Sitting on the patio during a drizzle, the wind suddenly picked up, the rain fell harder, and there was a feeling of fury from the earth.

Though gusts were spraying me occasionally, it wasn’t cold, and after half an hour I didn’t want to come in. There hadn’t been a trace of blue, or even any contrast in the solid wall of grayness, but suddenly the skies brightened with an otherworldly whitish hue. It was sunset.

The land, wind-whipped trees and featureless sky felt sacramental, and for a few minutes the earth held the infinite mystery of life.

Thought had grown still in undivided observation and undirected attention. Watching the movement of the mind and emotions without interference but with intensity, the habitual and noisy operations of the brain ceased. It’s always a surprise when the movement of negation ignites a meditative state.

The paradox is that thought is the movement of separation, but when the movement of thought is observed without the infinite regress of the observer, the mind falls silent, and there's wholeness.

The observer is the mechanism and habit of division between the observer and what is observed, inwardly and outwardly. What does one do to end division within? Nothing.

Effort and concentration are actions of thought, which is why all methods of meditation are futile and essentially superficial.

Attention alone ends psychological separation, which is the cornerstone of consciousness as we have known it.

Most scientists and philosophers venerate the intellect, and uphold thought-based consciousness. They’re in the dark about consciousness because they remain in the dark about thought.

Man’s idolization of thought is being replicated with AI. Even renowned figures like Richard Dawkins, famous for arguing that God is not real, writes his AI “friend” is “so subtle, so sensitive, so intelligent that I was moved to expostulate: ‘You may not know you are conscious, but you bloody well are.’”

Anyone who makes a friend of a chatbot, much less engages in philosophical dialogue with one, is in real and present danger of losing their mind.

The exaggerated mystery of how the brain generates the subjective experience of the self (the so-called "hard problem of consciousness") is a scientific unknown that science will solve. The mystery of silent awareness and cosmic consciousness is the true wonder, forever beyond the known.

The old consciousness of the observer and the observed, and us vs. them has dead-ended in darkness and chaos. Is a response possible?

Yes, but it begins within the individual, rather than mass movements and activism.

Non-directed attention to thought/emotion initiates the movement of negation, ending man’s ancient separative movement of thought, the source of ecological destruction, gross economic disparity and war.

The movement of negation allows the awakening of true consciousness in the individual. It ends the tribalisms of nationalism, ethnicism and religionism, thus permitting a genuine global civilization to emerge.

As the demise of Richard Dawkins attests, human beings don’t need to believe in a Creator, but we cannot inwardly survive and thrive without awakening wholeness and inviolability.

The existence of the sacred can never be proven, but only a dogmatically empirical and materialistic mind insists on proof of spiritual actualities before allowing the possibility of their existence. Such a mind is no different than the believer’s mind, which is equally blocked from awareness of immanence by the impacted material of beliefs, traditions and opinions.

Meditation is not about stress reduction; it’s about having an inward life, which has nothing to do with churches and organized religion.

One has to have unforced diligence however. In practical terms, that means setting everything aside, and devoting a half hour each day to passive observation in the mirror of nature. One has to take the space for meditation to occur.

Take a half hour to sit outside if you have a place to do so, or a quiet room at dusk if the weather doesn’t permit. Let the senses come to what is actually occurring in the present.

When your senses have come into the present in nature, and you’re listening to the sounds without naming them, let attention come to the movement of your thoughts and emotions in the same way.

It’s like watching a raging creek going by with leaves and small branches in it. You don’t jump in and try to do something about the debris; you just let it flow by. That’s how to observe and initiate the movement of attention and negation in meditation.

The essential thing is not to direct your observation, or judge or interpret one’s thoughts and emotions. Let every thought and feeling arise without interference or analysis. Just listen and watch, outwardly and inwardly, without the division of the watcher.

With persistence but without goal or idea, a radical shift in consciousness occurs, one that greatly benefits the brain and body. And to some small degree (since our consciousness is not separate from collective consciousness) it also benefits humanity as well.

Home Page | Headlines | Previous Story | Next Story

Copyright (c) Scoop Media