(Note: This blog is longer than my usual blog, but it is important)
It has been over four decades since the practice of meditation entered the Western world. We can call this initial effort Meditation 1.0. Those who brought meditation to the West understood its traditional intent and aim. In their wisdom they choose to introduce it to the West by first addressing the tender spots in Western suffering – a relentless overactive mind, personal stress, persistent emotional afflictions, and the scourge of addictions.
Consider this. For a week after the Buddha’s enlightenment in Bodh Gaya he remained silent, contemplating how to teach the profound insights and understandings he had realized. His insight was to first teach about suffering. Everyone can relate to suffering. Everyone wants to avoid suffering. Thus, his first teaching in Sarnath was on the Four Noble Truths – the cause and remedy for suffering. It is in a similar manner that meditation teachings entered the West, first addressing the most urgent concerns of modern times, our unique form of suffering.
Meditation 1.0
As we witness its rapid, successful, and wide spread integration into Western culture, the wisdom of first introducing meditation as a method of addressing stress and distress is now apparent, For example, when I first started teaching meditation in the 1970s, I had to carefully choose the individuals I would introduce to this practice, even though I worked as a physician at a health-oriented organization, Kaiser Permanente. Even there such practices were looked upon as suspicious, when seen from the perspective of mainstream medicine. But now, look in whatever direction you wish and there is a meditation program. Meditation has become fully integrated into our culture largely because of the decision to first target the sore spots of modernity – teaching individuals the methods to quiet the mind and diminish stress and distress. These are the specific and limited goals of Meditation 1.0. - the preliminary phase of an authentic meditation practice.
But these initial goals, however important in advancing the improvement of personal well-being, were only the “teaser.” The real, but initially hidden intent of meditation, is far more subtle and broad-based. Relaxation techniques are only a way to subtly guide and seduce individuals into the authentic aim of meditation. These preliminary techniques cannot overcome the fundamental causes of suffering or emotional afflictions. They cannot lead to a full and authentic awakening that frees us form the relentless habits of perception (that limit the full scope of awareness) and reactions (that are chained to the past, )which are built into the ordinary mind. They cannot take us towards full freedom and human flourishing - a stable serenity, enduring happiness, penetrating wisdom, and boundless freedom.
Meditation 1.0 is self-improvement. The self that is being improved is the ego self. Meditation enhances the quality and capacity of the ego “I.” It helps to create a healthy human life, and that is important. But it cannot go beyond. It cannot transform the fundamental character of our life. Self-improvement neither addresses nor frees us from the limitations and vulnerabilities of the ordinary mind and ego. We can gain a healthier life, but it is unstable and falsely comforts us with an illusory sense that we have realized the great potential of human life, when we have only created, for a moment, a more comfortable and pleasurable life.
The Ordinary “I”
Let’s briefly speak about the ordinary day-to-day ego self. It is quite different than our authentic essential self. The “I” self or ego self is our usual self image. It is an acquired collection of memories, identities, established ways of perceiving, fixed beliefs, and repetitive patterns of reaction. It is shaped by past experience. It is limited, contracted, ruminates on the past, and projects into the future. It is the source of afflictive emotions that are rooted in the past – fear, anxiety, guilt, shame, doubt, and so on. This person/self lives in time and expresses itself as thoughts, feelings, mental images, and shifting identities. It is trapped in a self-contained, self-righteous, self-cherishing and defensive posture. It cannot see outside of itself. We are trapped within its limited world, but we do not know that we are trapped. The only hint is the subtle dissatisfaction which intermittently shows up throughout life and a tenacious itch that quietly suggests there must be something more to life.
Please don’t take this to mean that the ordinary self is incapable of great achievements in its efforts at self-improvement, altruism, or its noble aim of creating a better world. However, the usual “I,” regardless of its achievements cannot alleviate the fundamental sources of human suffering, its expression in global disorder, or its role in creating planetary degradation. For this we must move beyond our ordinary self and its limitations, even the improved ordinary self. We must re-discover, remember, and live from our authentic and essential self, which has always been with us, although long forgotten
The Authentic Natural Self
What about the authentic self? What can we say about its nature? Do you remember a time when you were fully immersed in nature and your usual sense of self was suspended? Do you remember a time when the experience of great beauty, music, dance, or extremes of exercise calmed your mind and a sense of ease and peace permeated your being? Perhaps you have observed that at the peak of orgasm the ordinary self, time, and thought are suspended and the mind is clear, at rest, and open? Each of these experiences is a momentary and unstable glimpse of the natural mind, the natural self. But they are only glimpses.
In each case the mind is temporarily emptied of its usual self – thoughts, feelings, judgments, and identities, sense of time -past and future - and the usual thinking process. One is just present, without commentary, in the “empty” moment as it is. What remains is a state of simple awareness, openness, clarity, ease, and serenity. This natural presence is impervious to fear, anxiety, or negative emotions, which can only arise in the field of our ordinary self and its relationship to past and future.
Our essential self is impersonal. It is absent the memories, beliefs, and habits of our usual “I” and ordinary self-image. It’s a simple and natural moment-to-moment awareness that observes what is without adding anything to it – names, labels, ideas, and so on. It has no content. That is the Self we came into the world with – a simple presence and beingness. It observes, appreciates and cleanly experiences each moment, letting it go as the next moment arises. That is the Self we briefly glimpse when our ordinary self is suspended. The next time you get a glimpse, rest in it, experience it – you now know what you are experiencing, your essential self.
