If we look into the idea of the expansion of consciousness, the
closest thing we can relate it to, particularly on the physical level, is the
rising and falling away of our breath. As we can find scale within our breath
cycles, similarly we can find almost infinite scale in consciousness. Both work
within an ascending and descending motion, if we look at it from a vertical
scale point of view.
The less external stimulus effects our breath, the
more contained and relaxed the breath becomes. All of a sudden our breath cycles
start fusing…and then the empty pause… as well as the full pause… and whatever
is in between those pauses... becomes one.
In deep meditation one might experience that there is
no longer a distinction between the inhalation, exhalation, empty pause or full
pause, because they have coalesced into one.
There might be no longer a perception of influx of air, because
the physical body, as well as the whole network of our nadis, no longer offer any resistance. That resistance,
which is known to the ancient yogis as ‘rubbish’ contained in the physical body,
has to some extent been cleared out, in order to bring in a more refined level
of consciousness. This extends even down to this physical plain of our existence
on earth, which is subject to so many more 'laws'.
Once the
breath is one, what happens?
Just think of your own meditation practice – specifically of that particular moment when the breath becomes one. At
a certain point within the process of meditation this transition is usually
experienced by an increase of separation, as well as a deeper letting go of the
physical body. It’s like everything becomes incredibly comfortable, like sudden
‘peace of body’.
Here, we are talking about the actual experience of
the expansion of consciousness. So, if we take all these great ideas we have explored
in the last few years, and just think how that applies to pure ‘Being’ - then
the only possible conclusion we will come to is – that ‘Being’ is something
that simply exists or just ‘is’. This will always be the case, regardless from
whichever perspective or initial idea we started our enquiry.
So what
separates us from the pure state of ‘Being’?
It is what the individual idea of ‘self’ has
created around it, which envelopes your ‘Being’ and is separating us from it.
That is, we perceive ourselves as me or I - in the way we feel emotionally, intellectually
and physically about ourselves. These three functions create or manifest an
image of sense of self. This image or picture we are always identified with,
forms the imaginary shape around our ‘Being’, which is known to us as personality.
Unfortunately, we have forgotten that ‘Being’ is
somewhere in there, due to the fact that we started believing that we are the
shape… that we are a combination of this emotional, physical, intellectual
manifestation… because it is this shape we use in our interactions with others
and the world around us. This is indeed very fascinating, because without that
shape or form, no interaction or communication would be possible.
So we are faced with a paradox that renders itself as
something unfathomable to our mind. But, if we pause and listen to this paradox
for a moment, we might get a glimpse of possibilities that take us out of
multiplicity into unity.
In meditation, ‘Being’ separates from mind, and as
a consequence mind starts moving into the background.
Allegorically speaking, if you get a flash of perception
of your mind in a complete state of meditation, what you will perceive is a
rotating disc-like unit forming part of the outer orbit within the infinite
space of your increasing awareness. In other words, your mind is being absorbed
or enveloped by pure awareness, and with the absence of our general domineering
sense of I, the shift of spaciousness, which is induced by the sudden
diminishment of thought activity, enables the spaciousness between thoughts to expand
quite profoundly. Hence, due to the outweighing existence of spaciousness, ‘Being’
envelopes mind instead of mind enveloping ‘Being’. That is, we have raised our
level of consciousness onto a plane, which lies beyond the workings of the
mind, in which the mind has found its place and initial purpose and functions
as a dedicated servant.
This pure state of consciousness, with its highly
refined sense of direct perception is able to perceive mind as it is. Here we
realise that the mind is a profoundly useful hybrid, which connects ‘that’,
which is completely inactive and without shape, to ‘that’ which is
active and bound by shape, i.e. our physical body.
The proper functioning of our mind is the most
important thing we possess as human beings in life.
This
gives rise to the question of what is usually inhibiting the proper functioning
of the mind?
Those inhibitions are usually comprised of an
accumulation of many things and manifestations we can find within the vastness
of our psychological structure. That is for example: ‘Padding’, which is
separating the different features and little ‘Me’s’ we have acquired from each
other. In addition we will come across our many ‘contradictions’ that spring
into life as a consequence of our ‘padding’, as well as our identification with
negative thinking and negative emotions that are completely useless for any
further inner growth and development. Mechanical manifestations are even less
useful when it comes to our actual change of being and our work on increasing consciousness.
Why do
contradictions interfere with the proper functioning of the mind?
They keep us back from seeing the bigger picture,
based on the fact, that contradictions (and we carry many of them around) compartmentalize
and strengthen the divided nature of our ‘Self’.
For example: Imagine a mansion in which there are all
these different wings, landings, halls and rooms being separated by very thick
and solid walls. We constantly move from one favourite room to another. All
the rooms and spaces in that mansion are representing different parts of ‘us’,
we take as ‘self’… as ‘personality’. Once we shut the door to one room, we
forget that we have just spent some time there. We truly forget that this
particular room actually exists, because now we have entered another room. This
new room feels great and is full of different exciting attractions that are all
asking for our attention. We are so absorbed by its different impressions that
we haven’t even recognised that we entered a room that forms part of another
wing, which is the residence of countless negative emotions. But what the universal teachings have to say about negative thinking and negative emotions, will be part of a whole new lecture and discussion.
Today, it is far more important for us to know that e usually can observe this shift from one little
‘me’ to the next much better in other people. Especially when the present ‘me’
in the other person contradicts what the previous ‘me’ has said.
Suddenly a shift takes place, and without any
obvious reason the conversation takes a different route, and we wonder why. Work
on oneself helps one to develop a better sense and feeling, of those things.....
Extract of a recorded
interactive lecture at Treehouse Yoga South London on Saturday the 14th April 2013
Copyright © September October 2013 alexander
filmer-lorch – all rights reserved
