Letters of Wonder
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Map of Consciousness, The Megaphone/Mirror, Your Inner Flame & Stories

Map of Consciousness, The Megaphone/Mirror, Your Inner Flame & Stories

Srikar Karra
April 03, 2025

Welcome to Letters of Wonder, where I explore the truths behind clarity, creation, and a wonderful life.

How Are You Responding?

Lately, I’ve been reading a beautiful book called Handbook to Higher Consciousness.

One section in particular caught my attention.

It talked about the different levels of experience, and how our perception of reality changes depending on the level of consciousness we’re operating from.

This led me to think about the Map of Consciousness — the chart developed by David R. Hawkins.

This chart outlines the emotional frequency and energetic state of each level of awareness (attached it below).

In both the book and the chart, I found a parallel:

The way we experience life isn’t about what’s happening —
it’s about what level we’re meeting it from.

The idea of the map is that each emotion you feel equates to a level of consciousness.

In my own life, I would catch myself responding in the lower emotional states.

My mom would tell me something I didn’t like, and immediately I would respond in frustration.

My brother would tell me what to do, and I would get angry at him.

Someone complimented me, and I would feel pride (I know, doesn’t seem as bad).

But slowly, I began realizing that all emotions are under my control.

Sure, I had no control over what others did or said.

But, I could always choose the way in which I respond.

And that was extremely liberating.

Now, I’m no self-realized monk (not even close - I still feel the lower emotions, but actively trying to work on it).

But I do know that at any given point of time, I can choose to control the emotions that I feel.

And I can also choose to respond from an emotion that is higher up on the consciousness map.

For me, I found myself living in a much better state of mind when responding from the higher up emotions.

And in turn, life became better as well.

If you don’t believe the map, give it a try and see how you feel!

To illustrate this, I’ll give you a short story

I would always take the role of a mentor with someone I know.

Sometimes I still find myself doing that.

It’s not that he’s less capable than me or knows less than me.

It’s only the fact that I’m quite a lot older than him.

But the thing is, he may not always want advice.

Maybe he just wants to talk.

And for the longest time, I couldn’t understand this.

The “power” part of me wanted to be the mentor.

I wanted to be the one giving advice, since that felt good to me.

But slowly, I began seeing through that and shifting to being very much there with him as he spoke.

As I began to understand what he wanted, our relationship completely changed.

The Megaphone vs the Mirror

For the longest time, I would always find myself taking on the role of a mentor.

When my friends brought up something, I would give advice.

But they never asked for my advice.

Sometimes, they just wanted to be heard or have a conversation.

I struggled to understand this. I thought everything was a problem/solution.

When we hear someone's pain or question, we immediately jump to figuring it out.

We want to solve it.

But that's loud, like a megaphone.

Instead, I started approaching more like a mirror.

A mirror reflects back to you.

A mirror holds space instead of filling it.

Now, I focus on being there with them (as much as I can).

And usually, the right course of action comes by itself.

You know because it feels less forced. Things feel a lot more in flow.

megaphone vs mirror

Dealing with Challenge

I woke up today to a text that sent me into a frenzy.

My mind immediately started racing to all sorts of thoughts.

But, I took time to reflect on the content of the message.

And after letting it sit with me, I realized something.

This message had nothing to do with me.

A few moments later, I opened a couple pages from a book — The Art of Peace by Morihei Ueshiba.

Two lines I found very beautiful:

“Be grateful even for hardship, setbacks, and bad people.
Dealing with such obstacles is an essential part of training in the Art of Peace.”

And this one:

“If your heart is large enough to envelop your adversaries, you can see right through them and avoid their attacks.
And once you envelop them, you will be able to guide them along the path indicated to you by heaven and earth.”

Both hit me.

What if this was not a setback…
but an opportunity?

So I sat quietly.

And instead of fear, I began to feel something else:
Gratitude.

I took a moment to appreciate how grateful I was to be able to face this challenge (of receiving a scam message) and slowly move from fear to love.

And then I began projecting a positive emotion onto the person who messaged me.

Who knows what they were going through?

And immediately, I felt better.

In life, we all face challenges:

Someone accuses us of something untrue
We receive a blow we didn’t expect
Life doesn’t go the way we planned

We can't always control the challenge.

But we can always control how we meet it.

And that… is the real lesson.

It's not about the challenge itself.

It's about how you respond to that challenge.

The Inner Flame

It's impossible to control all external circumstances.

But you can control your internal reality.

You always have a flame burning inside you.

Lose it, and you feel empty.

Let it turn into a full-blown fire, and you panic.

The key is to maintain the flame as it is.

This flame is your inner self.

We always have things that trigger us, upset us, make us fearful, sadden us etc.

But we can always choose to maintain an internal peace within us by controlling our flame.

The Boy and the Storm

There was once a boy who lived by the sea.

As a child, he loved it.

The crashing waves, the salt in the air, the wild freedom of it all.

He would run barefoot along the shore, arms stretched like wings, laughing into the wind.

But one year, a storm came.

A real one.

It tore apart his village, destroyed homes, swallowed memories.

He was never the same after that.

He still lived by the sea, but he didn’t laugh anymore.

He feared its waves.

He avoided the water.

He stayed inland. Safe. Controlled.

Years passed.

One evening, now grown, the boy sat by the cliffs, watching the tide roll in.

The sky was pink. The wind gentle.

He hadn’t cried in years — but that evening, he did.

Not because he was scared.

Not because he was hurt.

But because he realized something:

He had blamed the ocean for the storm…

But the ocean had also given him every beautiful memory he ever had.

He stood.

Walked barefoot to the shore.

And let the water touch his feet again.

That night, the boy didn’t become fearless.

But he became free.

Sometimes we confuse protection with healing.

We build walls and try our best to avoid what hurt us.

But healing often looks like returning to the place you once feared.

But you do so with gentleness instead of resistance.

The storm wasn’t your fault. And the fear was definitely real.

But the ocean was never your enemy.

And it’s still waiting for you.

A Beautiful Poem

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

- Rumi