There are three fundamental states of being, states of waking consciousness: the day-to-day experiences of self and other, the transitional state of naked awareness, and the direct experience of oneness and unity. The transitional state is the gateway to both the ordinary world of experience and the sublime world of wholeness and oneness.
The transitional state is the experience of open awareness that lies between time and timelessness, concept and direct present moment experience, subject-object duality and seamless connection, authentic peace and wisdom and its worldly counterfeits. This in-between space allows us access to both. It knows the truth of both. From the transitional experience of naked awareness transformation and change can take place.
We may be thrust into a transitional time and space through loss, disease, aging, or the inconsolable yearning for a larger life. Or, we may enter and cultivate the transitional space as a matter of personal evolution and development. Stated another way, we can be pushed from behind by suffering or pulled by life's extraordinary and precious possibilities.
What is it like to be in this in-between state that serves as a pivot to the inner and outer life, or if well cultivated, both. It certainly can be confusing as the outer world slowly loses some of its solidity, its false sense of impermanence, its reliability as a source of peace and happiness, and its overall false luster, all gained from years of mistaken training from family and culture. The confusion can be compounded by a sense of fear and dread, as we have a learned to seek comfort in the known and suffer initial discomfort when exposed to the truth of impermanence and groundlessness. Yet this transitional experience of clear awareness is the only path to the center of our experience, our heart space, our essential essence. It is the only path through which we can find a permanent home, peace, wisdom and authenticity in the center of the groundlessness we first approached we fear.
The possibility of self-knowing is only reserved for human consciousness. Only humans, if they wish and yearn, can make the choice to cultivate the depths of life with its natural well-being. The pivot is to move from an exclusively outer directed consciousness, to the transitional state of simple, present moment awareness, and increasingly hold it. This allows us to experience each moment exactly as it is without elaborating it from our past history. It allows a natural flow into the experience of the next moment without getting lost in freezing and ruminating on any one moment. Each moment is fresh, new, as it is, free from the coloring or shaping of our personal history.
Can you do it? Can you suspend for a moment the tenacity of the ordinary mind to enter into a deeper awareness and knowing? Can you experience this transitional state this transitional awareness between the material and immaterial, doing and being? Of course you can. Try something simple. Take a deep breath and hold it. During the hold you will experience a state of being without the monkey mind, without mental commentary, without reference to self, past, or future. It will likely drop away when you return to normal breathing, but at least you will have a taste.
Next, try closing your eyes and bringing your awareness to your breath. A simple awareness that notices the mere movements of the breath without commentary. Notice how your mind pulls you back from this moment-to-moment awareness to all kinds of mind-talk, leaving the present moment behind. Return to simply observing and noticing the breath whenever your mind wanders. This simple momentary undistracted awareness of the breath is a transitional state of being.
Try gazing. Gaze inwardly toward your mind or outwardly towards an object. Do not let your gaze be captured by the object or become lost in the object. Maintain a mid-point in this gaze, allowing the object of your gaze to lose some of its solidity and remain present as more of an "apparition" and "appearance." Gaze at your gaze. This neutral, non-solidifying gaze is the in-between open awareness, in-between the material world and the vast spaciousness of beingness.
Of course, for most of us this takes re-training our mind. That re-training is called meditation. The initial goal of meditation is to quiet the mind, the intermediate goal is to stabilize moment-to-moment awareness, and the final goal is to gain stable access to the wisdom and truth of unity consciousness. There we find the pinnacle of human flourishing.
All life transitions are navigated through the transitional state of awareness. When we stabilize the transitional state of awareness, we will, when fortunate and without effort, drop into the vast ocean of oneness and wholeness. We will arrive home and know, for the first time, the truth of who we really are behind our day-to-day persona. Our journey is to return to what we have always been and to know it with clarity, warm, and wisdom and live all of our humanity within this larger field of experience. This is the precious gift of transitional times and transitional awareness.
Transitions: The 6 Stages of a Life Transition
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