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.

2.3.5 The transformation of consciousness. 

 Since we in the West know so little of the transformation of consciousness, which is the natural goal for each one of us, we lack both the framework and the terms of reference to articulate the experience. This, in part, is why it is difficult to describe the successful experience of meditation. Nonetheless, the benefits are substantial and indeed, in their full significance, immeasurable.

Whilst these benefits cannot be spelled out, pointers can be provided for a consciousness experiencing them, giving a framework within which to understand them. This is to be found in observing the passage of thoughts during meditation. After a time, when the work has begun to develop and mature, it becomes possible to experience the following.

One learns to focus the attention on one’s breathing, and is able to monitor its duration and frequency. At the same time, one has learnt to halt the flow of fantasy, to end a particular stream of thought at will. One is sitting quite still, the breathing quiet, relaxed and natural, and one is able to move the attention from the breathing to the stream of thoughts at will.

This is a position of great ambiguity, and many wonderful experiences are possible in this state. It is very difficult to concentrate on the breathing for sustained periods; always the thoughts drift off. Equally if one exercises self-discipline and ends the stream of fantasy by becoming aware of what one is thinking, it is very hard to restrict the thoughts to one’s breathing.

In that experience of pivoting between arid fantasy and pure clarity of awareness of breathing lies the seed of profound transformation of consciousness. If one continues in this practice of alternating between simple awareness of the present moment and exercising conscious control over the flow of thoughts by simply ending the current thought, one gradually becomes aware of a different type of thought. This is a product of the sixth sense, insight or intuition.

These thoughts are quite different from the thoughts of ordinary consciousness. They are not a reflection on reality, as are ordinary thoughts; rather they are a direct experiencing of reality. Consciousness and reality are in the process of integrating.

These thoughts are an organic part of reality. They reflect an awareness of reality in a particular consciousness, in a form appropriate to the level of clarity and terms of reference of that person at that place and time. The experience of these thoughts can be couched within any religious or spiritual framework; equally it is accessible to those who operate without such a framework, such as atheists or agnostics.