We know that our subconscious is responsible for the endless train of thoughts that fly through our mind continually. Only when the subconscious is completely silent then befalls a different state of consciousness.
Our subconscious mind is like a room full of people screaming for our attention. There are hundreds of people in that room, and in the corner is a small child. The child represents the consciousness. Normally we can’t hear that child because of all the other people screaming. With meditation we can silence everybody else in the room so we can focus on what that small child has to say.
Mediation is like the “daily bread” of the wise. Just like we need nourishment to keep the body going, we need a different type of nourishment to keep the consciousness fed. And the type of nourishment that feeds the consciousness is meditation.
Some Benefits of Meditation:
- Physical and mental relaxation. A lot of medical professionals are almost “prescribing” mediation for things like stress and high blood pressure.
- Allows us to study ourselves, aspects of our subconscious mind. It allows us to get a greater awareness of ourselves. Through the process of mediation we can turn off the subconscious and arrive at a different perspective of ourselves.
- On a really basic level mediation serves to silence the “internal chatter” caused by the subconscious. Your greatest challenge when faced with mediation is simply quieting the mind. It’s one of those things that seem simple to do, until you actually try to do it.
The whole path towards awakening the consciousness begins by understanding how to turn off the subconscious. How do we awaken the consciousness? We need to remove that which is putting it in the sleep state, the subconscious. We have to turn off the subconscious so we can work directly with that consciousness.
Every meditation technique is really just a tool for concentration. The whole purpose of concentration is to take control over the thought process, and quiet that endless train of thoughts and arrive at a different state of consciousness.
Remember the 3 step process of Identification, Fascination, and Sleep. The subconscious produces a thought or an image in our mind, which we then identify with, and now becomes a distraction. Then we get fascinated by it. So we think about it, we fantasize, we daydream, we plan. The whole time that process occurs, the consciousness sleeps profoundly.
All those thoughts and images flying through the screen of your mind act as a distraction. You identify with them, which causes you to become fascinated with them. You’re then taken out of the present moment and find yourself back in the past reliving a memory or pulled into the future, daydreaming, planning, or worrying. The whole time that’s occurring, the consciousness sleeps profoundly.
Ideally during meditation we don’t want to identify with the thoughts and images that the subconscious produces. We want to see those thoughts and images pass like cars on the street or clouds in the sky. They simply pass us by and we don’t identify with them.
Normally what happens in our normal state of mind is those cars drive by and we wave at one of those cars, it stops for us, we open it up and get inside, and let it take us for a ride. We let the subconscious take us into the past or future, but out of the present moment. What we want to do is simply let those thoughts pass by without identifying with them. Keep our concentration, and keep our focus, on whatever the practice happens to be.
The most elevated form of thinking is non-thinking
Immanual Kant
That’s a strange thing to describe, because we have so many thoughts and images flying through our mind at any given time, it’s really hard to imagine what it’s like to have no thoughts. When you think of a state of “no thoughts” it sounds really “boring”, like there’s nothing going on. But it’s actually the exact opposite.
When we’re able to turn off the thought process we can discover something else that’s been there in the background the entire time. We just haven’t noticed it yet. It’s a much more elevated state of being, an elevated state of consciousness.
The most elevated form of thinking occurs when we turn the thought process off. It occurs when we turn off our subconscious, which is continually projecting all those thoughts and images on the screen of our mind. When we can turn them off we can experience a much more elevated form of consciousness.
Meditation and the Subconscious
When we achieve the stillness and silence of the mind, then the subconscious becomes absent. When we quiet the mind we’re just turning off the projections of the subconscious. We’re quieting the subconscious and letting the consciousness take control over the thought process.
Normally the thought process is a tool for the subconscious, which generates 30-40 thousand thoughts a day in the average person. What we want to do is take back control of the thought process and hand it over to the consciousness to achieve a different state of awareness. When we achieve that stillness and silence of the mind then we achieve a different state.
Mediation awakens the consciousness. It’s really a way to liberate that consciousness. It’s like a workout for the consciousness. That’s why mediation is the daily bread of the wise. Meditating every day or meditating regularly allows us to grow and develop that consciousness.
Through mediation we also learn to control our mind. When our thought process is a tool for the subconscious, it’s really hard to control. It’s really hard to stop that endless train of thoughts. If you’re a worrier for example, it’s really hard to stop doing that. Through meditation we can learn to take control of the mind and begin to dominate it.
