1.2 What is the function of the personality?

From the point of view of normal, day-to-day awareness, reality is experienced through the limitations of one’s personality. The personality acts as a filter through which one interprets and understands the experiences of one’s senses interacting with one’s emotional, intellectual and belief structures. Each personality has its own strengths and weaknesses, its own limitations: bounded by individual limitations, one tries to understand the experience of oneself interacting with the world.

The personality encompasses the whole complex of emotions, intellectual ideas, fears, values, hopes, needs and desires which are accessible to, and form the contents of, ordinary, everyday awareness. Our well-developed psychologies teach us that each individual’s behaviour is to a significant extent influenced by underlying psychological constraints. Normally, one is unconscious of one’s own constraints; awareness of these underlying constraints, which determine much of one’s understanding of reality, usually dawns gradually by means of the long and laborious process of maturing through time.

The key term ‘consciousness’ refers both to one’s level of awareness at any given time and place and to the context within which this awareness operates at that time. In other words, one’s level of consciousness at any time is what one is aware of, understood within the context of one’s conscious and unconscious limitations. Considered objectively, each personality defines a limiting structure to the experiencing of reality.

The personality is a constraint upon one’s level of consciousness. This should be reflected on carefully until it is clearly understood. Put simply, there is much more of reality which you can experience when your level of consciousness is not constrained by the personality.

1.4.1 What are the characteristics of the interaction between one’s personality and the process that is reality?

Through the complex of one’s needs and desires, one attempts to live a fulfilling and satisfying life. This one achieves to a greater or lesser extent according to one’s own way of measuring such matters. We all experience certain things in common. We all have our measure of joy and sorrow, physical and emotional pain and pleasure. We each have our sufferings, frustrations, disappointments and failures; our own weaknesses and fears which we face or fail to face as we are put to the test.

A common pattern of our lives is the attempt of the individual personality to attain fulfilment through the control of aspects of reality. This usually manifests itself as the wish to impose one’s will on others or on oneself and the world. This is doomed to failure: we can only temporarily bend the world to our will. In the end, reality, apparently external to the needs and desires to the personality, is too powerful.

Again and again one pitches one’s personality against an apparently external and uncaring world. The twin forces of one’s personality and reality dance in constant opposition. In this way we waste our lives and our energies in an unwinnable struggle.

1.5 What does it mean to say, ‘reality is a process which devours the personality’?

To understand this, it is necessary to develop a point of view, a way of seeing the objective nature of the interaction between the personality and reality. Within the context of the personality, one’s experiences and insights are subjective; however powerful, intense or varied in joy and suffering they may be, they are, in the end, personal and subjective. Viewed objectively, from a transpersonal point of view, the function of the process which is reality is to bring each individual consciousness to an awareness of its true nature.

From a focus of awareness rooted in the context of the personality, i.e. within normal consciousness, one’s life is experienced in terms of the extent to which one achieves a balance between the satisfaction and lack of satisfaction of one’s needs and desires. To remain locked in such a low level of consciousness is to be subject, without release, to the endless play of opposites. One experiences constantly the conflicting tensions of emotions, desires and objective reality.

Just as time devours the physical body in the course of its passage from youth through physical maturity to the gradual physical decay leading to death, so too does reality, through the passage of time, lead the personality from the innocence of childhood, past the idealism of youth and the draining realisations of life’s harsh realities in maturity, to the emptiness and fear of an old age unprepared for death. A consciousness shaped by the constraints of the personality fears profoundly the transpersonal, which is, correctly, sensed as inimical to the ego, or sense of the individual self.

This, then, is what is meant by saying ‘reality devours the personality’:

One who remains rooted in the personality is fated to suffer the endless conflicting tensions of desire and non-fulfilment of desire. Driven by the ego-based desires of the personality, one fears that dissolution of the sense of ‘I’ which is the hallmark of the transpersonal. This is commonly found in the individual’s fear of death. One is devoured by constant conflict and fear; in the end, one dies unfulfilled, empty, unprepared and fearful of death.

1.6.2 How can you escape from the endless cycle of psychological suffering and fear of death?

This is possible through following a path which leads to the movement of the focus of awareness from the personality-confined ego to the transpersonal self. Such a path is laid out in practical detail in this book. It is attainable by ordinary people regardless of their economic or social position in society or the circumstances of their lives.

In following the practical path detailed in this book, it will become increasingly clear that what matters is less the events of one’s life (which are the preoccupation of normal consciousness) than the way in which one reacts to these events. As one moves towards the psychological enlightenment, the obsession with the outward patterning of events gives way to a deeper concern with the content of one’s life experiences. With the attainment of the psychological stage of enlightenment, the understanding of one’s life circumstances and their meaning merges into a harmonious sense of wholeness.

This is a profound feeling of psychological wellbeing which transcends one’s material circumstances.

1.8 By what process was this book written?

This book is based on the direct experiencing of reality by members of The Implicate Technology Centre. It explains how a simple daily exercise, practised in the context of your ordinary, day-to-day life, and understood within a relevant framework, leads to a transformation in your level of awareness.

