The innocence of consciousness

We are all programmed automatically from the moment we are born. This is a completely automatic and unconscious mechanism and this happens because consciousness itself is completely innocent and absorbs whatever it comes into contact with. This happens automatically. Consciousness has no built-in power of discernment, but is rather like a blank wall – it picks up whatever it is exposed to.
   Just look at a little child and you can see this. When a parent tells a child, “This is good, that is bad, you should be like this, you shouldn’t do that, etc. etc.” the child doesn’t question what the parent says. The child doesn’t say, “Is this true mother?” No, the child just accepts whatever it is told. And this is true for all of us. We don’t have any built-in radar or compass from birth that discerns truth from falsehood. We don’t have any built-in alarm that goes off and says “Beware, this is false!” So we are programmed massively from the moment we are born and believe everything we are told. We’re programmed first by our parents (who do this completely innocently of course because they too were programmed from birth), and then by our schools, the media, television, the people around us, in short by everything we come in contact with. Everything we see and hear is input which we innocently absorb. That’s just the way it is; the way consciousness works.
   It is only when we begin to wake up to the nature of mind and consciousness that we slowly gain the ability to question the programming we have received and ask ourselves “Is this true?” When we begin to see that there is a difference between the thinker and the thoughts, we are taking a great leap forward in consciousness which changes everything. When we can see this, when we can see the difference between the thinker and the thoughts, it means we can also see that we are not our thoughts. We can see that thoughts are something that come and go, but that we (whatever we are) remain. We have thoughts, but we are not the thoughts! This is a vital distinction. Very vital, because when we understand this – we suddenly have the ability to step back and ask ourselves “Is this thought true? Does this thought have anything to do with reality or is it just an innocent story?” And this is the great awakening, the great revolution in consciousness. The moment we can ask ourselves “Does this thought have anything to do with reality?” “Is this thought true?” we are starting to wake up. 
   This understanding breaks the bondage, which is our total identification with thoughts, and empowers us to wake up from the dream state. And this is why the study of the Mental Laws and the way the mind works is so vitally important. Up until we understand the mechanism of consciousness, we are all innocent victims of our thoughts and the programming we have received on a daily basis from childhood up and which continues throughout our lives until the day we awaken to the nature of mind.