When thinking is under control, illumination comes spontaneously. Think of meditation as just to take control of the thought process. Our job, our task is just to quiet the mind. Once the mind is quiet then a different state of consciousness starts automatically. It’s always been there, but we just haven’t been able to notice it because of all the background noise.
The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear.
Ram Dass
Just like that child in the corner of the room with 100 people. That child has been speaking the entire time, we just couldn’t hear it. If we shut up everybody else in the room then we hear the child. We can’t make the child talk louder. We just have to quiet everybody else in order to focus on what was always there.
Meditation can be thought of in the same way. It’s our job to gain control of the thought process. It’s our job to quiet the mind. Once the mind is in a still, passive, and receptive state, then that illumination, that consciousness frees itself spontaneously. There’s nothing you have to do to make the consciousness free itself or to experience that illumination. It happens of its own accord provided we’ve quieted the mind.
In order to quiet the mind we course have to develop concentration. It’s through concentration that we gain control of the thought process. Once we bring ourselves to that level where we can keep focus and keep concentrated for an extended period of time, then that illumination comes spontaneously of its own accord.
Our mind is a prison and we must dominate our mind if we want to become independent of it. Unfortunately we’ve fallen into a trap where we think that our mind controls us. The thoughts and emotions almost seem to come from outside of us and it’s something that we seem to have no control over. The key to dominating the mind is simply willpower. The strength and willpower it takes to do the practices to learn to take control of our own mind.
It’s just like if you wanted to learn to play the piano. You need the perseverance to actually learn and then start to practice. No matter what skill you want to acquire it’s a matter of willpower and perseverance to arrive at your goal. Controlling the mind is the same thing. It’s something that can be done by anybody who wants to take the time to learn some techniques and practice them.
Through meditation we can then continue the work on our psychology. We can meditate on a specific aspect of our psyche we’ve discovered through self-observation to fully comprehend it. So we can use meditation as a tool to penetrate the hidden side of our psychology, getting deep into our subconscious. Through meditation that consciousness really starts to grow and develop and shine brightly. We can use the light of consciousness to illuminate more of those dark corners of the mind.
What Happens During Meditation?
During meditation we can temporarily “un-bottle” our consciousness from the prison of the subconscious. We find a state where we can temporarily turn the subconscious off, allowing the consciousness to free itself. Recall the story of Aladdin and the lamp.
With meditation we are trying to gradually bring the mental process to a pause. It’s something we have to work up to. Through the early stages of meditation we’re bringing the thought process to a pause. We’re slowing down that endless train of thoughts. We can’t instantly stop them straight away, but we have to work them to come to a pause, slowing things down.
With practice the pauses in thought become longer and longer, allowing us to enter into a peaceful silence that has no mental words or images attached.
Each of these arrows represents a random thought that’s flying somewhere in your mind right now. That’s the normal human state of consciousness that we find ourselves in during an average day. It’s just thoughts and images flying everywhere, a jumbled mess. The whole purpose of meditation is to turn that into this:
That is concentration, a single thought held for a purpose. That could be concentration on a candle flame, your heartbeat, a mantra or sound. It doesn’t matter. Every meditation practice is trying to get you to this point. It’s giving you something to focus on and hold onto as you try to turn off all that other stuff. There’s that thing you want to focus on, but it’s lost in all the noise. You want to turn off all the noise, just to get down to that single thought.
That line keeps getting interrupted by other thoughts trying to take you away from that point. That’s the mind fighting. It wants to take you back to that state of identifying with random thoughts. We’re trying to hold a single thought for a purpose. That is all you need to do. Once you can hold that single thought for an extended period of time, something interesting happens:
We start to see gaps appearing in the thought process. Those gaps are the points where the consciousness frees itself. Those gaps are the most elevated form of thought, the stages of no thought, where we can experience that different state of consciousness.
You have to go through these stages one after the other. The continuous random thoughts to concentration on one thought to the pauses in the thought. During the early stages of meditation we find ourselves flipping between the first two states, like a tug-of-war. If you can keep that tug-of-war up through perseverance and willpower eventually you stay in the 2nd. And when you stay in the 2nd state eventually you jump to the 3rd. The pauses won’t happen until you concentrate on a single thought. This is why the skill of concentration is so important.
You’re trying to hold that thought for as long as you can, whether that thought is mantra, a visualization of a plant, candle flame, or heart-beat. It doesn’t matter. The whole purpose of all those practices is to develop the ability to concentrate. Because if you can keep your mind firmly focused on a single a thought without deviating, the pauses or gaps will happen spontaneously.
