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We often hear the word consciousness mentioned. The word
comes up in philosophy, psychology and often appears in reference to meditation.
It is rarely mentioned without pages of explanations or no explanations at all. This
chapter will explore the nature of consciousness and how it is relevent to meditation. It will
start by looking at what it is and how it is an integral part of our meditation practice.
This will help us understand our underlying purpose for meditating and allow us to achieve more
from our practice.
Consciousness is a link that connects
our meditation practice with the goal of our meditation, Enlightenment. This is
the connection between our mind and our actions. The integration and
unification of our mind to form a single individual consciousness is the main role of
meditation. To return to pure consciousness and remember who we really are
means to become whole. To become whole means to know ourselves; our
unconsciousness has to be revealed and integrated with our consciousness in
order to provide us with our true identity. To understand our consciousness
we have to know our identity. We have created our identity from many sources, society, childhood,
work, and friends.
We are extremely conscious of our relations within society.
Our life revolves around our work and relationships. Our goals and routines are
organized and dictated by the necessities of our lifestyle. Our meditation
practice, our awareness, and our belief lead step by step to access our
uniqueness and develop fully our individual consciousness. We are each endowed
with unique aspects of consciousness. Becoming aware of our desires and feeling
for something or someone is a normal course of every day life. However
consciousness is an inner revelation or an inner state of being not an awareness
or an understanding. This is something infinitely deeper and more inward. We may
fulfil this desire or listen to our instincts and feel wonderful. However that
fleeting glimpse is short-lived.
By continuing our meditation and developing we will make
these wonderful feelings a permanent feature. Meditation allows us to build on
that identity and be comfortable with it. It allows us to align and harmonise our identity within all our states of
consciousness. Whether, unconscious, subconscious, conscious, or universal consciousness, all these states have to
be unified to allow us to live in harmony. This alignment
allows us to live in harmony by being and knowing our identity.
Furthermore this balance allows us to avoid the fragmentation of our identity as we develop
and interact in our relationships.
This balance is the result of a complete harmony in our consciousness. Enlightenment is the goal
for every person that has an interest in meditation. However in the
course towards enlightenment we learn about our true nature and our self.
This awareness awakens or reawakens an aspiring or dormant identity which is the precursor to
enlightenment. Enlightenment is a deeply personal event. In a few fleeting seconds we realise more about ourself then
we have known for years.
The ordinary human consciousness,
through meditation, will only connect us with something very limited, and at the same time very fleeting. It is these fleeting,
limited, silences that build and direct us towards our goal. The reawakening of
all aspects of our consciousness is the ultimate goal of meditation. We can not expect miracles from our meditation practice and
we must encourage and cultivate these fleeting experiences. This peek into enlightenment is the first stage
on our journey. It will lead us to a more permanent feeling of serenity
and security that will make all those hours of practice worthwhile.
For this permanence we no longer
depend on our awareness or concentration but our consciousness. This higher
consciousness is dormant in all of us. It is only aroused from concentration,
meditation, and contemplation. In our daily life we often have subtle
perceptions, desires, or instincts.We may associate these with our
consciousness. But our consciousness is fragmented and we only see bits and
pieces of it . The awareness, energy, silence and harmony that
we derive from meditation places the pieces and
fragments of our consciousness into place and allows us to grasp and
utilise our conscious and unconscious capabilities and achieve our goals.
(c)Copyright 2001 Pleasuredrome