Scholar

Recontextualizing Meditation

10 posts in this topic

I have recently discovered that what I viewed meditation to be has changed in a subtle but signficant way. Prior to this change, I viewed meditation as "Focusing", "Paying attention", "Letting go", "Inspecting" or "Being mindful". Basically it was something you would do, sitting down or otherwise, as some sort of exercise.

The way I look at it now is that there is no focusing, there is only Being with Reality. For instance, instead of "Being mindful of the stars", one would instead "Be with the stars". Even though this seems like a language game, in practice I found that it is not at all. The visualization of to be with or to be among has much more to do with dissolving into reality than "being mindful of". The "being with" seems to naturally dissolve the subject - experience divide.

Another interesting aspect is that it seems to involve love, it seems to involve connection. It is not about "Seeing or observing accurately", but rather about connecting to existence, connecting to the "substance" of realness. To be with reality like to be with a loved one, this "framing" makes it very easy for my mind to just go right into it, effortlessly.

When there is suffering, be with it as if it was lonely. Try to fill it with your presence. Connect with it, be with it. Don't look at it, be with it.

 

This also recontextualized choice for me. I now much more clearly see that I can choose between being with Love or being with Pleasure. It's not about the question of "Do I want to experience pleasure or love?" but rather, "Do I want to be with pleasure or love?". Once can go towards one or the other. It is not about possession, it is not about "experiencing" them, it is about stepping into these aspects of realness, of being with these aspects.

 

You are not an observer, but instead you are like a substanceless sphere which can swim through Realness or Maya. That through which you swim is that which you "experience". There is really no experiencing, there is only the swimming through. The swimming through is the Realness. There is no divide between the swimming and that through which is being swam. Meditation is like deeper swimming.

 

In essence, instead of observing, start connecting. That is all that needs to be done. Connect with Isness. You can start with a pencil, visualizes "connecting", "being with", "sharing love" and the mind will naturally do what it needs to do.


Glory to Israel

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

@Scholar yes you got it.

 You literally collapse into Being itself.   The perceiver collapses into isness.  You collapse form into formlessness. 

I like to think about that scientist observing a subatomic particle in quantum mechanics.  He is entangled with the very thing he is observing.    He cannot measure both the position and the velocity of the sub atomic particle simultaneously because the very act of trying to measure the object alters the outcome!   He and the object he is trying to measure are directly entangled.  

 


 

Wisdom.  Truth.  Love.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Some nice eep insights through direct experience. Thanks for sharing them with us ? ♥️ 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I tell people that there's no such thing as consciousness, and they call me a heretic.

Good share, thanks.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Not me @Truth Addict  I've been saying for years that consciousness is a working model, part of the mind-body duality. Great to see that @Scholar  has broken through from consciousness/awareness to isness/being.

@Scholar  out of interest, did this change happen spontaneously or as a result of you viewing your meditation differently? Just trying to figure out if there's a link with you changing your use of language and approach to meditation.
 


Everything is connected, but connections are only necessary from a fragmented point of view. What's the connection between two waves? The whole deep ocean which they are made of in the first place!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
54 minutes ago, MuddyBoots said:

Not me @Truth Addict  I've been saying for years that consciousness is a working model, part of the mind-body duality. Great to see that @Scholar  has broken through from consciousness/awareness to isness/being.

@Scholar  out of interest, did this change happen spontaneously or as a result of you viewing your meditation differently? Just trying to figure out if there's a link with you changing your use of language and approach to meditation.
 

It was a gradual change, it all kind of stemmed from multiple recognitions of Isness. The strange thing is that these insights or changes in awareness did not happen through me sitting and meditating, but usually were a consequence of contemplation after one of Leo's videos and then reaching the limitations of contemplation, as in seeing the absurdity and impossibility of every fascet of realness.

I listened to music while contemplating, music of this kind:

 

I don't know why, but somehow it gets me into a strange state. I am highly sensitive to specific kind of music, extreme emotional reactions that really exhaust me after a certain period of time. There is contemplation, a state of flow, then the glaring limitation of contemplation, thought and logic. And then there is just impossibility, a recognition of the magic behind, or rather on, the scenes. It is obvious that all aspects of reality are irreducable, they are existence itself. Redness is Redness, and it is as real as anything can get.

To recognize that Redness, an aspect of reality most mundane and common to us, is utterly mysterious and magical, that will definitely help out with some of the confusion. When you see redness, you will also see Goodness and Badness. You will start "seeing" everything for what it is. It will make no sense anymore to say things like "Reality is meaningless", it will be like saying "Blue is yellow". Blue is blue, yellow is yellow. Meaninglessness is meaninglessness. Meaning and meaningless are two aspects of realness that are there, right within our being. They are there. It makes no sense to say there is no good and evil when there clearly is, however nothing can ever be good and evil but good and evil itself.

No action can be good, just like no action can be red. One aspect of being can never be the other. Sound is not vision, so how could murder ever be evilness?

After a few of these recognitions I seem to have deconstructed more and more intuitive assumptions. Like the subject - subjectivity duality, but more importantly the object - trait duality. For example before there could be a horse, a horse that was brown, a horse that was fast, a horse that was hairy. Now, there is horseness, brownness, fastness, hairiness.

The language came after the recognition, but the language change gave way for more deeper recognition. In this way, the concepts of mind and reality, subject and consciousness, do not fit anymore. They seem redundant, they seem delusional. Deliberately delusional.

Then there is a even deeper recognition of delusion, and a recognition that delusion is magical. It is literally impossible, it is literally magic. And it is Creation. It is amazing, it is utterly wonderful. All understanding is magical, as is Redness.

 

In the end there is just this weird sense of utter magic, framing is really unimportant, as the frame is recognized for the frame. The frame is the frame. At this point it makes no sense to become more aware, because awareness, attention and mind were part of the frame. At this point, thought becomes Being. One can connect to thoughtness itself, as one can connect with Redness itself. Language at this point is utterly magical, it is literally impossible, it is irreducable.

The magic of the redness becomes the magic of the thought. It is poetry, poetry is magic.

Now "Being with reality" is not an act, it is not casual. It is magic. The magic that despite it all being a delusion, it is Isness itself. Despite it being thought, it is Isness. Isness is beyond all comprehension, yet it is also comprehension.

 

Where I am now is at a strange wall where even Isness- Beingness start to fall apart. They seem to not make any more sense. A realm in which Redness does not exist, in which Redness doesn't "is". A realm in which Redness reds. Redness reds. Blueness blues. Goodness goods.

No seperation at all, pure Blueness, pure Redness. So pure there is not even purity. Magic does not exist. Magic magics.

 

It is so interesting, because from the perspective of language this just looks like a language game. Redness reds? Well, that just means Redness is red, does it not? This is beyond the meaning of the words, a lack of recognition will not allow one to see it. It seems like there is no difference between "Higher consciousness" and "Lower consciousness". Both of them are pure magic, they are the rawest form of reality possible. They are rawness itself. Going from "higher" to "lower" consciousness just is different Isness.

Edited by Scholar

Glory to Israel

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

@Scholar

This was the most enjoyable thing that I've read on the forum since a very long time. To be honest, there are some points that I don't completely understand, but still, it makes a lot of sense. Thank you.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This perspective is great. On rare occasion, I will feel this perspective with meditation but unfortunately monkey mind continued to be a very problematic feature of my meditation sessions. Since then Ive been doing deliberate practices aimed at settling my mind’s energy and training attention’s focusing. My intention is to be able to reach deep states of samatha and then returning meditation to its purest form which is just Being. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!


Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.


Sign In Now