5.2 What are the differences between the first stage of enlightenment and an awareness based on a gradual integration into, and involvement with, your wider cultural environment?

The primary function of this book is to provide a simple self-help technology which, with committed daily use, leads to the first significant transformation in consciousness. The technology leading to the full understanding of reality through experience is beyond the scope of this book. The secondary function of this book is to enhance the implicate technology skills developed to attain the first stage of enlightenment, so that you will be able to set your life in harmony with the wider cultural forces shaping your environment: the moral, social, economic and political conditions.

To achieve this, one needs both a model of reality and an understanding of the true nature of meditation. The model of reality serves as a goal; only when the accuracy and completeness of the model is realised is the final stage of enlightenment attained. Meditation is the priceless, free tool available to each of us to assist us in the transforming and transcending of the conditions of our lives.

The model of reality is this: the true nature of reality is consciousness without content, which none the less permits all contents to exist. This cannot be understood within the range of experiences accessible to a person with a normal level of consciousness. A person who has attained the first stage of enlightenment is correctly positioned at the start of the path which leads towards understanding the fulness and unity of reality through experience.

The experience you are aiming for is to understand what is meant by a consciousness without content. To be able to experience this, you must develop your understanding through further committed daily practice of meditation. The true purpose of meditation is to develop your ability to still the process of thinking.

To still the thinking, to transcend the thought process, is a skill which you will develop, quite naturally and spontaneously, through meditation. As your everyday experience unfolds, you will gradually realise that your experience up to attaining the first stage of enlightenment has completely misled you as to the nature of reality. The goal of the culturally integrated and committed level of awareness, as discussed extensively in chapter 2 of The advanced guide to enlightenment, is to understand, with an intuitive certainty of knowledge, the true nature of’ reality; keep in mind, though, that this is not yet direct experience of the true nature of reality.

5.4 What is the meditation on the model of reality?

The root Implicate Technology image of reality is: consciousness without content, which none the less permits all contents to exist. The truth of this is all-embracing. The function of this meditation is limited to preparing your understanding only; the meditations leading to experience of the final stage of enlightenment will be included in the follow-up teaching from the Implicate Technology Centre on the nature and purpose of reality: The advanced guide to enlightenment.

The nature of your mind reflects the nature of reality: your mind is a microcosm of reality. The first stage of the process leading to a fully unfolded experience of reality is to develop an understanding of your mind. When you have understood the structure and functioning of your mind, you will then be in a position to experience the inherent unity and fulness of reality.

The function of meditation, when sustained with committed effort over time, is to produce a still mind. Put simply, this is the mind in its natural state, fully aware and freed from the tyranny of the thought process. You need give no thought at this stage to this process of developing a still mind; it will occur quite naturally as you develop your work in meditation, as taught in this chapter and chapter 2 of The advanced guide to enlightenment.

The mind, when uninhibited by the process of having thoughts, perceives clearly that the true experience of reality is of existence unfolding spontaneously, according to the inherent implicate laws. A measure of your progress towards advanced meditation is the development of the capacity to experience your life as unfolding naturally and spontaneously. Be clear: any thought or action, occurring outside of Act‘s guidelines, acts against the flow of reality and incurs negative karmic consequences, whose nature will be according to the true needs of your nature.

Through sustained, committed meditation, the thought-process slows gradually and imperceptibly. The richest fruits of meditation can only be realised once one understands, through experience, that the true nature of mind is emptiness and silence. A measure of your progress towards the advanced meditative practices is to be found in the relative decrease in the pace of the thoughts; when you experience thoughts as unfolding interminably and endlessly, but more slowly this week than last week, then you are progressing in meditation.

A mind which has attained emptiness and silence is far more aware and more powerful than a mind operating at the level of normal consciousness or the first stage of enlightenment. Such a mind is aware of its contents and is no longer preoccupied with compulsive satisfaction of needs and desires. The world, as rich and beautiful as ever in its fulness, still unfolds moment by moment, but it no longer dominates consciousness.

When the fulness of the world ceases to press on consciousness, then the mind turns naturally towards understanding the nature and purpose of reality. Before you can fully understand reality through experience, you must understand the nature of your own mind. You must first understand that the thoughts in your mind create your experience of reality.

From your own attainment of the psychological stage of enlightenment, you will be aware how the experience of emotional conditions is significantly determined by one’s unconscious emotional projections. The emotions you were unaware of, before the first stage of enlightenment, none the less deeply shaped the experiences of your life. Changes in your feelings produced corresponding changes in your conception of the external world.

From your current, relatively enlightened, perspective, you now can understand that the emotional conditions experienced are relatively illusory, because they are the externalised products of mind. There is a general principle embodied here which is equally applicable to all conditions. Meditate on this long and hard; when you have developed an intuitive understanding of this principle, you will be clearly set on the path to advanced meditation.

5.6 What is the meditation on hearing?

Not all of the confirmatory experiences can be expressed in words; reality is too simple and unified for words. What you will experience is a function of your own nature and karma. If you accept these experiences as real, then they are real to you.

The purpose of these confirmatory experiences is to help you to understand the links between your own nature and reality. As you will gradually learn, the experiencing of reality solely through the five senses is limited and relatively illusory compared to the experiencing of the enlightened state. This meditation on hearing is an illustration of the general principle that reality is not structured, and does not function, in a way that is comprehensible within the limitations of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch.

Reality only becomes comprehensible when one activates one’s sixth sense of direct intuitive perception. Committed daily practice of meditation develops your sixth sense. As your intuitive perception of reality unfolds, you will experience a subtle, but real and lasting, change in your sense of hearing.

