Water Glass Metaphor
The Water Glass Metaphor, first introduced in The Great Awakening: Concepts and Techniques for Successful Spiritual Practice is a metaphor used to describe the processes otherwise known as enlightenment, salvation, the attainment of nirvana, the connection to higher self, the descent of the Holy Spirit', etc. It is used in the book The Great Awakening to explain the process of Spiritual Awakening.
The metaphor involves viewing the human body as a container for consciousness. After describing the human body as a container of Spirit, we then associate the body, the vehicle of Spirit, with a typical, but empty, water glass held in the left hand. We then associate your full consciousness, i.e., your full Monadic Spark, as the water in a clear glass jug in the right hand. We then explain the process of awakening as filling up the container to the level of Normal Consciousness. Spiritual awakening (i.e., Crown Activation) involves moving beyond the veiled limitation of normal consciousness to attain higher, more 'spiritual' levels of consciousness in the body.
The water glass metaphor is a perfect way to explain to children what happens when Spirit enters The Body. At conception, a drop of consciousness is poured into the physical container. The container is gradually filled throughout a pregnancy until sufficient consciousness can be contained in the body to allow for birth. At birth, the water glass is filled to about one fifth full but gradually, as the child matures into adulthood, the glass is filled. How high the glass is filled depends in large measure on how well the physical body was nurtured, prepared, and trained (i.e. how well the body was socialized). The highest levels of consciousness can only be attained when social, political, economic, and psychological conditions support that attainment. Currently, conditions on this earth DO NOT support high levels of consciousness in the body.
It is important to note that even with the presence of ideal developmental and social conditions, consciousness is limited to attaining a maximum level of about thirty five or forty percent embodiment and this under only the most protected and controlled of situations. It is important to understand that this limitation is not a function of consciousness. That is, there is no evolutionary, developmental, or spiritual weakness of the soul. Be clear about this. The limitation is a result of the limitations of physical reality starting at the subatomic level, which simply cannot contain the full power of spirit (Sharp, 2009). The Study of the changing limitations of physical matter at the various "levels" is the subject of a Physics, Chemistry, Biology of Spirit. Removing this limitation in order to allow the full embodiment of consciousness is the subject and goal of Ascension (Sharp, 2003).
See Also
Water Glass Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItteSZWk2n4
Notes
- Please don't take the cited percentages of consciousness as hard percentages. These are given only to give a rough indication of the level of water in the glass.
Sharp, Michael (2012). Water Glass Metaphor. The SpiritWiki: http://www.thespiritwiki.org/index.php/Water_Glass_Metaphor [Accessed: May 20, 2012]
