Having taught mindfulness for twenty years, I’ve noticed {that a} particular kind of meditation observe has dominated the sector for many years—classical mindfulness. Take note of your respiration, and when your consideration wanders, convey it again to your breath. It’s nice to observe this slim, object-focused, and effort-based mindfulness, however there’s additionally a mindfulness that’s wide-open, objectless, and easy. I name it pure consciousness.
Pure consciousness is a means of working towards wherein your focus is on consciousness itself, quite than on the issues you might be conscious of. It’s typically relaxed, easy, and spacious, and it will probably elicit a profound sense of well-being. The time period pure consciousness invitations you to note or rediscover the attention that already exists and is accessible to you at any second.
As a result of pure consciousness is difficult to outline, it’s primarily acknowledged experientially. Let me provide you with some markers for it. Experiencing pure consciousness can really feel like:
- Your thoughts is totally conscious and undistracted, with out doing something specifically to make your self conscious.
- Your thoughts is like huge open area, and all the pieces in it’s simply passing by.
- You might be conscious, however not recognized with the a part of you that’s conscious.
- Your thoughts feels at relaxation.
- You might be noticing that you’re noticing, and you might be abiding in that consciousness.
- Every little thing simply appears to be occurring by itself.
- You’re feeling a way of contentment not related to exterior circumstances.
- You might be merely being, with out agenda, and this beingness creates a sense of timelessness and ease.
The right way to Shift into Pure Consciousness
If in case you have an present mindfulness observe, let’s have a look at three deliberate shifts you can also make throughout your classical mindfulness meditation that time you towards pure consciousness. After getting evoked pure consciousness, you possibly can then attempt pure consciousness meditations to lengthen and deepen your expertise.
1. Enjoyable Effort
Effort in classical mindfulness meditation usually means you rigorously and faithfully return your consideration to our foremost focus, usually your respiration. Enjoyable your effort to shift into pure consciousness is a bit completely different. It means you rein within the tendency to place your consideration in your breath or different objects, and simply be with the objects as they come up.
Many meditators worry that in the event that they cease making an attempt, nothing will occur. Or their thoughts will wander everywhere in the event that they’re not making any effort to do one thing with it. However simply sitting down and never doing something wouldn’t be pure consciousness observe—it will be sitting down and doing nothing. Dropping or stress-free effort may be very completely different as a result of we’re tuning into the attention that’s already current, and so we don’t must attempt exhausting to get there.
Additionally, you received’t essentially have a wandering thoughts since you loosen up your effort after having labored exhausting to concentrate. Consider shifting into pure consciousness like driving a bicycle. You pedal actually exhausting, however then at a sure level you possibly can cease pedaling and coast. The bike stays upright, you’re nonetheless heading the place you wish to go, however you’re not working so exhausting. In actual fact, it’s fairly exhilarating.
So what does stress-free your effort really feel like while you’re meditating? It seems like stopping the try and wrestle together with your unruly thoughts, combating to convey it again to the current. As an alternative, you might be resting, stress-free, and exploring the attention that’s already current. It feels immensely joyful to cease the battle.
2. Broaden Your Consideration
In meditation as in life, your consideration may be narrowly or broadly centered. You may consider consideration as like a digital camera. Typically you employ a telescopic lens to give attention to one thing fairly slim, and typically you employ a panoramic lens to take a large panorama.
If you meditate, you possibly can apply slim or panoramic consideration. An instance of slim focus could be attending primarily to a single object, like your breath. Panoramic consideration is huge open—you discover many issues at play or simply have a common huge view.
Broad, panoramic consideration tends to be the kind of consideration current after we do pure consciousness observe. It doesn’t equal pure consciousness, but it surely does level us within the path of pure consciousness. As a result of most of us gravitate towards centered consideration in each meditation and day by day life, opening up panoramically can invite in pure consciousness. It counteracts our traditional forward-focus tendencies and permits our minds to relaxation and reset, sort of like a mind trip.
3. Drop Objects
As a practitioner of classical mindfulness, most likely crucial shift you can also make to ask in pure consciousness is to maneuver your consideration from an object to objectlessness.