As the meditation takes holds and produces fruit, one’s way of hearing alters, naturally and spontaneously. One becomes aware of hearing the ordinary sounds of the environment in a different way. One experiences sounds in this way: each is heard quite clearly, quite separately, and each is equally significant in your hearing.

Through meditation on this experience, one comes to realise how constrained is the hearing of normal consciousness. The lesson of this meditation is simple. Life is: become aware.

5.7.2 The first step is to retain the sexual energy your body generates.

If you are a man, this means retaining semen through avoiding ejaculation. If you are a woman, this means avoiding the release of sexual energy when menstruating. [The original text stated incorrectly “If you are a woman, this means avoiding the release of sexual energy through clitoral orgasm”.] The remainder of this chapter is written from the viewpoint of male sexual energy. [Females will gain by reading this chapter, and also see Comments below this paragraph for further information from a female perspective.]

Practice of this meditation does not preclude any form of sexual activity, provided it is in accord with Act. The meditation may also be practised during periods of celibacy or by renouncing sexual activity through chastity, provided such activities occur within the guidelines of Act. The key lies in retaining your sexual energy, not in the nature of your sexual activity.

Sexual activity involving this meditation can occur on your own through masturbation, or with a partner or partners. The practice for males in each case is the same : learn to refrain from physiologically-based orgasm. As you develop in this practice, through repeated failure then gradual success, you will begin to understand, slowly and naturally, the power inherent in your psycho-physiological system.

The practice of this meditation is the same for a person who does not experience orgasms. Your body’s adaptive powers will compensate in a natural way. The essence of the technique for both sexes lies in transmuting retained sexual energy.

The goal for males is not complete abstention from physiological orgasm. A fair but demanding target to set yourself is thirty days between orgasms. Be clear: this need not mean thirty days between sexual activities; that is a function of personal choice and the circumstances of your life.

Do not delude yourself that physiological orgasm is a great pleasure and release which males cannot do without. You only think this because you have nothing to compare such orgasms with. Be assured: the pleasures you will experience, on many levels of your being, will transcend, in intensity and power, anything unenlightened sexual activity can offer.

The actual techniques you use to refrain from physiological orgasm are a matter of personal experience and choice, subject to Act. There are many books offering sound advice for men on delaying ejaculation; there are now some books for women on reducing or eliminting blood-loss through menstruation. Our culture promotes achieving orgasm for both men and women: as you develop in this meditation, you will come to understand, through personal experience, that the key sexual activity is to practise retaining the sexual energy naturally and spontaneously produced by your body.

The key to realising this control is to understand, through meditation, that a physiologically-based orgasm is triggered by mental activity. As you learn to control your mind, you will learn to control your orgasms. All physically-based control techniques are inferior to this level of mental control.

5.7.3.2 The second step: understanding the retained energy

This may usefully be read by both sexes, although it refers primarily to the male aspirant. The method of releasing yourself from the tensions sweeping your body and mind is twofold. Firstly, at any time, enter into the deep, slow breathing you have become accustomed to from your meditation practice. Secondly, learn to raise your retained energy from the sexual energy centre in your groin to the highest energy centre at the crown of your head.

Begin with a transition, willed or spontaneous, to deep, slow, meditative breathing. Do this during sexual activity, while working, while just relaxing at home or in any circumstances you can. The meditative breathing will help you to become centred in the midst of conditions.

This is a process you learn to achieve by experience. There are virtually no sets of conditions during which meditative breathing cannot be entered into. You must be your own teacher in this matter.

Now, with greater or lesser ease, you have settled into meditative breathing. Your psycho-physiological organism, your mind and body, is in a state of tension. You need or desire the release of orgasm.

For the male, the source of this disturbance in your whole organism is the sexual energy you have retained through not experiencing the pleasure and release of physiological orgasm. This energy, naturally produced every day by your body, and retained either by your body’s natural functioning or by an act of experienced will, is located, at first, in the sexual energy centre. For both sexes, your task now is to raise this energy to the crown energy centre: by first achieving, then sustaining, this practice, you generate all the power you will need to transform your experience of reality.

5.7.3.4 The second step: raising the sexual energy.

(This paragraph is relevant to both sexes.) Begin, then, the second step of the meditation on sexual energy. This involves a focussing of your awareness. This is simple to explain but hard for you to realise. Once you have gained the experience and skills to realise this step of the meditation, the natural functioning of your organism will spontaneously take over, and the energy will circulate, without any effort on your part, in a harmonious manner.

The practice required to raise the sexual energy, to power your own internal dynamic forces is simple. During the deep, slow in-breath, visualise the energy travelling from your groin, up your spine, to the very top, the crown, of your skull. During the deep, slow out-breath, visualise the energy travelling down from the crown, through the roof of your mouth, which your tongue is touching, down the front of the chest, through the abdomen, and back to the groin.

At the beginning of this practice the energy will most likely move in your imagination only. But as your skill develops with unwavering determination, you will, in time, experience the actual movement of this energy. Be assured that this is fact, not theory or fantasy.

If it helps you in the early stages, focus your awareness on an image of erotic significance to you, and in your imagination visualise this image located at the crown of your head. This is an aid which should be discarded once you have learned to raise your sexual energy. To be successful in your quest for enlightenment, you must face reality directly, not through your fantasies.

Once the energy begins to circulate naturally, spontaneously and effortlessly, the tensions in your organism will begin to resolve themselves. Your power and understanding will grow, as the circulating energy is transmuted into a clearer and clearer understanding of the nature and purpose of reality. Without succeeding in this practice, you cannot attain the final stage of enlightenment: success is available to you, regardless of the conditions of your life, provided you Act and meditate with unwavering determination.