Phase Five: The Key to the Evolution of Consciousness

Phase five brings us to the tenth Step in our journey, which reads “Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.”

On the surface this Step looks simply like keeping tabs on yourself and making sure we don't leave any more wreckage behind, and on the surface this is exactly the mechanism. But a deeper look opens up a whole other world. This Step is the key to moving into the spiritual dimension of existence.

Cultivating the Observer is a Buddhist meditative practice in which one can move beyond thought into “awareness”. Richard Rohr in his book Breathing Underwater equates consciousness with the soul. In The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle gives a method of staying in present moment awareness by moving beyond attachment to our thoughts. These mechanisms are also built into the Steps, in what I call the Ten, Six, Seven dynamic.

In Step Four we were introduced to the fear-based thought system which dominates the ego mind. We got a good look at what drives most of the behaviors which move us out of alignment with guidance from our Higher Power. Now we observe those things, we continue to take personal inventory.

After we have done a bit of Eleventh Step work and sought to improve our conscious contact with our Higher Power it will be easier to sense when we move out of alignment with Divine guidance, and we will address that in the next phase. For now, Ten, and what to do when we sense loss of contact.

We begin to watch our actions and our thoughts around them. When we notice ourselves falling into any of the pitfalls, self-seeking, greed, judgement, lust, jealousy, etc., we turn to Step Six and become willing to release the thoughts or the behavior. We try to stay away from judgement of right or wrong, from pushing away or from attachment to the thought or behavior. We become willing to release it, and if we don't have the willingness we pray for the willingness to be willing.

Now the seventh Step part of this dynamic. We “humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings.” Once we find the release of willingness, we turn the focus of our thoughts into the heart center, into the heart/mind connection. In that connected space we are in the “now” moment, in the present, and our shortcoming has been removed.

Of course, practice of this dynamic improves its effectiveness. Thankfully for me, my Creator gave my lots of “shortcomings” so I have plenty of opportunities for practice.

When practiced as a way of life, this is a concrete method of moving beyond our small limited “s”elf into our larger connected Self, the evolution of consciousness. We begin to move from the neural pathways of the ego's fear-based thought system into the open awareness of the soul. We become again as children.

A final word on the second part of this Step, “when we were wrong promptly admitted it”. When we harm another, making amends keeps our side of the road clean, but being wrong doesn't necessarily always harm another, or require an amends.

It is far more important in this aspect of the Step that we are able to admit to our self when we are wrong. Part of the ego's method of self preservation is to justify its fear based thought system. This keeps our consciousness mired in illusion and delusion. The first step in being able to know Truth is to accept it. The next is to become One with it (when the time comes for that, you will Know).

The next phase of our journey is Step Eleven, in which we seek to “improve” our conscious contact with God through prayer and meditation, and come to an understanding of why we pray “only” for knowledge of the will of our Creator, and for the power to carry out that will. Exciting stuff!