Objects of meditation are, merely put, the stuff you give attention to, such because the breath, physique sensations, feelings, ideas, or sounds. Specializing in objects and attending to them is usually how we dwell our life as effectively.
Objectless consciousness is while you focus much less on the objects of consciousness and as an alternative give attention to the consciousness itself. Objects will come up in your meditation—ideas, feelings, sensations—however your focus is on the attention itself.
Experiencing Objectless Consciousness
When folks tune into objectless consciousness, they have a tendency to expertise it in three other ways.
It’s that wherein all the pieces is contained. “Our thoughts is just like the sky,” it’s typically mentioned, “and all the pieces in it’s like clouds floating by.” If you flip your consideration to the sky-like nature of your thoughts, noticing the boundless area round issues, you expertise a subject of huge consciousness wherein all the pieces is contained. Some folks expertise objectless consciousness on this means.
It’s that which is aware of. Most of us are used to specializing in objects after we meditate. However what occurs while you make the shift to noticing that which is conscious—to looking for the knower? When you begin looking for the knower, what do you discover?
As you discover issues, you may also discover the factor that notices issues. You may take your consideration from an outward give attention to objects and switch it inward, as should you had been reversing your consideration. You progress from that which you might be conscious of to that which is conscious of what you might be conscious of.
It’s that which simply is. Typically in objectless consciousness you expertise a deep felt sense that you’re conscious. You might be right here, totally current, and all the pieces appears to be occurring by itself. It might really feel like this consciousness is unshakable, that it’s spontaneously current, and that there’s nothing you are able to do to cease being conscious. It doesn’t matter what is occurring, together with ideas, you might be totally and uncompromisingly conscious.
Follow: Expertise Your Pure Consciousness
I invite you to provide pure consciousness a attempt. Carry to it a spirit of experimentation and curiosity. Benefit from the course of. And belief your self—should you assume you might be coming into the territory, you most likely are.
Listed below are a couple of “glimpse” practices you could insert into your classical mindfulness meditation. I like to recommend concentrating your thoughts for some time by noticing your respiration after which shifting over to one in all these practices:
Recollection
One of many easiest methods to entry pure consciousness is thru reminiscence. Let your self keep in mind a time while you felt awake, related, peaceable, and expansive—in a state of “beingness.” Don’t attempt too exhausting. Let it come to you in a easy means.
Now keep in mind the way you felt on the time. What did your physique really feel like? How about your coronary heart? See should you can invite in a full-bodied expertise of the reminiscence. Recall particulars: sight, scents, sounds, and every other sensory expertise.
Now discover what is occurring within the current second. See if a way of beingness is current for you, simply by your imagining a previous expertise. What does that beingness really feel like? Connectedness, ease, presence, leisure? Let your self relaxation right here.
Increase Your Area of Consciousness
Start with expanded listening—listening out to the far reaches of your listening to. When you’ve expanded your listening, open your eyes and broaden your imaginative and prescient. Let your visual field be expansive, noticing the area between issues and viewing peripherally. Then broaden your physique consciousness. First discover your again physique. Then start to broaden additional out, sensing the sector round, above, and beneath you in 360 levels.
At this level, your senses of listening to, sight, and feeling ought to all be expanded. From right here, you possibly can start to play with that enlargement. Are you able to keep expanded but in addition really feel embodied? Can you’ve got simultaneous internal and outer consciousness? What predominates?
If you discover your self tensing, simply loosen up your physique. It may be doable to remain related to just one subject (sight, sound, feeling), or maybe you possibly can really feel all of them concurrently. Relaxation on this consciousness for so long as you would like.
Thoughts Like an Ocean
Think about your thoughts is like an ocean. On the floor are uneven waves and turbulence. These are the dramas you get caught in: ideas, fears, feelings, and tales. Think about sinking beneath the floor into the infinite depth. Deep within the ocean is a boundless stillness that’s fully undisturbed by the turbulence above. Are you able to join with this deep tranquility? As soon as you possibly can sense it, see should you can relaxation there for some time.
