Augustine quote referring to 2nd conscious shock

The two sacraments are figurative. Of many things, but at the practical, doing level they are figurative of the two conscious shocks: conscious labor, intentional suffering; or, self-remembering, non-identifying.

The mainstream level of Christianity will never agree to this, but they by definition don't have the practical level teaching. They have the exoteric teaching, and it has meaning at that level for them. Baptism for them is symbolic of new life and the Lord's Supper is a ritual that brings to remembrance the substance of their faith and therefore strengthens, ideally, their faith, etc.

Speaking of the practical level meaning, though, here is something Augustine wrote about the Lord's Supper that shows it's connection to the 2nd conscious shock: referring to the words of Christ: "'Except ye eat of the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you,' seems to command a crime or a baseness; it is, therefore, a figure commanding us to share in the suffering of the Lord..."

That intentional suffering that is the 2nd conscious shock and that Jesus performed, and that we are to perform ourselves as followers of Christ.

Baptism, figuratively, is many things as well, but at the practical level it is being filled with the Holy Spirit. It is self-remembering, when you see it at the practical level. And the Spirit wars with the flesh, and that is the struggle out of which level of being is potentially increased.

Prayer and fasting are two terms that also carry the practical meaning of the two conscious shocks.