There is a knowing in this awareness, but not the usual sort of knowing. It is not a thought-based knowing that comes from past experience. Rather, it is an “aha” insightful knowing that arises from the capacity to see things as they actually are, unaltered by past experience. When a mother’s child falls off a boat into the water she knows instantly without thought the danger at hand. When you are in immediate danger you also know instantly without thought. Our authentic self has a profound and natural way of spontaneous and precise knowing. Spontaneous because it arises naturally by itself and precise because it experiences what is as is in contrast to being filtered through past experience.
And do not fear that this Self cannot act. It can. But, it does not act out of past history. It does not act out of thought. It does not react. Action from the authentic self is spontaneous and always fully aligned with what is actually called for. The mother jumps in to the water to rescue her child and you run out of the way of an oncoming car. No thought. No reaction. Just correct action based on the ability of the natural self to see what is as is. Remember a time when you immediately knew how to respond to a circumstance without thought – and that knowing was unquestionably right and precise. That is the knowing of your deeper Self.
Once we rest in the natural self we notice that it feels like home. It is effortless, clear, still, and serene. It remains present through the adversities and challenges of human life. It is an unchanging resilient ocean of calm. You experience it as more than close to you. It is you. The acquired self is seen as merely a temporary mental creation, helpful at times, but destructive, if you think it is who you actually are.
Meditation 2.0
Many of us have studied the methods of Meditation 1.0 – calming the mind, mindfulness, and resting in stillness – both in formal practice and day-to-day life. We have seen that this can lead to self-improvement and a healthier life. That is without question a significant life achievement. But, we have also seen that we can spend decades using these practices and methods and neither gain mental stability nor awaken to our deeper self and its qualities of human flourishing.
So it is appropriate to inquire about the methods or approaches related to moving beyond your ordinary self towards your authentic Self. There are many methods or circumstances that briefly silence the ordinary mind with its thoughts, feelings, and images. They offer a glimpse of your natural self. These include: breath holding, the fleeting mental emptiness the follows a hardy cough, the shock of a loud sound, extremes of exercise, immersion in nature, the peak of orgasm, or unexpected experiences that for a moment shock and stop the ordinary mind. If you are aware of these moments when they occur, rest in them and experience a brief glimpse of the emptiness, openness, and stillness of your essential self.
However, stabilizing a glimpse of your essential nature requires more than temporarily stopping the ordinary mind. Living full time from your natural self arises through understanding the two aspects of self, cultivating the ability to maintain attention on awareness rather than on the objects of awareness, the capacity and willingness to dissolve personal identity (who you think you are,) and the ability, born of familiarization, to rest unmoved in a simple, direct, and unconditioned awareness. We cultivate these capacities not only in formal practice, but also in each moment of life.
The understanding I have spoken about is knowing the distinction between the ordinary self and the essential self, conditioned knowledge shaped by the past and spontaneous direct knowing, the contracted self and the expanded divine self. These progressive understandings are achieved through direct inquiry into the workings of ones mind. The still mind is a laboratory ripe for exploration and understanding.
Understanding through observation and inquiry leads to the next aspect of practice - cultivating and stabilizing the capacity to shift ones attention away from the object of experience (material phenomena or mental movements) to awareness itself. Your attention shifts from a mental grasping to the object to an attention to the subject – to the moment-to-moment awareness. This is a movement away from the seductive content of the personal “I” to the impersonal awareness that perceives and observes all experience.
Dropping ones ordinary identity is called the “via negative.” We progressively remove our attention from all that is not our essential self (identities, thought, emotions, judgments, past, future, and so on) until we naturally arrive at an “empty mind. This does not mean that mental appearances cease to arise in the mind, but rather that the mind is still because our lack of attention to mental activity allows them to rapidly dissolve.
Resting in this still, clear, empty, naked awareness, for the first time we know experience as it actually is – unfiltered, unconditioned by the past, and unaltered by mental commentary. Living from this radical presence may at first seem tenuous and strange, as we have long ago abandoned our true self. It may also be difficult because our ordinary “I” has no interest in giving ups its authority over our life. So it will do all it can to resist our return home, dragging us back again and again to ordinary experience.
The sequence in formal meditation practice is quieting the mind, emptying out all that is not our essential self, cultivating an open and unconditioned awareness, and resting and experiencing the peace, wisdom, and freedom of our essential self– no history, no stuff, no drama – just what is as is in the now. At this stage we are no longing doing a meditation. We are experiencing life as a natural - moment-to-moment flow – holding on to nothing and experiencing everything,
Not only do we practice this in formal sessions, but most importantly we do so throughout the day. Each moment we bring our self back to direct awareness of the “now.” We return to an awareness of what is actually happening, drop all commentary, and stay in the moment When we are in the now the ordinary self is not active, past and future are not present, the objects of our experience come and go, and what remains is a pure choiceless awareness. And that is who you are. Finally you are home.
This is the essence of Meditation 2.0 – awakening to the expansive nature of your essential self with all of its excellent qualities. There will be obstacles put up by the ordinary “I” – doubt, confusion, judgments, and so on, but in time you will recognize them and learn to let them come and go. As you progress you will realize through experience your true nature, stabilizing it so it is the “operating system” that you live from. You will have transcended the helpful but limiting effects of relaxation practices, Meditation 1.0, and shift towards the full awareness and potential that is your human birthright.
Capable assistance is of great help, as with any learning process. That assistance is not as much a transfer of knowledge as it is simple guidance in self-inquiry. As you learn to observe and inquire from the basis of a still mind, you will discover and realize what all seekers before you have learned. Your wisdom and full beingness are within you, now and always. By piercing through the veils that obscure your original nature and abandoning the methods and practices that offer only temporary comfort, you will find the ever-present golden treasure that is no other than your true Self.
www. elliottdacher.org