From the vantage point of this more developed consciousness, which is accessible to everyone regardless of individual life circumstances, the central validity of the old models of reality is apparent. That is to say, each describes reality in a valid and culturally different way. This book is simply a recasting of the ancient teachings in contemporary Western cultural terms.

This book is not a new translation of books of other cultures. It is a recasting of the experience those works teach about into the ordinary language and concepts we use in the West. For those who are interested in such things, chapters 2 and 5 are based on the Chinese Taoist book, The Secret of the Golden Flower. Chapters 3, 4, 6 and 7 are a recasting, through the filter of experience, of the discussion on the Sidpa Bardo in the Tibetan Buddhist book, The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Chapter 1 is a recasting of the key message of Gautama the Buddha and many other teachers: this life leads us only to suffering unless we find a way to rise above it. Chapter 8 discusses the difficulties of having such experiences in a culture ignorant of such processes.

As an illustration of this process of recasting, consider carefully the following example:

The Secret of the Golden Flower begins with the key to the process of attaining enlightenment: “The secret of the magic of life consists in using action in order to attain non-action.”(Wilhelm and Jung, The Secret of the Golden Flower; London, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd. 1965, page 21).It elaborates this point: “The Master is further concerned that people should not miss the way that leads from conscious action to unconscious non-action. Therefore he says, the magic of the Elixir of Life makes use of conscious action in order that unconscious non-action may be attained”(Ibid, page 24). The text goes on to say that conscious action consists in the process and product of meditation.

The final chapter underlines the significance of this. “The most important things in the great Tao are the words: action through non-action. Non-action prevents a man from becoming entangled in form and image (materiality). Action in non-action prevents a man from sinking into numbing emptiness and dead nothingness”(Ibid, pages 53 – 54).

What does all this mean? Clearly, to the authors of the book, it is a matter of profound significance. Many in the West are drawn to understand the meaning of this; yet we do not have an understanding of the context within which Chinese culture produced such a discipline for living.

To establish this context, we must become aware of the differences in the technologies developed by East and West. Here in the West, we have well-developed explicate technologies; that is to say, we have developed technologies to deal with material reality; these are far beyond the explicate technologies developed in the East and the West’s products are eagerly sought in the East. Because of our advanced material technologies we consider ourselves the more developed culture, we acknowledge a responsibility to help the materially poorer cultures to raise their living standards.

Just as the West has turned its best minds to technologies which help us to understand and harness the power of material reality, so too has the East turned its best minds to the development of technologies which help in understanding and harnessing the power of non-material reality. Throughout the East there are many highly advanced technologies available. In contrast to the path we in the West took, these are implicate technologies; that is to say, technologies that deal with non-material reality. The products of these technologies are eagerly sought by many in the West: for years now, there has been growing interest in implicate technology products such as the martial arts, the various systems of Yoga and Zen and other Buddhist disciplines.

It is within this context that we can begin to understand what is meant by “action through non-action”. It is the product of Chinese Taoist implicate technology. Its function is to direct the consciousness of any person towards understanding how to deal with the experiences which comprise ordinary life so as to obtain the greatest fulfilment from that life.

All this can be understood by an ordinary intelligent person, but it does not yet explain what the words of the above-quoted phrase mean. We can only understand their meaning through practice in using a comparable product of Western implicate technology; such a product cannot be grasped or measured with the intellect alone. Only by incorporating such a product into one’s day-to-day life can its benefits be realised. This, then, is the key to gaining fulfilment in life, expressed in Western cultural terms.

Act according to your intuition.

Don’t interfere.

Just let things happen.

A fuller discussion on how to apply this product of Western implicate technology will be found in chapter 3.

2.3.1 What is the tool for the transformation of awareness and how does one use it?

Just as each human body shares a common physical anatomy, so, too, do we share a common non-material anatomy. This common structure we share extends beyond our psychological make-up. This cannot be understood by reading about the subject, or by being told, it can only be understood by direct experience.

The purpose of any structured meditative system is to direct consciousness along the path towards understanding through experience.

Although there is a great deal of interest growing in the West about using, understanding and realising the benefits of Eastern meditative systems, they are not generally appreciated in terms of their full cultured potential. In part, this is because they are implicate technology products stemming from cultures which have developed expertise in articulating certain key aspects of reality far beyond the present level of understanding in our Western cultures. This is expressed most clearly in the uses of the terms chi and prana in the Hindu, Buddhist and Taoist implicate technologies.

Anyone who has even a cursory knowledge of Eastern meditative systems will have come across these terms generally translated as ‘breath’ or ‘life force’. The aspects of reality to which these words direct one’s awareness will gradually become clear through practice of the meditation taught in this chapter. To help in understanding, you should be aware that prana is also known as intuition.

In Tibetan Buddhist implicate technology, intuition can also be understood as ‘quick knowing’. The consistent daily practice of the meditation taught here, with a full commitment to understanding, will lead to the awakening of your intuitive faculties. As your intuition develops, so will your understanding of these teachings unfold.

