We live most of our life through three states of consciousness: waking, dreaming and sleeping.
In the waking state of consciousness, we experience the world through the five senses. We seek elevation and joy from these senses. If any one of the senses is missing, the entire dimension of that sense is lost. One who cannot hear is bereft of the whole arena of sound. Similarly, he who cannot see is deprived of all the beautiful sights and colors. So, the sense is more important and much bigger than the object of the sense.
The mind is higher than the senses. The mind is infinite, its desires are many, but the capacity of the senses to enjoy is limited. Greed is wanting more and more of sensory objects. Even though one can only enjoy a limited amount during a lifetime, one wants all the wealth in the world.
Giving too much importance to sensory objects leads to greed; giving too much importance to the senses leads to lust; and giving too much importance to the mind and its desires leads to delusion.
We hold on to the concepts of the mind and want things to happen in a certain way. Thus, the concepts in our mind impede us from perceiving the infinite consciousness that is a part of us. This is not to say that the senses or the mind are bad. But we must learn to discriminate between things and be aware of what is happening at all times; that is when clarity dawns on us. This is the first step toward the higher state of consciousness.
In the waking state, one is constantly engaged in looking, eating, working, etc. The other extreme is the sleeping state where one is completely cut off and dull. The dullness and heaviness linger even after waking. The more one sleeps, the duller one feels since a lot of energy is expended in sleep. Then there is the dreaming state where one is neither asleep nor awake. Here, you neither feel at rest nor are aware of your surroundings.
Meditation
The higher state of consciousness is somewhere in between the waking, sleeping and dreaming states. Here, we know we "are" but we don't know "where" we are. This knowledge that I "am," but I don't know "where" I am or "what" I am, is called Shiva. This state gives the deepest possible rest that one can experience. And one can achieve this through meditation.
Meditation helps in two ways -- it prevents stress from entering the system and simultaneously releases accumulated stress. With the assimilation of meditation into daily life, a higher state of consciousness called cosmic consciousness dawns within us. Cosmic consciousness perceives the whole universe as part of oneself. When we perceive the world as a part of us, love flows strongly between the world and us. This love empowers us to overcome the opposing forces and the disturbances in life. Anger and disappointments become fleeting emotions that occur momentarily and then vanish.
A higher state of consciousness will not simply happen one fine morning. The sapling of consciousness is within you -- it needs to be nurtured through spiritual practices like meditation. Some coconut trees yield in three years, and some in 10 years. And those that are not nurtured never yield, they simply exist.
Attaining higher states of consciousness does not require any complicated strategy; one just needs to learn the art of letting go. The confluence of knowledge, understanding and practice makes life complete. When you grow into higher states of consciousness, you find that you are no longer thrown off-balance by different situations and disturbances. You become strong yet soft -- a delicate and beautiful individual capable of accommodating different values in life without any conditions. As your consciousness opens and the whole system gets physically, mentally and spiritually elevated, your life truly becomes worth living.
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Wendy Strgar: Gratefully in a Body
Now if there was a way to message you privately through this venue, I would. But apparently I can't, so I would like to ask you if you would review a theory of consciousness I've developed and tell me what you think of it, it's at http://light.simanonok.com . It's all about Light, of course!
This is the technique I practice:
http://www.ananda.org/meditation/support/techniques/hong-sau/
I hope this is helpful. Aum.
Before we can learn to stop thought, we need to learn how to control thought, and in order to learn how to control thought, we need to learn how to focus, very very intensely.
You can google meditation techniques, or focusing techniques. I like meditations where you focus on a yantra (sacred geometric diagram), or a mantra (sacred sound), or a chakra (energy center in your energy body). But, for beginners, or people interested in pranayama, just focusing on your breath is enough... breathe in deeply, breath out deeply. Count to three on each inhale and exhale. You'll be so busy counting, you won't be thinking about how you forgot to mail the check for your electric bill. That's a start!
There is misery around us created by careless and callous men. WE need a more equitable distribution of resources. How smart am I if I meditate and achieve the highest consciousness only to be destroyed by a man-made disaster?
I meditate every day because I believe it has a positive effect not just for me but for my neighborhood, my family and my colleagues. I believe that meditation creates positive vibrations that counteract and even transform physical, emotional, mental and spiritual pollution. I believe that my ability to BE PEACE has the potential to help others also be peace.
We must take action to counteract the careless and callous men. We can't live in a cave, not in this age. Because I meditate I know that I take much more effective and sustained action than those who don't have a spiritual practice.
We're either part of the problem of negativity or part of the solution to it. What I call "spiritualized activism" -- activism combined with spiritual practice -- is how I choose to be part of the solution.
Maybe you would also like to try this approach.
Best Regards.
There is nothing more powerful and nothing more important that experiencing and living the Self.
Letting go the baggage of wants and desires, emotions, and sense pleasures of the ego to the One Self of all, the Resurrection, Samadhi and Nirvana