đấy, chúng ta không thấy cuộc sống, thực tại như nó là. Chúng tôi chỉ nhìn thấy nó như chúng tôi nghĩ nó là. Và những câu chuyện của chúng ta tạo ra những gì chúng ta nghĩ. Đó là lý do tại sao chúng ta nói chỉ có một trái đất nhưng có sáu tỷ thế giới. Mỗi chúng ta đều có một câu chuyện độc đáo khác nhau về thế giới là gì. Và thế giới này, được tạo ra hoàn toàn bằng ý nghĩ, dường như hoàn toàn có thật.

Other than the fact that these are just stories and not truth, the other problem with these stories we tell ourselves and believe in the ego stage is that they tend to often be quite negative. It’s amazing how we can filter out all the positives in certain event and create a story where the very few negatives make up most of or even the entire story. And this gets worse the further in time we’re away from the actual event. So often our memories of childhood events are filled with these negative memories, when in truth it was actually far more positive then what we remember. Often actions perceived from the young child’s perspective as being unfair, oppressive or even cruel were really coming from parental love. And these childhood memories are carried right into adulthood.

We also believe stories of how life should be rather than how it actually is. And this creates frustration and suffering whenever life is not as we believe it should be. Life is simply as it is. It doesn’t care about our “shoulds”. As a result, there is often a lot of unhappiness in the ego stage. When life does what we think it should, we’re happy. When it doesn’t, we’re not. There’s no more than a fifty percent chance our “shoulds” will correspond with life’s truth at any given moment. So this is not a particularly happy life.

Click here to learn more about the ego stage: The Dream

Personal Awareness / the Spiritual Path

• As we seek to free ourselves from this suffering and find what we’ve been missing, we may find ourselves on the Spiritual Path. Believing there must be something more than this suffering and incomplete life, we become Seekers.

→ Khi chúng ta tìm cách giải thoát mình khỏi sự đau khổ này và tìm thấy những gì chúng ta đã bỏ lỡ, chúng ta có thể tìm thấy chính mình trên Con đường Tâm linh. Tin rằng phải có một cái gì đó hơn cuộc sống đau khổ và không trọn vẹn này, chúng ta trở thành Người tìm kiếm.

• Here we find some new, more positive stories to replace the old negative ones. And this works – a little. It’s like using one thorn to dig another thorn out of our skin. There’s still a thorn in our skin, but it’s a newer and better one and much less painful. What we’re really doing is substituting stories. This isn’t bad. It’s a great improvement over the old stories. It’s perfect for this stage of Consciousness.
• But we still believe stories are real. We no longer believe the old story of our unworthiness and victimhood. “Life is against me.” “Nobody likes me.” “I can’t do this.” Now we believe a new story. “I’m a child of God.” “I’m ascending.” “If I keep doing these practices, I will be enlightened.” And these stories are better, less negative.

But they’re still stories.

Click here to learn more about this Stage of Consciousness: The Journey Begins

No Story Is True

I realize this may be very hard for you to accept. If it is, I recommend reading Byron Katie’s books. Take any story you totally believe is true and undeniable and run it through her The Work formula. Be honest with yourself. Can you honestly say that story, any story, is absolutely and completely true? If you are completely honest with yourself you will have to say no. It is hard for most people to accept this at first. We are born into a world of stories. They seem completely true. And we become so attached to our stories, especially the story of me and who I am.