To begin from the viewpoint of ordinary consciousness: we experience the material world through the five senses – to our senses, the material world is solid and real. For centuries, we in the West have relied on our sciences to aid us in understanding physical reality. In pursuing an understanding of physical reality, twentieth-century quantum physics sought to establish the existence of fundamental particles of matter. After all, everyone knows that matter is solid and so must be composed of particles uniting to form trees, bodies, hills, etc.

Here our science discovered a characteristic of material particles which is at odds with the everyday experience of our senses. Quantum physics has established that matter occurs both as particles and as waves – in other words, matter is both solid (as our five senses tell us) and not solid (which is not at all apparent to common sense).

On the one hand, we experience physical reality as actual and solid; on the other hand, our most advanced science tells us that matter is somehow both solid (particles) and a form of energy (waves). Our science has established that physical reality is not as it appears to our senses. How, then, are we to experience the true nature of reality if not through the five senses?

Each one of us possesses the latent capacity to understand the true nature of reality through the experience of a form of thought which we know in the West as intuition. This is also known in the West as the sixth sense. The function of meditation is to develop this sixth sense, a truer and more reliable experience of reality than that afforded by the other five.

To understand how meditation works to achieve this requires both continuous practice in meditation and a framework in which to place the experience as it unfolds through time.

2.3.3.1 The framework within which meditation unfolds.

Secondly, then, consider the framework. To ordinary consciousness, the primary experience of thought is of a continuous web. Whirling around in awareness, sometimes faster and sometimes slower, always the continuous stream of thought is there.

The aim of meditation is to slow the stream of thoughts; this process, as it develops through time and practice, to be integrated into day-to-day life, leads to great changes in awareness. One develops the capacity for a different type of thought- intuition, or true thought. As the capacity for insight develops, one’s awareness of the true nature of reality develops concurrently in a profoundly satisfying way.

The central task for anyone seeking to gain the benefits of meditation is to learn to slow the thoughts. This cannot be done by thought itself. An intellectual approach is inadequate to the task.

The link between thought and breathing.

How, then, is one to gain control over one’s thought? This is to be done through the breath. There is an intimate link between breathing and thought.

Each breath we take is accompanied by a thought. This is a process apparently without end. We cannot influence thought directly but we can influence thought through influencing the breathing.

As the breathing slows in meditation, so, too, does the flow of thoughts decrease. As this happens, true thoughts, which have continuity in themselves, begin to become accessible to consciousness. As this process develops, one’s awareness of reality transforms slowly, naturally and wonderfully.

The key to meditation, then, is to focus one’s awareness on one’s breathing. This is by no means a simple task to sustain for even fifteen minutes daily. When one starts meditation, the thoughts are in a whirl.

One is preoccupied with the awareness of the physical surroundings and one’s own comfort. One is driven to think of emotional concerns, the problems of the day and intellectual concerns. The hardest thing to achieve is the task of concentrating solely and simply on one’s breathing.

How then are we to achieve this control over the breathing? For the process to succeed, the transformation must take place at a gradual, natural pace. One is not to force the breathing to be slow.

The breath should flow in through the nose, into the lungs, then deep into the abdomen, quietly and easily. The breath should flow out of the nose easily and naturally. The mouth remains closed, the teeth lightly clenched and the tongue touching the roof of the mouth.

This last is most important: the tongue acts as a connector to allow the full flow of the body’s energies. This can be formally studied, for example, in Taoist or Hindu esoteric yoga. It will also occur quite naturally if no attention is paid to the process.

2.3.3.3 The problems of distraction, and their cure.

Theoretical knowledge of meditation has little value; meditation can only be understood through experience. One is in seclusion, seated comfortably in the posture described above, trying to focus one’s thoughts on the awareness of breathing, and inevitably one is distracted. As said above, this can take two main forms, both of which are a variety of laziness.

The first area of difficulty which may be encountered during meditation is sleepiness. This represents a form of distraction of which one is substantially unconscious. Quite simply, one dozes off.

The cure for this is also very simple: get up and walk around for a little. This is very important. On no account should one take the lazy option and fall asleep. The key lies in focusing the thoughts, not in diffusing them.

The second area of difficulty is distraction through fantasy. This refers to any chain of thought which occurs to distract one from awareness of one’s breathing. Such chains of fantasy can be based on a myriad of initial thoughts—sexual desire, financial concerns, emotional or relationship difficulties, an event of the day, etc.

The list is endless, and the attractions of fantasy are very great. Meditation affords many opportunities to indulge in self-satisfying fantasies. One is easily tempted to follow through such chains of thought.

All such chains of thought, such fantasies, are to be resisted vigorously and with discipline. They are all, without exception, illusory, regardless of how important the subject matter is to the person meditating. Distraction through fantasy is easier to deal with than sleepiness; this is because, with discipline, one can become aware of the distraction and so exercise self-control. The discipline is simply to bring one’s awareness back to one’s breathing.

All the problems which crop up are a function of distraction or laziness. They may manifest as fantasies, sleepiness or laboured breathing. The two cures are straightforward, either walk around a little until the mind is settled or focus the thoughts on one’s breathing.