You have to be able to concentrate to get those breaks in the thought process, and concentration comes with practice. If we practice 15-20 minutes once or twice a day, then we’re going to see progress if we keep that up. If we sporadically practice every couple weeks then it’s not going to be that easy to do. It’ll take a lot longer to reach our goal.
Phases of Meditation
The process of meditation can be broken down into 5 phases.
- Assuming a comfortable position, “Asana”
Your body is a huge distraction to meditation. All these movements and little forms of discomfort are a distraction. Part of meditation is being able to let go of the body. We must relax the body so we aren’t distracted by the physical sensations of discomfort.
Do whatever you need to do to relax. Lie down in bed, or sit in your easy chair, or sit cross legged on a rug. It doesn’t matter, it’s a personal thing. The whole point is to relax the body and put it in a state where it will no longer distract you.
Whenever you start a meditation, spend a few minutes sitting down and breathing deep to bring a different state of relaxation to the body. That excessive oxygen let’s your muscles relax and the heart rate slow down and blood pressure drop.
Posture must be still. The key is once you’ve found that relaxed state you can’t move. Your body will want to move. That’s the subconscious trying to distract you. Fight the urge to scratch that itch or shift your weight. - Blanking the mind, “Pratyahara”
This is silencing the mind, removing thoughts. You can pretend your mind is like a whiteboard or blackboard and just erase everything on it. Or pretend it’s like a tabletop and just sweep everything off of it. You want to remove all your thoughts. Tell yourself to “leave all your worries and distractions at the door. Pick them up on your way out.”
Before we can concentrate we must have a “blank state”, nothing to distract us. You have to put aside all those thoughts and worries and make a “pact” with yourself. “I’m going to deal with this or worry about that in 20 min or ½ an hour.”
You want to wipe away all that stuff that’s been bugging you all day at the back of your mind. Just sweep it out of the way and say “I’m not going to deal with this right now.” - Concentration, “Dharana”
Concentration is thinking one thought with a purpose; focusing on only one thought. When we’re in this concentration phase we can’t identify with any thoughts and we can’t identify with any sensations of the body either. We want to hold that single thought for as long as we can.
Focus the mind on everything within, almost like shutting off all our senses and going internally; separating ourselves from mundane earthly thoughts, all those distractions of everyday life. Stop worrying about all that and just direct our attention internally. - Introversion “Dyana”
The meditation, profoundly reflecting on the content of the single thought we are concentrating on. This is where we lead up to those pauses in that thought process. This is the most elevated form of thought, the non-thought, the introversion. - The ecstacy “Samadhi”
We start by relaxing the body, then we move to relaxing the mind, then we move to concentrating or meditation itself. The concentration brings out the pauses, the elevated form of thought. That brings out Samadhi.
Guidelines for Meditation
Practice with your eyes closed. This is necessary to eliminate distractions so we can become “introverted”.
Must be absolutely relaxed, so the body will almost “sleep”. We must learn to provoke and regulate drowsiness at will. The key to deep states of meditation can be described in 4 words: mind awake, body asleep. That’s what we’re going for. A different state of consciousness can arrive when we put the body asleep, but keep the mind focused. Your body won’t sleep unless it’s relaxed.
Be consistent and regular in your practice. Have tenacity and perseverance. You can set aside an area of your home such as a room or a corner of a room for your meditation space. You can associate that place with peace and relaxation. Make it symbolic so when you walk in that space and close the door or draw the curtain, it’s like shutting yourself off from the external world. When you light the candle or incense, or put on a type of music you like, make that symbolic of a switch to a different state of consciousness. These are all cues you can use to help you get in that state quicker.
You must develop concentration and that is so easy to forget. It’s so easy to slip into that state of continuous random thoughts because that’s the state that we spend most of our lives. You have to fight for that state of concentration. It’s a battle, a tug-of-war with your own subconscious mind. You have to keep pulling it in the direction you want to go. You have to take a whip to that donkey so you can climb on top of it and start steering it in the right direction.
Your intellect must assume a receptive, tranquil state. Observe your mind and thoughts, but don’t identify with them! Like cars on the road, let them pass you by. You don’t wave the car down, get inside and let it take you for a ride. You can’t make them stop. They’re going to come, but you have to not identify with them.
When you start to not identify with them, the subconscious gets creative. It tries even harder to distract you. So next thing you know, you got memories you haven’t even thought of in years popping up. Strange images pop up. All of this is an attempt to get your attention, to get you out of the practice.
Eventually, the subconscious gives up. It’s persistent, but it’s really lazy. That’s the point where the mind becomes quiet and we can liberate the consciousness.