There are sentences, looks and situations that affect us in the same way every time. Someone else might not even notice them, while we feel a pain, anger or sadness inside that does not settle for days. It is natural then to think that the cause lies in the other person: that they hurt us, that they should not have behaved that way.
The book Codes of Consciousness offers a different view. According to it, what hurts us in others only sets in motion something that is already within us. This view does not diminish the reality of what we feel. On the contrary, it returns power to where change can really happen.
This text draws on the book Codes of Consciousness and explains how it understands pain and suffering and on which levels it describes their resolution.
What is real and what is illusion
The book clearly distinguishes two things. At the level of everyday life it cannot be said that negative experiences do not exist, because we physically experience them through our senses. What the book calls illusion is our understanding of the cause of such an experience and our belief that it is final and unchangeable.
According to Codes of Consciousness, negative thoughts, emotions and sensations in the body are burdens of our mind, which the book calls psychosomatic quantum burdens. They are not connected with other people and do not depend on them. Others can only set them in motion, because in a particular situation they vibrate in the same resonant range.
“If there is nothing to be set in motion, there can be no entering into the experience.” (from the book Codes of Consciousness)
Why the same situations repeat
At the root of pain and suffering the book sees the dual mind and two processes that run in it in parallel. The first is attachment to unconscious burdens from the individual, family and collective unconscious. The second is what the book calls the illusion of free choice: every choice we make is conditioned by unconscious patterns, fears and desires.
These fears and desires arose from the need to avoid repeating negative experiences and to repeat positive ones as much as possible. The unconscious stores information about which situations are pleasant for us and which are unpleasant. That is why the book says the problem is not fear and craving themselves, but the emotions and impressions that lead us to experience them in different situations.
In other words, when the same kind of pain repeats with different people, it is not a coincidence. It is a sign that there is content within us waiting to be seen.
Four levels of integration
Codes of Consciousness describes four levels on which unconscious content needs to be integrated in order to remove the causes of pain and suffering:
- The individual level: relationships with people in your present surroundings and the most significant events of the present and recent past.
- The level of the primary family: the relationship with parents or carers, or the experience of not having had them, which lies at the root of all the relationships we enter throughout life.
- The ancestral level: the burdens of ancestors that affect relationships with parents, brothers and sisters, partners and everyone we are in contact with.
- The level of the collective unconscious: archetypal polarities, such as the masculine and feminine principles, good and evil, justice and injustice.
The book also emphasises the order. Without first sorting out the challenges of everyday life, it is not possible to begin integrating the deeper layers. If someone has a burning problem with their partner, they will not be able to become aware that at the root of that problem lies the relationship with one or both parents. Even so, all four levels should be worked on in parallel, alongside the development of awareness.
Love is already there
One of the most beautiful thoughts in this chapter concerns love itself. According to Codes of Consciousness, the fewer thoughts, emotions and the concepts they come from, the more love there is, because love is at the foundation of the human structure. It does not need to be sought. It is already there; it only needs to be released and allowed to flow freely.
That is why the book sees presence as the key to release from pain and suffering: attention directed to your essence through the sentences “I am the Absolute” or “I am”. It also highlights the value of a teacher, someone who has already integrated within themselves the principles we are working on and can therefore help remove the obstacles. Using techniques without such support, the book says, certainly brings relief, but with a teacher it is easier to reach the essence.
How you can begin
Next time something hurts you, you can try a small shift of attention. Instead of the question “Why is this person doing this to me?”, ask “What has this set in motion in me?”. Notice where in your body you feel the reaction, which emotion you recognise and whether it is familiar from earlier relationships or from your family.
This kind of observation does not mean you have to put up with what does not feel right or justify other people’s actions. It simply opens a space for what you carry within you to become visible and begin to be resolved. If the pain you feel is deep and long-lasting, it is important to seek professional psychological or medical help as well, because systemic work does not replace it.